Johnny Tremain

1. It’s only by chance that Johnny sees the Lytes’ coach leave Boston. Late in August, rumors fly that the Lytes are in trouble and will return to the safety of Boston, so Johnny begins hanging around by the gates. Johnny dozes off after dark and wakes to the sound of a rumbling coach, with a “human wolf pack” howling behind it. The British guards at the gate run out with torches and drag the Lytes’ coach, now missing a wheel, through the gates. An officer helps Mr. Lyte out of the coach; the old man is clearly gravely ill. Miss Lavinia asks for Dr. Warren, since he’s the best. Then, Cilla approaches Miss Lavinia to say the silver was left—and she’s going back to get it.

Miss Lavinia clearly doesn’t care about the silver, but Johnny approaches Cilla. Cilla explains that Mr. Lyte had a fit when the mob came earlier than Mrs. Bessie said it would. Johnny finds he admires Mrs. Bessie even more for making sure the Lytes got out safely, even though she detests them—though he knows Sam Adams wouldn’t think this noble. Cilla continues to say she must return for the silver, so Johnny says he’ll take her. Dr. Warren, after declaring that Mr. Lyte must never get upset about anything again, lends Johnny his horse and chaise and writes him a pass.

2. Everything is calm and silent as Johnny and Cilla ride to the Milton estate. They enter through the front gate, which the mob smashed—they were clearly tired of seeing the rising eye. After entering through the back door, Cilla lights candles inside. Though the Lytes left in the middle of dinner, somehow, the estate looks like it's been abandoned for years. As Cilla gathers the silver, Johnny wanders the house. In Mr. Lyte’s office, Johnny can tell where Mr. Lyte had his fit. He finds a book hollowed out to form a box, filled with letters. Johnny pockets them for Sam Adams. Then, he opens a heavy Bible the front, where the Lyte genealogy is.

Johnny follows the family tree down through several Lavinias, none of them his mother. Finally, he finds a Lavinia born in 1740 scratched out. She married a Doctor Charles Latour and they both died in Marseilles before Johnny was born. Johnny knows he was born in France, but none of this makes sense. If this is Johnny’s mother, then Johnny is Mr. Lyte’s grandnephew. He cuts the pages out, in case he needs them later. Cilla calls for Johnny; she wants him to take his cup back. Johnny insists he is better off without it. Standing by Cilla’s fire, Johnny considers that his grandfather built this house. But he realizes the mystery of his lineage doesn’t matter. He burns the family tree he cut from the Bible and helps Cilla close the shutters.

Now, the house feels haunted by the Lytes, including Johnny’s mother. Johnny knows he heard her voice that night in the graveyard. He returns to Cilla, and when she says the house is in good order for the Lytes’ return, he says they’re not coming back. Johnny thinks of his family members as he shutters the kitchen and then stands outside with Cilla. She observes that it feels like a funeral. As they ride for Boston, they pass Minute Men marching. A young boy plays pathetically on a fife. Johnny’s heart lurches: these men haven’t seen the British soldiers, with their muskets and bayonets.

3. It bothers Johnny that Rab doesn’t have a proper musket. The boys discuss this issue all the time. Rab believes his only chance to get a modern gun is to steal one, and he insists the war won’t start and give him a good opportunity until spring. He needs a gun by then. With Aunt Lorne’s blessing, Rab arranges to buy a gun from a farmer who purchases them from British soldiers. On the morning the handoff is supposed to take place, Johnny hears a fuss in the marketplace. He runs there, and a woman tells him the British caught a farmer, a soldier, and another man involved in gun smuggling. They’re all being taken to the Province House to be dealt with.

At the Province House, Johnny realizes that the British soldier was likely a double agent. The farmer looks cold and money-hungry, and Rab looks shaken. They all go inside and an hour later, Colonel Nesbit leads drummers, soldiers, and a cart containing the tarred and feathered farmer. When Colonel Nesbit begins leading the procession to each of the Whig papers, making threats, Johnny runs ahead to the Observer’s office. Rab is there. He explains that Colonel Nesbit said he was a child who needs a popgun, which just makes Johnny laugh. Once the British have passed, Rab observes that the British soldiers will make good targets. Johnny is frightened; he can’t yet think of Lieutenant Stranger, Sergeant Gale, or Major Pitcairn as targets.

4. It’s still summer, but it’s starting to feel like fall. Johnny and Cilla are in the Lytes’ apple orchard, catching up on the Lapham family gossip: Madge ran off with Sergeant Gale, so Mrs. Lapham married Mr. Tweedie herself. She’s Mrs. Maria Tweedie now, which isn’t so bad—a girl has to think about who she marries and how his name fits with hers. For instance, Cilla says, she couldn’t marry Rab. Johnny is suddenly angry. They agree that Rab is wonderful, and Cilla reveals that he’s bought her sweets before. But Cilla says Cilla Silsbee is awful, though Priscilla Tremain is fine. She says she’s been thinking about it since they were 11. They were such kids then—but she’s so pretty now.

Cilla packs up her sewing to go inside, and a British soldier earning some extra money at the Lytes’ leaps to open the door for her. Johnny thinks he’s ridiculous, but he now realizes that Cilla is grown-up and beautiful. He begs Cilla to come back outside, refuses to believe her when she says the soldier’s name is Pumpkin, and then says that he agrees: Priscilla Tremain is a great name. Cilla says nothing, but she gives Johnny an apple and walks away. Johnny vows to keep the apple forever as a symbol of his love for Cilla. But Rab eats it off the windowsill and, after Johnny starts a fight about it, Rab reveals that it was wormy anyway.

5. It’s fall now, and Mr. Adams asks Johnny to summon the Observers for the last time. He’s afraid that Gage knows about and will hang them, and he asks Johnny to make the best punch he ever has. As only British soldiers and well-connected Tories have citrus, Johnny visits Mrs. Bessie for the fruit. She happily fills his bag. They discuss disapprovingly how Izzy pretty much does tricks for limes, and she shares that Cousin Sewall went and joined the Minute Men. Mrs. Bessie warns that things are getting dire. Indeed, 22 of the Observers have left town to avoid arrest. 

Unlike previous meetings, this one starts with the punch bowl, and Rab and Johnny stay for the whole meeting. The men discuss how Gage sent a group to seize weapons and gunpowder in Charleston before any Minute Men could be notified. The issue, Mr. Adams says, is in Boston: had they known sooner here, they could’ve notified the Minute Men in time. In a side conversation, other men discuss the success at the Continental Congress in Philadelphia. Johnny hears a man ask if they could still work out their differences with England, but Adams says he’s done working for peace. He’ll work for war, and a great country will rise out of that war.

Just then, heavy footsteps sound below—it’s James Otis, though he was specifically not told about the meeting. Sam Adams grumbles that Otis has nothing new to say, but everyone stays politely as Otis comes upstairs and sits with some punch. After a minute, he asks Sam Adams to continue the speech he interrupted. But when Adams says they’ll fight to “free Boston from these infernal redcoats,” Otis interjects. He points out that the British have been extremely reasonable. No, they’ll fight for Americans’ rights, and for the rights of men everywhere. Johnny is entranced by Otis’s words; Otis talks about shooting the British for the sake of Americans 100 years from now, and about inspiring the poor in France and Russia to fight for freedom. Even poor Englishmen will benefit.

After asking Johnny to refill his tankard, Otis continues. He says that supposedly, he lost his wits when the customs official hit him in the head. Some of them will lose their wits, some will lose their property. They’ll all have to make sacrifices, and some will give their lives and their futures. Otis looks at Rab as he says this. Then, turning back to Sam Adams, Otis says that he must go to Philadelphia and pull all the strings he needs to make this war happen. As he stands to go, he says they must all give all they have, “Only that a man can stand up.” After Otis leaves Mr. Adams tries to return attention to the spy system, but it takes a minute for Otis’s spell to lift. That night, Johnny lies awake, thinking of Otis’s words. A new world is coming.