They had been living three days upon ears of dried corn, but
they had the will of men determined to be free and the hearts of
heroes. I told them that the eyes of the whole country were on them,
their sympathies with them, and that help was coming. And who do you
think was with them, father? The very soul and spirit of their
purpose?"
"Some Methodist missionary, doubtless."
"Henry Stephenson. He had been preaching and distributing Bibles from
San Antonia to the Sabine River, and neither soldier nor priest could
make him afraid. He was reading the Bible, with his rifle in his hand,
when I first saw him--a tall, powerful man, with a head like a dome
and an eye like an eagle."
"Well, well, John; what would you?"
"'In iron times God sends with mighty power,
Iron apostles to make smooth his way.'
What did he say to you?"
"Nothing specially to me; but as we were lying around resting and
watching he spoke to all. 'Boys!' he said, 'I have been reading the
word of the living God. We are his free-born sons, and the name of
our elder brother, Christ, can't be mixed up with any kind of tyranny,
kingly or priestly; we won't have it. We are the children of the
knife-bearing men who trampled kingly and priestly tyranny beneath
their feet on the rocks of New England. We are fighting for our rights
and our homes, and for the everlasting freedom of our children.
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