“Well, lad, I ain’t prepared to say as how I will; but this much I’m promisin’: Go to her an’ find out how she’s feelin’ about the matter. If there’s any waverin’ in her mind I’ll step in – you see I’ll be the reserves in this case – an’ when I charge she’s bound to surrender. But if it so happens that she’s dead set against it at the start, why, you had best not vex her by tryin’ to push the matter.”

Having perfect faith in the corporal’s wisdom Isaac was thoroughly satisfied with this decision, and after the old man had promised to await his return at that point, the lad set out for home at full speed.

Perhaps if Isaac had been the only son of his mother he would have found it difficult to gain her permission for such an adventure as Corporal ’Lige had proposed.

There were five other boys in the family, and Isaac was neither the oldest nor the youngest.

The fact that Mrs. Rice had so many did not cause her to be unmindful of any, but less timorous perhaps, about parting with one.

However it may be, the lad gained the desired permission providing his father would assent, and this last was little more than a formality.

Master Rice was found among the throng of citizens in front of the inn where recruiting was going on briskly.

The opportunity served to give the good man a certain semblance of patriotism when he showed himself willing that one of his sons should go for a soldier, and he would have had the boy sign the rolls then and there, but that Isaac demurred.

It was not in his mind to enlist save in the company and after being again assured of the corporal’s protection, therefore he insisted on presenting himself as the old man’s recruit rather than his father’s offering.

Corporal ’Lige was well pleased when Isaac returned with a detailed account of all that had taken place, and said approvingly:

“You have shown yourself to be a lad of rare discretion, Isaac Rice, and I will take it upon myself to see that such forethought brings due reward. Suppose you had signed the rolls at the inn? What would you be then? Nothin’ more than a private.”

“But that is all I shall be when I sign them with you, corporal.”

“It may appear that way, I’m free to admit lad; but still you will be a deal higher than any non-commissioned officer, because you’ll be under my wing, and when we have taken Ticonderoga, though I ain’t admitting that’s the proper name of the fort – when we’ve taken that, I say, you’ll be fit for any kind of a commission that you’re qualified to hold.”

“Yes,” Isaac replied doubtfully, and then he fell to speculating as to whether even though Corporal ’Lige did not “take him under his wing,” he might not be fit to fill any position for which “he was qualified.”

While he was thus musing a messenger came from Master Phelps saying the recruiting was coming to an end in this town, and the party would set out that same afternoon on their way to Bennington, expecting to enlist volunteers from Colonel Easton’s regiment of militia as they passed through the country.

“Never you fear but that I’ll be right at my post of duty when the command is given to form ranks,” Corporal ’Lige said to the messenger, and after the latter had departed he added as he turned to the boy, “Now, Isaac, lad, you can see what they think of Corporal ’Lige. Colonel Easton and Master Brown are hangin’ ’round the inn instead of waitin’ for the committee to visit them. An’ what do I do? Why, I stay quietly here, knowin’ they can’t well get along without me, an’ instead of coolin’ my heels among a lot of raw recruits, I’m sent for when the time is come, as if I was a staff officer. That’s one thing you want to bear in mind. If you don’t count yourself of any importance, other people are mighty apt to pass you by as a ne’er-do-well.”

“But I haven’t enlisted yet, corporal.”

“Of course you have. When you said to me ‘I’m ready to go as your apprentice in this ’ere business,’ it was jest the same as if you’d signed the rolls. I’ll arrange all that matter with Master Phelps, my lad. Now do you hasten home; get what you can pick up in the way of an outfit; borrow your father’s gun, and kind of mention the fact to your mother that the more she gives in the way of provisions the better you’ll be fed, for you an’ me are likely to mess together.”

“How much are you going to take, corporal?”

“That will depend a good deal on what kind of a supply your mother furnishes. I’m willin’ to admit she’s nigh on to as good a cook as can be found in Pittsfield, an’ will take my chances on what she puts up for you, providin’ there’s enough of it.”

“Of course you are to take your musket?”

“I should be a pretty poor kind of a soldier if I didn’t, lad – the same one I used under Abercrombie,” and he pointed with his thumb toward the interior of the dwelling where, as Isaac knew, a well-worn weapon hung on hooks just over the fireplace. “It’s one of the king’s arms, an’ I reckon will do as good service against him as it did for him, which is saying considerable, lad, as Major Putnam can vouch for. Now set about making ready, for we two above all others must not be behind-hand when the column moves.”

A fine thing it was to be a soldier, so Isaac thought as he went leisurely from Corporal ’Lige’s log hut to his home; he was forced to pass through the entire length of the village, stopping here and there to acquaint a friend with what he believed to be a most important fact.

Among all the lads in Pittsfield of about his own age he was the only one who proposed to enlist, and from all he heard and saw there could be no question but that he was envied by his companions.

From the youngest boy to the oldest man, the citizens were in such a ferment of excitement as gave recruits the idea that to enlist was simply providing amusement for themselves during a certain number of days, and, with the exception of those experienced in such matters, no person believed for a moment that the brave ones who were rallying at their country’s call would suffer hardships or privations.

In fact, this going forth to capture the fort at Ticonderoga was to be a pleasure excursion rather than anything else, and Isaac Rice believed he was the most fortunate lad in the province of Massachusetts.

His outfit did not require that his mother should spend very much time upon it.

The clothes he wore comprised the only suit he owned, and when two shirts and three pairs of stockings had been made into a parcel of the smallest possible size, and he had borrowed his father’s gun, powder horn and shot pouch, the equipment was complete.

Then came the most important of the preparations, to Isaac’s mind, for he knew the corporal would criticize it closely – the store of provisions.

Had he been allowed his own bent the remainder of the Rice family might have been put on short allowance, for, with a view to pleasing the corporal, he urged that this article of food, and then that, should be put into the bag which served him as a haversack, until the larder must have been completely emptied but for his mother’s emphatic refusal to follow such suggestions.

If Mrs. Rice did not shed bitter tears over Isaac when he left her to join the recruits, it was because she shared the opinion of many others in Pittsfield, and felt positive the lad would soon return, none the worse for his short time of soldiering.

It was but natural she should take a most affectionate farewell of him, however, even though believing he would be in no especial danger, and a glimpse of the tears which his mother could not restrain caused an uncomfortable swelling in the would-be soldier’s throat.

This leaving home, even to march away by the side of Corporal ’Lige, was not as pleasant as he had supposed, and for the moment he ceased to so much as think of the provision-bag.

“Now, see here, mother,” he said, with a brave attempt at indifference. “I’m not counting on doing anything more than help take the fort, and since the corporal is to be with us, that can’t be a long task.”

“You will ever be a good boy, Isaac?”

“Of course, mother.”

“And you will write me a letter, if it so be you find the opportunity?”

This was not a pleasing prospect to the boy, for he had never found it an easy task to make a fair copy of the single line set down at the top of his writing-book; but his heart was sore for the moment, and he would have promised even more in order to check his mother’s tears.

Therefore it was he agreed to make her acquainted with all his movements, so far as should be possible, and, that done, it seemed as if the sting was taken in a great measure from the parting.

Feeling more like a man than ever before in his life, Isaac set forth from his home with a heavy musket over his shoulder, and the bag of provisions hanging at his back, glancing neither to the right nor to the left until he arrived at the corporal’s dwelling.

An exclamation of surprise and delight burst from his lips when he saw the old man, armed and equipped as he had been in ’58, wearing the uniform of a British soldier, even though by thus setting out he was proving his disloyalty to the king.

“Well you do look fine, corporal. I dare wager there are none who will set forth from this town as much a soldier as you!”

“I reckon Colonel Easton will come out great with his militia uniform; but what does it amount to except for the value of the gold lace that’s on it? All I’m wearin’ has seen service, an’ though it ain’t for me to say it, I shouldn’t be surprised if him as is inside this ’ere red coat could tell the militia colonel much regarding his duty.”

“Of course you can, corporal, every one knows that, an’ I’m expecting to see you put next in command to Colonel Allen, if it so be he goes.”

“Not quite that, lad, not quite that, for there’s jealousy in the ranks the same as outside of them, though I warrant many of ’em will be glad to ask Corporal ’Lige’s advice before this ’ere business is over. Now let’s have a look to your stores, and we’ll be off.”

The examination of the impromptu haversack appeared to be satisfactory to the old man, and without doing more in the way of securing his dwelling from intruders than shutting the outer door, he marched down the street with such a swagger as he evidently believed befitting a soldier.

Isaac followed meekly at his heels, troubling his head not one whit because he lacked a uniform, but believing he shared to a certain degree in Corporal ’Lige’s gorgeousness and martial bearing.

The two came to a halt outside the inn, standing stiffly at “attention,” and there they remained until Master Phelps was forced to go out and bid the old man enter, that the formality of signing the rolls might be gone through with, after which Isaac Rice was duly entitled to call himself a militiaman.