April Morning

Adam Cooper started out as a fifteen-year-old boy, but became a fifteen-year-old man. In the beginning, Adam could not get along with his father, Moses Cooper, and truly believed that his father hated him. Moses was always getting on to Adam for everything he did. In Moses’ eyes his boy could do better than he let on if he would only apply himself a little bit more. “There was nothing that a Cooper man couldn’t do.”

Moses was a large man who could argue his way out of anything, his reputation for argumentation was known throughout the entire area. He held very strongly to his views and would not budge for anything, except perhaps his mother Goody Cooper. Because of Moses’ gift of gab he was a member of the Lexington Committee. On the night of Moses’ committee meeting Adam asked if he could go with to the meetinghouse with his father. Moses told him that the day he started acting and thinking like a man then Adam could go. So instead of going to the meeting with his father Adam met his cousin Ruth Simmons. Ruth also happened to be Adam’s best friend and love interest, and since they were just “second-cousins, once removed” that made it alright for him to have feeling her. They talked and argued and ended up kissing. It was Adam’s first kiss and the first time he felt like a man.

Anyways, when Moses got home he told Sarah, his wife and Adam’s mother, what had happened at the meeting. They had discussed the military, more of a militia actually, Moses did not agree with the whole idea of a militia at all. Sarah told Moses how Adam felt about him hating his son and Moses just couldn’t believe it. He really loved Adam very much and was saddened to hear that Adam had felt that way. So Sarah read to him and they all went to bed.

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...had been burnt, so they all went home.

Levi came running out to meet Adam, when he neared the house, and hugged him like he had been gone a year. While Adam was sleeping a man rode by on horse and told the Cooper family that he had seen the boy dead. Everyone was happy to see Adam but still not in an all out cheerful mood. Moses’ body was lying in a bed upstairs and Adam went and paid his respects.

After Moses’ body was carried to the church house later that evening, Sarah had Adam take some candles to his coffin. When he left the house Ruth was waiting for him and they hugged and kissed and talked. Everything was good until Adam heard about another muster list for the men to go and fight the redcoats in Boston. Adam had a very tough decision to make about going but it was going to have to wait because for now he needed to stay and take care of his family.