The Soldier Boy | Page 9

Heaven! Is it possible that my fellow-citizens are
assassins--incendiaries!"
"Your answer, squire."
"For mercy's sake, husband, do what they ask," interposed his wife,
who had been an anxious listener in the adjoining room.
"I must do it," groaned the squire, speaking the truth almost for the first
time in forty-eight hours. "Alas! where is our boasted liberty of
speech!"
"Fudge! squire," replied Captain Barney, contemptuously. "If your
friend Jeff Davis should come to Massachusetts to-morrow, to preach a
crusade against the North, and to raise an army to destroy the free
institutions of the country, I suppose you think it would be an outrage
upon free speech to put him down. We don't think so. Up with the flag,
squire."
"Fred, you may hang the flag out at the front window up stairs," said
the squire to his son.
"All right, squire. Now a few words more, and we bid you good night.
You may think what you please, but if you utter another word of
treason in Pinchbrook during the term of your natural life, the party
outside will carry out the rest of the programme."
By this time Fred Pemberton had fastened the flag to one of his
mother's clothes poles, and suspended it out of the window over the
porch. It was hailed with three tremendous cheers by the multitude who
were in waiting to discipline the squire, and exorcise the evil spirit of
treason and secession.
The work of the evening was finished, not wholly to the satisfaction,
perhaps, of a portion of the younger members of the assemblage, who
would gladly have joined in the work of pillage and destruction, but

much to the gratification of the older and steadier portion of the crowd,
who were averse to violent proceedings.


CHAPTER IV
.
THE COMMITTEE COME OUT, AND TOM GOES IN.
While the committee which the loyal citizens of Pinchbrook had
appointed to conduct their case with Squire Pemberton were in the
house, engaged in bringing the traitor to terms, the younger members of
the assemblage were very impatient to know how matters were
progressing. Thomas Somers was particularly anxious to have the affair
brought to a crisis. In vain he and a few other of the young loyalists
attempted to obtain a view of the interior of the house, where the
exciting interview was in progress.
Captain Barney, on shore as well as at sea, was a thorough
disciplinarian. Of course, he was aware that his proceedings were
technically illegal; that in forcing himself into the house of the squire
he was breaking the law of the land; but it seemed to him to be one of
those cases where prompt action was necessary, and the law was too
tardy to be of any service. He was, however, determined that the
business should be done with as little violence as possible, and he had
instructed the citizens at the bridge to do no needless injury to the
property or the feelings of the squire or his family.
When he entered the house, he had stationed three men at the door to
prevent any of the people from following him. He had also directed
them not to enter the yard or grounds of the house until he gave the
signal. These directions proved a great hardship to the boys in the
crowd, and they were completely disgusted when they saw the flag
thrown loose from the front window.
The mansion of Squire Pemberton was an old-fashioned dwelling,
about a hundred feet from the road. In front of it was a green lawn,
adorned with several large buttonwood trees. There was no fence to
enclose what was called the front yard. The crowd was assembled on
this lawn, and agreeably to the directions of the leader, or chairman of

the committee, none of them passed into the yard in the rear and at the
end of the house, which was separated from the lawn by a picket fence.
Boys are instinctively curious to know what is going on, and the "living
room" of the squire, in which the exciting conversation was taking
place, was in the rear of the house. The windows on the front were dark
and uncommunicative. The boys were restless and impatient; if there
was to be any fun, they wanted to see it. Thomas was as impatient as
his fellows, and being more enterprising than the others, he determined,
while obeying the instructions of Captain Barney in the spirit, to
disobey them in the letter.
He had been a sufferer to the extent of two great wales on the calves of
his legs by the treason of the squire, and no doubt he thought he ought
to be regarded as an exception to those who were called on to observe
the instructions