Military History. 241 



cheery notes arc heard far and near, while faint columns and 

 blue wreaths of smoke rising here and there each mark the home 

 of a settler. Hours since, with the rising sun, Steven Lincoln 

 has beaten the drum, and the tired and half-frozen sentry has 

 been relieved and replaced by the " warde for the Lord's day ; " 

 the quaint, palisaded log building, with its belfry, which had 

 served so long as a house of worship, of a meeting place for pub- 

 lic conference, of refuge in alarm, of storage for ammunition, of 

 defence from danger, and which is getting old and must soon be 

 deserted, still stands overlooking the village, its doors wide open 

 for the nine o'clock service, and the clanging of its little bell 

 bidding the living to " remember the Sabbath day to keep it 

 holy," while to them under the little green mounds on the slope 

 between the two roads it tolls a requiem. Goodman Pitts, the 

 venerable sexton, still restrains with his watchful eye the small 

 boy and awes him into a temporary quiet, while the people move 

 decorously into their allotted places, the men and the women 

 each into their own parts of the house. See them as they come 

 picking out the best and dryest places between the deep ruts and 

 along the paths, now two or three abreast, and now in single 

 file, stretching along the ways leading to the meeting-house. 

 How sturdy the men look, with their belted coats and broad- 

 brimmed hats, and the inevitable musket, which each places 

 against the building or some neighboring tree before entering! 

 How cheery the goodwives seem, even in the midst of the gen- 

 eral anxiety, as they greet each other and pause for a word of 

 inquiry about the children — by no means few in number — who 

 are trailing along after ; and how sweet the Puritan maidens seem 

 to us as they glance shyly at the great rough lads, whom danger 

 and responsibility have so quickly transformed into manly young 

 soldiers. Here from the Plain comes John Bull, and his young- 

 wife, Goodman Pitts's daughter, bringing perhaps a message 

 and report to Captain Hobart from Lieutenant Smith, whose 

 watchful care for the fort keeps him away to-day. Indeed, many 

 a one is forced by the threatening peril to an unusual absence, 

 and the attendance will be strangely small. Still, most of the 

 people from the lower part of the town are on their way, though 

 with anxious hearts, and many a thought will wander from the 

 long sermon of the day to the little home, and every sound from 

 without will strain again the already weary ears. There, crossing 

 the bridge by the corduroy road, is John Langlee, leading his little 

 daughter Sarah, and talking by the way to young Peter Barnes ; 

 while close behind come Sergeant Thomas Andrews, with his wife 

 and six children ; and a few rods further back we see Mr. Samuel 

 Lincoln and Mrs. Lincoln, with their straight young son Samuel, 

 whose title of cornet is well deserved, and who is not only the 

 pride of his parents, but one of the heroes of the town for his 

 gallant part in the great Narragansett fight ; there, too, are his 



VOL. I. — 16 



