Page 47 - A Hero of Ticonderoga

presently. His mother, of a weak and clinging nature, inevitably drifted to a
fate a more self-reliant woman would have avoided. Worried with

uncomprehended business, and assured by Toombs that this was the only
way to retain a home for herself and children, yet unmoved by the kindly

advice of Seth’s honest friends and neighbors, as well as the anger and
entreaties of her son, she went with Toombs over to the Fort, where they
were married by the chaplain stationed there.

With such a man in the place of his wise and affectionate father, Nathan’s

life was filled with misery, nor could he ever comprehend his mother’s
course. Though bestowing upon Martha and his mother indifferent notice or
none at all, towards the boy the stepfather exercised his recently acquired

authority with severity, giving him the hardest and most unpleasant work to
do, and treating him always with distrust, often with cruelty.

"I hate him," he told Ruth. "He’s sassed me every day since I come here,
and I’ve got a bigger job ’an that to settle, one that I’d ha’ settled with his

father, if he hadn’t cheated me by gettin’ killed."

"Oh, what do you mean?" Ruth gasped. "I thought you and Seth was always
good friends."

"Friends!" he growled, contemptuously; "I hated the ground he walked on.
Look here," and Silas pulled out his leather pocketbook and took from it a

soiled paper which he held before her eyes.

She read the bold, clear signature of Ethan Allen, and, with a sickening

thrill, that of Seth Beeman under it.

"Yes, Ethan Allen and Seth Beeman and his neighbors whipped a man for
claimin’ his own, and your boy went and gethered ’em in. Mebby you
re’collect it."

"I couldn’t help it," she gasped. "I didn’t see it. I run and hid and stopped

my ears."