“What shall we play?” asked Jack the moment the four were out on the veranda.

“Play—why, war of course!” responded George, placing his fingers between his lips and giving a shrill whistle.

“What’s that for?” wondered Anne.

“That’s the signal for Jim that we are going to have an engagement with the British!” replied George, watching eagerly the side of the house where the kitchens were located.

“Hist!” sounded from a thick arbor of clematis that shaded the kitchen porch.

“There he is! Come on now,” ordered George, starting for the lilac bushes across the lawn.

“Children! Come and get your overshoes! Everything is soaking wet!” cried Mrs. Davis from the library window when she saw them race through the wet grass.

“Oh, dear me! Martha, you go and bring them to us, will you?” asked George impatiently.

“I’m not Mrs. Washington yet, and she didn’t run errands for George before she was married to him,” objected Martha.

“Send Jim for them!” whispered Jack, as he saw the little fellow running with might and main to join his adored commander-in-chief.

“What will you play with if the weapons and uniforms are in the attic?” asked Anne.

At this they all stopped short, as no one had thought of the army equipment till then.

“Guess Jack and I had better go for the overshoes and then we can bring along some things for the Continental army,” ventured George.

“And send Jim on to John’s house to call him out,” added Martha.

“Yes, that’s a good plan. You, Jim, see here!” explained George. “Climb over the hedge and look for John. If you don’t see him, whistle, and when he comes out, tell him we are going to the creek to have the Boston Tea Party—see?”

“Yeh, Ah see all right!” eagerly replied Jim, nodding his woolly head energetically as he started off for the hedge that separated the Grahams’ from the Parkes’ estate.

The two girls were told to go to the barn and find some tools—axe, nails, hammers, or hatchets, and a saw, if possible.

“What for?” asked Anne.

“Don’t we have to have warships out in Boston harbor if we want a tea party like that real one was?” scorned George, as he caught hold of Jack’s hand and ran for the house.

The lilac bushes were abandoned for a time, while the girls sought for and captured various tools in the barn when the gardener was absent. The two boys tied up whatever uniforms they could conveniently carry, and Jim hid them near the Grahams’ house and gave the familiar cat-call for John.

These important errands completed, they all went to the creek that crossed the private road leading to the Parke estate.

Again assembled for play, they examined the items on hand and John said: “You can’t have ships without material.”

“I thought maybe we could rope together some of these logs the men chopped down last spring; but they look kind of heavy to handle,” replied George calculatively.

“Humph! They’d take a tackle and derrick to move. What we need is just boards and some crosspieces to tie together like a raft. I’ve made ’em in camp,” said Jack.

“Then you can help us make one now,” said Martha eagerly.

“We’ll have to find some boards and small logs then,” replied Jack, looking about in the timber heap for suitable lengths for crossbeams.

“We’ve got some boards about six feet long in the lumber house near here that I heard father say he wouldn’t use till next summer. Then he’s going to lay a new boardwalk from the garage to the barn,” suggested John.

“Just what we need. Come and show me where they are, and we four boys will bring them here while the girls roll those small lengths of timber down to the water-edge,” said Jack.

Soon all hands were working eagerly, nailing boards to some crosspieces, and then roping loose ends securely to the logs so they would not slip off when launched in the creek. The water of the stream was nearly a foot deeper than usual, owing to the heavy rains of the night and morning, so the raft would float easily if it was well built.

The battleship was ready to sail when the luncheon bell sounded over the lawns to call the British and Continental armies to mess. The children looked at each other in disgust, for now it seemed a wholesale waste of time to go home and eat!

“What have you got for tea?” asked Martha at this moment.

“We’ll have to make-believe tea,” said John.

“That won’t be as much fun as if you had some chests and boxes stacked on the boat. Maybe Jim can find some empty boxes in the store-room for us to fill with sand,” ventured Anne.

“I’se got some broomsticks hided away in a alley under de pantry. Dey kin be for guns,” remarked Jim, who hoped his news would divert the thoughts of his friends from the raid on store-room boxes. Jim felt that would be a dangerous attempt.

“Fine! Bring them out and leave them under the lilacs while you go back for the empty boxes. We’ll eat lunch and meet you where you leave the guns,” said George conclusively.

“Cain’t some uv yo’ all hep me in de store-room?” asked Jim plaintively.

“What for? You can creep in and empty some boxes out better than if a lot of us went with you,” countered Martha.

“But onny one uv yo’ all will hep a lot! Not all uv yo’. One uv us kin han’ down dose boxes an’ anudder kin shift it outen de store-room winder. Den Garge kin stan’ unner dat winder an’ run wid ’em t’ de lilacs,” explained Jim, who really was very cunning in self-defence.

“Good stunt! Martha, you go with Jim right after lunch and Jack and I will carry away the goods,” said George, waving a hand at John, who started in the opposite direction for home and luncheon.

“I’ll try to bring some things, too,” said John.

At the table that noon, the ladies suggested that they all take a nice drive about the country in the automobile. The amazed children looked at each other and then at their elders.

“Goodness me! We don’t care about scenery, mother!” objected George.

“Of course not! We want to play nice outdoor games,” added Martha.

“What have you been doing since we stopped reading?” asked Mrs. Davis.

“I didn’t hear a sound from you, so I thought you were pining for something to do; that is why I proposed the drive,” said Mrs. Parke.

“Oh, no, we never pine. First we found Jim, and then we went to John’s side of the hedge to get him. After talking over the best thing to play, we decided to build something Jack knows all about ’cause he has camped, and we are going to carpenter just as he tells us this afternoon, so you see we haven’t time to admire the scenery,” explained George.

“That is very nice, and constructive play is always to be encouraged, Kate,” remarked Mrs. Davis to Mrs. Parke.

“But there is generally something doubtful under all of the quiet and constructive plays George favors so readily,” doubted Mrs. Parke.

“Mother, if you don’t believe we are going to build something great and worth while, ask Jim. He never tells fibs!” said George, with such a disappointed expression in his eyes that said ‘My own mother hesitates to trust me,’ that both ladies hastened to assure him that they fully trusted him.

So the mothers were sent off on the drive, and the two armies continued their plans for a grand fight.

The moment luncheon was over Martha crept to the back door and thence to the store-room that was built out from the butler’s pantry. The servants were all downstairs eating lunch and talking, so the time was most opportune for a raid. Jim was already there trying to pry up lids of cereal cartons and other boxes.

“Heah’s some mos’ empty,” said he, the moment Martha appeared in the store-room.

“They’re all right! Even if there is a little oatmeal and rice in some of ’em—so much the better, cause we must try to fish ’em out of the water when the Yanks throw the cargo in,” said Martha, carrying the three boxes to the window, and dropping them out on the grass where George stood waiting.

Besides the three boxes used for cereal, Jim found a real tea-caddy, but it was more than half full, so Martha emptied the contents on a newspaper spread on the floor behind the door.

Also they found a soap box and the contents was emptied on top of the tea for want of a better place. A cardboard drum that had held dried fruit or other viands, stood on the shelf with some stuff in it—lumpy and pulverized together.

“What is this?” asked Martha, taking up a lump.

“Ah donno, but maybe yo’ kin tell ef yo’ tas’ it,” suggested Jim.

So Martha carefully touched the lump to her tongue, but the moment it came in contact with the pink tip, the washing-soda burned and smarted horribly.

Martha dropped it and held her mouth frantically, while Jim implored her not to make a noise or they would be “ketched.” But the venture was enough for Martha, who hurried out of the room to seek a drink of cooling water.

Jim, thinking it a shame to leave a nice drum there after such a painful experience, emptied the soda upon the soap and orange pekoe tea and dropped the drum from the window. He then climbed up and dropped himself out upon the grass, where George waited.

“Where’s Martha?” queried Jack.

“Makin’ soap-suds, Ah reckon,” giggled Jim.

“Making what?” demanded George, surprised.

“Wall, she’s went fer a drink an’ ef dat sody sticks to her tongue she’ll have suds all inside her mouf, won’t she?” said Jim.

Martha’s appearance quieted any fears for her safety, however, and soon after all were running to the creek with their burdens of boxes and broomstick guns.

The raft was heavy and hard to move, but finally all hands heaved and tugged and moved it inch by inch nearer the water. The bank of the stream was about three feet above the surface of the water, so when the raft was half over the bank they expected to see it plunge headlong in with a splash, but it stuck on the jagged trunk of a tree, and the children tried in vain to dislodge it.

Then Jack had an inspiration.

“We’ll use the broomsticks and pry her off!”

“Fine idea! Here, John, you stand there and pry under her with this stick. Jim can stand there just opposite you, while Jack and I, being strongest, will pry and shove from the back to shove her over,” said George.

Obediently, John took his place and Jim stood on a flat stone opposite, but on the lower side of the raft. When the signal was given by Martha, all four shoved and worked together and the raft moved an inch more nearer the water.

“Fine! Now, boys, once more!” shouted Jack.

Again the signal sounded, and all four pried and pushed. Suddenly the weight of the raft carried it forward with great momentum, dislodging the stone upon which Jim stood and pushed with his broomstick. He lost his balance and fell upon the raft just as it submerged in the creek.

Jim went with it, and as the mud that was stirred up from the bottom of the sluggish stream when the heavy corner of the raft dug down through the water immediately clung to him, Jim was an object for pity when he sputtered up from the water.

“Dear me! The first man overboard and neither side ready for the act!” sighed Anne seriously.

“Aren’t you ashamed of yourself, Jim, to go and spoil the battle like that?” demanded Martha, justly angry.

“Huccome Ah feel ’shamed? Diden’ dat ole warship give me struggle enough widdout yo’ all blamin’ me fer a wettin’?” cried Jim defensively, trying to rub the mud from his eyes.

“Well, now that you’re wet, you’d better be the captain on the ship. Get the raft back here to shore so we can load her up with tea,” ordered Jack.

“Whose going to be British and who the Yanks?” asked John.

“I’m always George Washington in these fights,” hinted George.

“Then you’re out of this battle, ’cause Washington hadn’t a thing to do with the tea party,” returned Martha.

“You ought to be a Lord Somebody who sailed with the captain on the Dartmouth when that tea was brought over from England,” said Jack.

“Guess I will. Jim can tow the raft over to the bank, and those of you who are colonists must hurry across the bridge to the other side. We British will stay here and pile up the cargo of tea and sail the raft across the creek.

“When we sail into Boston harbor you must try to keep us out, and that is the way the fight will begin. Whichever side wins can take the raft, and cargo and sail it wherever they like,” explained George.

It had not been Jack’s plan to have George take the first ride on the raft, nor, indeed, command the warship, but having said it he could not very well change the order, so the next best plan was to sail with Lord Somebody, with Jim the captain.

The captain, so proud of his title and position, forgot about his muddy appearance, and eagerly hauled the cumbersome raft to the bank.

“S’posin’ you girls and John be the colonists on the other bank. You must use the guns and anything you can to keep us from landing the tea,” said Jack.

As neither Anne nor Martha wished to risk their dry clothes on the tipsy-looking raft, this suggestion met with their fullest approval; but John grew sulky, as he wanted to try the raft.

“It’s made of my father’s boards, too!” grumbled John.

“What’s that?” shouted Jack, now engaged in loading the ship with chests.

“Nothing much! I don’t see any fun in this fight, that’s all,” complained John.

“Oh, but there will be! Just wait till we get in that row in Boston harbor! Hurry across and be ready for us,” cried George, who half-suspected John of jealousy, and, at the same time, felt he was guilty of selfishness himself.

The tea was stacked in its boxes on the ship Dartmouth, and the three, Captain Jim and the English baronets, as passengers, set sail for Boston harbor.

On the American side, Martha had found an old apple tree near the bridge, the fruit of which had lain so long on the damp ground that the apples were rotted within and soft as pulp, the skins being the only sound part of the fruit.

“Wouldn’t they make fine cannon-balls?” exulted Martha.

“Oo-oh, let’s!” cried Anne, and John, coming up just then, felt a secret joy in planning how he would fire those cannon-balls at the men on the ship.

So, without a hint of the ammunition being quickly transferred from the apple tree to the site of Boston, the three brave and eager colonists awaited the coming of the tea cargo.