Ezekiel Watkins, or Zeke, as he was generally known among his comrades, had ceased to be a resident on that rocky hillside from pleasure.  His heart was in a Connecticut valley in more senses than one; and there was not a more homesick soldier in the army.  It will be readily guessed that the events of our story occurred more than a century ago.  The shots fired at Bunker Hill had echoed in every nook and corner of the New England colonies, and the heart of Zeke Watkins, among thousands of others, had been fired with military ardor.  With companions in like frame of mind he had trudged to Boston, breathing slaughter and extermination against the red-coated instruments of English tyranny.  To Zeke the expedition had many of the elements of an extended bear-hunt, much exalted.  There was a spice of danger and a rich promise of novelty and excitement.  The march to the lines about Boston had been a continuous ovation; grandsires came out from the wayside dwellings and blessed the rustic soldiers; they were dined profusely by the housewives, and if not wined, there had been slight stint in New England rum and cider; the apple-cheeked daughters of the land gave them the meed of heroes in advance, and abated somewhat of their ruddy hues at the thought of the dangers to be incurred.  Zeke was visibly dilated by all this attention, incense, and military glory; and he stepped forth from each village and hamlet as if the world were scarcely large enough for the prowess of himself and companions.  Even on parade he was as stiff as his long-barrelled flintlock, looking as if England could hope for no quarter at his hands; yet he permitted no admiring glances from bright eyes to escape him.  He had not traversed half the distance between his native hamlet and Boston before he was abundantly satisfied that pretty Susie Rolliffe had made no mistake in honoring him among the recruits by marks of especial favor.  He wore in his squirrel-skin cap the bit of blue ribbon she had given him, and with the mien of a Homeric hero had intimated darkly that it might be crimson before she saw it again.  She had clasped her hands, stifled a little sob, and looked at him admiringly.  He needed no stronger assurance than her eyes conveyed at that moment.  She had been shy and rather unapproachable before, sought by others than himself, yet very chary of her smiles and favors to all.  Her ancestors had fought the Indians, and had bequeathed to the demure little maiden much of their own indomitable spirit.  She had never worn her heart on her sleeve, and was shy of her rustic admirers chiefly because none of them had realized her ideals of manhood created by fireside stories of the past.