I knew he could learn — if he didn't get killed first. It was sink or swim for him — and happens he's swimming. - Esther Forbes

Most American heroes of the Revolutionary period are by now two men, the actual man and the romantic image. Some are even three men—the actual man, the image, and the debunked remains.

Then Johnny saw running down Cambridge road through the bushes on Charlestown Common a scurry of red ants. ... Those red ants were British soldiers. ... You could see the flash of musket fire, too far away to be heard. Fireflies swarming, hardly more than that.

If he still were in England and were the man whom this girl loved, she would probably seek him out — women have almost a genius for anticlimaxes.