there are sharp differences in character between them and the people of
our southern provinces, but as I come from a middle province, New York,
I am, in a sense, neutral. The New Englanders have a great stake in the
present war. Their country has been ravaged for more than a century by
French and Indians from Canada, and this province of Massachusetts is
sending to it nearly every man, and nearly every dollar it has."

"We know of their valor and tenacity in England," said Captain Whyte,
"but we know also that they're men of their own minds."

"Why shouldn't they be? That's why they're English."

"Since you put it that way, you're right. But here we are."

The town, about the size of New York, looked like a great city to
Robert. He had come from a land that contained only one inhabitant,
himself, and it was hard for him now to realize there were so many
people in the world. The contrast put crowds everywhere, and, at times,
it was very confusing, though it was always interesting. The men were
mostly tall, thin, and with keen but composed eyes. They were of purer
British blood than those in New York, but it seemed to Robert that they
had departed something from type. They were more strenuous than the
English of Old England, and the New Yorkers, in character if not in
blood and appearance, were more nearly English than the Bostonians. He
also thought, and he was not judging now so much from a glimpse of
Boston as from the New England men whom he had met, that they were
critical both of themselves and others, and that they were a people who
meant to have their way at any cost.

But his attempts to estimate character and type were soon lost in his