Windfalls 185 



" I was a boy o' six," he has told me twenty 

 times, " when they fit with the British up in 

 town, and mother shut me and my brother 

 up in the cellar. We didn't want to miss 

 the fun and didn't know o' no danger. 

 Brother raised the big cellar-door just a 

 little, to peep out, when the fellers came 

 runnin' down the street, and one of 'em 

 slept on the door and sent me and brother 

 back on the wood-pile. I thought I was in 

 the middle o' the fight," and then old Hum- 

 phrey would laugh in his queer way like 

 a hen cackles and almost straighten him- 

 self. "A'ter a bit we took another peep, 

 and, the racket bein' furder off, we slunk out 

 and legged it to foller the noise. Mammy 

 saw and hollered, but we kep' a-runnin', and 

 seen lots o' red-coats; and everybody kep' 

 hollerin' to come back, but we was bound to 

 see the fun, and we did ;" and again the hen- 

 cackle laugh would set us off, a good deal 

 more than his story. Just as he recalled his 

 boyish adventure, I recall his account of it, 

 and how very near seems the adlual occur- 

 rence ! To have talked with one who wit- 

 nessed the surrender of Colonel Rahl, and so 

 figured in history, is a pleasanter recollection 



