Some boys from the tenements were about to have a game of baseball. At first, they failed to see the four spectators sitting on the fence. When they did, however, their remarks were not flattering.
"Ha! See the sports up on the bleachers!" cried one.
"Come down and we"ll show you how we bat!" called another, and at this his friends all jeered.
Jack wrinkled his nose and stuck his tongue in his cheek, making a wry face at the last speaker.
That led to more remarks from the diamond, and more faces from all four perched on the fence; finally, at a taunting sneer from one of the team on the diamond, Jack replied angrily.
Over at one side of this large vacant area was a depression that generally held muddy water from past rain storms. It seldom filtered into the earth, and the sun not reaching that side of the property, failed to dry it up. Hence, the younger children from the tenements played in this large puddle, sailing boats, or throwing stones to watch the splash.
As Jack retorted, one of the boys standing near the puddle, stooped and flung a handful of dripping mud at the fence. It struck low, but George instantly shouted:
"Don"t you do that again! It"s against the law to throw things in city limits!"
"Ha! Lot you know about law! Why, sissy, we"re a law by ourselves!"
laughed one of the boys, going over to pick up a handful of the ooze.
The rest of the gang instantly followed their leader, and before the four on the fence could imagine what would follow, the air was filled with flying mud-b.a.l.l.s. Some struck the fence, some flew over and spattered the clean white clothes, and some struck the four defiant citizens on the fence, although they ducked and dodged many of the missiles.
"Shall we jump down and let them laugh at us?" asked Jack.
"Don"t you dare! Even if you do I won"t!" cried Anne, too furious to wonder what might be the result of this fracas.
"I should say _double no_! For a dare, I"d jump over and fight them!"
declared George.
"Wish we had our air-rifles!" said Jack.
"Are they fighters? Do they play fair?" asked George.
"Fight! Like tigers, but they don"t know what fairness means. The whole mob"d just as soon light on you if you went over as they would throw these mud-b.a.l.l.s," sneered Jack.
"Let"s all four attack them!" ventured Martha, who was as daring as George.
"There are six of them--besides the mob that will run the minute they sniff a fight!" warned Jack.
"I"ve got it! Let"s jump down, run alongside the house by the areaway, and get out on the street. We can run around the corner and get to the empty lot from the street, then they will be taken by surprise and can"t run away," suggested Anne.
"I wish to goodness we had two other friends," sighed Jack, as the four dropped from the fence to the wild jeering of the six boys on the other side.
"Oh, Jack! Maybe Bob and d.i.c.k are home by this time. You know, when we went away, they were expected back from the country that Sat.u.r.day," said Anne significantly.
As the children ran across the garden they beheld with dismay that the lovely white clothes on the lines were now all bespattered with mud.
This made them determined to mete out judgment.
"Coo-ooh! Bo-ob!" shouted Jack, as he stood under the neighboring dining-room window.
"Come ahead out, d.i.c.k!" yelled Anne, making a megaphone of her hands.
Two heads appeared at the side window almost immediately.
"When did you get home?" called Bob, raising the sash.
"Never mind that! Hurry out--d.i.c.k and you! Big fight on," said Jack hurriedly, running to the street.
Bob and d.i.c.k needed no further incentives, but were soon with the other four children on the sidewalk.
"Where?" was all they said.
"Empty lot back of our house. Those boys dirtied all of Bridget"s clean clothes and pelted us with mud too, besides insulting and doing lots of things to us!" said Jack, while the six comrades, friends on the spot without introductions to the two southern cousins, ran around the corner of the street.
When they reached the vacant lot, however, they hid back of the stone steps belonging to the adjoining house, and peeped about the corner to see what chances they had for a victory.
To their delight they found that the two larger boys had been called away for some reason, and only four boys of their own size were left playing ball in a half-hearted way.
"Agh! dem sissies ain"t fighters! I t"ought sure dey would come ober de fence and pitch in!" said one of the ball-players to his companions.
"Yeh! So"d I. Ef Bill and Huck stayed here, we coul" have chased "em over into their own yard and licked "em!" said another.
At this information, George exchanged glances with Jack.
"Shall we warn them, or just fall in?" asked he.
"Did Washington send a polite letter to Howe or any of the British, when he started a fight?" was all Jack replied.
"Here you, Bob--you tackle that red-headed fellow. d.i.c.k--you take care of the fat one. Jack can fight the thin one and I"ll take charge of that freckled scrawny one--I can fight better than any of you, I guess!"
planned George hurriedly.
"Here! here, what about us two girls! Can"t we help?" cried Martha, with deep grief at the turn events appeared to be taking.
"Sure! You watch and warn us, and if the other two fellows come back, you blow this whistle for help!" advised Jack, handing his newly-acquired police-whistle to Anne.
Before the four ball players could well understand who was rushing, or what the four boys were about, each one of the Washington forces had picked his man and was already busy on the offensive.
In a few moments, the ball players, termed by George the low-down Hessians, recognized the two boys from the fence-top and with a yell of fury, pitched in to fight with all their strength.
George bawled out orders for his companions to follow, and at every fresh attack upon the Hessians, the four Americans whooped and fell to with renewed l.u.s.t of battle.
Martha and Anne were deeply interested in hoping and watching for the Hessians--those cruel heartless fellows, who had injured and destroyed the lives and properties of the American citizens at Brunswick, Princeton, and other Jersey towns. It served them good and right to have Washington"s men flay the breath out of them.
But the Hessians were almost spent and ready to give up when Cornwallis, in the form of two pals from the tenements, came along and seeing the battle, added reinforcements to their almost vanquished army.
Now Washington was desperate. He and his men were out-numbered by the arrival of the new forces, who were fresh and somewhat larger than the rest of the Hessians, and this meant watchful and wary war.
But they had not counted on Anne and Martha. The moment the two reinforcements from the Hessians arrived, Martha cried:
"Come on, Anne! Let"s throw mud at them!"