ABSTRACT
This chapter tells the story of the capture, trial, and execution of a Hessian drummer boy by Americans during the Revolution. At the heart of the story is a Quaker family, who hide the boy after his landing party has been killed in an ambush. Because the captain of the Hessians had ordered the hanging of a local whom he thought might be a spy, the town militia lay in wait, massacred the Hessians, and hunted down the only survivor, Hans Pohl. The story is told from the point of view of Evan Fever sham, a doctor who has seen enough of death, and an outsider in the narrow world of Puritan New England. Heather place, it was less a question of sheltering him than of having a live Hessian to shelter. The weather had changed, and all afternoon it had rained steadily. The rain beat its tattoo all over the little house.
