Excerpt from The Minute Boys of Long Island: A Story of New York in 1776, as Told by Ephraim Lyttle When you come to think it over seriously, it really seems that Abel Grant could not be blamed for laughing and saying that we were outgrowing our clothes, in selecting the name of Minute Boys of Long Island for three lads - Abraham Decker, Samuel Garratt and myself, neither of whom had yet passed his fifteenth year; but how else could it be shown that we were heart and soul with the Cause, or that we burned to have a hand in upset ting the king' 5 authority in this land which our fathers have wrested from the savages and the wil derness. It was when the base plot of Governor Tryon's was unmasked that we decided it was time for us to show the Tories of Long Island. Who out-num bered the loyal men eight to one, that there were some who would lay down their lives, if needs be, for freedom from British misrule. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.