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NAHUM PRINCE
A Story of the Revolutionary War
Written by Edward Everett Hale
Illustration by Vera Stone Norman
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This is the story of Nahum Prince, and the tears are in my eyes now as I think of him. He must have lived a hundred or more years ago, and he died, I do not know when. He was lame. Something had mashed his foot so that he could hardly walk.
It was at the time of the Revolution. Every man in New Hampshire was leaving for the front. All the regular companies of troops had been marched out. Then there came the final call for all who could go, and the old men and boys volunteered.
There was not in the village a boy over thirteen years of age that did not go, except Nahum Prince. When they were getting ready to go he stood up , as well as he could, with an old musket on his shoulder.
The captain came along and saw him, and said: -
"Nahum, you here!"
"Yes, I am here," said Nahum.
Then the captain said: "Go home, Nahum; you know you don't belong here; you can not walk a mile."
Then they all marched off without him. Rub-a-dub-dub, rub-a -dub-dub, went the drums; and every man and boy of them went off and left poor Nahum Prince alone. He had a good home, but he was very homesick all that night, and didn't sleep much.
The next morning he said: "I shall die before night if I stay here all alone, the only boy in town; I must do something." So he went down and split old Widow Corliss' wood for her, for he could split wood though he could not march.
He had not been splitting wood more than an hour when four men on horseback came down the road and stopped. He could see them stand and talk. They all went off, and then one came back again and beckoned to Nahum. When Nahum came up, the man on horseback said: -
"Where are all the men gone?"
"They have all gone off to join the army," answered Nahum.
"Isn't there any blacksmith in the town?"
"No, there isn't a man or a boy in the town except me, and I wouldn't be here only I am so lame I can not walk."
"Do you mean to tell me that there is nobody here who can set a shoe?"
"Why, I can set a shoe," said Nahum.
"Then it is lucky you are left behind. Light up the forge, and set the shoe."
Nahum lighted up the fire, blew the coals hot, and set the shoe on the horse. The horse and the rider went away, after the man had thanked Nahum; and Nahum finished splitting the widow's wood.
The next week the boys came home, and told how Colonel Seth Warner came up on his horse just in time, leading the First Regiment, and won the day. Nahum didn't say anything, but he knew that Colonel Warner never would have been on that horse if he hadn't set that shoe. And it was Nahum Prince and Seth Warner that won the splendid victory of Bennington
The End
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