Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1883-04-07
A Dreadful Mig bit,

Poor little girlies They were not the
only ones who were frightened. though
mother was too brave to slow it in any
way but by very pale face Bui Mary
was only fourteen, and cried oil tri ylt. II
it hadn't been for that, think { lie chill.
dren might have slept right thrt ug that
dreadful night. As it was, they sat on the
stairs in the dark while Mary en- for a
candle, and listened to the dreadful FUNDS.
"Boom boom booml" all night long.
What an awful battle must be going on
And father and two brothers in it Even
the children had right to be frightened.
If only the cannons would keep still few
minutes, just till Mary got back with
light, poor little Hannah thought she
wouldn't feel so scared but they just rat
tied and banged all the time. Hannah
tried to be brave. She tho1ghs over what
father said about General Washington,
their leader, and tried to feel proud over
the thought that she had a soldier father
and two soldier brothers. She was pretty
brave when the cannon did not roar SO
but how could she help thinking that per-
haps that very shot hit her dear father?
1t was long. long night. The children
fell asleep, it is true, and were carried back
to their beds, and in the morning were sur
prised to find themselves there, and thought
that they ought to be still sitting on the
stairs waiting for Mary. They did all the
sleeping that had been done in that house.
They did all the eating too, at the break.
fast table. How could mother and Mary
eat until they had heard from Boston
When would they be likely to know
whether the father and the boys had es.
capped?
Not very long to wait While they sat
trying to talk it over bravely, hopefully,
who should walk into the room but Jacob,
the soldier brother How they gathered
around him and stormed him with ques-
tions All but the mother she could not
speak nor stir. He saw it, and hurried to
say:
"All right, mother"
Then he tried to answer Mary:
No, I'm not in Boston. am here. as
you see, and hungry, too. I've only an
hours leave; give me some breakfast:
father and John will be along soon. A
battle? Not much of a battle have we
seen !"
And here he laughed.
" Mother, where do you suppose we
were all night? The neatest thing General
Washington has done yet Mary, we Just
tramped out to Dorchester, 1000 of us,
and 800 teams The stillest lot of fellows
we were that ever you saw Nobody made
a sound. The drivers did not even speak to
the oxen. The wheels were bound with
hay-around the fellies, you know, so
they could tell no tales, and on we
went. The carts were full OF our great
swamp baskets, and we climbed the hill,
and set them down all around, and I'll ed
them with earth. The incest line of in
trenchments you ever saw We had bar
rels full of stones too, and we've set them
up there in such a fashion that it won't
take more than touch to set them rolling
down that hill to meet redcoat and con-
quer him. What do you suppose the red
coats thought when they got up this morn
ing and found us perched up there on the
hill, embankments built, and everything
ready for fun whenever they like, instead
OF being where they thought us, down in
Boston firing cannon? tell goa it is a
surprise And it won't be the last one
that General Washington will plan for
them, guess"
I" And 1 lay awake all night long and
listened to those cannon" the mother
said.
'And 80 did we," chimed in Hannah.
Jacob, we sat ON the stairs all night and
listened, and felt awful" This made
everybody laugh little. as the babies had
only spent about ten minutes on the stairs,
but then, bless their hearts, they thought
it was all night.
Now, this is the true story of the Dor
chester intrenchment and if you want to
know the rest of it, just look it up, and
see what happened. PANsY.
If some of the girls or boys who read
the above will look up the history of what
occurred at Dorchester, and write out an
account of it and send to the RECORD
UNION, we will publish it. In writing,
study to be concise, and let the account Of
it occupy not to exceed one page of fools.
cap paper. Should several be sent in, if
we cannot publish all, we will give the
name of each writer I