Ben Comee A Tale of Rogers's Rangers, 1758-59   By: M. J. (Michael Joseph) Canavan

A Tale of Rogers's Rangers 1758 59

by

M. J. CANAVAN

[Illustration: "HE FIRED, BUT MISSED ME." PAGE 117]

New York The MacMillan Company London: MacMillan and Co., Ltd. 1922

All rights reserved

Copyright, 1899, by the MacMillan Company.

Set up and electrotyped October, 1899. Reprinted November, 1899; February, 1908; October, 1910; September, 1913; November, 1916.

Norwood Press J. S. Cushing & Co. Berwick & Smith Norwood Mass. U.S.A.

CONTENTS

PAGE CHAPTER I

Ben is born in Lexington 1737 Schools and Schoolfellows 1

CHAPTER II

They trap Muskrats Bishop Hancock and his Grandson John 14

CHAPTER III

In which are Details of a Great Fox Hunt 30

CHAPTER IV

Trading in those Days Ben is apprenticed The Enlisting Sergeant Court Day at Concord 51

CHAPTER V

Pigeon Tuesday and its Exploits 64

CHAPTER VI

A Pauper's Funeral Ben's Friend the Minister, and Ben's Victory in Wrestling 74

CHAPTER VII

Tales from the Frontier Mr. Tythingman and his Services 88

CHAPTER VIII

Ben and Amos join Rogers's Rangers and march to the West 100

CHAPTER IX

In which the Rangers engage with the French and Indians 110

CHAPTER X

Lord Howe and his Death The Loyalty of John Stark 120

CHAPTER XI

Fort Ticonderoga and the Assault 131

CHAPTER XII

The Fight at Fort Anne, and the Escape of Amos 142

CHAPTER XIII

Ben Comee Heap Big Paleface Trapping Bob cats in Primeval Woods 163

CHAPTER XIV

A Scouting Expedition in the Dead of Winter 187

CHAPTER XV

Camp Discipline Amherst's Angels A Brush with the French, and the Loss of Captain Jacob 197

CHAPTER XVI

The Rangers to the Front Captain Stark's Tale of Capture To attack the St. Francis Indians 208

CHAPTER XVII

March to the Village The Retreat 224

CHAPTER XVIII

Starvation Drifting down the Ammonusuc Fort No. 4, and Good Fortune at Last 241

BEN COMEE

CHAPTER I

BEN IS BORN IN LEXINGTON 1737 SCHOOLS AND SCHOOLFELLOWS

If you have occasion to pass through or to visit Lexington, be sure to put up at the tavern about a mile below Lexington Common on a little knoll near the main road.

In front of it stand two large elms, from one of which hangs the tavern sign. It is the best tavern in the place. You will find there good beds, good food, and a genial host. The landlord is my cousin, Colonel William Munroe, a younger brother of my old friend Edmund.

Sit with him under the trees. William will gladly tell you of the fight. Lord Percy's reënforcements met the retreating British soldiers near the tavern. Percy and Pitcairn had a consultation in the bar room over some grog, which John Raymond mixed for them, for John took care of the tavern that day. After they departed, the soldiers entered and helped themselves freely to liquor from the barrels in the shop. Some of their officers knocked the spigots from the barrels and let the liquor run away on the floor. The drunken soldiers became furious. They fired off their guns in the house. You can still see a bullet hole in the ceiling.