ABSTRACT
This chapter describes 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. The story is told from the point of view of Evan Feversham, a doctor who has seen enough of death, and an outsider in the narrow world of Puritan New England. It had been a long day, and still it was before twilight when people reached the meetinghouse, a small frame building, like a tiny church without a steeple, sitting off the road near the top of Peaceable Ridge. At least a dozen horses and wagons were already outside. There was no cross, no ornamentation, no symbol to mark it as Christian place, just a room with pine benches, perhaps seating space for about forty people, and a lectern at the front of the room.
