Sam Meeker Sparknotes

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When Sam Meeker returns home from college in the spring of 1775 and announces that he has decided to enlist in the Rebel army, his parents are appalled, but his younger brother, Tim, is wide-eyed with admiration. When the brothers are outside together doing chores around their family's tavern, Sam confides in Tim his plan to steal their father's gun in order to fight. Tim protests, but he can do nothing to stop Sam. That night, Mr. Meeker and Sam have an argument about the war and Sam runs away from home. The next morning after church, Tim visits Sam in a hut where he is hiding out. He tries to talk Sam out of going to war, but without success. In the hut, Sam's girlfriend Betsy Read asks Tim which side he supports, and Tim has trouble deciding between his Father's loyalty to the British government and his brother's loyalty to the idea of an independent nation. He does not answer. Sam leaves, and after several months Betsy notifies Tim that Sam has returned. Tim finds an excuse to …show more content…

Heron, stops by the tavern and asks Tim to deliver some letters for him. Tim's father says no, but Tim, hoping for a taste of the kind of adventure that Sam is having, sneaks away to do it. While he is walking down the street with the letter in hand, Betsy sees the letter and wrestles it away, convinced that it contains spy information on Sam (it does not). Tim spends the summer around the tavern and then he goes on a trading journey with his father to Verplancks Point, his first trip away from home and his first encounter with his cousins. On the way there they are stopped by "cow- boys," Rebel roadside terrorists, who harass them a bit. On the way back Tim's father is kidnapped by the same cow-boys. Tim outsmarts them, saves himself, and has to bring the wagon of goods home on his own. Because of this experience, he matures overnight and takes control of the maintenance of the tavern, excited about impressing Sam with his new knowledge and

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