And so, by the time they
entered Muddy Brook, a settlement just outside of Great Barrington,
through which the road from Stockbridge then passed, they numbered
full one hundred and fifty.
Muddy Brook was chiefly inhabited by a poor and rather low class of
people, who, either from actual misery or mere riotous inclination,
might naturally be expected to join in any movement against
constituted authority. But instead of gaining any accession of forces
here, the Stockbridge party found the place almost deserted. Even the
small boys, and the dogs were gone, and apparently a large part of the
able-bodied women as well.
"What be all the folks?" called out Abner to a woman who stood with a
baby in arms at an open door.
"Over tew Barrington seein the fun. Thar be great dewins," she
replied.
This news imparted valor to the most faint-hearted, for it was now
apparent that this was not a movement in which Stockbridge was alone
engaged, not a mere local revolt, but a general, popular uprising,
whose extent would be its justification. And yet, prepared as they
thus were, to find a goodly number of sympathizers already on the
ground, it was with mingled exultation and astonishment that, on
topping the high hill which separates Muddy Brook from Great
Barrington, and gaining a view of the latter place, they beheld the
streets packed, and the green in front of the court house fairly black
with people.
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