My Brother Sam is Dead Pg 201-230

Throughout the summer of 1776, Tim manages to avoid Mr. Heron after failing to deliver his letter. Soon Tim forgets about the whole thing.  They receive two letters from Sam speaking of high spirits but bad living conditions. Tim's mother decides to write, regardless of his father's disapproval. November nears, and Father needs to make his annual trip to Verplancks Point to sell cattle and stock up on supplies for the tavern.  Usually Sam makes the trip with his father, but this year his father takes Tim, even though he considers him too young for such a long and difficult trip.  As they set out, Tim enjoys the young children watching him. He is proud to be doing an adult task. Father and Tim are stopped in Ridgebury by six "cow-boys," armed cattle thieves. The cow-boys ask Father where he is going with his cattle and then remind him that Verplancks is in British-occupied New York, and his beef will go to feed the enemy army. They speak roughly to Father, calling him "Tory" and demanding that he get off his horse. The cow-boys then send Tim away to a field while they beat Father on the head with their pistols. Just as Tim cries out to them not to shoot his father, several Loyalist horsemen arrive on the scene and scare the cow-boys away, then escorting Tim and his father to their relatives' house in New Salem.  When Tim tries to deliver the letter for Mr. Huron, we see his immaturity. He is a bad liar and therefore a useless messenger in wartime. He cannot help blushing when asked questions that he does not want to answer, and he belies his thoughts and sentiments, musing aloud about why Mr. Heron did not tell him about Sam's arrival at home. Betsy, quick and suspicious, catches Tim, and the entire trip fails. Before the war began, Tim never had occasion to develop sneakiness. Betsy, on the other hand, has grown up in a patriotic, war- involved family, and she instinctively understands and distrusts spies and messengers. Betsy's war expertise has perhaps saved Tim from a dangerous obligation to Mr. Heron, although we can never know for sure how Tim's job would have evolved had he succeeded in delivering the test message to Fairfield.