The Winter Hero by James Lincoln Collier & Christopher Collier

Author:James Lincoln Collier & Christopher Collier [Collier, James Lincoln & Collier, Christopher]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781620644829
Publisher: AudioGO
Published: 1978-02-15T05:00:00+00:00

Chapter Nine

WE SPENT THE NIGHT IN THE TAVERN. IT was risky: Nobody knew where Lincoln’s troops were, nobody knew if the people who owned the tavern would gather together their friends and try to drive us out. We took turns standing guard—one by the back door to watch the fields, one out front on the road. But still, dark as it was, a company of men could easily creep in close and take us by surprise.

But in spite of the risk, we stayed. We were cold and tired and wet and hungry, and the tavern was warm and the fire bright. There was food in the pantry and rum in the barrels. We roasted a pig over the fire and ate hunks of the meat with bread dipped in the grease. I drank some rum and hot water, too. I’d never drunk rum before, only cider. It made me sort of dizzy. I lay down in front of the fire and went to sleep.

Nobody bothered us all night. In the morning we got up and ate what was left of the pig and some dried fish we found. Then we took all the rest of the food we could find and divided it up so each man could have a share. I got some cheese, dried fish, and bread, which I wrapped up in a napkin from the tavern cupboard. Taking food was stealing, but Levi Bullock said, “They fired on us. Taking food from the enemy isn’t stealing.”

Outside, the winter clouds were low and dark. Nobody wanted to leave the fire, but we couldn’t stay any longer. Sooner or later Lincoln would come after us. So we left and walked on toward Pelham. In about a half an hour it began to rain. In five minutes I was soaked through. The rain went on, and then it turned to sleet, which stung my face and hands when it hit. We walked out of South Hadley. It rained and sleeted all the while. I was soaking wet and I knew that if it turned a little bit colder my clothes would freeze to my body. Finally we got to the village of Hadley itself. We didn’t know whether the people there would be for us or against us. There was a tavern there and a row of houses and a couple of stores. Two of the men went into the tavern and after a couple of minutes one of them came to the door and waved us in. He was grinning. “They’re with the Regulators around here,” he said.

We went in and dried ourselves off as best we could, taking turns by the fire. The tavern keeper gave us rum and hot water to warm us up, and we felt a lot better when we left. We kept up a good, brisk marching pace, so as to keep warm and get to Pelham as soon as possible. We made it in four hours. The Regulators had set up headquarters in Uncle Billy’s tavern.

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