He recognized the speaker’s tones, and knew Stephen Kidder had come to pay a visit, or bring the cheering news that he might return.

“Am I to go back to town?” he cried, as he came into the cleared space wherein the camp had been built; and then, seeing Sewatis standing in a threatening attitude in front of the shanty, he added, “This is a friend of mine; make him welcome.”

The Indian obeyed by moving quickly out of sight among the foliage, and he had hardly disappeared when the two clasped each other’s hands in a caressing way, as Stephen said,-

“I wish I had come to bid you go home; but Master McCleary says you must have patience yet a little longer.  Haines still threatens to have you arrested, and the Sons of Liberty are more obnoxious than ever in the eyes of those who pay homage to the king.”

“Would Governor Wentworth, who has so often spoken in a friendly tone to me, allow an act of injustice such as my arrest would be, for I simply sought to escape from him who held me unlawfully? "

“The members of the Council are not in accord with the new ideas, and Master McCleary believes they might allow Haines, who has no slight influence among them, to do as he desires.”

“Let it be so, then.  When did you see my mother last?”

“Yesterday.”

“And she is well? "

“Well, and contented that you should be here.  She is cared for by your friends in town, and prefers that you remain until the winter comes, rather than venture back to be thrown into prison.”

“You say she is cared for?”

“Master McCleary attends to it that she wants for nothing.  She is now with his mother; the crops have been harvested, and there is no longer reason why anyone should stay on the farm.  There have been brave doings in town since you left, and unless the Sons of Liberty are all imprisoned, it looks as if we might some day be freed from the heavy burden of taxes.”

“Tell me everything!” and Walter threw himself on the ground in front of the camp, looking positively happy, now he had been assured his mother did not suffer because of his absence.

“In the first place, the New Hampshire Gazette appeared with a heavy mourning border on the day before the Stamp Act was to go into effect, and Master McCleary read aloud to the people on the street the article calling upon those who would be free men to resist this most unjust tax.  If so many of the best citizens had not been abroad that night, I believe the Governor would have called the guards out; but there were too many prominent men mingled with the throng to make such a proceeding safe or possible.  On the first day of November the church bells were tolled, as if for a funeral, and when a large crowd had gathered near Samuel Leavitt’s store, a figure called the Goddess of Liberty was brought out on a bier, with Thomas Pickering, John Jones, Jotham Lewis and Nehemiah Yartridge acting as pall-bearers.