From Kingdom to Colony

Marblehead, and July, in the year of our Lord 1774. In the harbor (now known as Great Bay) the water lay, a smooth, glistening floor of amethystine hue, shut in protectively by th...

The bridle was lying slack upon the neck of the horse, who picked his way carefully along the road, his hoofs now clicking over the stony highway, now falling noiselessly upon the ...

"Oh, Mary, there is Johnnie Strings!" exclaimed Dorothy, as they drew near shore, where lay the rowboat, beached on the sand, with Leet, the faithful old darkey, sitting close by, ...

There was a long silence, broken at last by Mary saying, "Perhaps what some folk say of Moll is true,--that it is an evil gift she has. And yet she has a sweet face and gentle man...

On Riverhead Beach, at the extreme southwest end, the Devereux family kept sundry boats, for greater convenience in reaching the town proper, without going around the Neck, by the ...

"Do you suppose, Joseph, that Jack will have had his supper?" Aunt Lettice asked the question a little anxiously, as she drew about her shoulders the soft shawl that little 'Bitha...

It was the dining-room of the house wherein the four men sat in earnest consultation; and now that they were alone, their faces were grave to solemnity. The oak-ceiled and wainsco...

When Dorothy left the dining-room, it was by a door opposite that by which Aunt Penine had made her angry exit,--one leading to the storerooms and kitchen. The one through which D...

The household was astir early the next morning to set the travellers on their road with a warm meal and a parting word; and despite the absence of Aunt Penine, all the domestic mac...

Dorothy saw Mary Broughton on the porch outside and was about to join her, when Mary turned and called out, "Aunt Penine is waiting to see your father." At this Dorothy retraced h...

The days intervening until Friday passed without event, and the household affairs went on much as before, Tyntie proving herself fully capable of replacing Aunt Penine as head of t...

"There,--right there!" was 'Bitha's triumphant retort. "Read for yourself!" And she trailed a small finger along the lines,-- "Thou hast a book for my complaints, A bottle f...

He had scarcely gone when the two girls made haste to leave the cave and return to the house. "'T is most unfortunate for us, Dot, that he found the cave, or that all this should ...

The night was clear, bright, and starlit, with not a wreath of vapor drifting. The rising wind moaned through the woods about the Devereux homestead, that loomed, a dark mass, and...

Mary Broughton was where Dorothy suspected her to be; and standing well back among the deeper shadows, she had been straining her eyes to see all that took place on the rocky platf...

The men were gathered around the boat, shutting it away from the two girls; and the moon's light, now grown silvery, was touching the group in a way to make all their movements vis...

The men of the house breakfasted at the usual hour next morning, and with them were only Aunt Lettice and 'Bitha, Mary Broughton and Dorothy being permitted to sleep until later, w...

The air was yet chill with the fresh north-wind, that had blown all day, to go down only with the sun, while the misty horizon of the afternoon was now a well-defined fog-bank roll...

It was nearly midnight when the two young men took their way back through the fields to their boat and its faithful guardian. They were soon afloat, and none but Leet would have v...

October had come, with an unusual glory of late wild-flowers and reddened leaves. The soldiers were still quartered upon the Neck, and owing to the many collisions between them an...

Pashar had not yet appeared, but Dorothy set forth upon her return with no thought of danger or delay. It was now high noon, and the sun making itself felt disagreeably, she pushe...

Hugh Knollys was so much a member of the household that Aunt Lettice thought nothing of going her own way when dinner was over and leaving him in the living-room with Dorothy; and ...

All the outdoor world seemed encased in burnished silver, as the new moon of early December came up from the black bed of the ocean's far-out rim, and mounting high and higher in t...

The town was as silent as a city of the dead when the four started on their way, Master Storms--a fussy, irritable old gentleman--in advance, with his pretty daughter Patience hang...

An hour later, when left in her own room with Mary, Dorothy poured out her secret sorrow. The others had yielded to her urging and gone to the tea-table below, albeit with scant a...

Whether it was due to ordinary physical causes, or was the result of mental agitation arising from what has been told herein, cannot well be determined; but, soon after Dorothy had...

Mary felt that she must lose no time in making her husband as wise as herself with respect to Dorothy's real sentiments, and in having him understand that he could not bring any ha...

The summer days found Glover's regiment stationed, a portion at Cambridge, and the remainder on the high grounds of Roxbury, where were also all the other Massachusetts troops, as ...

"Oh, Mary, which one of them do you suppose is he?" whispered Dorothy, as the two girls hung over the balustrade of the upper hall, watching the figures entering through the outer ...

Neither of the girls found much rest during the night, owing to the strangeness of their surroundings and the exciting experiences that had come to them. In addition to this, thei...

Had Dorothy been less absorbed by anxiety and grief when she was making her way to General Washington's apartments, she would have heard the door of the taproom open softly as she ...

Doak and his charges had gone but a short distance when the sound of hoofs behind them caused all three to turn, wondering who might be approaching. It was a man, evidently an Ame...

It was evening when the party reached the headquarters at Cambridge. A faint afterglow of the brilliant sunset still lingered, but the roadway leading to the entrance of the house...

An hour later the three stood before the door of Washington's private office; and in response to John Devereux's knock, the voice that was now so familiar to Dorothy bade them ente...

The next morning--although at rather a late hour for her--Dorothy arose, feeling greatly refreshed by her sound and dreamless sleep. While she was yet dressing, her brother rapped...

"Dorothy, speak,--what is it?" her brother demanded. "Hugh?" and he turned questioningly, as Dorothy threw herself into his arms. "He called me a British spy," she sobbed, "and t...