Nate has been to New York on his trips with Papa, who always remarked on the city’s beauty. Now, Nate is excited to get back to the bustling city with “the sidewalk puppet shows and jugglers who spun torches on the street corners” (30). With as much business as New York harbors typically see, Nate is certain that he won’t have any difficulty finding a job as a cabin boy. When the Valerie docks, Nate rushes off the boat and into the city. However, the city isn’t as he remembers it. The streets are practically empty, the stores are boarded up, and the ladies with their bright dresses are nowhere to be found. Instead, the few people present are soldiers. Nate knows “they [are] American soldiers by their plain clothes. […] Most of them wore cheap felt three-cornered hats and frontier shirts that tied around the collar” (33). Their weapons are old and beat up, nothing compared to the grandeur of the British militia.

Nate is trying to understand what is happening, and he suddenly remembers the conversation he overheard between Storch and Marston. He had assumed that the large battle that was expected to happen anytime now would be taking place in Boston.