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diff --git a/1926.txt b/1926.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..a511030 --- /dev/null +++ b/1926.txt @@ -0,0 +1,6548 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Grandfather's Chair, by Nathaniel Hawthorne + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Grandfather's Chair + +Author: Nathaniel Hawthorne + +Posting Date: October 5, 2008 [EBook #1926] +Release Date: October, 1999 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK GRANDFATHER'S CHAIR *** + + + + +Produced by An Anonymous Volunteer + + + + + +THE WHOLE HISTORY OF GRANDFATHER'S CHAIR + +or TRUE STORIES FROM NEW ENGLAND HISTORY, 1620-1808 + + +By Nathaniel Hawthorne + + + + +CONTENTS. + + AUTHOR'S PREFACE + + PART I. + + I. GRANDFATHER AND THE CHILDREN AND THE CHAIR + II. THE PURITANS AND THE LADY ARBELLA + III. A RAINY DAY + IV. TROUBLOUS TIMES + V. THE GOVERNMENT OF NEW ENGLAND + VI. THE PINE-TREE SHILLINGS + VII. THE QUAKERS AND THE INDIANS + VIII. THE INDIAN BIBLE + IX. ENGLAND AND NEW ENGLAND + X. THE SUNKEN TREASURE + XI. WHAT THE CHAIR HAD KNOWN + APPENDIX. EXTRACTS FROM THE LIFE OF JOHN ELIOT + + + PART II. + + I. THE CHAIR IN THE FIRELIGHT + II. THE SALEM WITCHES + III. THE OLD-FASHIONED SCHOOL + IV. COTTON MATHER + V. THE REJECTED BLESSING + VI. POMPS AND VANITIES + VII. THE PROVINCIAL MUSTER + VIII. THE OLD FRENCH WAR AND THE ACADIAN EXILES. + IX. THE END OF THE WAR + X. THOMAS HUTCHINSON + APPENDIX. ACCOUNT OF THE DEPORTATION OF THE ACADIANS + + + PART III. + + I. A NEW YEAR'S DAY + II. THE STAMP ACT + III. THE HUTCHINSON MOB + IV. THE BRITISH TROOPS IN BOSTON + V. THE BOSTON MASSACRE + VI. A COLLECTION OF PORTRAITS + VII. THE TEA PARTY AND LEXINGTON + VIII. THE SIEGE OF BOSTON + IX. THE TORY'S FAREWELL + X. THE WAR FOR INDEPENDENCE + XI. GRANDFATHER'S DREAM + APPENDIX. A LETTER FROM GOVERNOR HUTCHINSON + + + + +AUTHOR'S PREFACE + +IN writing this ponderous tome, the author's desire has been to describe +the eminent characters and remarkable events of our annals in such a +form and style that the YOUNG may make acquaintance with them of their +own accord. For this purpose, while ostensibly relating the adventures +of a chair, he has endeavored to keep a distinct and unbroken thread +of authentic history. The chair is made to pass from one to another +of those personages of whom he thought it most desirable for the young +reader to have vivid and familiar ideas, and whose lives and actions +would best enable him to give picturesque sketches of the times. On its +sturdy oaken legs it trudges diligently from one scene to another, and +seems always to thrust itself in the way, with most benign complacency, +whenever an historical personage happens to be looking round for a seat. + +There is certainly no method by which the shadowy outlines of departed +men and women can be made to assume the hues of life more effectually +than by connecting their images with the substantial and homely reality +of a fireside chair. It causes us to feel at once that these characters +of history had a private and familiar existence, and were not wholly +contained within that cold array of outward action which we are +compelled to receive as the adequate representation of their lives. If +this impression can be given, much is accomplished. + +Setting aside Grandfather and his auditors, and excepting the adventures +of the chair, which form the machinery of the work, nothing in the +ensuing pages can be termed fictitious. The author, it is true, has +sometimes assumed the license of filling up the outline of history with +details for which he has none but imaginative authority, but which, +he hopes, do not violate nor give a false coloring to the truth. He +believes that, in this respect, his narrative will not be found to +convey ideas and impressions of which the reader may hereafter find it +necessary to purge his mind. + +The author's great doubt is, whether he has succeeded in writing a book +which will be readable by the class for whom he intends it. To make a +lively and entertaining narrative for children, with such unmalleable +material as is presented by the sombre, stern, and rigid characteristics +of the Puritans and their descendants, is quite as difficult an attempt +as to manufacture delicate playthings out of the granite, rocks on which +New England is founded. + + + + +GRANDFATHER'S CHAIR. + + + + +PART I. 1620-1692. + + + +CHAPTER I. GRANDFATHER AND THE CHILDREN AND THE CHAIR. + +GRANDFATHER had been sitting in his old arm-chair all that pleasant +afternoon, while the children were pursuing their various sports far off +or near at hand, Sometimes you would have said, "Grandfather is asleep;" +hut still, even when his eyes were closed, his thoughts were with the +young people, playing among the flowers and shrubbery of the garden. + +He heard the voice of Laurence, who had taken possession of a heap of +decayed branches which the gardener had lopped from the fruit-trees, +and was building a little hut for his cousin Clara and himself. He heard +Clara's gladsome voice, too, as she weeded and watered the flower-bed +which had been given her for her own. He could have counted every +footstep that Charley took, as he trundled his wheelbarrow along the +gravel-walk. And though' Grandfather was old and gray-haired, yet his +heart leaped with joy whenever little Alice came fluttering, like +a butterfly, into the room. Sire had made each of the children her +playmate in turn, and now made Grandfather her playmate too, and thought +him the merriest of them all. + +At last the children grew weary of their sports, because a summer +afternoon is like a long lifetime to the young. So they came into the +room together, and clustered round Grandfather's great chair. Little +Alice, who was hardly five years old, took the privilege of the +youngest, and climbed his knee. It was a pleasant thing to behold that +fair and golden-haired child in the lap of the old man, and to think +that, different as they were, the hearts of both could be gladdened with +the same joys. + +"Grandfather," said little Alice, laying her head back upon his arm, "I +am very tired now. You must tell me a story to make me go to sleep." + +"That is not what story-tellers like," answered Grandfather, smiling. +"They are better satisfied when they can keep their auditors awake." + +"But here are Laurence, and Charley, and I," cried cousin Clara, who was +twice as old as little Alice. "We will all three keep wide awake. +And pray, Grandfather, tell us a story about this strange-looking old +chair." + +Now, the chair in which Grandfather sat was made of oak, which had grown +dark with age, but had been rubbed and polished till it shone as bright +as mahogany. It was very large and heavy, and had a back that rose high +above Grandfather's white head. This back was curiously carved in open +work, so as to represent flowers, and foliage, and other devices, which +the children had often gazed at, but could never understand what they +meant. On the very tip-top of the chair, over the head of Grandfather +himself, was a likeness of a lion's head, which had such a savage grin +that you would almost expect to hear it growl and snarl. + +The children had seen Grandfather sitting in this chair ever since they +could remember anything. Perhaps the younger of them supposed that he +and the chair had come into the world together, and that both had always +been as old as they were now. At this time, however, it happened to be +the fashion for ladies to adorn their drawing-rooms with the oldest and +oddest chairs that could be found. It seemed to cousin Clara that, if +these ladies could have seen Grandfather's old chair, they would have +thought it worth all the rest together. She wondered if it were not +even older than Grandfather himself, and longed to know all about its +history. + +"Do, Grandfather, talk to us about this chair," she repeated. + +"Well, child," said Grandfather, patting Clara's cheek, "I can tell you +a great many stories of my chair. Perhaps your cousin Laurence would +like to hear them too. They would teach him something about the history +and distinguished people of his country which he has never read in any +of his schoolbooks." + +Cousin Laurence was a boy of twelve, a bright scholar, in whom an early +thoughtfulness and sensibility began to show themselves. His young fancy +kindled at the idea of knowing all the adventures of this venerable +chair. He looked eagerly in Grandfather's face; and even Charley, a +bold, brisk, restless little fellow of nine, sat himself down on the +carpet, and resolved to be quiet for at least ten minutes, should the +story last so long. + +Meantime, little Alice was already asleep; so Grandfather, being much +pleased with such an attentive audience, began to talk about matters +that happened long ago. + + + +CHAPTER II. THE PURITANS AND THE LADY ARBELLA. + +BUT before relating the adventures of the chairs found it necessary to +speak of circumstances that caused the first settlement of New England. +For it will soon be perceived that the story of this remarkable chair +cannot be told without telling a great deal of the history of the +country. + +So Grandfather talked about the Puritans, {Foot Note: It is more precise +to give the name of Pilgrims to those Englishmen who went to Holland and +afterward to Plymouth. They were sometimes called Separatists because +they separated themselves from the church of England, sometimes +Brownists after the name of one of their eminent ministers. The Puritans +formed a great political as well as religious party in England, and +did not at first separate themselves from the church of England, though +those who came to this country did so at once.} as those persons were +called who thought it sinful to practise certain religious forms and +ceremonies of the Church of England. These Puritans suffered so much +persecuted in England that, in 1607, many of them went over to Holland, +and lived ten or twelve years at Amsterdam and Leyden. But they feared +that, if they continued there much longer, they should cease to be +England, and should adopt all the manners, and ideas, and feelings of +the Dutch. For this and other reasons, in the year 1620 they embarked on +board the ship Mayflower, and crossed the ocean, to the shores of Cape +Cod. There they made a settlement, and called it Plymouth, which, though +now a part of Massachusetts, was for a long time a colony by itself. And +thus was formed the earliest settlement of the Puritans in America. + +Meantime, those of the Puritans who remained in England continued to +suffer grievous persecution on account of their religious opinions. They +began to look around them for some spot where they might worship God, +not as the king and bishops thought fit, but according to the dictates +of their own consciences. When their brethren had gone from Holland to +America, they bethought themselves that they likewise might find refuge +from persecution there. Several gentlemen among them purchased a tract +of country on the coast of Massachusetts Bay, and obtained a charter +from King Charles, which authorized them to make laws for the settlers. +In the year 1628 they sent over a few people, with John Endicott at +their bead, to commence a plantation at Salem. {Foot Note: The Puritans +had a liking for Biblical names for their children, and they sometimes +gave names out of the Bible to places, Salem means Peace. The Indian +name was Naumkeag.} Peter Palfrey, Roger Conant, and one or two more had +built houses there in 1626, and may be considered as the first settlers +of that ancient town. Many other Puritans prepared to follow Endicott. + +"And now we come to the chair, my dear children," said Grandfather. +"This chair is supposed to have been made of an oak-tree which grew in +the park of the English Earl of Lincoln between two and three centuries +ago. In its younger days it used, probably, to stand in the hall of the +earl's castle. Do not you see the coat of arms of the family of Lincoln +carved in the open work of the back? But when his daughter, the Lady +Arbella, was married to a certain Mr. Johnson, the earl gave her this +valuable chair." + +"Who was Mr. Johnson?" inquired Clara. + +"He was a gentleman of great wealth, who agreed with the Puritans in +their religious opinions," answered Grandfather. "And as his belief was +the same as theirs, he resolved that he would live and die with them. +Accordingly, in the month of April, 1630, he left his pleasant abode and +all his comforts in England, and embarked, with Lady Arbella, on board +of a ship bound for America." + +As Grandfather was frequently impeded by the questions and observations +of his young auditors, we deem it advisable to omit all such prattle +as is not essential to the story. We have taken some pains to find out +exactly what Grandfather said, and here offer to our readers, as nearly +as possible in his own words, the story of the Lady Arbella. + +The ship in which Mr. Johnson and his lady embarked, taking +Grandfather's chair along with them, was called the Arbella, in honor +of the lady herself. A fleet of ten or twelve vessels, with many hundred +passengers, left England about the same time; for a multitude of people, +who were discontented with the king's government and oppressed by the +bishops, were flocking over to the New World. One of the vessels in the +fleet was that same Mayflower which had carried the Puritan Pilgrims to +Plymouth. And now, my children, I would have you fancy yourselves in +the cabin of the good ship Arbella; because, if you could behold the +passengers aboard that vessel, you would feel what a blessing and honor +it was for New England to have such settlers. They were the best men and +women of their day. + +Among the passengers was John Winthrop, who had sold the estate of +his forefathers, and was going to prepare a new home for his wife and +children in the wilderness. He had the king's charter in his keeping, +and was appointed the first governor of Massachusetts. Imagine him a +person of grave and benevolent aspect, dressed in a black velvet suit, +with a broad ruff around his neck, and a peaked beard upon his chin. +{Foot Note: There is a statue representing John Winthrop in Scollay +Square in Boston. He holds the charter in his hand, and a Bible is under +his arm.} There was likewise a minister of the gospel whom the English +bishops had forbidden to preach, but who knew that he should have +liberty both to preach and pray in the forests of America. He wore a +black cloak, called a Geneva cloak, and had a black velvet cap, +fitting close to his head, as was the fashion of almost all the Puritan +clergymen. In their company came Sir Richard Saltonstall, who had been +one of the five first projectors of the new colony. He soon returned to +his native country. But his descendants still remain in New England; and +the good old family name is as much respected in our days as it was in +those of Sir Richard. + +Not only these, but several other men of wealth and pious ministers were +in the cabin of the Arbella. One had banished himself forever from the +old hall where his ancestors had lived for hundreds of years. Another +had left his quiet parsonage, in a country town of England. Others had +come from the Universities of Oxford or Cambridge, where they had gained +great fame for their learning. And here they all were, tossing upon +the uncertain and dangerous sea, and bound for a home that was more +dangerous than even the sea itself. In the cabin, likewise, sat the Lady +Arbella in her chair, with a gentle and sweet expression on her +face, but looking too pale and feeble to endure the hardships of the +wilderness. + +Every morning and evening the Lady Arbella gave up her great chair to +one of the ministers, who took his place in it and read passages +from the Bible to his companions. And thus, with prayers, and pious +conversation, and frequent singing of hymns, which the breezes caught +from their lips and scattered far over the desolate waves, they +prosecuted their voyage, and sailed into the harbor of Salem in the +month of June. + +At that period there were but six or eight dwellings in the town; and +these were miserable hovels, with roofs of straw and wooden chimneys. +The passengers in the fleet either built huts with bark and branches of +trees, or erected tents of cloth till they could provide themselves with +better shelter. Many of them went to form a settlement at Charlestown. +It was thought fit that the Lady Arbella should tarry in Salem for +a time; she was probably received as a guest into the family of John +Endicott. He was the chief person in the plantation, and had the only +comfortable house which the new-comers had beheld since they left +England. So now, children, you must imagine Grandfather's chair in the +midst of a new scene. + +Suppose it a hot summer's day, and the lattice-windows of a chamber in +Mr. Endicott's house thrown wide open. The Lady Arbella, looking +paler than she did on shipboard, is sitting in her chair, and thinking +mournfully of far-off England. She rises and goes to the window. There, +amid patches Of garden ground and cornfield, she sees the few wretched +hovels of the settlers, with the still ruder wigwams and cloth tents of +the passengers who had arrived in the same fleet with herself. Far and +near stretches the dismal forest of pine-trees, which throw their black +shadows over the whole land, and likewise over the heart of this poor +lady. + +All the inhabitants of the little village are busy. One is clearing a +spot on the verge of the forest for his homestead; another is hewing +the trunk of a fallen pine-tree, in order to build himself a dwelling; +a third is hoeing in his field of Indian corn. Here comes a huntsman +out of the woods, dragging a bear which he has shot, and shouting to the +neighbors to lend him a hand. There goes a man to the sea-shore, with +a spade and a bucket, to dig a mess of clams, which were a principal +article of food with the first settlers. Scattered here and there are +two or three dusky figures, clad in mantles of fur, with ornaments of +bone hanging from their ears, and the feathers of wild birds in their +coal-black hair. They have belts of shellwork slung across their +shoulders, and are armed with bows and arrows, and flint-headed spears. +These are an Indian sagamore and his attendants, who have come to gaze +at the labors of the white men. And now rises a cry that a pack of +wolves have seized a young calf in the pasture; and every man snatches +up his gun or pike and runs in chase of the marauding beasts. + +Poor Lady Arbella watches all these sights, and feels that this New +World is fit only for rough and hardy people. None should be here but +those who can struggle with wild beasts and wild men, and can toil +in the heat or cold, and can keep their hearts firm against all +difficulties and dangers. But she is not of these. Her gentle and timid +spirit sinks within her; and, turning away from the window, she sits +down in the great chair and wonders whereabouts in the wilderness her +friends will dig her grave. + +Mr. Johnson had gone, with Governor Winthrop and most of the other +passengers, to Boston, where he intended to build a house for Lady +Arbella and himself. Boston was then covered with wild woods, and had +fewer inhabitants, even, than Salem. During her husband's absence, poor +Lady Arbella felt herself growing ill, and was hardly able to stir +from the great chair. Whenever John Endicott noticed her despondency he +doubtless addressed her with words of comfort. "Cheer up, my good lady!" +he would say. + +"In a little time you will love this rude life of the wilderness as I +do." But Endicott's heart was as bold and resolute as iron, and he could +not understand why a woman's heart should not be of iron too. + +Still, however, he spoke kindly to the lady, and then hastened forth +to till his cornfield and set out fruit-trees, or to bargain with the +Indians for furs, or perchance to oversee the building of a fort. Also, +being a magistrate, he had often to punish some idler or evil doer, by +ordering him to be set in the stocks or scourged at the whipping-post. +Often, too, as was the custom of the times, he and Mr. Higginson, +the minister of Salem, held long religious talks together. Thus John +Endicott was a man of multifarious business, and had no time to look +back regretfully to his native land. He felt himself fit for the New +World and for the work that he had to do, and set himself resolutely to +accomplish it. + +What a contrast, my dear children, between this bold, rough, active man, +and the gentle Lady Arbella, who was fading away, like a pale English +flower, in the shadow of the forest! And now the great chair was often +empty, because Lady Arbella grew too weak to arise from bed. + +Meantime, her husband had pitched upon a spot for their new home. He +returned from Boston to Salem, travelling through the woods on foot, and +leaning on his pilgrim's staff. His heart yearned within him; for he was +eager to tell his wife of the new home which he had chosen. But when he +beheld her pale and hollow cheek, and found how her strength was wasted, +he must have known that her appointed home was in a better land. Happy +for him then--happy both for him and her--if they remembered that there +was a path to heaven, as well from this heathen wilderness as from the +Christian land whence they had come. And so, in one short month from her +arrival, the gentle Lady Arbella faded away and died. They dug a grave +for her in the new soil, where the roots of the pine-trees impeded their +spades; and when her bones had rested there nearly two hundred years, +and a city had sprung up around them, a church of stone was built upon +the spot. + +Charley, almost at the commencement of the foregoing narrative, had +galloped away, with a prodigious clatter, upon Grandfather's stick, and +was not yet returned. So large a boy should have been ashamed to ride +upon a stick. But Laurence and Clara had listened attentively, and were +affected by this true story of the gentle lady who had come so far to +die so soon. Grandfather had supposed that little Alice was asleep; but +towards the close of the story, happening to look down upon her, he saw +that her blue eyes were wide open, and fixed earnestly upon his face. +The tears had gathered in them, like dew upon a delicate flower; but +when Grandfather ceased to speak, the sunshine of her smile broke forth +again. + +"Oh, the lady must have been so glad to get to heaven!" exclaimed little +Alice. "Grandfather, what became of Mr. Johnson?" asked Clara. + +"His heart appears to have been quite broken," answered Grandfather; +"for he died at Boston within a month after the death of his wife. He +was buried in the very same tract of ground where he had intended to +build a dwelling for Lady Arbella and himself. Where their house would +have stood, there was his grave." + +"I never heard anything so melancholy," said Clara. + +"The people loved and respected Mr. Johnson so much," continued +Grandfather, "that it was the last request of many of them, when they +died, that they might be buried as near as possible to this good man's +grave. And so the field became the first burial ground in Boston. When +you pass through Tremont Street, along by King's Chapel, you see a +burial-ground, containing many old grave-stones and monuments. That was +Mr. Johnson's field." + +"How sad is the thought," observed Clara, "that one of the first things +which the settlers had to do, when they came to the New World, was to +set apart a burial-ground!" + +"Perhaps," said Laurence, "if they had found no need of burial-grounds +here, they would have been glad, after a few years, to go back to +England." + +Grandfather looked at Laurence, to discover whether he knew how profound +and true a thing he had said. + + + +CHAPTER III. A RAINY DAY. + +NOT long after Grandfather had told the story of his great chair, there +chanced to be a rainy day. Our friend Charley, after disturbing the +household with beat of drum and riotous shouts, races up and down the +staircase, overturning of chairs, and much other uproar, began to feel +the quiet and confinement within doors intolerable. But as the rain came +down in a flood, the little fellow was hopelessly a prisoner, and now +stood with sullen aspect at a window, wondering whether the sun itself +were not extinguished by so much moisture in the sky. + +Charley had already exhausted the less eager activity of the other +children; and they had betaken themselves to occupations that did not +admit of his companionship. Laurence sat in a recess near the book-ease, +reading, not for the first time, the Midsummer Night's Dream. Clara was +making a rosary of beads for a little figure of a Sister of Charity, +who was to attend the Bunker Hill fair and lend her aid in erecting +the Monument. Little Alice sat on Grandfather's footstool, with a +picture-book in her hand; and, for every picture, the child was telling +Grandfather a story. She did not read from the book (for little Alice +had not much skill in reading), but told the story out of her own heart +and mind. + +Charley was too big a boy, of course, to care anything about little +Alice's stories, although Grandfather appeared to listen with a good +deal of interest. Often in a young child's ideas and fancies, there, is +something which it requires the thought of a lifetime to comprehend. But +Charley was of opinion that, if a story must be told, it had better be +told by Grandfather than little Alice. + +"Grandfather, I want to hear more about your chair," said he. + +Now, Grandfather remembered that Charley had galloped away upon a stick +in the midst of the narrative of poor Lady Arbella, and I know not +whether he would have thought it worth while to tell another story +merely to gratify such an inattentive auditor as Charley. But Laurence +laid down his book and seconded the request. Clara drew her chair nearer +to Grandfather; and little Alice immediately closed her picture-book +and looked up into his face. Grandfather had not the heart to disappoint +them. + +He mentioned several persons who had a share in the settlement of our +country, and who would be well worthy of remembrance, if we could find +room to tell about them all. Among the rest, Grandfather spoke of the +famous Hugh Peters, a minister of the gospel, who did much good to the +inhabitants of Salem. Mr. Peters afterwards went back to England, +and was chaplain to Oliver Cromwell; but Grandfather did not tell the +children what became of this upright and zealous man at last. In fact, +his auditors were growing impatient to hear more about the history of +the chair. + +"After the death of Mr. Johnson," said he, "Grandfather's chair came +into the possession of Roger Williams. He was a clergyman, who arrived +at Salem, and settled there in 1631. Doubtless the good man has spent +many a studious hour in this old chair, either penning a sermon or +reading some abstruse book of theology, till midnight came upon him +unawares. At that period, as there were few lamps or candles to be had, +people used to read or work by the light of pitch-pine torches. These +supplied the place of the 'midnight oil' to the learned men of New +England." + +Grandfather went on to talk about Roger Williams, and told the children +several particulars, which we have not room to repeat. + + + +CHAPTER IV. TROUBLOUS TIMES. + +"ROGER WILLIAMS," said Grandfather, "did not keep possession of the +chair a great while. His opinions of civil and religious matters +differed, in many respects, from those of the rulers and clergymen of +Massachusetts. Now, the wise men of those days believed that the country +could not be safe unless all the inhabitants thought and felt alike." + +"Does anybody believe so in our days, Grandfather?" asked Lawrence. + +"Possibly there are some who believe it," said Grandfather; "but they +have not so much power to act upon their belief as the magistrates +and ministers had in the days of Roger Williams. They had the power to +deprive this good man of his home, and to send him out from the midst of +them in search of a new place of rest. He was banished in 1634, and went +first to Plymouth colony; but as the people there held the same opinions +as those of Massachusetts, he was not suffered to remain among them. +However, the wilderness was wide enough; so Roger Williams took his +staff and travelled into the forest and made treaties with the Indians, +and began a plantation which he called Providence." + +"I have been to Providence on the railroad," said Charley. "It is but a +two-hours' ride." + +"Yes, Charley," replied Grandfather; "but when Roger Williams travelled +thither, over hills and valleys, and through the tangled woods, and +across swamps and streams, it was a journey of several days. Well, +his little plantation has now grown to be a populous city; and the +inhabitants have a great veneration for Roger Williams. His name is +familiar in the mouths of all, because they see it on their bank-bills. +How it would have perplexed this good clergyman if he had been told that +he should give his name to the ROGER WILLIAMS BANK!" + +"When he was driven from Massachusetts," said Lawrence, "and began his +journey into the woods, he must have felt as if he were burying himself +forever from the sight and knowledge of men. Yet the whole country has +now heard of him, and will remember him forever." + +"Yes," answered Grandfather; "it often happens that the outcasts of one +generation are those who are reverenced as the wisest and best of men by +the next. The securest fame is that which comes after a man's death. But +let us return to our story. When Roger Williams was banished, he appears +to have given the chair to Mrs. Anne Hutchinson. At all events, it +was in her possession in 1687. She was a very sharp-witted and +well-instructed lady, and was so conscious of her own wisdom and +abilities that she thought it a pity that the world should not have the +benefit of them. She therefore used to hold lectures in Boston once +or twice a week, at which most of the women attended. Mrs. Hutchinson +presided at these meetings, sitting with great state and dignity in +Grandfather's chair." + +"Grandfather, was it positively this very chair?" demanded Clara, laying +her hand upon its carved elbow. + +"Why not, my dear Clara?" said Grandfather. "Well, Mrs. Hutchinson's +lectures soon caused a great disturbance; for the ministers of Boston +did not think it safe and proper that a woman should publicly instruct +the people in religious doctrines. Moreover, she made the matter worse +by declaring that the Rev. Mr. Cotton was the only sincerely pious and +holy clergyman in New England. Now, the clergy of those days had quite +as much share in the government of the country, though indirectly, as +the magistrates themselves; so you may imagine what a host of powerful +enemies were raised up against Mrs. Hutchinson. A synod was convened; +that is to say, an assemblage of all the ministers in Massachusetts. +They declared that there were eighty-two erroneous opinions on religious +subjects diffused among the people, and that Mrs. Hutchinson's opinions +were of the number." + +"If they had eighty-two wrong opinions," observed Charley, "I don't see +how they could have any right ones." + +"Mrs. Hutchinson had many zealous friends and converts," continued +Grandfather. "She was favored by young Henry Vane, who had come over +from England a year or two before, and had since been chosen governor +of the colony, at the age of twenty-four. But Winthrop and most of the +other leading men, as well as the ministers, felt an abhorrence of her +doctrines. Thus two opposite parties were formed; and so fierce were the +dissensions that it was feared the consequence would be civil war and +bloodshed. But Winthrop and the ministers being the most powerful, they +disarmed and imprisoned Mrs. Hutchinson's adherents. She, like Roger +Williams, was banished." + +"Dear Grandfather, did they drive the poor woman into the woods?" +exclaimed little Alice, who contrived to feel a human interest even in +these discords of polemic divinity. + +"They did, my darling," replied Grandfather; "and the end of her life +was so sad you must not hear it. At her departure, it appears, from +the best authorities, that she gave the great Chair to her friend Henry +Vane. He was a young man of wonderful talents and great learning, who +had imbibed the religious opinions of the Puritans, and left England +with the intention of spending his life in Massachusetts. The people +chose him governor; but the controversy about Mrs. Hutchinson, and +other troubles, caused him to leave country in 1637. You may read the +subsequent events of his life in the History of England." + +"Yes, Grandfather," cried Laurence; "and we may read them better in +Mr. Upham's biography of Vane. And what a beautiful death he died, long +afterwards! beautiful, though it was on a scaffold." + +"Many of the most beautiful deaths have been there," said Grandfather. +"The enemies of a great and good man can in no other way make him so +glorious as by giving him the crown of martyrdom." + +In order that the children might fully understand the all-important +history of the chair, Grandfather now thought fit to speak of the +progress that was made in settling several colonies. The settlement of +Plymouth, in 1620, has already been mentioned. In 1635 Mr. Hooker +and Mr. Stone, two ministers, went on foot from Massachusetts to +Connecticut, through the pathless woods, taking their whole congregation +along with them. They founded the town of Hartford. In 1638 Mr. +Davenport, a very celebrated minister, went, with other people, and +began a plantation at New Haven. In the same year, some persons who +had been persecuted in Massachusetts went to the Isle of Rhodes, since +called Rhode Island, and settled there. About this time, also, many +settlers had gone to Maine, and were living without any regular +government. There were likewise settlers near Piscataqua River, in the +region which is now called New Hampshire. + +Thus, at various points along the coast of New England, there were +communities of Englishmen. Though these communities were independent of +one another, yet they had a common dependence upon England; and, at so +vast a distance from their native home, the inhabitants must all have +felt like brethren. They were fitted to become one united People at a +future period. Perhaps their feelings of brotherhood were the stronger +because different nations had formed settlements to the north and to the +south. In Canada and Nova Scotia were colonies of French. On the banks +of the Hudson River was a colony of Dutch, who had taken possession of +that region many years before, and called it New Netherlands. + +Grandfather, for aught I know, might have gone on to speak of Maryland +and Virginia; for the good old gentleman really seemed to suppose that +the whole surface of the United States was not too broad a foundation +to place the four legs of his chair upon. But, happening to glance at +Charley, he perceived that this naughty boy was growing impatient +and meditating another ride upon a stick. So here, for the present, +Grandfather suspended the history of his chair. + + + +CHAPTER V. THE GOVERNMENT OF NEW ENGLAND. + +The children had now learned to look upon the chair with an interest +which was almost the same as if it were a conscious being, and could +remember the many famous people whom it had held within its arms. + +Even Charley, lawless as he was, seemed to feel that this venerable +chair must not be clambered upon nor overturned, although he had no +scruple in taking such liberties With every other chair in the house. +Clara treated it with still greater reverence, often taking occasion to +smooth its cushion, and to brush the dust from the carved flowers and +grotesque figures of its oaken back and arms. Laurence would sometimes +sit a whole hour, especially at twilight, gazing at the chair, and, by +the spell of his imaginations, summoning up its ancient occupants to +appear in it again. + +Little Alice evidently employed herself in a similar way; for once when +Grandfather had gone abroad, the child was heard talking with the gentle +Lady Arbella, as if she were still sitting in the chair. So sweet a +child as little Alice may fitly talk with angels, such as the Lady +Arbella had long since become. + +Grandfather was soon importuned for more stories about the chair. He had +no difficulty in relating them; for it really seemed as if every person +noted in our early history had, on some occasion or other, found repose +within its comfortable arms. If Grandfather took pride in anything, +it was in being the possessor of such an honorable and historic +elbow-chair. + +"I know not precisely who next got possession of the chair after +Governor Vane went back to England," said Grandfather. "But there is +reason to believe that President Dunster sat in it, when he held the +first Commencement at Harvard College. You have often heard, children, +how careful our forefathers were to give their young people a good +education. They had scarcely cut down trees enough to make room for +their own dwellings before they began to think of establishing a +college. Their principal object was, to rear up pious and learned +ministers; and hence old writers call Harvard College a school of the +prophets." + +"Is the college a school of the prophets now?" asked Charley. + +"It is a long while since I took my degree, Charley. You must ask some +of the recent graduates," answered Grandfather. "As I was telling you, +President Dunster sat in Grandfather's chair in 1642, when he conferred +the degree of bachelor of arts on nine young men. They were the first in +America who had received that honor. And now, my dear auditors, I must +confess that there are contradictory statements and some uncertainty +about the adventures of the chair for a period of almost ten years. Some +say that it was occupied by your own ancestor, William Hawthorne, first +speaker of the House of Representatives. I have nearly satisfied myself, +however, that, during most of this questionable period, it was literally +the chair of state. It gives me much pleasure to imagine that several +successive governors of Massachusetts sat in it at the council board." + +"But, Grandfather," interposed Charley, who was a matter-of-fact little +person, "what reason have you, to imagine so?" + +"Pray do imagine it, Grandfather," said Laurence. + +"With Charley's permission, I will," replied Grandfather, smiling. "Let +us consider it settled, therefore, that Winthrop, Bellingham, Dudley, +and Endicott, each of them, when chosen governor, took his seat in +our great chair on election day. In this chair, likewise, did those +excellent governors preside while holding consultations with the chief +councillors of the province, who were styled assistants. The governor +sat in this chair, too, whenever messages were brought to him from the +chamber of representatives." + +And here Grandfather took occasion to talk rather tediously about the +nature and forms of government that established themselves, almost +spontaneously, in Massachusetts and the other New England colonies. +Democracies were the natural growth of the New World. As to +Massachusetts, it was at first intended that the colony should be +governed by a council in London. But in a little while the people had +the whole power in their own hands, and chose annually the governor, +the councillors, and the representatives. The people of Old England +had never enjoyed anything like the liberties and privileges which the +settlers of New England now possessed. And they did not adopt these +modes of government after long study, but in simplicity, as if there +were no other way for people to be ruled. + +"But, Laurence," continued Grandfather, "when you want instruction on +these points, you must seek it in Mr. Bancroft's History. I am merely +telling the history of a chair. To proceed. The period during which the +governors sat in our chair was not very full of striking incidents. +The province was now established on a secure foundation; but it did not +increase so rapidly as at first, because the Puritans were no longer +driven from England by persecution. However, there was still a quiet +and natural growth. The Legislature incorporated towns, and made new +purchases of lands from the Indians. A very memorable event took place +in 1643. The colonies of Massachusetts, Plymouth, Connecticut, and +New Haven formed a union, for the purpose of assisting each other in +difficulties, for mutual defence against their enemies. They called +themselves the United Colonies of New England." + +"Were they under a government like that of the United States?" inquired +Laurence. + +"No," replied Grandfather; "the different colonies did not compose one +nation together; it was merely a confederacy among the governments: It +somewhat resembled the league of the Amphictyons, which you remember +in Grecian history. But to return to our chair. In 1644 it was highly +honored; for Governor Endicott sat in it when he gave audience to an +ambassador from the French governor of Acadia, or Nova Scotia. A treaty +of peace between Massachusetts and the French colony was then signed." + +"Did England allow Massachusetts to make war and peace with foreign +countries?" asked Laurence. + +"Massachusetts and the whole of New England was then almost independent +of the mother country," said Grandfather. "There was now a civil war in +England; and the king, as you may well suppose, had his hands full at +home, and could pay but little attention to these remote colonies. When +the Parliament got the power into their hands, they likewise had enough +to do in keeping down the Cavaliers. Thus New England, like a young and +hardy lad whose father and mother neglect it, was left to take care of +itself. In 1649 King Charles was beheaded. Oliver Cromwell then became +Protector of England; and as he was a Puritan himself, and had risen +by the valor of the English Puritans, he showed himself a loving and +indulgent father to the Puritan colonies in America." + +Grandfather might have continued to talk in this dull manner nobody +knows how long; but suspecting that Charley would find the subject +rather dry, he looked sidewise at that vivacious little fellow, and saw +him give an involuntary yawn. Whereupon Grandfather proceeded with the +history of the chair, and related a very entertaining incident, which +will be found in the next chapter. + + + +CHAPTER VI. THE PINE-TREE SHILLINGS. + +"ACCORDING to the most authentic records, my dear children," said +Grandfather, "the chair, about this time, had the misfortune to break +its leg. It was probably on account of this accident that it ceased to +be the seat of the governors of Massachusetts; for, assuredly, it would +have been ominous of evil to the commonwealth if the chair of state had +tottered upon three legs. Being therefore sold at auction,--alas I what +a vicissitude for a chair that had figured in such high company!--our +venerable friend was knocked down to a certain Captain John Hull. This +old gentleman, on carefully examining the maimed chair, discovered that +its broken leg might be clamped with iron and made as serviceable as +ever." + +"Here is the very leg that was broken!" exclaimed Charley, throwing +himself down on the floor to look at it. "And here are the iron clamps. +How well it was mended!" + +When they had all sufficiently examined the broken leg, Grandfather told +them a story about Captain John Hull and the Pine-tree Shillings. + +The Captain John Hull aforesaid was the mint-master of Massachusetts, +and coined all the money that was made there. This was a new line of +business, for, in the earlier days of the colony, the current coinage +consisted of gold and silver money of England, Portugal, and Spain. +These coins being scarce, the people were often forced to barter their +commodities instead of selling them. + +For instance, if a man wanted to buy a coat, he perhaps exchanged +a bear-skin for it. If he wished for a barrel of molasses, he might +purchase it with a pile of pine boards. Musket-bullets were used instead +of farthings. The Indians had a sort of money, called wampum, which was +made of clam-shells; and this strange sort of specie was likewise taken +in payment of debts by the English settlers. Bank-bills had never been +heard of. There was not money enough of any kind, in many parts of the +country, to pay the salaries of the ministers; so that they sometimes +had to take quintals of fish, bushels of corn, or cords of wood, instead +of silver or gold. + +As the people grew more numerous, and their trade one with another +increased, the want of current money was still more sensibly felt. To +supply the demand, the General Court passed a law for establishing a +coinage of shillings, sixpences, and threepences. Captain John Hull was +appointed to manufacture this money, and was to have about one shilling +out of every twenty to pay him for the trouble of making them. + +Hereupon all the old silver in the colony was handed over to Captain +John Hull. The battered silver cans and tankards, I suppose, and silver +buckles, and broken spoons, and silver buttons of worn-out coats, and +silver hilts of swords that had figured at court,--all such curious old +articles were doubtless thrown into the melting-pot together. But by far +the greater part of the silver consisted of bullion from the mines of +South America, which the English buccaneers--who were little better than +pirates--had taken from the Spaniards and brought to Massachusetts. + +All this old and new silver being melted down and coined, the result +was an immense amount of splendid shillings, sixpences, and threepences. +Each had the date, 1652, on the one side, and the figure of a pine-tree +on the other. Hence they were called pine-tree shillings. And for every +twenty shillings that he coined, you will remember, Captain John Hull +was entitled to put one shilling into his own pocket. + +The magistrates soon began to suspect that the mint master would have +the best of the bargain. They offered him a large sum of money if he +would but give up that twentieth shilling which he was continually +dropping into his own pocket. But Captain Hull declared himself +perfectly satisfied with the shilling. And well he might be; for +so diligently did he labor, that, in a few years, his pockets, +his money-bags, and his strong box were overflowing with pine-tree +shillings. This was probably the case when he came into possession of +Grandfather's chair; and, as he had worked so hard at the mint, it was +certainly proper that he should have a comfortable chair to rest him +self in. + +When the mint-master had grown very rich, a young man, Samuel Sewall by +name, came a-courting to his only daughter. His daughter--whose name I +do not know, but we will call her Betsey--was a fine, hearty damsel, +by no means so slender as some young ladies of our own days. On the +contrary, having always fed heartily on pumpkin-pies, doughnuts, Indian +puddings, and other Puritan dainties, she was as round and plump as a +pudding herself. With this round, rosy Miss Betsey did Samuel Sewall +fall in love. As he was a young man of good character, industrious in +his business, and a member of the church, the mint-master very readily +gave his consent. + +"Yes, you may take her," said he, in his rough way, "and you'll find her +a heavy burden enough!" + +On the wedding day, we may suppose that honest John Hull dressed himself +in a plum-colored coat, all the buttons of which were made of pine-tree +shillings. The buttons of his waistcoat were sixpences; and the knees of +his small-clothes were buttoned with silver threepences. Thus attired, +he sat with great dignity in Grandfather's chair; and, being a portly +old gentleman, he completely filled it from elbow to elbow. On the +opposite side of the room, between her bride-maids, sat Miss Betsey. She +was blushing with all her might, and looked like a full-blown peony, or +a great red apple. + +There, too, was the bridegroom, dressed in a fine purple coat and +gold-lace waistcoat, with as much other finery as the Puritan laws and +customs would allow him to put on. His hair was cropped close to his +head, because Governor Endicott had forbidden any man to wear it below +the ears. But he was a very personable young man; and so thought the +bridemaids and Miss Betsey herself. + +The mint-master also was pleased with his new Son-in-law; especially as +he had courted Miss Betsey out of pure love, and had said nothing at all +about her portion. So, when the marriage ceremony was over, Captain Hull +whispered a word to two of his men-servants, who immediately went out, +and soon returned, lugging in a large pair of scales. They were such +a pair as wholesale merchants use for weighing bulky commodities; and +quite a bulky commodity was now to be weighed in them. + +"Daughter Betsey," said the mint-master, "get into one side of these +scales." + +Miss Betsey--or Mrs. Sewall, as we must now call her--did as she +was bid, like a dutiful child, without any question of the why and +wherefore. But what her father could mean, unless to make her husband +pay for her by the pound (in which case she would have been a dear +bargain), she had not the least idea. + +"And now," said honest John Hull to the servants "bring that box +hither." + +The box to which the mint-master pointed was a huge, square, iron-bound, +oaken chest; it was big enough, my children, for all four of you to play +at hide-and-seek in. The servants tugged with might and main, but could +not lift this enormous receptacle, and were finally obliged to drag it +across the floor. Captain Hull then took a key from his girdle, unlocked +the chest, and lifted its ponderous lid. Behold! it was full to the brim +of bright pine-tree shillings, fresh from the mint; and Samuel Sewall +began to think that his father-in-law had got possession of all the +money in the Massachusetts treasury. But it was only the mint-master's +honest share of the coinage. + +Then the servants, at Captain Hull's command, heaped double handfuls +of shillings into one side of the scales, while Betsey remained in the +other. Jingle, jingle, went the shillings, as handful after handful was +thrown in, till, plump and ponderous as she was, they fairly weighed the +young lady from the floor. + +"There, son Sewall!" cried the honest mint-master, resuming his seat in +Grandfather's chair, "take these shillings for my daughter's portion. +Use her kindly, and thank Heaven for her. It is not every wife that's +worth her weight in silver!" + +The children laughed heartily at this legend, and would hardly be +convinced but that Grandfather had made it out of his own head. He +assured them faithfully, however, that he had found it in the pages of +a grave historian, and had merely tried to tell it in a somewhat funnier +style. As for Samuel Sewall, he afterwards became chief justice of +Massachusetts. + +"Well, Grandfather," remarked Clara, "if wedding portions nowadays were +paid as Miss Betsey's was, young ladies would not pride themselves upon +an airy figure, as many of them do." + + + +CHAPTER VII. THE QUAKERS AND THE INDIANS. + +WHEN his little audience next assembled round the chair, Grandfather +gave them a doleful history of the Quaker persecution, which began in +1656, and raged for about three years in Massachusetts. + +He told them how, in the first place, twelve of the converts of George +Fox, the first Quaker in the world, had come over from England. They +seemed to be impelled by an earnest love for the souls of men, and a +pure desire to make known what they considered a revelation from +Heaven. But the rulers looked upon them as plotting the downfall of all +government and religion. They were banished from the colony. In a little +while, however, not only the first twelve had returned, but a multitude +of other Quakers had come to rebuke the rulers and to preach against the +priests and steeple-houses. + +Grandfather described the hatred and scorn with which these enthusiasts +were received. They were thrown into dungeons; they were beaten with +many stripes, women as well as men; they were driven forth into the +wilderness, and left to the tender mercies of tender mercies of wild +beasts and Indians. The children were amazed hear that the more the +Quakers were scourged, and imprisoned, and banished, the more did the +sect increase, both by the influx of strangers and by converts from +among the Puritans, But Grandfather told them that God had put +something into the soul of man, which always turned the cruelties of the +persecutor to naught. + +He went on to relate that, in 1659, two Quakers, named William Robinson +and Marmaduke Stephenson, were hanged at Boston. A woman had been +sentenced to die with them, but was reprieved on condition of her +leaving the colony. Her name was Mary Dyer. In the year 1660 she +returned to Boston, although she knew death awaited her there; and, +if Grandfather had been correctly informed, an incident had then taken +place which connects her with our story. This Mary Dyer had entered +the mint-master's dwelling, clothed in sackcloth and ashes, and seated +herself in our great chair with a sort of dignity and state. Then she +proceeded to deliver what she called a message from Heaven, but in the +midst of it they dragged her to prison. + +"And was she executed?" asked Laurence. + +"She was," said Grandfather. + +"Grandfather," cried Charley, clinching his fist, "I would have fought +for that poor Quaker woman!" + +"Ah, but if a sword had been drawn for her," said Laurence, "it would +have taken away all the beauty of her death." + +It seemed as if hardly any of the preceding stories had thrown such +an interest around Grandfather's chair as did the fact that the poor, +persecuted, wandering Quaker woman had rested in it for a moment. The +children were so much excited that Grandfather found it necessary to +bring his account of the persecution to a close. + +"In 1660, the same year in which Mary Dyer was executed," said he, +"Charles II. was restored to the throne of his fathers. This king had +many vices; but he would not permit blood to be shed, under pretence of +religion, in any part of his dominions. The Quakers in England told +him what had been done to their brethren in Massachusetts; and he sent +orders to Governor Endicott to forbear all such proceedings in future. +And so ended the Quaker persecution,--one of the most mournful passages +in the history of our forefathers." + +Grandfather then told his auditors, that, shortly after the above +incident, the great chair had been given by the mint-master to the +Rev. Mr. John Eliot. He was the first minister of Roxbury. But besides +attending to the pastoral duties there, he learned the language of the +red men, and often went into the woods to preach to them. So earnestly +did he labor for their conversion that he has always been called the +apostle to the Indians. The mention of this holy man suggested to +Grandfather the propriety of giving a brief sketch of the history of the +Indians, so far as they were connected with the English colonists. + +A short period before the arrival of the first Pilgrims at Plymouth +there had been a very grievous plague among the red men; and the sages +and ministers of that day were inclined to the opinion that Providence +had sent this mortality in order to make room for the settlement of the +English. But I know not why we should suppose that an Indian's life is +less precious, in the eye of Heaven, than that of a white man. Be that +as it may, death had certainly been very busy with the savage tribes. + +In many places the English found the wigwams deserted and the cornfields +growing to waste, with none to harvest the grain. There were heaps +of earth also, which, being dug open, proved to be Indian graves, +containing bows and flint-headed spears and arrows; for the Indians +buried the dead warrior's weapons along with him. In some spots there +were skulls and other human bones lying unburied. In 1633, and the year +afterwards, the small-pox broke out among the Massachusetts Indians, +multitudes of whom died by this terrible disease of the Old World. These +misfortunes made them far less powerful than they had formerly been. + +For nearly half a century after the arrival of the English the red men +showed themselves generally inclined to peace and amity. They often +made submission when they might have made successful war. The Plymouth +settlers, led by the famous Captain Miles Standish, slew some of them, +in 1623, without any very evident necessity for so doing. In 1636, +and the following year, there was the most dreadful war that had yet +occurred between the Indians and the English. The Connecticut settlers, +assisted by a celebrated Indian chief named Uncas, bore the brunt of +this war, with but little aid from Massachusetts. Many hundreds of the +hostile Indians were slain or burned in their wigwams. Sassacus, their +sachem, fled to another tribe, after his own people were defeated; but +he was murdered by them, and his head was sent to his English enemies. + +From that period down to the time of King Philip's War, which will be +mentioned hereafter, there was not much trouble with the Indians. But +the colonists were always on their guard, and kept their weapons ready +for the conflict. + +"I have sometimes doubted," said Grandfather, when he had told these +things to the Children,--"I have sometimes doubted whether there was +more than a single man among our forefathers who realized that an Indian +possesses a mind, and a heart, and an immortal soul. That single man was +John Eliot. All the rest of the early settlers seemed to think that the +Indians were an inferior race of beings, whom the Creator had merely +allowed to keep possession of this beautiful country till the white men +should be in want of it." + +"Did the pious men of those days never try to make Christian of them?" +asked Laurence. "Sometimes, it is true," answered Grandfather, "the +magistrates and ministers would talk about civilizing and converting +the red people. But, at the bottom of their hearts, they would have had +almost as much expectation of civilizing the wild bear of the woods and +making him fit for paradise. They felt no faith in the success of any +such attempts, because they had no love for the poor Indians. Now, Eliot +was full of love for them; and therefore so full of faith and hope that +he spent the labor of a lifetime in their behalf." + +"I would have conquered them first, and then converted them," said +Charley. + +"Ah, Charley, there spoke the very spirit of our forefathers." replied +Grandfather. "But Mr. Eliot a better spirit. He looked upon them as his +brethren. He persuaded as many of them as he could to leave off their +idle and wandering habits, and to build houses and cultivate the earth, +as the English did. He established schools among them and taught many +of the Indians how to read. He taught them, likewise, how to pray. Hence +they were called 'praying Indians.' Finally, having spent the best years +of his life for their good, Mr. Eliot resolved to spend the remainder in +doing them a yet greater benefit." + +"I know what that was!" cried Laurence. + +"He sat down in his study," continued Grandfather, "and began a +translation of the Bible into the Indian tongue. It was while he was +engaged in this pious work that the mint-master gave him our great +chair. His toil needed it and deserved it." + +"O Grandfather, tell us all about that Indian Bible!" exclaimed +Laurence. "I have seen it in the library of the Athenaeum; and the tears +came into my eyes to think that there were no Indians left to read it." + + + +CHAPTER VIII. THE INDIAN BIBLE. + +As Grandfather was a great admirer of the apostle Eliot, he was glad to +comply with the earnest request which Laurence had made at the close +of the last chapter. So he proceeded to describe how good Mr. Eliot +labored, while he was at work upon the Indian Bible. + +My dear children, what a task would you think it, even with a long +lifetime before you, were you bidden to copy every chapter, and verse, +and word, in yonder family Bible! Would not this be a heavy toil? But +if the task were, not to write off the English Bible, but to learn a +language utterly unlike all other tongues, a language which hitherto +had never been learned, except by the Indians themselves, from their +mothers' lips,--a language never written, and the strange words of which +seemed inexpressible by letters,--if the task were, first to learn this +new variety of speech, and then to translate the Bible into it, and to +do it so carefully that not one idea throughout the holy book should +be changed,--what would induce you to undertake this toil? Yet this was +what the apostle Eliot did. + +It was a mighty work for a man, now growing old, to take upon himself. +And what earthly reward could he expect from it? None; no reward on +earth. But he believed that the red men were the descendants of those +lost tribes of Israel of whom history has been able to tell us nothing +for thousands of years. He hoped that God had sent the English across +the ocean, Gentiles as they were, to enlighten this benighted portion of +his once chosen race. And when he should be summoned hence, he trusted +to meet blessed spirits in another world, whose bliss would have been +earned by his patient toil in translating the word of God. This hope and +trust were far dearer to him than anything that earth could offer. + +Sometimes, while thus at work, he was visited by learned men, who +desired to know what literary undertaking Mr. Eliot had in hand. They, +like himself, had been bred in the studious cloisters of a university, +and were supposed to possess all the erudition which mankind has hoarded +up from age to age. Greek and Latin were as familiar to them as the +bab-ble of their childhood. Hebrew was like their mother tongue. They +had grown gray in study; their eyes were bleared with poring over print +and manuscript by the light of the midnight lamp. + +And yet, how much had they left unlearned! Mr. Eliot would put into +their hands some of the pages which he had been writing; and behold! the +gray-headed men stammered over the long, strange words, like a little +child in his first attempts to read. Then would the apostle call to him +an Indian boy, one of his scholars, and show him the manuscript which +had so puzzled the learned Englishmen. + +"Read this, my child," would he say; "these are some brethren of mine, +who would fain hear the sound of thy native tongue." + +Then would the Indian boy cast his eyes over the mysterious page, and +read it so skilfully that it sounded like wild music. It seemed as if +the forest leaves were singing in the ears of his auditors, and as the +roar of distant streams were poured through the young Indian's voice. +Such were the sounds amid which the language of the red man had been +formed; and they were still heard to echo in it. + +The lesson being over, Mr. Eliot would give the Indian boy an apple or +a cake, and bid him leap forth into the open air which his free nature +loved. The Apostle was kind to children, and even shared in their sports +sometimes. And when his visitors had bidden him farewell, the good man +turned patiently to his toil again. + +No other Englishman had ever understood the Indian character so well, +nor possessed so great an influence over the New England tribes, as the +apostle did. His advice and assistance must often have been valuable +to his countrymen in their transactions with the Indians. Occasionally, +perhaps, the governor and some of the councillors came to visit Mr. +Eliot. Perchance they were seeking some method to circumvent the forest +people. They inquired, it may be, how they could obtain possession of +such and such a tract of their rich land. Or they talked of making +the Indians their servants; as if God had destined them for perpetual +bondage to the more powerful white man. + +Perhaps, too, some warlike captain, dressed in his buff coat, with a +corselet beneath it, accompanied the governor and councillors. Laying +his hand upon his sword hilt, he would declare that the only method of +dealing with the red men was to meet them with the sword drawn and the +musket presented. + +But the apostle resisted both the craft of the politician and the +fierceness of the warrior. + +"Treat these sons of the forest as men and brethren," he would say; +"and let us endeavor to make them Christians. Their forefathers were of +that chosen race whom God delivered from Egyptian bondage. Perchance he +has destined us to deliver the children from the more cruel bondage +of ignorance and idolatry. Chiefly for this end, it may be, we were +directed across the ocean." + +When these other visitors were gone, Mr. Eliot bent himself again over +the half-written page. He dared hardly relax a moment from his toil. He +felt that, in the book which he was translating, there was a deep human +as well as heavenly wisdom, which would of itself suffice to civilize +and refine the savage tribes. Let the Bible be diffused among them, and +all earthly good would follow. But how slight a consideration was +this, when he reflected that the eternal welfare of a whole race of men +depended upon his accomplishment of the task which he had set himself! +What if his hands should be palsied? What if his mind should lose its +vigor? What if death should come upon him ere the work were done? Then +must the red man wander in the dark wilderness of heathenism forever. + +Impelled by such thoughts as these, he sat writing in the great chair +when the pleasant summer breeze came in through his open casement; and +also when the fire of forest logs sent up its blaze and smoke, through +the broad stone chimney, into the wintry air. Before the earliest bird +sang in the morning the apostle's lamp was kindled; and, at midnight, +his weary head was not yet upon its pillow. And at length, leaning back +in the great chair, he could say to himself, with a holy triumph, "The +work is finished!" + +It was finished. Here was a Bible for the Indians. Those long-lost +descendants of the ten tribes of Israel would now learn the history of +their forefathers. That grace which the ancient Israelites had forfeited +was offered anew to their children. + +There is no impiety in believing that, when his long life was over, +the apostle of the Indians was welcomed to the celestial abodes by the +prophets of ancient days and by those earliest apostles and evangelists +who had drawn their inspiration from the immediate presence of the +Saviour. They first had preached truth and salvation to the world. +And Eliot, separated from them by many centuries, yet full of the same +spirit, has borne the like message to the New World of the west. Since +the first days of Christianity, there has been no man more worthy to be +numbered in the brotherhood of the apostles than Eliot. + +"My heart is not satisfied to think," observed Laurence, "that Mr. +Eliot's labors have done no good except to a few Indians of his own +time. Doubtless he would not have regretted his toil, if it were the +means of saving but a single soul. But it is a grievous thing to me +that he should have toiled so hard to translate the Bible, and now the +language and the people are gone! The Indian Bible itself is almost the +only relic of both." + +"Laurence," said his Grandfather, "if ever you should doubt that man is +capable of disinterested zeal for his brother's good, then remember how +the apostle Eliot toiled. And if you should feel your own self-interest +pressing upon your heart too closely, then think of Eliot's Indian +Bible. It is good for the world that such a man has lived and left this +emblem of his life." + +The tears gushed into the eyes of Laurence, and he acknowledged +that Eliot had not toiled in vain. Little Alice put up her arms to +Grandfather, and drew down his white head beside her own golden locks. + +"Grandfather," whispered she, "I want to kiss good Mr. Eliot!" + +And, doubtless, good Mr. Eliot would gladly receive the kiss of so sweet +a child as little Alice, and would think it a portion of his reward in +heaven. + +Grandfather now observed that Dr. Francis had written a very beautiful +Life of Eliot, which he advised Laurence to peruse. He then spoke of +King Philip's War, which began in 1675, and terminated with the death of +King Philip, in the following year. Philip was a proud, fierce Indian, +whom Mr. Eliot had vainly endeavored to convert to the Christian faith. + +"It must have been a great anguish to the apostle," continued +Grandfather, "to hear of mutual slaughter and outrage between his own +countrymen and those for whom he felt the affection of a father. A few +of the praying Indians joined the followers of King Philip. A greater +number fought on the side of the English. In the course of the war the +little community of red people whom Mr. Eliot had begun to civilize was +scattered, and probably never was restored to a flourishing condition. +But his zeal did not grow cold; and only about five years before his +death he took great pains in preparing a new edition of the Indian +Bible." + +"I do wish, Grandfather," cried Charley, "you would tell us all about +the battles in King Philip's War." + +"Oh no!" exclaimed Clara. "Who wants to hear about tomahawks and +scalping knives?" + +"No, Charley," replied Grandfather, "I have no time to spare in +talking about battles. You must be content with knowing that it was the +bloodiest war that the Indians had ever waged against the white men; and +that, at its close, the English set King Philip's head upon a pole." + +"Who was the captain of the English?" asked Charley. + +"Their most noted captain was Benjamin Church, a very famous warrior," +said Grandfather. "But I assure you, Charley, that neither Captain +Church, nor any of the officers and soldiers who fought in King Philip's +War, did anything a thousandth part so glorious as Mr. Eliot did when he +translated the Bible for the Indians." + +"Let Laurence be the apostle," said Charley to himself, "and I will be +the captain." + + + +CHAPTER IX. ENGLAND AND NEW ENGLAND. + +The children were now accustomed to assemble round Grandfather's chair +at all their unoccupied moments; and often it was a striking picture +to behold the white-headed old sire, with this flowery wreath of young +people around him. When he talked to them, it was the past speaking +to the present, or rather to the future,--for the children were of a +generation which had not become actual. Their part in life, thus far, +was only to be happy and to draw knowledge from a thousand sources. As +yet, it was not their time to do. + +Sometimes, as Grandfather gazed at their fair, unworldly countenances, +a mist of tears bedimmed his spectacles. He almost regretted that it was +necessary for them to know anything of the past or to provide aught for +the future. He could have wished that they might be always the happy, +youthful creatures who had hitherto sported around his chair, without +inquiring whether it had a history. It grieved him to think that his +little Alice, who was a flower bud fresh from paradise, must open her +leaves to the rough breezes of the world, or ever open them in any +clime. So sweet a child she was, that it seemed fit her infancy should +be immortal. + +But such repinings were merely flitting shadows across the old man's +heart. He had faith enough to believe, and wisdom enough to know, that +the bloom of the flower would be even holier and happier than its bud. +Even within himself, though Grandfather was now at that period of life +when the veil of mortality is apt to hang heavily over the soul, still, +in his inmost being he was conscious of something that he would not have +exchanged for the best happiness of childhood. It was a bliss to which +every sort of earthly experience--all that he had enjoyed, or suffered +or seen, or heard, or acted, with the broodings of his soul upon the +whole--had contributed somewhat. In the same manner must a bliss, of +which now they could have no conception, grow up within these children, +and form a part of their sustenance for immortality. + +So Grandfather, with renewed cheerfulness, continued his history of the +chair, trusting that a profounder wisdom than his own would extract, +from these flowers and weeds of Time, a fragrance that might last beyond +all time. + +At this period of the story Grandfather threw a glance backward as far +as the year 1660. He spoke of the ill-concealed reluctance with which +the Puritans in America had acknowledged the sway of Charles II. on +his restoration to his father's throne. When death had stricken Oliver +Cromwell, that mighty protector had no sincerer mourners than in New +England. The new king had been more than a year upon the throne before +his accession was proclaimed in Boston, although the neglect to perform +the ceremony might have subjected the rulers to the charge of treason. + +During the reign of Charles II., however, the American colonies had but +little reason to complain of harsh or tyrannical treatment. But when +Charles died, in 1685, and was succeeded by his brother James, the +patriarchs of New England began to tremble. King James was known to +be of an arbitrary temper. It was feared by the Puritans that he would +assume despotic power. Our forefathers felt that they had no security +either for their religion or their liberties. + +The result proved that they had reason for their apprehensions. King +James caused the charters of all the American colonies to be taken away. +The old charter of Massachusetts, which the people regarded as a holy +thing and as the foundation of all their liberties, was declared void. +The colonists were now no longer freemen; they were entirely dependent +on the king's pleasure. At first, in 1685, King James appointed Joseph +Dudley, a native of Massachusetts, to be president of New England. But +soon afterwards, Sir Edmund Andros, an officer of the English army, +arrived, with a commission to be governor-general of New England and New +York. + +The king had given such powers to Sir Edmund Andros that there was now +no liberty, nor scarcely any law, in the colonies over which he +ruled. The inhabitants were not allowed to choose representatives, and +consequently had no voice whatever in the government, nor control over +the measures that were adopted. The councillors with whom the governor +consulted on matters of state were appointed by himself. This sort of +government was no better than an absolute despotism. + +"The people suffered much wrong while Sir Edmund Andros ruled over +them," continued Grandfather; "and they were apprehensive of much more. +He had brought some soldiers with him from England, who took possession +of the old fortress on Castle Island and of the fortification on +Fort Hill. Sometimes it was rumored that a general massacre of the +inhabitants was to be perpetrated by these soldiers. There were reports, +too, that all the ministers were to be slain or imprisoned." + +"For what?" inquired Charley. + +"Because they were the leaders of the people, Charley," said +Grandfather. "A minister was a more formidable man than a general, in +those days. Well, while these things were going on in America, King +James had so misgoverned the people of England that they sent over to +Holland for the Prince of Orange. He had married the king's daughter, +and was therefore considered to have a claim to the crown. On his +arrival in England, the Prince of Orange was proclaimed king, by the +name of William III. Poor old King James made his escape to France." + +Grandfather told how, at the first intelligence of the landing of the +Prince of Orange in England, the people of Massachusetts rose in their +strength and overthrew the government of Sir Edmund Andros. He, with +Joseph Dudley, Edmund Randolph, and his other principal adherents, was +thrown into prison. Old Simon Bradstreet, who had been governor when +King James took away the charter, was called by the people to govern +them again. + +"Governor Bradstreet was a venerable old man, nearly ninety years of +age," said Grandfather. "He came over with the first settlers, and had +been the intimate companion of all those excellent and famous men who +laid the foundation of our country. They were all gone before him to the +grave, and Bradstreet was the last of the Puritans." + +Grandfather paused a moment and smiled, as if he had something very +interesting to tell his auditors. He then proceeded:-- + +"And now, Laurence,--now, Clara,--now, Charley,--now, my dear little +Alice,--what chair do you think had been placed in the council chamber, +for old Governor Bradstreet to take his seat in? Would you believe that +it was this very chair in which Grandfather now sits, and of which he is +telling you the history?" + +"I am glad to hear it, with all my heart!" cried Charley, after a shout +of delight. "I thought Grandfather had quite forgotten the chair." + +"It was a solemn and affecting sight," said Grandfather, "when this +venerable patriarch, with his white beard flowing down upon his breast, +took his seat in his chair of state. Within his remembrance, and even +since his mature age, the site where now stood the populous town had +been a wild and forest-covered peninsula. The province, now so fertile +and spotted with thriving villages, had been a desert wilderness. He was +surrounded by a shouting multitude, most of whom had been born in the +country which he had helped to found. They were of one generation, and +he of another. As the old man looked upon them, and beheld new faces +everywhere, he must have felt that it was now time for him to go whither +his brethren had gone before him." + +"Were the former governors all dead and gone?" asked Laurence. + +"All of them," replied Grandfather. "Winthrop had been dead forty years. +Endicott died, a very old man, in 1665. Sir Henry Vane was beheaded, in +London, at the beginning of the reign of Charles II. And Haynes, Dudley, +Bellingham, and Leverett, who had all been governors of Massachusetts, +were now likewise in their graves. Old Simon Bradstreet was the sole +representative of that departed brotherhood. There was no other public +man remaining to connect the ancient system of government and manners +with the new system which was about to take its place. The era of the +Puritans was now completed." + +"I am sorry for it!" observed Laurence; "for though they were so stern, +yet it seems to me that there was something warm and real about them. +I think, Grandfather, that each of these old governors should have his +statue set up in our State House, Sculptured out of the hardest of New +England granite." + +"It would not be amiss, Laurence," said Grandfather; "but perhaps clay, +or some other perishable material, might suffice for some of their +successors. But let us go back to our chair. It was occupied by Governor +Bradstreet from April, 1689, until May, 1692. Sir William Phips then +arrived in Boston with a new charter from King William and a commission +to be governor." + + + +CHAPTER X. THE SUNKEN TREASURE. + +"AND what became of the chair?" inquired Clara, "The outward aspect of +our chair," replied Grandfather, "was now somewhat the worse for its +long and arduous services. It was considered hardly magnificent enough +to be allowed to keep its place in the council chamber of Massachusetts. +In fact, it was banished as an article of useless lumber. But Sir +William Phips happened to see it, and, being much pleased with its +construction, resolved to take the good old chair into his private +mansion. Accordingly, with his own gubernatorial hands, he repaired one +of its arms, which had been slightly damaged." + +"Why, Grandfather, here is the very arm!" interrupted Charley, in great +wonderment. "And did Sir William Phips put in these screws with his own +hands? I am sure he did it beautifully! But how came a governor to know +how to mend a chair?" + +"I will tell you a story about the early life of Sir William Phips," +said Grandfather. "You will then perceive that he well knew how to use +his hands." + +So Grandfather related the wonderful and true tale of the sunken +treasure. + +Picture to yourselves, my dear children, a handsome, old-fashioned +room, with a large, open cupboard at one end, in which is displayed +a magnificent gold cup, with some other splendid articles of gold +and silver plate. In another part of the room, opposite to a tall +looking-glass, stands our beloved chair, newly polished, and adorned +with a gorgeous cushion of crimson velvet tufted with gold. + +In the chair sits a man of strong and sturdy frame, whose face has been +roughened by northern tempests and blackened by the burning sun of +the West Indies. He wears an immense periwig, flowing down over his +shoulders. His coat has a wide embroidery of golden foliage; and his +waistcoat, likewise, is all flowered over and bedizened with gold. His +red, rough hands, which have done many a good day's work with the hammer +and adze, are half covered by the delicate lace ruffles at his wrists. +On a table lies his silver-hilted sword; and in a corner of the room +stands his gold-headed cane, made of a beautifully polished West India +wood. + +Somewhat such an aspect as this did Sir William Phips present when he +sat in Grandfather's chair after the king had appointed him governor +of Massachusetts. Truly there was need that the old chair should be +varnished and decorated with a crimson cushion, in order to make it +suitable for such a magnificent-looking personage. + +But Sir William Phips had not always worn a gold-embroidered coat, nor +always sat so much at his ease as he did in Grandfather's chair. He was +a poor man's son, and was born in the province of Maine, where he used +to tend sheep upon the hills in his boyhood and youth. Until he had +grown to be a man, he did not even know how to read and write. Tired +of tending sheep, he next apprenticed himself to a ship-carpenter, and +spent about four years in hewing the crooked limbs of oak-trees into +knees for vessels. + +In 1673, when he was twenty-two years old, he came to Boston, and soon +afterwards was married to a widow lady, who had property enough to set +him up in business. It was not long, however, before he lost all the +money that he had acquired by his marriage, and became a poor man again. +Still he was not discouraged. He often told his wife that, some time or +other, he should be very rich, and would build a "fair brick house" in +the Green Lane of Boston. + +Do not suppose, children, that he had been to a fortune-teller to +inquire his destiny. It was his own energy and spirit of enterprise, and +his resolution to lead an industrious life, that made him look forward +with so much confidence to better days. + +Several years passed away, and William Phips had not yet gained the +riches which he promised to himself. During this time he had begun to +follow the sea for a living. In the year 1684 he happened to hear of a +Spanish ship which had been cast away near the Bahama Islands, and which +was supposed to contain a great deal of gold and silver. Phips went to +the place in a small vessel, hoping that he should be able to recover +some of the treasure from the wreck. He did not succeed, however, in +fishing up gold and silver enough to pay the expenses of his voyage. + +But, before he returned, he was told of another Spanish ship, or +galleon, which had been east away near Porto de la Plata. She had now +lain as much as fifty years beneath the waves. This old ship had been +laden with immense wealth; and, hitherto, nobody had thought of the +possibility of recovering any part of it from the deep sea which was +rolling and tossing it about. But though it was now an old story, and +the most aged people had almost forgotten that such a vessel had been +wrecked, William Phips resolved that the sunken treasure should again be +brought to light. + +He went to London and obtained admittance to King James, who had not yet +been driven from his throne. He told the king of the vast wealth that +was lying at the bottom of the sea. King James listened with attention, +and thought this a fine opportunity to fill his treasury with Spanish +gold. He appointed William Phips to be captain of a vessel, called the +Rose Algier, carrying eighteen guns and ninety-five men. So now he was +Captain Phips of the English navy. + +Captain Phips sailed from England in the Rose Algier, and cruised for +nearly two years in the West Indies, endeavoring to find the wreck of +the Spanish ship. But the sea is so wide and deep that it is no easy +matter to discover the exact spot where a sunken vessel lies. The +prospect of success seemed very small; and most people would have +thought that Captain Phips was as far from having money enough to build +a "fair brick house" as he was while he tended sheep. + +The seamen of the Rose Algier became discouraged, and gave up all hope +of making their fortunes by discovering the Spanish wreck. They +wanted to compel Captain Phips to turn pirate. There was a much better +prospect, they thought, of growing rich by plundering vessels which +still sailed in the sea than by seeking for a ship that had lain beneath +the waves full half a century. They broke out in open mutiny; but were +finally mastered by Phips, and compelled to obey his orders. It would +have been dangerous, however, to continue much longer at sea with such +a crew of mutinous sailors; and, besides, the Rose Algier was leaky and +unseaworthy. So Captain Phips judged it best to return to England. + +Before leaving the West Indies, he met with a Spaniard, an old man, who +remembered the wreck of the Spanish ship, and gave him directions how to +find the very spot. It was on a reef of rocks, a few leagues from Porto +de la Plata. + +On his arrival in England, therefore, Captain Phips solicited the king +to let him have another vessel and send him back again to the West +Indies. But King James, who had probably expected that the Rose Algier +would return laden with gold, refused to have anything more to do with +the affair. Phips might never have been able to renew the search if the +Duke of Albemarle and some other noblemen had not lent their assistance. +They fitted out a ship, and gave the command to Captain Phips. He sailed +from England, and arrived safely at Porto de la Plata, where he took an +adze and assisted his men to build a large boat. + +The boat was intended for the purpose of going closer to the reef of +rocks than a large vessel could safely venture. When it was finished, +the captain sent several men in it to examine the spot where the Spanish +ship was said to have been wrecked. They were accompanied by some +Indians, who were skilful divers, and could go down a great way into the +depths of the sea. + +The boat's crew proceeded to the reef of rocks, and rowed round and +round it a great many times. They gazed down into the water, which was +so transparent that it seemed as if they could have seen the gold and +silver at the bottom, had there been any of those precious metals there. +Nothing, however, could they see, nothing more valuable than a curious +sea shrub, which was growing beneath the water, in a crevice of the reef +of rocks. It flaunted to and fro with the swell and reflux of the waves, +and looked as bright and beautiful as if its leaves were gold. + +"We won't go back empty-handed," cried an English sailor; and then he +spoke to one of the Indian divers. "Dive down and bring me that pretty +sea shrub there. That's the only treasure we shall find." + +Down plunged the diver, and soon rose dripping from the water, holding +the sea shrub in his hand. But he had learned some news at the bottom of +the sea. + +"There are some ship's guns," said he, the moment he had drawn breath, +"some great cannon, among the rocks, near where the shrub was growing." + +No sooner had he spoken than the English sailors knew that they had +found the very spot where the Spanish galleon had been wrecked, so +many years before. The other Indian divers immediately plunged over the +boat's side and swam headlong down, groping among the rocks and sunken +cannon. In a few moments one of them rose above the water with a heavy +lump of silver in his arms. The single lump was worth more than a +thousand dollars. The sailors took it into the boat, and then rowed back +as speedily as they could, being in haste to inform Captain Phips of +their good luck. + +But, confidently as the captain had hoped to find the Spanish wreck, +yet, now that it was really found, the news seemed too good to be true. +He could not believe it till the sailors showed him the lump of silver. + +"Thanks be to God!" then cries Captain Phips "We shall every man of us +make our fortunes!" + +Hereupon the captain and all the crew set to work, with iron rakes and +great hooks and lines, fishing for gold and silver at the bottom of the +sea. Up came the treasure in abundance. Now they beheld a table of solid +silver, once the property of an old Spanish grandee. Now they found a +sacramental vessel, which had been destined as a gift to some Catholic +church. Now they drew up a golden cup, fit for the King of Spain to +drink his wine out of. Perhaps the bony hand of its former owner had +been grasping the precious cup, and was drawn up along with it. Now +their rakes or fishing-lines were loaded with masses of silver bullion. +There were also precious stones among the treasure, glittering and +sparkling, so that it is a wonder how their radiance could have been +concealed. + +There is something sad and terrible in the idea of snatching all this +wealth from the devouring ocean, which had possessed it for such a +length of years. It seems as if men had no right to make themselves rich +with it. It ought to have been left with the skeletons of the ancient +Spaniards, who had been drowned when the ship was wrecked, and whose +bones were now scattered among the gold and silver. + +But Captain Phips and his crew were troubled with no such thoughts as +these. After a day or two they lighted on another part of the wreck, +where they found a great many bags of silver dollars. But nobody could +have guessed that these were money-bags. By remaining so long in the +salt water, they had become covered over with a crust which had the +appearance of stone, so that it was necessary to break them in pieces +with hammers and axes. When this was done, a stream of silver dollars +gushed out upon the deck of the vessel. + +The whole value of the recovered treasure, plate, bullion, precious +stones, and all, was estimated at more than two millions of dollars. +It was dangerous even to look at such a vast amount of wealth. A +sea-captain, who had assisted Phips in the enterprise, utterly lost his +reason at the sight of it. He died two years afterwards, still raving +about the treasures that lie at the bottom of the sea. It would have +been better for this man if he had left the skeletons of the shipwrecked +Spaniards in quiet possession of their wealth. + +Captain Phips and his men continued to fish up plate, bullion, and +dollars, as plentifully as ever, till their provisions grew short. Then, +as they could not feed upon gold and silver any more than old King Midas +could, they found it necessary to go in search of better sustenance. +Phips resolved to return to England. He arrived there in 1687, and was +received with great joy by the Duke of Albemarle and other English lords +who had fitted out the vessel. Well they might rejoice; for they took by +far the greater part of the treasure to themselves. + +The captain's share, however, was enough to make him comfortable for the +rest of his days. It also enabled him to fulfil his promise to his wife, +by building a "fair brick house" in the Green Lane of Boston. The Duke +of Albemarle sent Mrs. Phips a magnificent gold cup, worth at least five +thousand dollars. Before Captain Phips left London, King James made +him a knight; so that, instead of the obscure ship-carpenter who had +formerly dwelt among them, the inhabitants of Boston welcomed him on his +return as the rich and famous Sir William Phips. + + + +CHAPTER XI. WHAT THE CHAIR HAD KNOWN. + +"Sir William Phips," continued Grandfather, "was too active and +adventurous a man to sit still in the quiet enjoyment of his good +fortune. In the year 1690 he went on a military expedition against the +French colonies in America, conquered the whole province of Acadia, and +returned to Boston with a great deal of plunder." + +"Why, Grandfather, he was the greatest man that ever sat in the chair!" +cried Charley. + +"Ask Laurence what he thinks," replied Grandfather, with a smile. "Well, +in the same year, Sir William took command of an expedition against +Que-bec, but did not succeed in capturing the city. In 1692, being then +in London, King William III. appointed him governor of Massachusetts. +And now, my dear children, having followed Sir William Phips through +all his adventures and hardships till we find him comfortably seated in +Grandfather's chair, we will here bid him farewell. May he be as happy +in ruling a people as he was while he tended sheep!" + +Charley, whose fancy had been greatly taken by the adventurous +disposition of Sir William Phips, was eager to know how he had acted +and what happened to him while he held the office of governor. But +Grandfather had made up his mind to tell no more stories for the +present. + +"Possibly, one of these days, I may go on with the adventures of the +chair," said he. "But its history becomes very obscure just at this +point; and I must search into some old books and manuscripts before +proceeding further. Besides, it is now a good time to pause in our +narrative; because the new charter, which Sir William Phips brought +over from England, formed a very important epoch in the history of the +province." + +"Really, Grandfather," observed Laurence, "this seems to be the most +remarkable chair, in the world. Its history cannot be told without +intertwining it with the lives of distinguished men and the great events +that have befallen the country." + +"True, Laurence,'" replied Grandfather, smiling; "we must write a book +with some such title as this: MEMOIRS OF MY OWN TIMES, BY GRANDFATHER'S +CHAIR." + +"That would be beautiful!" exclaimed Laurence, clapping his hands. + +"But, after all," continued Grandfather, "any other old chair, if it +possessed memory and a hand to write its recollections, could record +stranger stories than any that I have told you. From generation to +generation, a chair sits familiarly in the midst of human interests, and +is witness to the most secret and confidential intercourse that mortal +man can hold with his fellow. The human heart may best be read in +the fireside chair. And as to external events, Grief and Joy keep a +continual vicissitude around it and within it. Now we see the glad face +and glowing form of Joy, sitting merrily in the old chair, and throwing +a warm firelight radiance over all the household. Now, while we thought +not of it, the dark-clad mourner, Grief, has stolen into the place of +Joy, but not to retain it long. The imagination can hardly grasp so wide +a subject as is embraced in the experience of a family chair." + +"It makes my breath flutter, my heart thrill, to think of it," said +Laurence. "Yes, a family chair must have a deeper history than a chair +of state." + +"Oh yes!" cried Clara, expressing a woman's feeling of the point in +question; "the history of a country is not nearly so interesting as that +of a single family would be." + +"But the history of a country is more easily told," said Grandfather. +"So, if we proceed with our narrative of the chair, I shall still +confine myself to its connection with public events." + +Good old Grandfather now rose and quitted the room, while the children +remained gazing at the chair. Laurence, so vivid was his conception of +past times, would hardly have deemed it strange if its former occupants, +one after another, had resumed the seat which they had each left vacant +such a dim length of years ago. + +First, the gentle and lovely Lady Arbella would have been seen in the +old chair, almost sinking out of its arms for very weakness; then Roger +Williams, in his cloak and band, earnest, energetic, and benevolent; +then the figure of Anne Hutchinson, with the like gesture as when she +presided at the assemblages of women; then the dark, intellectual face +of Vane, "young in years, but in sage counsel old." Next would have +appeared the successive governors, Winthrop, Dudley, Bellingham, and +Endicott, who sat in the chair while it was a chair of state. Then +its ample seat would have been pressed by the comfortable, rotund +corporation of the honest mint-master. Then the half-frenzied shape +of Mary Dyer, the persecuted Quaker woman, clad in sackcloth and ashes +would have rested in it for a moment. Then the holy, apostolic form of +Eliot would have sanctified it. Then would have arisen, like the shade +of departed Puritanism, the venerable dignity of the white-bearded +Governor Bradstreet. Lastly, on the gorgeous crimson cushion of +Grandfather's chair would have shone the purple and golden magnificence +of Sir William Phips. But all these, with the other historic personages, +in the midst of whom the chair had so often stood, had passed, both in +substance and shadow, from the scene of ages. Yet here stood the chair, +with the old Lincoln coat of arms, and the oaken flowers and foliage, +and the fierce lion's head at the summit, the whole, apparently, in as +perfect preservation as when it had first been placed in the Earl of +Lincoln's hall. And what vast changes of society and of nations had been +wrought by sudden convulsions or by slow degrees since that era! + +"This Chair had stood firm when the thrones of kings were overturned!" +thought Laurence. "Its oaken frame has proved stronger than many frames +of government!" + +More the thoughtful and imaginative boy might have mused; but now a +large yellow cat, a great favorite with all the children, leaped in +at the open window. Perceiving that Grandfather's chair was empty, and +having often before experienced its comforts, puss laid herself quietly +down upon the cushion. Laurence, Clara, Charley, and little Alice all +laughed at the idea of such a successor to the worthies of old times. + +"Pussy," said little Alice, putting out her hand, into which the +cat laid a velvet paw, "you look very wise. Do tell us a story about +GRANDFATHER'S CHAIR!" + + + + +APPENDIX TO PART I. + +EXTRACTS FROM THE LIFE OF JOHN ELIOT, + +BY CONVERS FRANCIS. + +MR. ELIOT had been for some time assiduously employed in learning the +Indian language. To accomplish this, he secured the assistance of one of +the natives, who could speak English. Eliot, at the close of his Indian +Grammar, mentions him as "a pregnant-witted young man, who had been +a servant in an English house, who pretty well understood his own +language, and had a clear pronunciation." He took this Indian into his +family, and by constant intercourse with him soon become sufficiently +conversant with the vocabulary and construction of the language to +translate the ten commandments, the Lord's prayer, and several passages +of Scripture, besides composing exhortations and prayers. + +Mr. Eliot must have found his task anything but easy or inviting. He was +to learn a dialect, in which he could be assisted by no affinity with +the languages he already knew. He was to do this without the help of any +written or printed specimens, with nothing in the shape of a grammar or +analysis, but merely by oral communication with his Indian instructor, +or with other natives, who, however comparatively intelligent, must from +the nature of the case have been very imperfect teachers. He applied +himself to the work with great patience and sagacity, carefully acting +the differences between the Indian and the English modes of constructing +words; and, having once got a clew to this, he pursued every noun and +verb he could think of through all possible variations. In this way he +arrived at analyses and rules, which he could apply for himself in a +general manner. + +Neal says that Eliot was able to speak the language intelligibly after +conversing with the Indian servant a few months. This, in a limited +sense, may be true; but he is said to have been engaged two years in the +process of learning, before he went to preached to the Indians. In that +time he acquired a somewhat ready facility in the use of that dialect, +by means of which he was to carry the instructions of spiritual truth to +the men of the forest, though as late as 1649 he still lamented his want +of skill in this respect. + +Notice having been given of his intention [of instructing the Indians], +Mr. Eliot, in company with three others, whose names are not mentioned, +having implored the divine blessing on the undertaking, made his first +visit to the Indians on the 28th of October, 1646 at a place afterwards +called Nonantum; a spot that has the honor of being the first on which +a civilized and Christian settlement of Indians was effected within +the English colonies of North America. This name was given to the high +grounds in the north, east part of Newton, and to the bounds of that +town and Watertown. At a short distance from the wigwams, they were met +by Waban, a leading man among the Indians at that place, accompanied +by others, and were welcomed with "English salutations." Waban, who +is described as "the chief minister of justice among them," had +before shown a better disposition than any other native to receive the +religious instruction of the Christians, and had voluntarily proposed +to have his eldest son educated by them. His son had been accordingly +placed at school in Dedham, whence he had now come to attend the +meeting. + +The Indians assembled in Waban's wigwam; and thither Mr. Eliot and his +friends were conducted. When the company were all collected and quiet, +a religious service was begun with prayer. This was uttered in English; +the reason for which, as given by Mr. Eliot and his companions, was, +that he did not then feel sufficiently acquainted with the Indian +language to use it in that service. + +The same difficulty would not occur in preaching, since for this, we may +suppose, he had sufficiently prepared his thoughts and expressions +to make his discourse intelligible on all important points; and if he +should, in some parts, fail of being, understood, he could repeat or +correct himself, till he should succeed better. Besides, he took with +him an interpretor, who was frequently able to express his instructions +more distinctly than he could himself. Though the prayer was +unintelligible to the Indians, yet, as they knew what the nature of the +service was, Mr. Eliot believed it might not be without an effect in +subduing their feelings so as to prepare them better to listen to the +preaching. + +Mr. Eliot then began his sermon, or address, from Ezek. xxxvii. 9, 10. +The word wind, in this passage, suggested to the minds of some, who +afterwards gave an account of this meeting, a coincidence which might, +in the spirit of the times, be construed into a special appointment of +Providence. The name of Waban signified, in the Indian tongue, wind; so +that when the preacher uttered the words, "say to the wind," it was as +if he had proclaimed, "say to Waban." As this man afterwards exerted +much influence in awaking the attention of his fellow savages to +Christianity, it might seem that in this first visit of the messengers +of the gospel he was singled out by a special call to work in the cause. +It is not surprising that the Indians were struck with the coincidence. +Mr. Eliot gave no countenance to a superstitious use of the +circumstance, and took care to tell them that, when he chose his text, +he had no thought of any such application. + +The sermon was an hour and a quarter long. One cannot but suspect that +Mr. Eliot injudiciously crowded too much into one address. It would +seem to have been better, for the first time at least, to have given +a shorter sermon, and to have touched upon fewer subjects. But he was +doubtless borne on by his zeal to do much in a good cause; and, as we +have reason to think, by the attentive, though vague, curiosity of the +Indians. + +Thus ended a conference three hours long, at the end of which the +Indians affirmed that they were not weary, and requested their visitors +to come again. They expressed a wish to build a town and live together. +Mr. Eliot promised to intercede for them with the court. He and his +companions then gave the men some tobacco, and the children some apples, +and bade them farewell. + +A fortnight afterwards, on the 11th of November, Mr. Eliot and his +friends repeated their visit to the wigwam of Waban. This meeting was +more numerous than the former. The religious service was opened, as +before, with a prayer in English. This was followed by a few brief and +plain questions addressed to the children, admitting short and easy +answers. The children seemed well disposed to listen and learn. To +encourage them, Mr. Eliot gave them occasionally an apple or a cake; and +the adults were requested to repeat to them the instructions that had +been given. He then preached to the assembly in their own language, +telling them that he had come to bring them good news from God, and +show them how wicked men might become good and happy; and, in general, +discoursing on nearly the same topics as he had treated at his first +visit. + + + +PART II. 1692-1763. + + + +CHAPTER I. THE CHAIR IN THE FIRELIGHT. + +"O GRANDFATHER, dear Grandfather," cried little Alice, "pray tell us +some more stories about your chair!" + +How long a time had fled since the children bad felt any curiosity to +hear the sequel of this venerable chair's adventures! Summer was now +past and gone, and the better part of autumn likewise. Dreary, chill +November was howling out of doors, and vexing the atmosphere with sudden +showers of wintry rain, or sometimes with gusts of snow, that rattled +like small pebbles against the windows. + +When the weather began to grow cool, Grandfather's chair had been +removed from the summer parlor into a smaller and snugger room. It now +stood by the side of a bright, blazing wood-fire. Grandfather loved a +wood-fire far better than a grate of glowing anthracite, or than the +dull heat of an invisible furnace, which seems to think that it has done +its duty in merely warming the house. But the wood-fire is a kindly, +cheerful, sociable spirit, sympathizing with mankind, and knowing that +to create warmth is but one of the good offices which are expected from +it. Therefore it dances on the hearth, and laughs broadly throughout the +room, and plays a thousand antics, and throws a joyous glow over all the +faces that encircle it. + +In the twilight of the evening the fire grew brighter and more cheerful. +And thus, perhaps, there was something in Grandfather's heart that +cheered him most with its warmth and comfort in the gathering twilight +of old age. He had been gazing at the red embers as intently as if his +past life were all pictured there, or as if it were a prospect of the +future world, when little Alice's voice aroused him. "Dear Grandfather," +repeated the little girl, more earnestly, "do talk to us again about +your chair." + +Laurence, and Clara, and Charley, and little Alice had been attracted +to other objects for two or three months past. They had sported in +the gladsome sunshine of the present, and so had forgotten the shadowy +region of the past, in the midst of which stood Grandfather's chair. But +now, in the autumnal twilight, illuminated by the flickering blaze of +the wood-fire, they looked at the old chair, and thought that it had +never before worn such an interesting aspect. There it stood in the +venerable majesty of more than two hundred years. The light from the +hearth quivered upon the flowers and foliage that were wrought into its +oaken back; and the lion's head at the summit seemed almost to move its +jaws and shake its mane. + +"Does little Alice speak for all of you?" asked Grandfather. "Do you +wish me to go on with the adventures of the chair?' + +"Oh yes, yes, Grandfather!" cried Clara. "The dear old chair! How +strange that we should have forgotten it so long!" + +"Oh, pray begin, Grandfather," said Laurence, "for I think, when we talk +about old times, it should be in the early evening, before the candles +are lighted. The shapes of the famous persons who once sat in the chair +will be more apt to come back, and be seen among us, in this glimmer and +pleasant gloom, than they would in the vulgar daylight. And, besides, we +can make pictures of all that you tell us among the glowing embers and +white ashes." + +Our friend Charley, too, thought the evening the best time to hear +Grandfather's stories, because he could not then be playing out of +doors. So finding his young auditors unanimous in their petition, the +good old gentleman took up the narrative of the historic chair at the +point where he had dropped it. + + + +CHAPTER II. THE SALEM WITCHES. + +"You recollect, my dear children," said Grandfather, "that we took leave +of the chair in 1692, while it was occupied by Sir William Phips. +This fortunate treasure-seeker, you will remember, had come over +from England, with King William's commission, to be governor of +Massachusetts. Within the limits of this province were now included the +old colony of Plymouth, and the territories of Maine and Nova Scotia. +Sir William Phips had likewise brought a new charter from the king, +which served instead of a constitution, and set forth the method in +which the province was to be governed." + +"Did the new charter allow the people all their former liberties?" +inquired Laurence. + +"No," replied Grandfather. "Under the first charter, the people had been +the source of all power. Winthrop, Endicott, Bradstreet, and the rest +of them had been governors by the choice of the people, without any +interference of the king. But henceforth the governor was to hold his +station solely by the king's appointment and during his pleasure; and +the same was the case with the lieutenant-governor and some other +high officers. The people, however, were still allowed to choose +representatives; and the governor's council was chosen by the General +Court." + +"Would the inhabitants have elected Sir William Phips," asked Laurence, +"if the choice of governor had been left to them?" + +"He might probably have been a successful candidate," answered +Grandfather; "for his adventures and military enterprises had gained him +a sort of renown, which always goes a great way with the people. And he +had many popular characteristics,--being a kind warm-hearted man, not +ashamed of his low origin nor haughty in his present elevation. Soon +after his arrival, he proved that he did not blush to recognize his +former associates." + +"How was that?" inquired Charley. + +"He made a grand festival at his new brick house," said Grandfather, +"and invited all the ship-carpenters of Boston to be his guests. At the +head of the table, in our great chair, sat Sir William Phips himself, +treating these hard-handed men as his brethren, cracking jokes with +them, and talking familiarly about old times. I know not whether he wore +his embroidered dress; but I rather choose to imagine that he had on a +suit of rough clothes, such as he used to labor in while he was Phips +the ship-carpenter." + +"An aristocrat need not be ashamed of the trade," observed Laurence; +"for the Czar Peter the Great once served an apprenticeship to it." + +"Did Sir William Phips make as good a governor as he was a +ship-carpenter?" asked Charley. + +"History says but little about his merits as a ship-carpenter," answered +Grandfather; "but, as a governor, a great deal of fault was found with +him. Almost as soon as he assumed the government, he became engaged in +a very frightful business, which might have perplexed a wiser and better +cultivated head than his. This was the witchcraft delusion." + +And here Grandfather gave his auditors such details of this melancholy +affair as he thought it fit for them to know. They shuddered to hear +that a frenzy, which led to the death of many innocent persons, had +originated in the wicked arts of a few children. They belonged to the +Rev. Mr. Parris, minister of Salem. These children complained of being +pinched and pricked with pins, and otherwise tormented by the shapes of +men and women, who were supposed to have power to haunt them invisibly, +both in darkness and daylight. Often in the midst of their family +and friends the children would pretend to be seized with strange +convulsions, and would cry out that the witches were afflicting them. + +These stories spread abroad, and caused great tumult and alarm. From the +foundation of New England, it had been the custom of the inhabitants, +in all matters of doubt and difficulty, to look to their ministers for +counsel. So they did now; but, unfortunately, the ministers and wise +men were more deluded than the illiterate people. Cotton Mather, a very +learned and eminent clergyman, believed that the whole country was full +of witches and wizards, who had given up their hopes of heaven, and +signed a covenant with the evil one. + +Nobody could be certain that his nearest neighbor or most intimate +friend was not guilty of this imaginary crime. The number of those who +pretended to be afflicted by witchcraft grew daily more numerous; and +they bore testimony against many of the best and worthiest people. A +minister, named George Burroughs, was among the accused. In the months +of August and September, 1692, he and nineteen other innocent men and +women were put to death. The place of execution was a high hill, on the +outskirts of Salem; so that many of the sufferers, as they stood beneath +the gallows, could discern their own habitations in the town. + +The martyrdom of these guiltless persons seemed only to increase the +madness. The afflicted now grew bolder in their accusations. Many people +of rank and wealth were either thrown into prison or compelled to flee +for their lives. Among these were two sons of old Simon Bradstreet, the +last of the Puritan governors. Mr. Willard, a pious minister of Boston, +was cried out upon as a wizard in open court. Mrs. Hale, the wife of +the minister of Beverly, was likewise accused. Philip English, a rich +merchant of Salem, found it necessary to take flight, leaving his +property and business in confusion. But a short time afterwards, the +Salem people were glad to invite him back. + +"The boldest thing that the accusers did," continued Grandfather, "was +to cry out against the governor's own beloved wife. Yes, the lady of Sir +William Phips was accused of being a witch and of flying through the +air to attend witch-meetings. When the governor heard this he probably +trembled, so that our great chair shook beneath him." + +"Dear Grandfather," cried little Alice, clinging closer to his knee, +"is it true that witches ever come in the night-time to frighten little +children?" + +"No, no, dear little Alice," replied Grandfather. "Even if there were +any witches, they would flee away from the presence of a pure-hearted +child. But there are none; and our forefathers soon became convinced +that they had been led into a terrible delusion. All the prisoners on +account of witchcraft were set free. But the innocent dead could not +be restored to life and the hill where they were executed will always +remind people of the saddest and most humiliating passage in our +history." + +Grandfather then said that the next remarkable event, while Sir William +Phips remained in the chair, was the arrival at Boston of an English +fleet in 1698. It brought an army which was intended for the conquest of +Canada. But a malignant disease, more fatal than the smallpox, broke out +among the soldiers and sailors, and destroyed the greater part of them. +The infection spread into the town of Boston, and made much havoc there. +This dreadful sickness caused the governor and Sir Francis Wheeler, +who was commander of the British forces, to give up all thoughts of +attacking Canada. + +"Soon after this," said Grandfather, "Sir William Phips quarrelled +with the captain of an English frigate, and also with the collector +of Boston. Being a man of violent temper, he gave each of them a sound +beating with his cane." + +"He was a bold fellow," observed Charley, who was himself somewhat +addicted to a similar mode or settling disputes. + +"More bold than wise," replied Grandfather; "for complaints were carried +to the king, and Sir William Phips was summoned to England to make the +best answer he could. Accordingly he went to London, where, in 1695, +he was seized with a malignant fever, of which he died. Had he lived +longer, he would probably have gone again in search of sunken treasure. +He had heard of a Spanish ship, which was cast away in 1502, during the +lifetime of Columbus. Bovadilla, Roldan, and many other Spaniards were +lost in her, together with the immense wealth of which they had robbed +the South American kings." + +"Why, Grandfather!" exclaimed Laurence, "what magnificent ideas the +governor had! Only think of recovering all that old treasure which had +lain almost two centuries under the sea! Methinks Sir William Phips +ought to have been buried in the ocean when he died, so that he might +have gone down among the sunken ships and cargoes of treasure which he +was always dreaming about in his lifetime." + +"He was buried in one of the crowded cemeteries of London," said +Grandfather. "As he left no children, his estate was inherited by his +nephew, from whom is descended the present Marquis of Normandy. The +noble Marquis is not aware, perhaps, that the prosperity of his +family originated in the successful enterprise of a New England +ship-carpenter." + + + +CHAPTER III. THE OLD-FASHIONED SCHOOL. + +"At the death of Sir William Phips," proceeded Grandfather, "our chair +was bequeathed to Mr. Ezekiel Cheever, a famous schoolmaster in Boston. +This old gentleman came from London in 1637, and had been teaching +school ever since; so that there were now aged men, grandfathers like +myself, to whom Master Cheever had taught their alphabet. He was a +person of venerable aspect, and wore a long white beard." + +"Was the chair placed in his school?" asked Charley. + +"Yes, in his school," answered Grandfather; "and we may safely say that +it had never before been regarded with such awful reverence,--no, +not even when the old governors of Massachusetts sat in it. Even you, +Charley, my boy, would have felt some respect for the chair if you had +seen it occupied by this famous schoolmaster." + +And here grandfather endeavored to give his auditors an idea how matters +were managed in schools above a hundred years ago. As this will probably +be an interesting subject to our readers, we shall make a separate +sketch of it, and call it The Old-Fashioned School. + +Now, imagine yourselves, my children, in Master Ezekiel Cheever's +school-room. It is a large, dingy room, with a sanded floor, and is +lighted by windows that turn on hinges and have little diamond-shaped +panes of glass. The scholars sit on long benches, with desks before +them. At one end of the room is a great fireplace, so very spacious +that there is room enough for three or four boys to stand in each of the +chimney corners. This was the good old fashion of fireplaces when there +was wood enough in the forests to keep people warm without their digging +into the bowels of the earth for coal. + +It is a winter's day when we take our peep into the school-room. See +what great logs of wood have been rolled into the fireplace, and what a +broad, bright blaze goes leaping up the chimney! And every few moments a +vast cloud of smoke is puffed into the room, which sails slowly over +the heads of the scholars, until it gradually settles upon the walls and +ceiling. They are blackened with the smoke of many years already. + +Next look at our old historic chair! It is placed, you perceive, in the +most comfortable part of the room, where the generous glow of the fire +is sufficiently felt without being too intensely hot. How stately the +old chair looks, as if it remembered its many famous occupants, but yet +were conscious that a greater man is sitting in it now! Do you see the +venerable schoolmaster, severe in aspect, with a black skullcap on his +head, like an ancient Puritan, and the snow of his white beard drifting +down to his very girdle? What boy would dare to play; or whisper, or +even glance aside from his book; while Master Cheever is on the lookout +behind his spectacles? For such offenders, if any such there be, a rod +of birch is hanging over the fireplace, and a heavy ferule lies on the +master's desk. + +And now school is begun. What a murmur of multitudinous tongues, like +the whispering leaves of a wind-stirred oak, as the scholars con over +their various tasks! Buzz! buzz! buzz! Amid just such a murmur has +Master Cheever spent above sixty years; and long habit has made it as +pleasant to him as the hum of a beehive when the insects are busy in the +sunshine. + +Now a class in Latin is called to recite. Forth steps a rowel +queer-looking little fellows, wearing square-skirted coats and +small-clothes, with buttons at the knee. They look like so many +grandfathers in their second-childhood. These lads are to be sent to +Cambridge and educated for the learned professions. Old Master Cheever +had lived so long, and seen so many generations of school-boys grow up +to be men, that now he can almost prophesy what sort of a man each boy +will be. One urchin shall hereafter be a doctor, and administer pills +and potions, and stalk gravely through life, perfumed with assafoetida. +Another shall wrangle at the bar, and fight his way to wealth and honors +and, in his declining age, shall be a worshipful member of his Majesty's +council. A third-and he is the master's favorite--shall be a worthy +successor to the old Puritan ministers now in their graves; he shall +preach with great unction and effect, and leave volumes of sermons, in +print and manuscript, for the benefit of future generations. + +But, as they are merely school-boys now, their business is to construe +Virgil. Poor Virgil! whose verses, which he took so much pains to +polish, have been misscanned, and misparsed, and misinterpreted by so +many generations of idle school-boys. There, sit down, ye Latinists. Two +or three of you, I fear, are doomed to feel the master's ferule. + +Next comes a class in arithmetic. These boys are to be the merchants, +shopkeepers, and mechanics of a future period. Hitherto they have traded +only in marbles and apples. Hereafter some will send vessels to England +for broadcloths and all sorts of manufactured wares, and to the +West Indies for sugar, and rum, and coffee. Others will stand behind +counters, and measure tape, and ribbon, and cambric by the yard. Others +will upheave the blacksmith's hammer, or drive the plane over the +carpenter's bench, or take the lapstone and the awl and learn the +trade of shoemaking. Many will follow the sea, and become bold, rough +sea-captains. + +This class of boys, in short, must supply the world with those active, +skilful hands, and clear, sagacious heads, without which the affairs +of life would be thrown into confusion by the theories of studious and +visionary men. Wherefore, teach them their multiplication-table, good +Master Cheever, and whip them well when they deserve it; for much of the +country's welfare depends on these boys. + +But, alas! while, we have been thinking of other matters, Master +Cheever's watchful eye has caught two boys at play. Now we shall see +awful times. The two malefactors are summoned before the master's chair, +wherein he sits with the terror of a judge upon his brow. Our old chair +is now a judgment-seat. Ah, Master Cheever has taken down that terrible +birch rod! Short is the trial,--the sentence quickly passed,--and now +the judge prepares to execute it in person. Thwack! thwack! thwack! In +these good old times, a schoolmaster's blows were well laid on. + +See, the birch rod has lost several of its twigs, and will hardly serve +for another execution. Mercy on his, what a bellowing the urchins make! +My ears are almost deafened, though the clamor comes through the far +length of a hundred and fifty years. There, go to your seats, poor boys; +and do not cry, sweet little Alice, for they have ceased to feel the +pain a long time since. + +And thus the forenoon passes away. Now it is twelve o'clock. The master +looks at his great silver watch, and then, with tiresome deliberation, +puts the ferule into his desk. The little multitude await the word of +dismissal with almost irrepressible impatience. + +"You are dismissed," says Master Cheever. + +The boys retire, treading softly until they have passed the threshold; +but, fairly out of the schoolroom, lo, what a joyous shout! what a +scampering and trampling of feet! what a sense of recovered freedom +expressed in the merry uproar of all their voices! What care they for +the ferule and birch rod now? Were boys created merely to study Latin +and arithmetic? No; the better purposes of their being are to sport, to +leap, to run, to shout, to slide upon the ice, to snowball. + +Happy boys! Enjoy your playtime now, and come again to study and to feel +the birch rod and the ferule to-morrow; not till to-morrow; for to-day +is Thursday lecture; and, ever since the settlement of Massachusetts, +there has been no school on Thursday afternoons. Therefore sport, boys, +while you may, for the morrow cometh, with the birch rod and the ferule; +and after that another morrow, with troubles of its own. + +Now the master has set everything to rights, and is ready to go home to +dinner. Yet he goes reluctantly. The old man has spent so much of his +life in the smoky, noisy, buzzing school-room, that, when he has a +holiday, he feels as if his place were lost and himself a stranger in +the world. But forth he goes; and there stands our old chair, vacant +and solitary, till good Master Cheever resumes his seat in it to-morrow +morning. + +"Grandfather," said Charley, "I wonder whether the boys did not use to +upset the old chair when the schoolmaster was out." + +"There is a tradition," replied Grandfather, "that one of its arms was +dislocated in some such manner. But I cannot believe that any school-boy +would behave so naughtily." + +As it was now later than little Alice's usual bedtime, Grandfather broke +off his narrative, promising to talk more about Master Cheever and his +scholars some other evening. + + + +CHAPTER IV. COTTON MATHER + +Accordingly, the next evening, Grandfather resumed the history of his +beloved chair. + +"Master Ezekiel Cheever," said he, "died in 1707, after having taught +school about seventy years. It would require a pretty good scholar in +arithmetic to tell how many stripes he had inflicted, and how many birch +rods he had worn out, during all that time, in his fatherly tenderness +for his pupils. Almost all the great men of that period, and for many +years back, had been whipped into eminence by Master Cheever. Moreover, +he had written a Latin Accidence, which was used in schools more than +half a century after his death; so that the good old man, even in his +grave, was still the cause of trouble and stripes to idle schoolboys." + +Grandfather proceeded to say, that, when Master Cheever died, he +bequeathed the chair to the most learned man that was educated at his +school, or that had ever been born in America. This was the renowned +Cotton Mather, minister of the Old North Church in Boston. + +"And author of the Magnalia, Grandfather, which we sometimes see you +reading," said Laurence. + +"Yes, Laurence," replied Grandfather. "The Magnalia is a strange, +pedantic history, in which true events and real personages move before +the reader with the dreamy aspect which they wore in Cotton Mather's +singular mind. This huge volume, however, was written and published +before our chair came into his possession. But, as he was the author +of more books than there are days in the year, we may conclude that he +wrote a great deal while sitting in this chair." + +"I am tired of these schoolmasters and learned men," said Charley. "I +wish some stirring man, that knew how to do something in the world, like +Sir William Phips, would sit in the chair." + +"Such men seldom have leisure to sit quietly in a chair," said +Grandfather. "We must make the best of such people as we have." + +As Cotton Mather was a very distinguished man, Grandfather took some +pains to give the children a lively conception of his character. Over +the door of his library were painted these words, BE SHORT,--as a +warning to visitors that they must not do the world so much harm as +needlessly to interrupt this great man's wonderful labors. On entering +the room you would probably behold it crowded, and piled, and heaped +with books. There were huge, ponderous folios, and quartos, and little +duodecimos, in English, Latin, Greek, Hebrew, Chaldaic, and all other +languages that either originated at the confusion of Babel or have since +come into use. + +All these books, no doubt, were tossed about in confusion, thus forming +a visible emblem of the manner in which their contents were crowded into +Cotton Mather's brain. And in the middle of the room stood table, +on which, besides printed volumes, were strewn manuscript sermons, +historical tracts, and political pamphlets, all written in such a queer, +blind, crabbed, fantastical hand, that a writing-master would have +gone raving mad at the sight of them. By this table stood Grandfather's +chair, which seemed to have contracted an air of deep erudition, as if +its cushion were stuffed with Latin, Greek, and Hebrew, and other hard +matters. + +In this chair, from one year's end to another, sat that prodigious +bookworm, Cotton Mather, sometimes devouring a great book, and sometimes +scribbling one as big. In Grandfather's younger days there used to be a +wax figure of him in one of the Boston museums, representing a solemn, +dark-visaged person, in a minister's black gown, and with a black-letter +volume before him. + +"It is difficult, my children," observed Grandfather, "to make you +understand such a character as Cotton Mather's, in whom there was so +much good, and yet so many failings and frailties. Undoubtedly he was +a pious man. Often he kept fasts; and once, for three whole days, he +allowed himself not a morsel of food, but spent the time in prayer and +religious meditation. Many a live-long night did he watch and pray. +These fasts and vigils made him meagre and haggard, and probably caused +him to appear as if he hardly belonged to the world." + +"Was not the witchcraft delusion partly caused by Cotton Mather?" +inquired Laurence. + +"He was the chief agent of the mischief," answered Grandfather; "but +we will not suppose that he acted otherwise than conscientiously. He +believed that there were evil spirits all about the world. Doubtless +he imagined that they were hidden in the corners and crevices of his +library, and that they peeped out from among the leaves of many of +his books, as he turned them over, at midnight. He supposed that these +unlovely demons were everywhere, in the sunshine as well as in the +darkness, and that they were hidden in men's hearts, and stole into +their most secret thoughts." + +Here Grandfather was interrupted by little Alice, who hid her face +in his lap, and murmured a wish that he would not talk any more about +Cotton Mather and the evil spirits. Grandfather kissed her, and told her +that angels were the only spirits whom she had anything to do with. + +He then spoke of the public affairs of the period. + +A new War between France and England had broken out in 1702, and had +been raging ever since. In the course of it, New England suffered much +injury from the French and Indians, who often came through the woods +from Canada and assaulted the frontier towns. Villages were sometimes +burned, and the inhabitants slaughtered, within a day's ride of Boston. +The people of New England had a bitter hatred against the French, not +only for the mischief which they did with their own hands, but because +they incited the Indians to hostility. + +The New-Englanders knew that they could never dwell in security until +the provinces of France should be subdued and brought under the +English government. They frequently, in time of war, undertook military +expeditions against Acadia and Canada, and sometimes besieged the +fortresses by which those territories were defended. But the most +earnest wish of their hearts was to take Quebec, and so get possession +of the whole province of Canada. Sir William Phips had once attempted +it, but without success. + +Fleets and soldiers were often sent from England to assist the colonists +in their warlike undertakings. In 1710 Port Royal, a fortress of Acadia, +was taken by the English. The next year, in the month of June, a fleet, +commanded by Admiral Sir Hovenden Walker, arrived in Boston Harbor. On +board of this fleet was the English General Hill, with seven regiments +of soldiers, who had been fighting under the Duke of Marlborough in +Flanders. The government of Massachusetts was called upon to find +provisions for the army and fleet, and to raise more men to assist in +taking Canada. + +What with recruiting and drilling of soldiers, there was now nothing but +warlike bustle in the streets of Boston. The drum and fife, the rattle +of arms, and the shouts of boys were heard from morning till night. +In about a month the fleet set sail, carrying four regiments from New +England and New York, besides the English soldiers. The whole army +amounted to at least seven thousand men. They steered for the mouth of +the river St. Lawrence. + +"Cotton Mather prayed most fervently for their success," continued +Grandfather, "both in his pulpit and when he kneeled down in the +solitude of his library, resting his face on our old chair. But +Providence ordered the result otherwise. In a few weeks tidings were +received that eight or nine of the vessels had been wrecked in the St. +Lawrence, and that above a thousand drowned soldiers had been washed +ashore on the banks of that mighty river. After this misfortune Sir +Hovenden Walker set sail for England; and many pious people began to +think it a sin even to wish for the conquest of Canada." + +"I would never give it up so," cried Charley. + +"Nor did they, as we shall see," replied Grandfather. "However, no more +attempts were made during this war, which came to a close in 1713. The +people of New England were probably glad of some repose; for their young +men had been made soldiers, till many of them were fit for nothing else. +And those who remained at home had been heavily taxed to pay for the +arms, ammunition; fortifications, and all the other endless expenses of +a war. There was great need of the prayers of Cotton Mather and of all +pious men, not only on account of the sufferings of the people, but +because the old moral and religious character of New England was in +danger of being utterly lost." + +"How glorious it would have been," remarked Laurence, "if our +forefathers could have kept the country unspotted with blood!" + +"Yes," said Grandfather; "but there was a stern, warlike spirit in +them from the beginning. They seem never to have thought of questioning +either the morality or piety of war." + +The next event which Grandfather spoke of was one that Cotton Mather, as +well as most of the other inhabitants of New England, heartily rejoiced +at. This was the accession of the Elector of Hanover to the throne of +England, in 1714, on the death of Queen Anne. Hitherto the people had +been in continual dread that the male line of the Stuarts, who were +descended from the beheaded King Charles and the banished King James, +would be restored to the throne. + +"The importance of this event," observed Grandfather, "was a thousand +times greater than that of a Presidential election in our own days. +If the people dislike their President, they may get rid of him in four +years; whereas a dynasty of kings may wear the crown for an unlimited +period." + +The German elector was proclaimed king from the balcony of the +town-house in Boston, by the title of George I.; while the trumpets +sounded and the people cried amen. That night the town was illuminated; +and Cotton Mather threw aside book and pen, and left Grandfather's chair +vacant, while he walked hither and thither to witness the rejoicings. + + + +CHAPTER V. THE REJECTED BLESSING. + +"COTTON MATHER," continued Grandfather, "was a bitter enemy to Governor +Dudley; and nobody exulted more than he when that crafty politician was +removed from the government, and succeeded by Colonel Shute. This took +place in 1716. The new governor had been an officer in the renowned Duke +of Marlborough's army, and had fought in some of the great battles in +Flanders." + +"Now I hope," said Charley, "we shall hear of his doing great things." + +"I am afraid you will be disappointed, Charley," answered Grandfather. +"It is true that Colonel Shute had probably never led so unquiet a life +while fighting the French as he did now, while governing this province +of Massachusetts Bay. But his troubles consisted almost entirely of +dissensions with the Legislature. The king had ordered him to lay claim +to a fixed salary; but the representatives of the people insisted upon +paying him only such sums from year to year as they saw fit." + +Grandfather here explained some of the circumstances that made the +situation of a colonial governor so difficult and irksome. There was not +the same feeling towards the chief magistrate now that had existed while +he was chosen by the free suffrages of the people, it was felt that as +the king appointed the governor, and as he held his office during the +king's pleasure, it would be his great object to please the king. But +the people thought that a governor ought to have nothing in view but the +best interests of those whom he governed. + +"The governor," remarked Grandfather, "had two masters to serve,--the +king, who appointed him; and the people, on whom he depended for his +pay. Few men in this position would have ingenuity enough to satisfy +either party. Colonel Shute, though a good-natured, well-meaning man, +succeeded so ill with the people, that, in 1722, he suddenly went +away to England and made Complaint to King George. In the meantime +Lieutenant-Governor Dummer directed the affairs of the province, and +carried on a long and bloody war with the Indians." + +"But where was our chair all this time?" asked Clara. + +"It still remained in Cotton Mather's library," replied Grandfather; +"and I must not omit to tell you an incident which is very much to +the honor of this celebrated man. It is the more proper, too, that you +should hear it, because it will show you what a terrible calamity the +smallpox was to our forefathers. The history of the province (and, of +course, the history of our chair) would be incomplete without particular +mention of it." + +Accordingly Grandfather told the children a story, to which, for want of +a better title, we shall give that of The Rejected Blessing. + +One day, in 1721, Doctor Cotton Mather sat in his library reading a book +that had been published by the Royal Society of London. But every +few moments he laid the book upon the table, and leaned back in +Grandfather's chair with an aspect of deep care and disquietude. There +were certain things which troubled him exceedingly, so that he could +hardly fix his thoughts upon what he read. + +It was now a gloomy time in Boston. That terrible disease; the +small-pox, had recently made its appearance in the town. Ever since +the first settlement of the country this awful pestilence had come at +intervals, and swept away multitudes of the inhabitants. Whenever it +commenced its ravages, nothing seemed to stay its progress until there +were no more victims for it to seize upon. Oftentimes hundreds of people +at once lay groaning with its agony; and when it departed, its deep +footsteps were always to be traced in many graves. + +The people never felt secure from this calamity. Sometimes, perhaps, +it was brought into the country by a poor sailor, who had caught the +infection in foreign parts, and came hither to die and to be the cause +of many deaths. Sometimes, no doubt, it followed in the train of the +pompous governors when they came over from England. Sometimes the +disease lay hidden in the cargoes of ships, among silks, and brocades, +and other costly merchandise which was imported for the rich people +to wear. And sometimes it started up seemingly of its own accord, and +nobody could tell whence it came. The physician, being called to attend +the sick person, would look at him, and say, "It is the small-pox! Let +the patient be carried to the hospital." + +And now this dreadful sickness had shown itself again in Boston. Cotton +Mather was greatly afflicted for the sake of the whole province. He had +children, too, who were exposed to the danger. At that very moment he +heard the voice of his youngest son, for whom his heart was moved with +apprehension. + +"Alas! I fear for that poor child," said Cotton Mather to himself. "What +shall I do for my son Samuel?" + +Again he attempted to drive away these thoughts by taking up the book +which he had been reading. And now, all of a sudden, his attention +became fixed. The book contained a printed letter that an Italian +physician had written upon the very subject about which Cotton Mather +was so anxiously meditating. He ran his eye eagerly over the pages; and, +behold! a method was disclosed to him by which the small-pox might be +robbed of its worst terrors. Such a method was known in Greece. The +physicians of Turkey, too, those long-bearded Eastern sages, had been +acquainted with it for many years. The negroes of Africa, ignorant as +they were, had likewise practised it, and thus had shown themselves +wiser than the white men. + +"Of a truth," ejaculated Cotton Mather, clasping his hands and looking +up to heaven, "it was a merciful Providence that brought this book under +mine eye. I will procure a consultation of physicians, and see whether +this wondrous inoculation may not stay the progress of the destroyer." + +So he arose from Grandfather's chair and went out of the library. Near +the door he met his son Samuel, who seemed downcast and out of spirits. +The boy had heard, probably, that some of his playmates were taken ill +with the small-pox. But, as his father looked cheerfully at him, Samuel +took courage, trusting that either the wisdom of so learned a minister +would find some remedy for the danger, or else that his prayers would +secure protection from on high. + +Meanwhile Cotton Mather took his staff and three-cornered hat and +walked about the streets, calling at the houses of all the physicians in +Boston. They were a very wise fraternity; and their huge wigs, and black +dresses, and solemn visages made their wisdom appear even profounder +than it was. One after another he acquainted them with the discovery +which he had hit upon. + +But the grave and sagacious personages would scarcely listen to him. +The oldest doctor in town contented himself with remarking that no such +thing as inoculation was mentioned by Galen or Hippocrates; and it was +impossible that modern physicians should be wiser than those old sages. +A second held up his hands in dumb astonishment and horror at the +mad-ness of what Cotton Mather proposed to do. A third told him, in +pretty plain terms, that he knew not what he was talking about. A fourth +requested, in the name of the whole medical fraternity, that Cotton +Mather would confine his attention to people's souls, and leave the +physicians to take care of their bodies. In short, there was but a +single doctor among them all who would grant the poor minister so much +as a patient hearing, This was Doctor Zabdiel Boylston. He looked +into the matter like a man of sense, and finding, beyond a doubt, +that inoculation had rescued many from death, he resolved to try the +experiment in his own family. + +And so he did. But when the other physicians heard of it they arose +in great fury and began a war of words, written, printed, and spoken, +against Cotton Mather and Doctor Boylston. To hear them talk, you would +have supposed that these two harmless and benevolent men had plotted the +ruin of the country. + +The people, also, took the alarm. Many, who thought themselves more +pious than their neighbors, contended that, if Providence had ordained +them to die of the small-pox, it was sinful to aim at preventing it. The +strangest reports were in circulation. Some said that Doctor +Boylston had contrived a method for conveying the gout, rheumatism, +sick-headache, asthma, and all other diseases from one person to +another, and diffusing them through the whole community. Others flatly +affirmed that the evil one had got possession of Cotton Mather, and was +at the bottom of the whole business. + +You must observe, children, that Cotton Mather's fellow-citizens were +generally inclined to doubt the wisdom of any measure which he might +propose to them. They recollected how he had led them astray in the old +witchcraft delusion; and now, if he thought and acted ever so wisely, it +was difficult for him to get the credit of it. + +The people's wrath grew so hot at his attempt to guard them from the +small-pox that he could not walk the streets in peace. Whenever the +venerable form of the old minister, meagre and haggard with fasts and +vigils, was seen approaching, hisses were heard, and shouts of derision, +and scornful and bitter laughter. The women snatched away their children +from his path, lest he should do them a mischief. Still, however, +bending his head meekly, and perhaps stretching out his hands to bless +those who reviled him, he pursued his way. But the tears came into his +eyes to think how blindly the people rejected the means of safety that +were offered them. + +Indeed, there were melancholy sights enough in the streets of Boston +to draw forth the tears of a compassionate man. Over the door of almost +every dwelling a red flag was fluttering in the air. This was the signal +that the small-pox had entered the house and attacked some member of the +family; or perhaps the whole family, old and young, were struggling +at once with the pestilence. Friends and relatives, when they met one +another in the streets, would hurry onward without a grasp of the hand +or scarcely a word of greeting, lest they should catch or communicate +the contagion; and often a coffin was borne hastily along. + +"Alas! alas!" said Cotton Mather to himself, "what shall be done for +this poor, misguided people? Oh that Providence would open their eyes, +and enable them to discern good from evil!" + +So furious, however, were the people, that they threatened vengeance +against any person who should dare to practise inoculation, though it +were only in his own family. This was a hard case for Cotton Mather, who +saw no other way to rescue his poor child Samuel from the disease. But +he resolved to save him, even if his house should be burned over his +head. + +"I will not be turned aside," said he. "My townsmen shall see that I +have faith in this thing, when I make the experiment on my beloved son, +whose life is dearer to me than my own. And when I have saved Samuel, +peradventure they will be persuaded to save themselves." + +Accordingly Samuel was inoculated; and so was Mr. Walter, a son-in-law +of Cotton Mather. Doctor Boyleston, likewise, inoculated many persons; +and while hundreds died who had caught the contagion from the garments +of the sick, almost all were preserved who followed the wise physician's +advice. + +But the people were not yet convinced of their mistake. One night a +destructive little instrument, called a hand-grenade, was thrown into +Cotton Mather's window, and rolled under Grandfather's chair. It was +supposed to be filled with gunpowder, the explosion of which would have +blown the poor minister to atoms. But the best informed historians are +of opinion that the grenade contained only brimstone and assafoetida, +and was meant to plague Cotton Mather with a very evil perfume. + +This is no strange thing in human experience. Men who attempt to do the +world mere good than the world is able entirely to comprehend are almost +invariably held in bad odor. But yet, if the wise and good man can wait +awhile, either the present generation or posterity will do him justice. +So it proved in the case which we have been speaking of. In after years, +when inoculation was universally practised, and thousands were saved +from death by it, the people remembered old Cotton Mather, then sleeping +in his grave. They acknowledged that the very thing for which they had +so reviled and persecuted him was the best and wisest thing he ever did. + +"Grandfather, this is not an agreeable story," observed Clara. + +"No, Clara," replied Grandfather. "But it is right that you should know +what a dark shadow this disease threw over the times of our forefathers. +And now, if you wish to learn more about Cotton Mather, you must read +his biography, written by Mr. Peabody, of Springfield. You will find it +very entertaining and instructive; but perhaps the writer is somewhat +too harsh in his judgment of this singular man. He estimates him fairly, +indeed, and understands him well; but he unriddles his character rather +by acuteness than by sympathy. Now, his life should have been written by +one who, knowing all his faults, would nevertheless love him." + +So Grandfather made an end of Cotton Mather, telling his auditors that +he died in 1728, at the age of sixty-five, and bequeathed the chair +to Elisha Cooke. This gentleman was a famous advocate of the people's +rights. + +The same year William Burner, a son of the celebrated Bishop Burnet, +arrived in Boston with the commission of governor. He was the first that +had been appointed since the departure of Colonel Shute, Governor +Burnet took up his residence with Mr. Cooke while the Province House was +undergoing repairs. During this period he was always complimented with a +seat in Grandfather's chair; and so comfortable did he find it, that, +on removing to the Province House, he could not bear to leave it behind +him. Mr. Cooke, therefore, requested his acceptance of it. + +"I should think," said Laurence, "that the people would have petitioned +the king always to appoint a native-born New-Englander to govern them." + +"Undoubtedly it was a grievance," answered Grandfather, "to see men +placed in this station who perhaps had neither talents nor virtues to +fit them for it, and who certainly could have no natural affection +for the country. The king generally bestowed the governorships of +the American colonies upon needy noblemen, or hangers-on at court, or +disbanded officers. The people knew that such persons would be very +likely to make the good of the country subservient to the wishes of the +king. The Legislature, therefore, endeavored to keep as much power as +possible in their own hands, by refusing to settle a fixed salary upon +the governors. It was thought better to pay them according to their +deserts." + +"Did Governor Burner work well for his money?" asked Charley. + +Grandfather could not help smiling at the simplicity of Charley's +question. Nevertheless, it put the matter in a very plain point of view. + +He then described the character of Governor Bur-net, representing him +as a good scholar, possessed of much ability, and likewise of unspotted +integrity. His story affords a striking example how unfortunate it is +for a man, who is placed as ruler over a country to be compelled to aim +at anything but the good of the people. Governor Burnet was so chained +down by his instructions from the king that he could not act as he might +otherwise have wished. Consequently, his whole term of office was wasted +in quarrels with the Legislature. + +"I am afraid, children," said Grandfather, "that Governor Burner found +but little rest or comfort in our old chair. Here he used to sit, +dressed in a coat which was made of rough, shaggy cloth outside, but of +smooth velvet within. It was said that his own character resembled that +coat; for his outward manner was rough, but his inward disposition soft +and kind. It is a pity that such a man could not have been kept +free from trouble. But so harassing were his disputes with the +representatives of the people that he fell into a fever, of which he +died in 1729. The Legislature had refused him a salary while alive; +but they appropriated money enough to give him a splendid and pompous +funeral." + +And now Grandfather perceived that little Alice had fallen fast asleep, +with her head upon his footstool. Indeed, as Clara observed, she had +been sleeping from the time of Sir Hovenden Walker's expedition against +Quebec until the death of Governor Burnet,--a period of about +eighteen years. And yet, after so long a nap, sweet little Alice was a +golden-haired child of scarcely five years old. + +"It puts me in mind," said Laurence, "of the story of the enchanted +princess, who slept many a hundred years, and awoke as young and +beautiful as ever." + + + +CHAPTER VI. POMPS AND VANITIES. + +A FEW evenings afterwards, cousin Clara happened inquire of Grandfather +whether the old chair had never been present at a ball. At the same time +little Alice brought forward a doll, with whom she had been holding a +long conversation. + +"See, Grandfather!" cried she. "Did such a pretty lady as this ever sit +in your great chair?" + +These questions led Grandfather to talk about the fashions and manners +which now began to be introduced from England into the provinces. The +simplicity of the good old Puritan times was fast disappearing. This was +partly owing to the increasing number and wealth of the inhabitants, +and to the additions which they continually received by the arrival and +settlement of people from beyond the sea. + +Another cause of a pompous and artificial mode of life, among those who +could afford it, was that the example was set by the royal governors. +Under the old charter, the governors were the representatives of the +people, and therefore their way of living had probably been marked by a +popular simplicity. But now, as they represented the person of the king, +they thought it necessary to preserve the dignity of their station +by the practice of high and gorgeous ceremonials. And, besides, the +profitable offices under the government were filled by men who had lived +in London, and had there contracted fashionable and luxurious habits +of living which they would not now lay aside. The wealthy people of the +province imitated them; and thus began a general change in social life. + +"So, my dear Clara," said Grandfather, "after our chair had entered the +Province House, it must often have been present at balls and festivals; +though I cannot give you a description of any particular one. But +I doubt not that they were very magnificent; and slaves in gorgeous +liveries waited on the guests, and offered them wine in goblets of +massive silver." + +"Were there slaves in those days!" exclaimed Clara. + +"Yes, black slaves and white," replied Grandfather. "Our ancestors not +only brought negroes from Africa, but Indians from South America, and +white people from Ireland. These last were sold, not for life, but for +a certain number of years, in order to pay the expenses of their voyage +across the Atlantic. Nothing was more common than to see a lot of likely +Irish girls advertised for sale in the newspapers. As for the little +negro babies, they were offered to be giver away like young kittens." + +"Perhaps Alice would have liked one to play with, instead of her doll," +said Charley, laughing. + +But little Alice clasped the waxen doll closer to her bosom. + +"Now, as for this pretty doll, my little Alice," said Grandfather, "I +wish you could have seen what splendid dresses the ladies wore in those +times. They had silks, and satins, and damasks, and brocades, and high +head-dresses, and all sorts of fine things. And they used to wear hooped +petticoats of such enormous size that it was quite a journey to walk +round them." + +"And how did the gentlemen dress?" asked Charley. + +"With full as much magnificence as the ladies," answered Grandfather. +"For their holiday suits they had coats of figured velvet, crimson, +green, blue, and all other gay colors, embroidered with gold or silver +lace. Their waistcoats, which were five times as large as modern ones, +were very splendid. Sometimes the whole waistcoat, which came down +almost to the knees, was made of gold brocade." + +"Why, the wearer must have shone like a golden image!" said Clara. + +"And then," continued Grandfather, "they wore various sorts of periwigs, +such as the tie, the Spencer, the brigadier, the major, the +Albemarle, the Ramillies, the feather-top, and the full-bottom. Their +three-cornered hats were laced with gold or silver. They had shining +buckles at the knees of their small-clothes, and buckles likewise in +their shoes. They wore swords with beautiful hilts, either of silver, or +sometimes of polished steel, inlaid with gold." + +"Oh, I should like to wear a sword!" cried Charley. + +"And an embroidered crimson velvet coat," said Clara, laughing, "and a +gold brocade waistcoat down to your knees." + +"And knee-buckles and shoe-buckles," said Laurence, laughing also. + +"And a periwig," added little Alice, soberly, not knowing what was the +article of dress which she recommended to our friend Charley. + +Grandfather smiled at the idea of Charley's sturdy little figure in such +a grotesque caparison. He then went on with the history of the chair, +and told the children that, in 1730, King George II. appointed Jonathan +Belcher to be governor of Massachusetts in place of the deceased +Governor Burner. Mr. Belcher was a native of the province, but had spent +much of his life in Europe. + +The new governor found Grandfather's chair in the Province House. He was +struck with its noble and stately aspect, but was of opinion that age +and hard services had made it scarcely so fit for courtly company as +when it stood in the Earl of Lincoln's hall. Wherefore, as Governor +Belcher was fond of splendor, he employed a skilful artist to beautify +the chair. This was done by polishing and varnishing it, and by gilding +the carved work of the elbows, and likewise the oaken flowers of the +back. The lion's head now shone like a veritable lump of gold. Finally +Governor Belcher gave the chair a cushion of blue damask, with a rich +golden fringe. + +"Our good old chair being thus glorified," proceeded Grandfather, "it +glittered with a great deal more splendor than it had exhibited just a +century before, when the Lady Arbella brought it over from England. Most +people mistook it for a chair of the latest London fashion. And this may +serve for an example, that there is almost always an old and timeworn +substance under all the glittering show of new invention." + +"Grandfather, I cannot see any of the gilding," remarked Charley, who +had been examining the chair very minutely. + +"You will not wonder that it has been rubbed off," replied Grandfather, +"when you hear all the adventures that have since befallen the chair. +Gilded it was; and the handsomest room in the Province House was adorned +by it." + +There was not much to interest the children in what happened during +the years that Governor Belcher remained in the chair. At first, like +Colonel Shute and Governor Burner, he was engaged in disputing with the +Legislature about his salary. But, as he found it impossible to get a +fixed sum, he finally obtained the king's leave to accept whatever the +Legislature chose to give him. And thus the people triumphed, after this +long contest for the privilege of expending their own money as they saw +fit. + +The remainder of Governor Belcher's term of office was principally taken +up in endeavoring to settle the currency. Honest John Hull's pine-tree +shillings had long ago been worn out, or lost, or melted down again; +and their place was supplied by bills of paper or parchment, which were +nominally valued at threepence and upwards. The value of these bills +kept continually sinking, because the real hard money could not be +obtained for them. They were a great deal worse than the old Indian +currency of clam-shells. These disorders of the circulating medium were +a source of endless plague and perplexity to the rulers and legislators, +not only in Governor Belcher's days, but for many years before and +afterwards. + +Finally the people suspected that Governor Belcher was secretly +endeavoring to establish the Episcopal mode of worship in the provinces. +There was enough of the old Puritan spirit remaining to cause most of +the true sons of New England to look with horror upon such an attempt. +Great exertions were made to induce the king to remove the governor. +Accordingly, in 1740, he was compelled to resign his office, and +Grandfather's chair into the bargain, to Mr. Shirley. + + + +CHAPTER VII. THE PROVINCIAL MUSTER. + +"WILLIAM SHIRLEY," said Grandfather, "had come from England a few years +before, and begun to practise law in Boston. You will think, perhaps, +that, as he had been a lawyer, the new governor used to sit in our great +chair reading heavy law-books from morning till night. On the contrary, +he was as stirring and active a governor as Massachusetts ever had. +Even Sir William Phips hardly equalled him. The first year or two of +his administration was spent in trying to regulate the currency. But +in 1744, after a peace of more than thirty years, war broke out between +France and England." + +"And I suppose," said Charley, "the governor went to take Canada." + +"Not exactly, Charley," said Grandfather; "though you have made a pretty +shrewd conjecture. He planned, in 1745, an expedition against Louisburg. +This was a fortified city, on the island of Cape Breton, near Nova +Scotia. Its walls were of immense height and strength, and were defended +by hundreds of heavy cannon. It was the strongest fortress which the +French possessed in America; and if the king of France had guessed +Governor Shirley's intentions, he would have sent all the ships he could +muster to protect it." + +As the siege of Louisburg was one of the most remarkable events that +ever the inhabitants of New England were engaged in, Grandfather +endeavored to give his auditors a lively idea of the spirit with which +they set about it. We shall call his description The Provincial Muster. + +The expedition against Louisburg first began to be thought of in the +month of January. From that time the governor's chair was continually +surrounded by councillors, representatives, clergymen, captains, pilots, +and all manner of people, with whom he consulted about this wonderful +project. + +First of all, it was necessary to provide men and arms. The Legislature +immediately sent out a huge quantity of paper-money, with which, as +if by magic spell, the governor hoped to get possession of all the old +cannon, powder and balls, rusty swords and muskets, and everything else +that would be serviceable in killing Frenchmen. Drums were beaten in +all the villages of Massachusetts to enlist soldiers for the service. +Messages were sent to the other governors of New England, and to New +York and Pennsylvania, entreating them to unite in this crusade against +the French. All these provinces agreed to give what assistance they +could. + +But there was one very important thing to be decided. Who shall be the +general of this great army? Peace had continued such an unusual length +of time that there was now less military experience among the colonists +than at any former period. The old Puritans had always kept their +weapons bright, and were never destitute of warlike captains who were +skilful in assault or defence. But the swords of their descendents +had grown rusty by disuse. There was nobody in New England that knew +anything about sieges or any other regular fighting. The only persons +at all acquainted with warlike business were a few elderly men, who +had hunted Indians through the underbrush of the forest in old Governor +Dummer's War. + +In this dilemma Governor Shirley fixed upon a wealthy merchant, named +William Pepperell, who was pretty well known and liked among the people. +As to military skill, he had no more of it than his neighbors. But, as +the governor urged him very pressingly, Mr. Pepperell consented to shut +up his ledger, gird on a sword, and assume the title of general. + +Meantime, what a hubbub was raised by this scheme! Rub-a-dub-dub! +rub-a-dub-dub! The rattle of drums, beaten out of all manner of time, +was heard above every other sound. + +Nothing now was so valuable as arms, of whatever style and fashion they +might be. The bellows blew, and the hammer clanged continually upon the +anvil, while the blacksmiths were repairing the broken weapons of other +wars. Doubtless some of the soldiers lugged out those enormous, heavy +muskets which used to be fired, with rests, in the time of the early +Puritans. Great horse-pistols, too, were found, which would go off with +a bang like a cannon. Old cannon, with touchholes almost as big as +their muzzles, were looked upon as inestimable treasures. Pikes which, +perhaps, had been handled by Miles Standish's soldiers, now made their +appearance again. Many a young man ransacked the garret and brought +forth his great-grandfather's sword, corroded with rust and stained with +the blood of King Philip's War. + +Never had there been such an arming as this, when a people, so long +peaceful, rose to the war with the best weapons that they could lay +their hands upon. And still the drums were heard--rub-a-dub-dub! +rub-a-dub-dub!--in all the towns and villages; and louder and more +numerous grew the trampling footsteps of the recruits that marched +behind. + +And now the army began to gather into Boston. Tan, lanky, awkward +fellows came in squads, and companies, and regiments, swaggering along, +dressed in their brown homespun clothes and blue yarn stockings. They +stooped as if they still had hold of the plough-handles, and marched +without any time or tune. Hither they came, from the cornfields, from +the clearing in the forest, from the blacksmith's forge, from the +carpenter's workshop, and from the shoemaker's seat. They were an army +of rough faces and sturdy frames. A trained officer of Europe would +have laughed at them till his sides had ached. But there was a spirit +in their bosoms which is more essential to soldiership than to wear red +coats and march in stately ranks to the sound of regular music. + +Still was heard the beat of the drum,--rub-a-dub-dub! And now a host of +three or four thousand men had found their way to Boston. Little quiet +was there then! Forth scampered the school-boys, shouting behind the +drums. The whole town, the whole land, was on fire with war. + +After the arrival of the troops, they were probably reviewed upon the +Common. We may imagine Governor Shirley and General Pepperell riding +slowly along the line, while the drummers beat strange old tunes, like +psalm-tunes, and all the officers and soldiers put on their most warlike +looks. It would have been a terrible sight for the Frenchmen, could they +but have witnessed it! + +At length, on the 24th of March, 1745, the army gave a parting shout, +and set sail from Boston in ten or twelve vessels which had been hired +by the governor. A few days afterwards an English fleet, commanded +by Commodore Peter Warren, sailed also for Louisburg to assist the +provincial army. So now, after all this bustle of preparation, the town +and province were left in stillness and repose. + +But stillness and repose, at such a time of anxious expectation, are +hard to bear. The hearts of the old people and women sunk within them +when they reflected what perils they had sent their sons, and husbands, +and brothers to encounter. The boys loitered heavily to School, missing +the rub-a-dub-dub and the trampling march, in the rear of which they had +so lately run and shouted. All the ministers prayed earnestly in their +pulpits for a blessing on the army of New England. In every family, when +the good man lifted up his heart in domestic worship, the burden of his +petition was for the safety of those dear ones who were fighting under +the walls of Louisburg. + +Governor Shirley all this time was probably in an ecstasy of impatience. +He could not sit still a moment. He found no quiet, not even in +Grandfather's chair; but hurried to and fro, and up and down the +staircase of the Province House. Now he mounted to the cupola and looked +seaward, straining his eyes to discover if there were a sail upon the +horizon. Now he hastened down the stairs, and stood beneath the portal, +on the red free-stone steps, to receive some mud-bespattered courier, +from whom he hoped to hear tidings of the army. A few weeks after the +departure of the troops, Commodore Warren sent a small vessel to Boston +with two French prisoners. One of them was Monsieur Bouladrie, who had +been commander of a battery outside the walls of Louisburg. The other +was the Marquis de la Maison Forte, captain of a French frigate which +had been taken by Commodore Warren's fleet. These prisoners assured +Governor Shirley that the fortifications of Louisburg were far too +strong ever to be stormed by the provincial army. + +Day after day and week after week went on. The people grew almost +heart-sick with anxiety; for the flower of the country was at peril in +this adventurous expedition. It was now daybreak on the morning of the +3d of July. + +But hark! what sound is this? The hurried clang of a bell! There is the +Old North pealing suddenly out!--there the Old South strikes in!--now +the peal comes from the church in Brattle Street!--the bells of nine or +ten steeples are all flinging their iron voices at once upon the morning +breeze! Is it joy, or alarm? There goes the roar of a cannon too! A +royal salute is thundered forth. And now we hear the loud exulting shout +of a multitude assembled in the street. Huzza! huzza! Louisburg has +surrendered! Huzza! + +"O Grandfather, how glad I should have been to live in those times!" +cried Charley. "And what reward did the king give to General Pepperell +and Governor Shirley?" + +"He made Pepperell a baronet; so that he was now to be called Sir +William Pepperell," replied Grandfather. "He likewise appointed both +Pepperell and Shirley to be colonels in the royal army. These rewards, +and higher ones, were well deserved; for this was the greatest triumph +that the English met with in the whole course of that war. General +Pepperell became a man of great fame. I have seen a full-length portrait +of him, representing him in a splendid scarlet uniform, standing before +the walls of Louisburg, while several bombs are falling through the +air." + +"But did the country gain any real good by the conquest of Louisburg?" +asked Laurence. "Or was all the benefit reaped by Pepperell and +Shirley?" + +"The English Parliament," replied Grandfather, "agreed to pay the +colonists for all the expenses of the siege. Accordingly, in 1749, two +hundred and fifteen chests of Spanish dollars and one hundred casks of +copper coin were brought from England to Boston. The whole amount was +about a million of dollars. Twenty-seven carts and trucks carried this +money from the wharf to the provincial treasury. Was not this a pretty +liberal reward?" + +"The mothers of the young men who were killed at the siege of Louisburg +would not have thought it so," said Laurence. + +"No; Laurence," rejoined Grandfather; "and every warlike achievement +involves an amount of physical and moral evil, for which all the gold in +the Spanish mines would not be the slightest recompense. But we are to +consider that this siege was one of the occasions on which the colonists +tested their ability for war, and thus were prepared for the great +contest of the Revolution. In that point of view, the valor of our +forefathers was its own reward." + +Grandfather went on to say that the success of the expedition against +Louisburg induced Shirley and Pepperell to form a scheme for conquering +Canada, This plan, however, was not carried into execution. + +In the year 1746 great terror was excited by the arrival of a formidable +French fleet upon the coast It was commanded by the Duke d'Anville, and +consisted of forty ships of war, besides vessels with soldiers on board. +With this force the French intended to retake Louisburg, and afterwards +to ravage the whole of New England. Many people were ready to give up +the country for lost. + +But the hostile fleet met with so many disasters and losses by storm and +shipwreck, that the Duke d'Anville is said to have poisoned himself in +despair. The officer next in command threw himself upon his sword and +perished. Thus deprived of their commanders, the remainder of the ships +returned to France. This was as great a deliverance for New England as +that which Old England had experienced in the days of Queen Elizabeth, +when the Spanish Armada was wrecked upon her coast. + +"In 1747," proceeded Grandfather, "Governor Shirley was driven from the +Province House, not by a hostile fleet and army, but by a mob of the +Boston people. They were so incensed at the conduct of the British +Commodore Knowles, who had impressed some of their fellow-citizens, +that several thousands of them surrounded the council chamber and threw +stones and brickbats into the windows. The governor attempted to pacify +them; but not succeeding, he thought it necessary to leave the town and +take refuge within the walls of Castle William. Quiet was not restored +until Commodore Knowles had sent back the impressed men. This affair was +a flash of spirit that might have warned the English not to venture upon +any oppressive measures against their colonial brethren." + +Peace being declared between France and England in 1748, the governor +had now an opportunity to sit at his ease in Grandfather's chair. Such +repose, however, appears not to have suited his disposition; for in the +following year he went to England, and thence was despatched to France +on public business. Meanwhile, as Shirley had not resigned his office, +Lieu-tenant-Governor Phips acted as chief magistrate in his stead. + + + +CHAPTER VIII. THE OLD FRENCH WAR AND THE ACADIAN EXILES + +IN the early twilight of Thanksgiving Eve came Laurence, and Clara, and +Charley, and little Alice, hand in hand, and stood in a semicircle +round Grandfather's chair. They had been joyous throughout that day of +festivity, mingling together in all kinds of play, so that the house had +echoed with their airy mirth. + +Grandfather, too, had been happy though not mirthful. He felt that this +was to be set down as one of the good Thanksgivings of his life. In +truth, all his former Thanksgivings had borne their part in the present +one; for his years of infancy, and youth, and manhood, with their +blessings and their griefs, had flitted before him while he sat silently +in the great chair. Vanished scenes had been pictured in the air. The +forms of departed friends had visited him. Voices to be heard no more on +earth had sent an echo from the infinite and the eternal. These shadows, +if such they were, seemed almost as real to him as what was actually +present,--as the merry shouts and laughter of the children,--as their +figures, dancing like sunshine before his eyes. + +He felt that the past was not taken from him. The happiness of former +days was a possession forever. And there was something in the mingled +sorrow of his lifetime that became akin to happiness, after being long +treasured in the depths of his heart. There it underwent a change, and +grew more precious than pure gold. + +And now came the children, somewhat aweary with their wild play, and +sought the quiet enjoyment of Grandfather's talk. The good old gentleman +rubbed his eyes and smiled round upon them all. He was glad, as most +aged people are, to find that he was yet of consequence, and could give +pleasure to the world. After being so merry all day long, did these +children desire to hear his sober talk? Oh, then, old Grandfather had +yet a place to fill among living men,--or at least among boys and girls! + +"Begin quick, Grandfather," cried little Alice; "for pussy wants to hear +you." + +And truly our yellow friend, the cat, lay upon the hearth-rug, basking +in the warmth of the fire, pricking up her ears, and turning her head +from the children to Grandfather, and from Grandfather to the children +as if she felt herself very sympathetic with them all. A loud purr, like +the singing of a tea-kettle or the hum of a spinning-wheel, testified +that she was as comfortable and happy as a cat could be. For puss had +feasted; and therefore, like Grandfather and the children, had kept a +good Thanksgiving. + +"Does pussy want to hear me?" said Grandfathers smiling. "Well, we must +please pussy, if we can." + +And so he took up the history of the chair from the epoch of the peace +of 1748. By one of the provisions of the treaty, Louisburg, which the +New-Englanders had been at so much pains to take, was restored to the +King of France. + +The French were afraid that, unless their colonies should be better +defended than heretofore, another war might deprive them of the whole. +Almost as soon as peace was declared, therefore, they began to build +strong fortifications in the interior of North America. It was strange +to behold these warlike castles on the banks of solitary lakes and far +in the midst of woods. The Indian, paddling his birch canoe on Lake +Champlain, looked up at the high ramparts of Ticonderoga, stone piled +on stone, bristling with cannon, and the white flag of France floating +above. There were similar fortifications on Lake Ontario, and near the +great Falls of Niagara, and at the sources of the Ohio River. And all +around these forts and castles lay the eternal forest, and the roll of +the drum died away in those deep solitudes. + +The truth was, that the French intended to build forts all the way +from Canada to Louisiana. They would then have had a wall of military +strength at the back of the English settlements so as completely to hem +them in. The King of England considered the building of these forts as a +sufficient cause of war, which was accordingly commenced in 1754. + +"Governor Shirley," said Grandfather, "had returned to Boston in 1753. +While in Paris he had married a second wife, a young French girl, and +now brought her to the Province House. But when war was breaking out it +was impossible for such a bustling man to stay quietly at home, sitting +in our old chair, with his wife and children, round about him. He +therefore obtained a command in the English forces." + +"And what did Sir William Pepperell do?" asked Charley. + +"He stayed at home," said Grandfather, "and was general of the militia. +The veteran regiments of the English army which were now sent across the +Atlantic would have scorned to fight under the orders of an old American +merchant. And now began what aged people call the old French War. It +would be going too far astray from the history of our chair to tell you +one half of the battles that were fought. I cannot even allow myself to +describe the bloody defeat of General Braddock, near the sources of +the Ohio River, in 1755. But I must not omit to mention that, when the +English general was mortally wounded and his army routed, the remains +of it were preserved by the skill and valor of George Washington." + +At the mention of this illustrious name the children started as if a +sudden sunlight had gleamed upon the history of their country, now that +the great deliverer had arisen above the horizon. + +Among all the events of the old French War, Grandfather thought that +there was none more interesting than the removal of the inhabitants +of Acadia. From the first settlement of this ancient province of the +French, in 1604, until the present time, its people could scarcely ever +know what kingdom held dominion over them. They were a peaceful race, +taking no delight in warfare, and caring nothing for military renown. +And yet, in every war, their region was infested with iron-hearted +soldiers, both French and English, who fought one another for the +privilege of ill-treating these poor, harmless Acadians. Sometimes the +treaty of peace made them subjects of one king, sometimes of another. + +At the peace of 1748 Acadia had been ceded to England. But the French +still claimed a large portion of it, and built forts for its defence. +In 1755 these forts were taken, and the whole of Acadia was conquered +by three thousand men from Massachusetts, under the command of General +Winslow. The inhabitants were accused of supplying the French with +provisions, and of doing other things that violated their neutrality. + +"These accusations were probably true," observed Grandfather; "for +the Acadians were descended from the French, and had the same friendly +feelings towards them that the people of Massachusetts had for the +English. But their punishment was severe. The English determined to tear +these poor people from their native homes and scatter them abroad." + +The Acadians were about seven thousand in number. A considerable part of +them were made prisoners, and transported to the English colonies. All +their dwellings and churches were burned, their cattle were killed, +and the whole country was laid waste, so that none of them might find +shelter or food in their old homes after the departure of the +English. One thousand of the prisoners were sent to Massachusetts; and +Grandfather allowed his fancy to follow them thither, and tried to give +his auditors an idea of their situation. + +We shall call this passage the story of + +THE ACADIAN EXILES. + +A sad day it was for the poor Acadians when the armed soldiers drove +them, at the point of the bayonet, down to the sea-shore. Very sad were +they, likewise, while tossing upon the ocean in the crowded transport +vessels. But methinks it must have been sadder still when they were +landed on the Long Wharf in Boston, and left to themselves on a foreign +strand. + +Then, probably, they huddled together and looked into one another's +faces for the comfort which was not there. Hitherto they had been +confined on board of separate vessels, so that they could not tell +whether their relatives and friends were prisoners along with them. +But now, at least, they could tell that many had been left behind or +transported to other regions. + +Now a desolate wife might be heard calling for her husband. He, alas! +had gone, she knew not whither; or perhaps had fled into the woods of +Acadia, and had now returned to weep over the ashes of their dwelling. + +An aged widow was crying out in a querulous, lamentable tone for her +son, whose affectionate toil had supported her for many a. year. He was +not in the crowd of exiles; and what could this aged widow do but sink +down and die? Young men and maidens, whose hearts had been torn asunder +by separation, had hoped, during the voyage, to meet their beloved ones +at its close. Now they began to feel that they were separated forever. +And perhaps a lonesome little girl, a golden-haired child of five years +old, the very picture of our little Alice, was weeping and wailing for +her mother, and found not a soul to give her a kind word. + +Oh, how many broken bonds of affection were here! Country lost,--friends +lost,--their rural wealth of cottage, field, and herds all lost +together! Every tie between these poor exiles and the world seemed to be +cut off at once. They must have regretted that they had not died before +their exile; for even the English would not have been so pitiless as +to deny them graves in their native soil. The dead were happy; for they +were not exiles! + +While they thus stood upon the wharf, the curiosity and inquisitiveness +of the New England people would naturally lead them into the midst of +the poor Acadians. Prying busybodies thrust their heads into the circle +wherever two or three of the exiles were conversing together. How +puzzled did they look at the outlandish sound of the French tongue! +There were seen the New England women, too. They had just come out of +their warm, safe homes, where everything was regular and comfortable, +and where their husbands and children would be with them at nightfall. +Surely they could pity the wretched wives and mothers of Acadia! Or aid +the sign of the cross which the Acadians continually made upon their +breasts, and which was abhorred by the descendants of the Puritans,--did +that sign exclude all pity? + +Among the spectators, too, was the noisy brood of Boston school-boys, +who came running, with laughter and shouts, to gaze at this crowd of +oddly dressed foreigners. At first they danced and capered around them, +full of merriment and mischief. But the despair of the Acadians soon +had its effect upon these thoughtless lads, and melted them into tearful +sympathy. + +At a little distance from the throng might be seen the wealthy and +pompous merchants whose warehouses stood on Long Wharf. It was difficult +to touch these rich men's hearts; for they had all the comforts of the +world at their command; and when they walked abroad their feelings were +seldom moved, except by the roughness of the pavement irritating their +gouty toes. Leaning upon their gold-headed canes, they watched the scene +with an aspect of composure. But let us hype they distributed some of +their superfluous coin among these hapless exiles to purchase food and a +night's lodging. + +After standing a long time at the end of the wharf, gazing seaward, as +if to catch a glimpse of their lost Acadia, the strangers began to stray +into the town. + +They went, we will suppose, in parties and groups, here a hundred, there +a score, there ten, there three or four, who possessed some bond of +unity among themselves. Here and there was one who, utterly desolate, +stole away by himself, seeking no companionship. + +Whither did they go? I imagine them wandering about the streets, telling +the townspeople, in outlandish, unintelligible words, that no earthly +affliction ever equalled what had befallen them. Man's brotherhood with +man was sufficient to make the New-Englanders understand this language. +The strangers wanted food. Some of them sought hospitality at the doors +of the stately mansions which then stood in the vicinity of Hanover +Street and the North Square. Others were applicants at the humble wooden +tenements, where dwelt the petty shopkeepers and mechanics. Pray Heaven +that no family in Boston turned one of these poor exiles from their +door! It would be a reproach upon New England,--a crime worthy of heavy +retribution,--if the aged women and children, or even the strong men, +were allowed to feel the pinch of hunger. + +Perhaps some of the Acadians, in their aimless wanderings through the +town, found themselves near a large brick edifice, which was fenced in +from the street by an iron railing, wrought with fantastic figures. They +saw a flight of red freestone steps ascending to a portal, above which +was a balcony and balustrade. Misery and desolation give men the right +of free passage everywhere. Let us suppose, then, that they mounted the +flight of steps and passed into the Province House. Making their way +into one of the apartments, they beheld a richly-clad gentleman, seated +in a stately chair, with gilding upon the carved work of its back, and a +gilded lion's head at the summit. This was Governor Shirley, meditating +upon matters of war and state, in Grandfather's chair! + +If such an incident did happen, Shirley, reflecting what a ruin of +peaceful and humble hopes had been wrought by the cold policy of the +statesman and the iron band of the warrior, might have drawn a deep +moral from it. It should have taught him that the poor man's hearth +is sacred, and that armies and nations have no right to violate it. It +should have made him feel that England's triumph and increased dominion +could not compensate to mankind nor atone to Heaven for the ashes of a +single Acadian cottage. But it is not thus that statesmen and warriors +moralize. + +"Grandfather," cried Laurence, with emotion trembling in his voice, +"did iron-hearted War itself ever do so hard and cruel a thing as this +before?" + +"You have read in history, Laurence, of whole regions wantonly laid +waste," said Grandfather. "In the removal of the Acadians, the troops +were guilty of no cruelty or outrage, except what was inseparable from +the measure." + +Little Alice, whose eyes had all along been brimming full of tears, now +burst forth a-sobbing; for Grandfather had touched her sympathies more +than he intended. + +"To think of a whole people homeless in the world!" said Clara, with +moistened eyes. "There never was anything so sad!" + +"It was their own fault!" cried Charley, energetically. "Why did not +they fight for the country where they were born? Then, if the worst had +happened to them, they could only have been killed and buried there. +They would not have been exiles then." + +"Certainly their lot was as hard as death," said Grandfather. "All that +could be done for them in the English provinces was, to send them to the +almshouses, or bind them out to taskmasters. And this was the fate +of persons who had possessed a comfortable property in their native +country. Some of them found means to embark for France; but though it +was the land of their forefathers, it must have been a foreign land to +them. Those who remained behind always cherished a belief that the King +of France would never make peace with England till his poor Acadians +were restored to their country and their homes." + +"And did he?" inquired Clara. + +"Alas! my dear Clara," said Grandfather, "it is improbable that the +slightest whisper of the woes of Acadia ever reached the ears of Louis +XV. The exiles grew old in the British provinces, and never saw +Acadia again. Their descendants remain among us to this day. They +have forgotten the language of their ancestors, and probably retain no +tradition of their misfortunes. But, methinks, if I were an American +poet, I would choose Acadia for the subject of my song." + +Since Grandfather first spoke these words, the most famous of American +poets has drawn sweet tears from all of us by his beautiful poem +Evangeline. + +And now, having thrown a gentle gloom around the Thanksgiving fireside +by a story that made the children feel the blessing of a secure and +peaceful hearth, Grandfather put off the other events of the old French +War till the next evening. + + + +CHAPTER IX. THE END OF THE WAR. + +IN the twilight of the succeeding eve, when the red beams of the fire +were dancing upon the wall, the children besought Grandfather to tell +them what had next happened to the old chair. + +"Our chair," said Grandfather, "stood all this time in the Province +House. But Governor Shirley had seldom an opportunity to repose within +its arms. He was leading his troops through the forest, or sailing in +a flat-boat on Lake Ontario, or sleeping in his tent, while the awful +cataract of Niagara sent its roar through his dreams. At one period, +in the early part of the war, Shirley had the chief command of all the +king's forces in America." + +"Did his young wife go with him to the war?" asked Clara. + +"I rather imagine," replied Grandfather, "that she remained in Boston. +This lady, I suppose, had our chair all to herself, and used to sit in +it during those brief intervals when a young Frenchwoman can be quiet +enough to sit in a chair. The people of Massachusetts were never fond +of Governor Shirley's young French wife. They had a suspicion that she +betrayed the military plans of the English to the generals of the French +armies." + +"And was it true?" inquired Clara. + +"Probably not," said Grandfather. "But the mere suspicion did Shirley a +great deal of harm. Partly, perhaps, for this reason, but much more on +account of his inefficiency as a general, he was deprived of his command +in 1756, and recalled to England. He never afterwards made any figure in +public life." + +As Grandfather's chair had no locomotive properties, and did not even +run on castors, it cannot be supposed to have marched in person to the +old French War. But Grandfather delayed its momentous history while he +touched briefly upon some of the bloody battles, sieges, and onslaughts, +the tidings of which kept continually coming to the ears of the old +inhabitants of Boston. The woods of the North were populous with +fighting men. All the Indian tribes uplifted their tomahawks, and took +part either with the French or English. The rattle of musketry and roar +of cannon disturbed the ancient quiet of the forest, and actually drove +the bears and other wild beasts to the more cultivated portion of the +country in the vicinity of the seaports. The children felt as if they +were transported back to those forgotten times, and that the couriers +from the army, with the news of a battle lost or won, might even now +be heard galloping through the streets. Grandfather told them about +the battle of Lake George in 1755, when the gallant Colonel Williams, +a Massachusetts officer, was slain, with many of his countrymen. But +General Johnson and General Lyman, with their army, drove back the +enemy and mortally wounded the French leader, who was called the +Baron Dieskau. A gold watch, pilfered from the poor baron, is still in +existence, and still marks each moment of time without complaining of +weariness, although its hands have been in motion ever since the hour of +battle. + +In the first years of the war there were many disasters on the English +side. Among these was the loss of Fort Oswego in 1756, and of Fort +William Henry in the following year. But the greatest misfortune that +befell the English during the whole war was the repulse of General +Abercrombie, with his army, from the ramparts of Ticonderoga in 1758. He +attempted to storm the walls; but a terrible conflict ensued, in which +more than two thousand Englishmen and New-Englanders were killed or +wounded. The slain soldiers now lie buried around that ancient fortress. +When the plough passes over the soil, it turns up here and there a +mouldering bone. + +Up to this period, none of the English generals had shown any military +talent. Shirley, the Earl of Loudon, and General Abercrombie had each +held the chief command at different times; but not one of them had won a +single important triumph for the British arms. This ill success was not +owing to the want of means: for, in 1758, General Abercrombie had fifty +thousand soldiers under his command. But the French general, the famous +Marquis de Montcalm, possessed a great genius for war, and had something +within him that taught him how battles were to be won. + +At length, in 1759, Sir Jeffrey Amherst was appointed commander-in-chief +of all the British forces in America. He was a man of ability and a +skilful soldier. A plan was now formed for accomplishing that object +which had so long been the darling wish of the New-Englanders, and which +their fathers had so many times attempted. This was the conquest of +Canada. + +Three separate armies were to enter Canada from different quarters. +One of the three, commanded by General Prideaux, was to embark on Lake +Ontario and proceed to Montreal. The second, at the head of which +was Sir Jeffrey Amherst himself, was destined to reach the river St. +Lawrence by the way of Lake Champlain, and then go down the river to +meet the third army. This last, led by General Wolfe, was to enter the +St. Lawrence from the sea and ascend the river to Quebec. It is to Wolfe +and his army that England owes one of the most splendid triumphs ever +written in her history. + +Grandfather described the siege of Quebec, and told how Wolfe led his +soldiers up a rugged and lofty precipice, that rose from the shore of +the river to the plain on which the city stood. This bold adventure was +achieved in the darkness of night. At daybreak tidings were carried to +the Marquis de Montcalm that the English army was waiting to give him +battle on the Plains of Abraham. This brave French general ordered his +drums to strike up, and immediately marched to encounter Wolfe. + +He marched to his own death. The battle was the most fierce and terrible +that had ever been fought in America. General Wolfe was at the head +of his soldiers, and, while encouraging them onward, received a mortal +wound. He reclined against a stone in the agonies of death; but it +seemed as if his spirit could not pass away while the fight yet raged so +doubtfully. Suddenly a shout came pealing across the battle-field. "They +flee! they flee!" and, for a moment, Wolfe lifted his languid head. "Who +flee?" he inquired. + +"The French," replied an officer. "Then I die satisfied!" said Wolfe, +and expired in the arms of victory. + +"If ever a warrior's death were glorious, Wolfe's was so," said +Grandfather; and his eye kindled, though he was a man of peaceful +thoughts and gentle spirit. "His life-blood streamed to baptize the +soil which he had added to the dominion of Britain. His dying breath was +mingled with his army's shout of victory." + +"Oh, it was a good death to die!" cried Charley, with glistening eyes. +"Was it not a good death, Laurence?" + +Laurence made no reply; for his heart burned within him, as the picture +of Wolfe, dying on the blood-stained field of victory, arose to his +imagination; and yet he had a deep inward consciousness that, after all, +there was a truer glory than could thus be won. + +"There were other battles in Canada after Wolfe's victory," resumed +Grandfather; "but we may consider the old French War as having +terminated with this great event. The treaty of peace, however, was not +signed until 1763. The terms of the treaty were very disadvantageous +to the French; for all Canada, and all Acadia, and the Island of Cape +Breton,--in short, all the territories that France and England had been +fighting about for nearly a hundred years,--were surrendered to the +English." + +"So now, at last," said Laurence, "New England had gained her wish. +Canada was taken." + +"And now there was nobody to fight with but the Indians," said Charley. + +Grandfather mentioned two other important events. The first was the +great fire of Boston in 1760, when the glare from nearly three hundred +buildings, all in flames at once, shone through the windows of the +Province House, and threw a fierce lustre upon the gilded foliage and +lion's head of our old chair. The second event was the proclamation, in +the same year, of George III. as King of Great Britain. The blast of the +trumpet sounded from the balcony of the Town House, and awoke the echoes +far and wide, as if to challenge all mankind to dispute King George's +title. + +Seven times, as the successive monarchs of Britain ascended the throne, +the trumpet peal of proclamation had been heard by those who sat in our +venerable chair. But when the next king put on his father's crown, no +trumpet peal proclaimed it to New England. Long before that day America +had shaken off the royal government. + + + +CHAPTER X. THOMAS HUTCHINSON. + +NOW THAT Grandfather had fought through the old French War, in which our +chair made no very distinguished figure, he thought it high time to tell +the children some of the more private history of that praiseworthy old +piece of furniture. + +"In 1757," said Grandfather, "after Shirley had been summoned to +England, Thomas Pownall was appointed governor of Massachusetts. He was +a gay and fashionable English gentleman, who had spent much of his life +in London, but had a considerable acquaintance with America. The new +governor appears to have taken no active part in the war that was going +on; although, at one period, he talked of marching against the enemy +at the head of his company of cadets. But, on the whole, he probably +concluded that it was more befitting a governor to remain quietly in our +chair, reading the newspapers and official documents." + +"Did the people like Pownall?" asked Charley. + +"They found no fault with him," replied Grandfather. "It was no time to +quarrel with the governor when the utmost harmony was required in order +to defend the country against the French. But Pownall did not remain +long in Massachusetts. In 1759 he was sent to be governor of South +Carolina. In thus exchanging one government for another, I suppose he +felt no regret, except at the necessity of leaving Grandfather's chair +behind him." + +"He might have taken it to South Carolina," observed Clara. + +"It appears to me," said Laurence, giving the rein to his fancy, "that +the fate of this ancient chair was, somehow or other, mysteriously +connected with the fortunes of old Massachusetts. If Governor Pownall +had put it aboard the vessel in which he sailed for South Carolina, she +would probably have lain wind-bound in Boston Harbor. It was +ordained that the chair should not be taken away. Don't you think so, +Grandfather?" + +"It was kept here for Grandfather and me to sit in together," said +little Alice, "and for Grandfather to tell stories about." + +"And Grandfather is very glad of such a companion and such a theme," +said the old gentleman, with a smile. "Well, Laurence, if our oaken +chair, like the wooden palladium of Troy, was connected with the +country's fate, yet there appears to have been no supernatural obstacle +to its removal from the Province House. In 1760 Sir Francis Bernard, who +had been' governor of New Jersey, was appointed to the same office in +Massachusetts. He looked at the old chair, and thought it quite +too shabby to keep company with a new set of mahogany chairs and an +aristocratic sofa which had just arrived from London. He therefore +ordered it to be put away in the garret." + +The children were loud in their exclamations against this irreverent +conduct of Sir Francis Bernard. But Grandfather defended him as well as +he could. He observed that it was then thirty years since the chair had +been beautified by Governor Belcher. Most of the gilding was worn off +by the frequent scourings which it had undergone beneath the hands of a +black slave. The damask cushion, once so splendid, was now squeezed +out of all shape, and absolutely in tatters, so many were the ponderous +gentlemen who had deposited their weight upon it during these thirty +years. + +Moreover, at a council held by the Earl of Loudon with the governors of +New England in 1757, his lordship, in a moment of passion, had +kicked over the chair with his military boot. By this unprovoked and +unjustifiable act, our venerable friend had suffered a fracture of one +of its rungs. + +"But," said Grandfather, "our chair, after all, was not destined to +spend the remainder of its days in the inglorious obscurity of a garret. +Thomas Hutchinson, Lieutenant-governor of the province, was told of +Sir Francis Bernard's design. This gentleman was more familiar with +the history of New England than any other man alive. He knew all the +adventures and vicissitudes through which the old chair had passed, +and could have told as accurately as your own Grandfather who were the +personages that had occupied it. Often, while visiting at the Province +House, he had eyed the chair with admiration, and felt a longing desire +to become the possessor of it. He now waited upon Sir Francis Bernard, +and easily obtained leave to carry it home." + +"And I hope," said Clara, "he had it varnished and gilded anew." + +"No," answered Grandfather. "What Mr. Hutchinson desired was, to restore +the chair as much as possible to its original aspect, such as it had +appeared when it was first made out of the Earl of Lincoln's oak-tree. +For this purpose he ordered it to be well scoured with soap and sand +and polished with wax, and then provided it with a substantial leather +cush-ion. When all was completed to his mind he sat down in the old +chair, and began to write his History of Massachusetts." + +"Oh, that was a bright thought in Mr. Hutchinson," exclaimed Laurence. +"And no doubt the dim figures of the former possessors of the chair +flitted around him as he wrote, and inspired him with a knowledge of all +that they had done and suffered while on earth." + +"Why, my dear Laurence," replied Grandfather, smiling, "if Mr. +Hutchinson was favored with ally such extraordinary inspiration, he made +but a poor use of it in his history; for a duller piece of composition +never came from any man's pen. However, he was accurate, at least, +though far from possessing the brilliancy or philosophy of Mr. +Bancroft." + +"But if Hutchinson knew the history of the chair," rejoined Laurence, +"his heart must have been stirred by it." + +"It must, indeed," said Grandfather. "It would be entertaining and +instructive, at the present day, to imagine what were Mr. Hutchinson's +thoughts as he looked back upon the long vista of events with which this +chair was so remarkably connected." + +And Grandfather allowed his fancy to shape out an image of +Lieutenant-Governor Hutchinson, sitting in an evening reverie by his +fireside, and meditating on the changes that had slowly passed around +the chair. + +A devoted Monarchist, Hutchinson would heave no sigh for the subversion +of the original republican government, the purest that the world had +seen, with which the colony began its existence. While reverencing the +grim and stern old Puritans as the founders of his native land, he would +not wish to recall them from their graves, nor to awaken again that +king-resisting spirit which he imagined to be laid asleep with +them forever. Winthrop, Dudley, Bellingham, Endicott, Leverett, and +Bradstreet,--all these had had their day. Ages might come and go, but +never again would the people's suffrages place a republican governor in +their ancient chair of state. + +Coming down to the epoch of the second charter, Hutchinson thought of +the ship-carpenter Phips springing from the lowest of the people and +attaining to the loftiest station in the land. But he smiled to perceive +that this governor's example would awaken no turbulent ambition in the +lower orders; for it was a king's gracious boon alone that made the +ship-carpenter a ruler. Hutchinson rejoiced to mark the gradual growth +of an aristocratic class, to whom the common people, as in duty bound, +were learning humbly to resign the honors, emoluments, and authority of +state. He saw--or else deceived himself--that, throughout this epoch, +the people's disposition to self-government had been growing weaker +through long disuse, and now existed only as a faint traditionary +feeling. + +The lieutenant-governor's reverie had now come down to the period at +which he himself was sitting in the historic chair. He endeavored to +throw his glance forward over the coming years. There, probably, he saw +visions of hereditary rank for himself and other aristocratic colonists. +He saw the fertile fields of New England proportioned out among a +few great landholders, and descending by entail from generation to +generation. He saw the people a race of tenantry, dependent on their +lords. He saw stars, garters, coronets, and castles. + +"But," added Grandfather, turning to Laurence, "the +lieutenant-governor's castles were built nowhere but among the red +embers of the fire before which he was sitting. And, just as he had +constructed a baronial residence for himself and his posterity, the fire +rolled down upon the hearth and crumbled it to ashes!" + +Grandfather now looked at his watch, which hung within a beautiful +little ebony temple, supported by four Ionic columns. He then laid his +hand on the golden locks of little Alice, whose head had sunk down upon +the arm of our illustrious chair. + +"To bed, to bed, dear child!" said he. "Grandfather has put you to sleep +already by his stories about these FAMOUS OLD PEOPLE." + + + + +APPENDIX TO PART II. + +ACCOUNT OF THE DEPORTATION OF THE ACADIANS. + +FROM "HALIBURTON'S HISTORICAL AND STATISTICAL ACCOUNT OF NOVA SCOTIA." + +AT a consultation, held between Colonel Winslow and Captain Murray, [of +the New England forces, charged with the duty of exiling the Acadians,] +it was agreed that a proclamation should be issued at the different +settlements, requiring the attendance of the people at the respective +posts on the same day; which proclamation should be so ambiguous in +its nature that the object for which they were to assemble could not +be discerned, and so peremptory in its terms as to ensure implicit +obedience. This instrument, having been drafted and approved, was +distributed according to the original plan. That which was addressed +to the people inhabiting the country now comprised within the limits of +King's County, was as follows:-- + +"To the inhabitants of the District of Grand Pre, Minas, River Canard, +&c.; as well ancient, as young men and lads: + +"Whereas, his Excellency the Governor has instructed us of his late +resolution, respecting the matter proposed to the inhabitants, and +has ordered us to communicate the same in person, his Excellency being +desirous that each of them should be fully satisfied of his Majesty's +intentions, which he has also ordered us to communicate to you, such as +they have been given to him. We, therefore, order and strictly enjoin, +by these presents, all of the inhabitants, as well of the above-named +district as of all the other Districts, both old men and young men, as +well as all the lads of ten years of age, to attend at the Church at +Grand Pre, on Friday, the fifth instant, at three of the clock in the +afternoon, that we may impart to them what we are ordered to communicate +to them; declaring that no excuse will be admitted on any pretence +whatever, on pain of forfeiting goods and chattels, in default of real +estate. Given at Grand Pre, 2d September, 1755, and 29th year of his +Majesty's Reign. + +"John Winslow." + +In obedience to this summons four hundred and eighteen able-bodied men +assembled. These being shut into the church (for that, too, had become +an arsenal), Colonel Winslow placed himself, with his officers, in the +centre, and addressed them thus:-- + +"GENTLEMEN: + +"I have received from his Excellency Governor Lawrence, the King's +Commission, which I have in my hand; and by his orders you are convened +together to manifest to you, his Majesty's final resolution to the +French inhabitants of this his Province of Nova-Scotia; who, for almost +half a century, have had more indulgence granted them than any of his +subjects in any part of his dominions; what use you have made of it you +yourselves best know. The part of duty I am now upon, though necessary, +is very disagreeable to my natural make and temper, as I know it must be +grievous to you, who are of the same species; but it is not my business +to animadvert but to obey such orders as I receive, and therefore, +without hesitation, shall deliver you his Majesty's orders and +instructions, namely--that your lands and tenements, cattle of all kinds +and live stock of all sorts, are forfeited to the Crown; with all other +your effects, saving your money and household goods, and you yourselves +to be removed from this his Province. + +"Thus it is peremptorily his Majesty's orders that the whole French +inhabitants of these Districts be removed; and I am, through his +Majesty's goodness, directed to allow you liberty to carry off your +money and household goods, as many as you can without discommoding the +vessels you go in. I shall do everything in my power that all those +goods be secured to you, and that you are not molested in carrying them +off; also, that whole families shall go in the same vessel, and make +this remove, which I am sensible must give you a great deal of trouble, +as easy as his Majesty's service will admit; and hope that, in whatever +part of the world you may fall, you may be faithful subjects, a +peaceable and happy people. I must also inform you, that it is his +Majesty's pleasure that you remain in security under the inspection and +direction of the troops that I have the honor to command." + +And he then declared them the King's prisoners. The whole number of +persons collected at Grand Pre finally amounted to four hundred and +eighty-three men, and three hundred and thirty-seven women, heads of +families; and their sons and daughters, to five hundred and twenty-seven +of the former, and five hundred and seventy-six of the latter; making in +the whole one thousand nine hundred and twenty-three souls. Their stock +consisted of one thousand two hundred and sixty-nine oxen, one thousand +five hundred and fifty-seven cows, five thousand and seven young cattle, +four hundred and ninety-three horses, eight thousand six hundred and +ninety sheep, and four thousand one hundred and ninety-seven hogs. As +some of these wretched inhabitants escaped to the woods, all possible +measures were adopted to force them back to captivity. The country was +laid waste to prevent their subsistence. In the District of Minas alone, +there were destroyed two hundred and fifty-five houses, two hundred and +seventy-six barns, one hundred and fifty-five outhouses, eleven mills, +and one church; and the friends of those who refused to surrender were +threatened as the victims of their obstinacy. + +In short, so operative were the terrors that surrounded them, that of +twenty-four young men, who deserted from a transport, twenty-two were +glad to return of themselves, the others being shot by sentinels; and +one of their friends, who was supposed to have been accessory to their +escape, was carried on shore to behold the destruction of his house +and effects, which were burned in his presence, as a punishment for his +temerity and perfidious aid to his comrades. The prisoners expressed the +greatest concern at having incurred his Majesty's displeasure, and in a +petition addressed to Colonel Winslow intreated him to detain a part of +them as sureties for the appearance of the rest, who were desirous +of visiting their families, and consoling them in their distress and +misfortunes. To comply with this request of holding a few as hostages +for the surrender of the whole body, was deemed inconsistent with his +instructions; but, as there could be no objection to allow a small +number of them to return to their homes, permission was given to them to +choose ten for the District of Minas (Horton) and ten for the District +of Canard (Cornwallis) to whom leave of absence was given for one day, +and on whose return a similar number were indulged in the same manner. +They bore their confinement, and received their sentence with a +fortitude and resignation altogether unexpected; but when the hour +of embarkation arrived, in which they were to leave the land of their +nativity forever--to part with their friends and relatives, without the +hope of ever seeing them again, and to be dispersed among strangers, +whose language, customs and religion were opposed to their own, the +weakness of human nature prevailed, and they were overpowered with the +sense of their miseries. The preparations having been all completed, the +10th of September was fixed upon as the day of departure. The prisoners +were drawn up six deep, and the young men, one hundred and sixty-one +in number, were ordered to go first on board of the vessels. This they +instantly and peremptorily refused to do, declaring that they would +not leave their parents; but expressed a willingness to comply with the +order, provided they were permitted to embark with their families. This +request was immediately rejected, and the troops were ordered to fix +bayonets and advance towards the prisoners, a motion which had the +effect of producing obedience on the part of the young men, who +forthwith commenced their march. The road from the chapel to the shore, +just one mile in length, was crowded with women and children; who, on +their knees, greeted them as they passed with their tears and their +blessings, while the prisoners advanced with slow and reluctant steps, +weeping, praying, and singing hymns. This detachment was followed by the +seniors, who passed through the same scene of sorrow and distress. In +this manner was the whole male part of the population of the District +of Minas put on board the five transports, stationed in the river +Gaspereaux, each vessel being guarded by six non-commissioned officers, +and eighty privates. As soon as the other vessels arrived, their wives +and children followed, and the whole were transported from Nova Scotia. +The haste with which these measures were carried into execution did not +admit of those preparations for their comfort, which, if unmerited by +their disloyalty, were at least due in pity to the severity of their +punishment. The hurry, confusion, and excitement connected with the +embarkation had scarcely subsided, when the Provincials were appalled +by the work of their own hands The novelty and peculiarity of their +situation could not but force itself upon the attention of even the +unreflecting soldiery; stationed in the midst of a beautiful and fertile +country, they suddenly found themselves without a foe to subdue, and +without a population to protect. The volumes of smoke which the half +expiring embers emitted, while they marked the site of the peasant's +humble cottage, bore testimony to the extent of the work of destruction. +For several successive evenings the cattle assembled round the +smouldering ruins, as if in anxious expectation of the return of their +masters, while all night long the faithful watchdogs of the Neutrals +howled over the scene of desolation, and mourned alike the hand that had +fed, and the house that had sheltered them. + + + + +PART III. 1763-1803. + + + +CHAPTER I. A NEW-YEAR'S DAY. + +ON THE evening of New-Year's Day Grandfather was walking to and fro +across the carpet, listening to the rain which beat hard against the +curtained windows. The riotous blast shook the casement as if a strong +man were striving to force his entrance into the comfortable room. With +every puff of the wind the fire leaped upward from the hearth, laughing +and rejoicing at the shrieks of the wintry storm. + +Meanwhile Grandfather's chair stood in its customary place by the +fireside. The bright blaze gleamed upon the fantastic figures of its +oaken back, and shone through the open work, so that a complete pattern +was thrown upon the opposite side of the room. Sometimes, for a moment +or two, the shadow remained immovable, as if it were painted on the +wall. Then all at once it began to quiver, and leap, and dance with a +frisky motion. Anon, seeming to remember that these antics were unworthy +of such a dignified and venerable chair, it suddenly stood still. But +soon it began to dance anew. + +"Only see how Grandfather's chair is dancing!" cried little Alice. + +And she ran to the wall and tried to catch hold of the flickering +shadow; for, to children of five years old, a shadow seems almost as +real as a substance. + +"I wish," said Clara, "Grandfather would sit down in the chair and +finish its history." + +If the children had been looking at Grandfather, they would have noticed +that he paused in his walk across the room when Clara made this remark. +The kind old gentleman was ready and willing to resume his stories of +departed times. But he had resolved to wait till his auditors should +request him to proceed, in order that they might find the instructive +history of the chair a pleasure, and not a task. + +"Grandfather," said Charley, "I am tired to death of this dismal rain +and of hearing the wind roar in the chimney. I have had no good time +all day. It would be better to hear stories about the chair than to sit +doing nothing and thinking of nothing." + +To say the truth, our friend Charley was very much out of humor with the +storm, because it had kept him all day within doors, and hindered him +from making a trial of a splendid sled, which Grandfather had given him +for a New-Year's gift. As all sleds, nowadays, must have a name, the +one in question had been honored with the title of Grandfather's chair, +which was painted in golden letters on each of the sides. Charley +greatly admired the construction of the new vehicle, and felt certain +that it would outstrip any other sled that ever dashed adown the long +slopes of the Common. + +As for Laurence, he happened to be thinking, just at this moment, about +the history of the chair. Kind old Grandfather had made him a present of +a volume of engraved portraits, representing the features of eminent and +famous people o f all countries. Among them Laurence found several who +had formerly occupied our chair or been connected with its adventures. +While Grandfather walked to and fro across the room, the imaginative +boy was gazing at the historic chair. He endeavored to summon up the +por-traits which he had seen in his volume, and to place them, like +living figures, in the empty seat. + +"The old chair has begun another year of its existence, to-day," said +Laurence. "We must make haste, or it will have a new history to be told +before we finish the old one." + +"Yes, my children," replied Grandfather, with a smile and a sigh, +"another year has been added to those of the two centuries and upward +which have passed since the Lady Arbella brought this chair over from +England. It is three times as old as your Grandfather; but a year makes +no impression on its oaken frame, while it bends the old man nearer and +nearer to the earth; so let me go on with my stories while I may." + +Accordingly Grandfather came to the fireside and seated himself in the +venerable chair. The lion's head looked down with a grimly good-natured +aspect as the children clustered around the old gentleman's knees. It +almost seemed as if a real lion were peeping over the back of the +chair, and smiling at the group of auditors with a sort of lion-like +complaisance. Little Alice, whose fancy often inspired her with singular +ideas, exclaimed that the lion's head was nodding at her, and that it +looked as if it were going to open its wide jaws and tell a story. + +But as the lion's head appeared to be in no haste to speak, and as +there was no record or tradition of its having spoken during the whole +existence of the chair, Grandfather did not consider it worth while to +wait. + + + +CHAPTER II. THE STAMP ACT. + +"CHARLEY, my boy," said Grandfather, "do you remember who was the last +occupant of the chair?" + +"It was Lieutenant-Governor Hutchinson," answered Charley. "Sir Francis +Bernard, the new governor, had given him the chair, instead of putting +it away in the garret of the Province House. And when we took leave +of Hutchinson he was sitting by his fireside, and thinking of the past +adventures of the chair and of what was to come." + +"Very well," said Grandfather; "and you recollect that this was in 1763, +or thereabouts, at the close of the old French War. Now, that you may +fully comprehend the remaining adventures of the chair, I must make some +brief remarks on the situation and character of the New England colonies +at this period." + +So Grandfather spoke of the earnest loyalty of our fathers during the +old French War, and after the conquest of Canada had brought that war to +a triumphant close. + +The people loved and reverenced the King of England even more than if +the ocean had not rolled its waves between him and them; for, at the +distance of three thousand miles, they could not discover his bad +qualities and imperfections. Their love was increased by the dangers +which they had encountered in order to heighten his glory and extend his +dominion. Throughout the war the American colonists had fought side by +side with the soldiers of Old England; and nearly thirty thousand young +men had laid down their lives for the honor of King George. And the +survivors loved him the better because they had done and suffered so +much for his sake. + +But there were some circumstances that caused America to feel more +independent of England than at an earlier period. Canada and Acadia had +now become British provinces; and our fathers were no longer afraid of +the bands of French and Indians who used to assault them in old times. +For a century and a half this had been the great terror of New England. +Now the old French soldier was driven from the North forever. And even +had it been otherwise, the English colonies were growing so populous +and powerful that they might have felt fully able to protect themselves +without any help from England. + +There were thoughtful and sagacious men, who began to doubt whether a +great country like America would always be content to remain under the +government of an island three thousand miles away. This was the more +doubtful, because the English Parliament had long ago made laws which +were intended to be very beneficial to England at the expense of +America. By these laws the colonists were forbidden to manufacture +articles for their own use, or to carry on trade with any nation but the +English. + +"Now," continued Grandfather, "if King George III. and his counsellors +had considered these things wisely, they would have taken another course +than they did. But when they saw how rich and populous the colonies had +grown, their first thought was how they might make more profit out of +them than heretofore. England was enormously in debt at the close of the +old French War; and it was pretended that this debt had been contracted +for the defence of the American colonies, and that, therefore, a part of +it ought to be paid by them." + +"Why, this was nonsense!" exclaimed Charley. "Did not our fathers spend +their lives, and their money too, to get Canada for King George?" + +"True, they did," said Grandfather; "and they told the English rulers +so. But the king and his ministers would not listen to good advice. In +1765 the British Parliament passed a Stamp Act." + +"What was that?" inquired Charley. + +"The Stamp Act," replied Grandfather, "was a law by which all deeds, +bonds, and other papers of the same kind were ordered to be marked with +the king's stamp; and without this mark they were declared illegal and +void. Now, in order to get a blank sheet of paper with the king's stamp +upon it, people were obliged to pay threepence more than the actual +value of the paper. And this extra sum of threepence was a tax, and was +to be paid into the king's treasury." + +"I am sure threepence was not worth quarrelling about!" remarked Clara. + +"It was not for threepence, nor for any amount of money, that America +quarrelled with England," replied Grandfather; "it was for a great +principle. The colonists were determined not to be taxed except by their +own representatives. They said that neither the king and Parliament, nor +any other power on earth, had a right to take their money out of their +pockets unless they freely gave it. And, rather than pay threepence when +it was unjustly demanded, they resolved to sacrifice all the wealth of +the country, and their lives along with it. They therefore made a most +stubborn resistance to the Stamp Act." + +"That was noble!" exclaimed Laurence. "I understand how it was. If they +had quietly paid the tax of threepence, they would have ceased to be +freemen, and would have become tributaries of England. And so they +contended about a great question of right and wrong, and put everything +at stake for it." + +"You are right, Laurence," said Grandfather, "and it was really amazing +and terrible to see what a change came over the aspect of the people the +moment the English Parliament had passed this oppressive act. The former +history of our chair, my children, has given you some idea of what a +harsh, unyielding, stern set of men the old Puritans were. For a good +many years back, however, it had seemed as if these characteristics were +disappearing. But no sooner did England offer wrong to the colonies than +the descendants of the early settlers proved that they had the same kind +of temper as their forefathers. The moment before, New England appeared +like a humble and loyal subject of the crown; the next instant, she +showed the grim, dark features of an old king-resisting Puritan." + +Grandfather spoke briefly of the public measures that were taken in +opposition to the Stamp Act. As this law affected all the American +colonies alike, it naturally led them to think of consulting together +is order to procure its repeal. For this purpose the Legislature of +Massachusetts proposed that delegates from every colony should meet in +Congress. Accordingly nine colonies, both Northern and Southern, sent +delegates to the city of New York. + +"And did they consult about going to war with England?" asked Charley. + +"No, Charley," answered Grandfather; "a great deal of talking was yet +to be done before England and America could come to blows. The Congress +stated the rights and grievances of the colonists. They sent a humble +petition to the king, and a memorial to the Parliament, beseeching that +the Stamp Act might be repealed. This was all that the delegates had it +in their power to do." + +"They might as well have stayed at home, then," said Charley. + +"By no means," replied Grandfather. "It was a most important and +memorable event, this first coming together of the American people by +their representatives from the North and South. If England had been +wise, she would have trembled at the first word that was spoken in such +an assembly." + +These remonstrances and petitions, as Grandfather observed, were the +work of grave, thoughtful, and prudent men. Meantime the young and +hot-headed people went to work in their own way. It is probable that the +petitions of Congress would have had little or no effect on the British +statesmen if the violent deeds of the American people had not shown how +much excited the people were. LIBERTY TREE was soon heard of in England. + +"What was Liberty Tree?" inquired Clara. + +"It was an old elm-tree," answered Grandfather, "which stood near +the corner of Essex Street, opposite the Boylston Market. Under the +spreading branches of this great tree the people used to assemble +whenever they wished to express their feelings and opinions. Thus, after +a while, it seemed as if the liberty of the country was connected with +Liberty Tree." + +"It was glorious fruit for a tree to bear," remarked Laurence. + +"It bore strange fruit, sometimes," said Grandfather. "One morning in +August, 1765, two figures were found hanging on the sturdy branches +of Liberty Tree. They were dressed in square-skirted coats and +small-clothes; and, as their wigs hung down over their faces, they +looked like real men. One was intended to represent the Earl of Bute, +who was supposed to have advised the king to tax America. The other was +meant for the effigy of Andrew Oliver, a gentleman belonging to one of +the most respectable families in Massachusetts." + +"What harm had he done?" inquired Charley. + +"The king had appointed him to be distributor of the stamps," answered +Grandfather. "Mr. Oliver would have made a great deal of money by +this business. But the people frightened him so much by hanging him in +effigy, and afterwards by breaking into his house, that he promised +to have nothing to do with the stamps. And all the king's friends +throughout America were compelled to make the same promise." + + + +CHAPTER III. THE HUTCHINSON MOB. + +"LIEUTENANT-GOVERNOR HUTCHINSON," continued Grandfather, "now began to +be unquiet in our old chair. He had formerly been much respected and +beloved by the people, and had often proved himself a friend to their +interests. But the time was come when he could not be a friend to +the people without ceasing to be a friend to the king. It was pretty +generally understood that Hutchinson would act according to the king's +wishes, right or wrong, like most of the other gentlemen who held +offices under the crown. Besides, as he was brother-in-law of Andrew +Oliver, the people now felt a particular dislike to him." + +"I should think," said Laurence, "as Mr. Hutchinson had written the +history of our Puritan forefathers, he would have known what the temper +of the people was, and so have taken care not to wrong them." + +"He trusted in the might of the King of England," replied Grandfather, +"and thought himself safe under the shelter of the throne. If no dispute +had arisen between the king and the people, Hutchinson would have had +the character of a wise, good, and patriotic magistrate. But, from the +time that he took part against the rights of his country, the people's +love and respect were turned to scorn and hatred, and he never had +another hour of peace." + +In order to show what a fierce and dangerous spirit was now aroused +among the inhabitants, Grandfather related a passage from history which +we shall call The Hutchinson Mob. + +On the evening of the 26th of August, 1765, a bonfire was kindled in +King Street. It flamed high upward, and threw a ruddy light over the +front of the Town House, on which was displayed a carved representation +of the royal arms. The gilded vane of the cupola glittered in the blaze. +The kindling of this bonfire was the well-known signal for the populace +of Boston to assemble in the street. + +Before the tar-barrels, of which the bonfire was made, were half burned +out, a great crowd had come together. They were chiefly laborers and +seafaring men, together with many young apprentices, and all those idle +people about town who are ready for any kind of mischief. Doubtless some +school-boys were among them. + +While these rough figures stood round the blazing bonfire, you might +hear them speaking bitter words against the high officers of the +province. Governor Bernard, Hutchinson, Oliver, Storey, Hallowell, and +other men whom King George delighted to honor, were reviled as traitors +to the country. Now and then, perhaps, an officer of the crown passed +along the street, wearing the gold-laced hat, white wig, and embroidered +waistcoat which were the fashion of the day. But when the people beheld +him they set up a wild and angry howl; and their faces had an evil +aspect, which was made more terrible by the flickering blaze of the +bonfire. + +"I should like to throw the traitor right into that blaze!" perhaps one +fierce rioter would say. + +"Yes; and all his brethren too!" another might reply; "and the governor +and old Tommy Hutchinson into the hottest of it!" + +"And the Earl of Bute along with them!" muttered a third; "and burn +the whole pack of them under King George's nose! No matter if it singed +him!" + +Some such expressions as these, either shouted aloud or muttered under +the breath, were doubtless heard in King Street. The mob, meanwhile, +were growing fiercer and fiercer, and seemed ready even to set the town +on fire for the sake of burning the king's friends out of house and +home. And yet, angry as they were, they sometimes broke into a loud roar +of laughter, as if mischief and destruction were their sport. + +But we must now leave the rioters for a time, and take a peep into the +lieutenant-governor's splendid mansion. It was a large brick house, +decorated with Ionic pilasters, and stood in Garden Court Street, near +the North Square. + +While the angry mob in King Street were shouting his name, +Lieutenant-Governor Hutchinson sat quietly in Grandfather's chair, +unsuspicious of the evil that was about to fall upon his head. His +beloved family were in the room with him. He had thrown off his +embroidered coat and powdered wig, and had on a loose-flowing gown and +purple-velvet cap. He had likewise laid aside the cares of state and all +the thoughts that had wearied and perplexed him throughout the day. + +Perhaps, in the enjoyment of his home, he had forgotten all about the +Stamp Act, and scarcely remembered that there was a king, across the +ocean, who had resolved to make tributaries of the New-Englanders. +Possibly, too, he had forgotten his own ambition, and would not have +exchanged his situation, at that moment, to be governor, or even a lord. + +The wax candles were now lighted, and showed a handsome room, well +provided with rich furniture. On the walls hung the pictures of +Hutchinson's ancestors, who had been eminent men in their day, and were +honorably remembered in the history of the country. Every object served +to mark the residence of a rich, aristocratic gentleman, who held +himself high above the common people, and could have nothing to fear +from them. In a corner of the room, thrown carelessly upon a chair, were +the scarlet robes of the chief justice. This high office, as well as +those of lieutenant-governor, councillor, and judge of probate, was +filled by Hutchinson. + +Who or what could disturb the domestic quiet of such a great and +powerful personage as now sat in Grandfather's chair? + +The lieutenant-governor's favorite daughter sat by his side. She leaned +on the arm of our great chair, and looked up affectionately into her +father's face, rejoicing to perceive that a quiet smile was on his lips. +But suddenly a shade came across her countenance. She seemed to listen +attentively, as if to catch a distant sound. + +"What is the matter, my child?" inquired Hutchinson. + +"Father, do not you hear a tumult in the streets?" said she. + +The lieutenant-governor listened. But his ears were duller than those +of his daughter; he could hear nothing more terrible than the sound of a +summer breeze, sighing among the tops of the elm-trees. + +"No, foolish child!" he replied, playfully patting her cheek. "There is +no tumult. Our Boston mobs are satisfied with what mischief they have +already done. The king's friends need not tremble." + +So Hutchinson resumed his pleasant and peaceful meditations, and again +forgot that there were any troubles in the world. But his family were +alarmed, and could not help straining their ears to catch the slightest +sound. More and more distinctly they heard shouts, and then the +trampling of many feet. While they were listening, one of the neighbors +rushed breathless into the room. + +"A mob! a terrible mob'!" cried he. "They have broken into Mr. Storey's +house, and into Mr. Hallo-well's, and have made themselves drunk with +the liquors in his cellar; and now they are coming hither, as wild as so +many tigers. Flee, lieutenant-governor, for your life! for your life!" + +"Father, dear father, make haste!" shrieked his children. + +But Hutchinson would not hearken to them. He was an old lawyer; and he +could not realize that the people would do anything so utterly lawless +as to assault him in his peaceful home. He was one of King George's +chief officers and it would be an insult and outrage upon the king +himself if the lieutenant-governor should suffer any wrong. + +"Have no fears on my account," said he, "I am perfectly safe. The king's +name shall be my protection." + +Yet he bade his family retire into one of the neighboring houses. His +daughter would have remained; but he forced her away. + +The huzzas and riotous uproar of the mob were now heard, close at hand. +The sound was terrible, and struck Hutchinson with the same sort of +dread as if an enraged wild beast had broken loose and were roaring +for its prey. He crept softly to the window. There he beheld an immense +concourse of people, filling all the street and rolling onward to his +house. It was like a tempestuous flood, that had swelled beyond its +bounds and would sweep everything before it. Hutchinson trembled; he +felt, at that moment, that the wrath of the people was a thousand-fold +more terrible than the wrath of a king. + +That was a moment when a loyalist and an aristocrat like Hutchinson +might have learned how powerless are kings, nobles, and great men, when +the low and humble range themselves against them. King George could do +nothing for his servant now. Had King George been there he could have +done nothing for himself. If Hutchinson had understood this lesson, and +remembered it, he need not, in after years, have been an exile from his +native country, nor finally have laid his bones in a distant land. + +There was now a rush against the doors of the house. The people sent up +a hoarse cry. At this instant the lieutenant-governor's daughter, whom +he had supposed to be in a place of safety, ran into the room and threw +her arms around him. She had returned by a private entrance. + +"Father, are you mad?" cried she. "Will the king's name protect you now? +Come with me, or they will have your life." + +"True," muttered Hutchinson to himself; "what care these roarers for the +name of king? I must flee, or they will trample me down on the floor of +my own dwelling." + +Hurrying away, he and his daughter made their escape by the private +passage at the moment when the rioters broke into the house. The +foremost of them rushed up the staircase, and entered the room which +Hutchinson had just quitted. There they beheld our good old chair facing +them with quiet dignity, while the lion's head seemed to move its jaws +in the unsteady light of their torches. Perhaps the stately aspect of +our venerable friend, which had stood firm through a century and a half +of trouble, arrested them for an instant. But they were thrust forward +by those behind, and the chair lay overthrown. + +Then began the work of destruction. The carved and polished mahogany +tables were shattered with heavy clubs and hewn to splinters with +axes. The marble hearths and mantel-pieces were broken. The volumes of +Hutchinson's library, so precious to a studious man, were torn out +of their covers, and the leaves sent flying out of the windows. +Manuscripts, containing secrets of our country's history, which are now +lost forever, were scattered to the winds. + +The old ancestral portraits, whose fixed countenances looked down on +the wild scene, were rent from the walls. The mob triumphed in +their downfall and destruction, as if these pictures of Hutchinson's +forefathers had committed the same offences as their descendant. A tall +looking-glass, which had hitherto presented a reflection of the enraged +and drunken multitude, was now smashed into a thousand fragments. We +gladly dismiss the scene from the mirror of our fancy. + +Before morning dawned the walls of the house were all that remained. The +interior was a dismal scene of ruin. A shower pattered in at the +broken windows; and when Hutchinson and his family returned, they stood +shivering in the same room where the last evening had seen them so +peaceful and happy. + +"Grandfather," said Laurence, indignantly, "if the people acted in this +manner, they were not worthy of even so much liberty as the King of +England was willing to allow them." + +"It was a most unjustifiable act, like many other popular movements at +that time," replied Grandfather. "But we must not decide against the +justice of the people's cause merely because an excited mob was guilty +of outrageous violence. Besides, all these things were done in the first +fury of resentment. Afterwards the people grew more calm, and were more +influenced by the counsel of those wise and good men who conducted them +safely and gloriously through the Revolution." + +Little Alice, with tears in her blue eyes, said that she hoped the +neighbors had not let Lieutenant-Governor Hutchinson and his family be +homeless in the street, but had taken them into their houses and been +kind to them. Cousin Clara, recollecting the perilous situation of our +beloved chair, inquired what had become of it. + +"Nothing was heard of our chair for some time afterwards," answered +Grandfather. "One day in September, the same Andrew Oliver, of whom I +before told you, was summoned to appear at high noon under Liberty Tree. +This was the strangest summons that had ever been heard of; for it was +issued in the name of the whole people, who thus took upon themselves +the authority of a sovereign power. Mr. Oliver dared not disobey. +Accordingly, at the appointed hour he went, much against his will, to +Liberty Tree." + +Here Charley interposed a remark that poor Mr. Oliver found but little +liberty under Liberty Tree. Grandfather assented. + +"It was a stormy day," continued he. "The equinoctial gale blew +violently, and scattered the yellow leaves of Liberty Tree all along the +street. Mr. Oliver's wig was dripping with water-drops; and he probably +looked haggard, disconsolate, and humbled to the earth. Beneath the +tree, in Grandfather's chair,--our own venerable chair,--sat Mr. Richard +Dana, a justice of the peace. He administered an oath to Mr. Oliver that +he would never have anything to do with distributing the stamps. A vast +concourse of people heard the oath, and shouted when it was taken." + +"There is something grand in this," said Laurence. "I like it, because +the people seem to have acted with thoughtfulness and dignity; and this +proud gentleman, one of his Majesty's high officers, was made to feel +that King George could not protect him in doing wrong." + +"But it was a sad day for poor Mr. Oliver," observed Grandfather. "From +his youth upward it had probably been the great principle of his life to +be faithful and obedient to the king. And now, in his old age, it must +have puzzled and distracted him to find the sovereign people setting up +a claim to his faith and obedience." + +Grandfather closed the evening's conversation by saying that the +discontent of America was so great, that, in 1766, the British +Parliament was compelled to repeal the Stamp Act. The people made great +rejoicings, but took care to keep Liberty Tree well pruned and free +from caterpillars and canker-worms. They foresaw that there might yet be +occasion for them to assemble under its far-projecting shadow. + + + +CHAPTER IV. THE BRITISH TROOPS IN BOSTON. + +THE NEXT evening, Clara, who remembered that our chair had been left +standing in the rain under Liberty Tree, earnestly besought Grandfather +to tell when and where it had next found shelter. Perhaps she was +afraid that the venerable chair, by being exposed to the inclemency of a +September gale, might get the rheumatism in its aged joints. + +"The chair," said Grandfather, "after the ceremony of Mr. Oliver's oath, +appears to have been quite forgotten by the multitude. Indeed, being +much bruised and rather rickety, owing to the violent treatment it had +suffered from the Hutchinson mob, most people would have thought that +its days of usefulness were over. Nevertheless, it was conveyed away +under cover of the night and committed to the care of a skilful joiner. +He doctored our old friend so successfully, that, in the course of a few +days, it made its appearance in the public room of the British Coffee +Houses in King Street." + +"But why did not Mr. Hutchinson get possession of it again?" inquired +Charley. + +"I know not," answered Grandfather, "unless he considered it a dishonor +and disgrace to the chair to have stood under Liberty Tree. At all +events, he suffered it to remain at the British Coffee House, which +was the principal hotel in Boston. It could not possibly have found a +situation where it would be more in the midst of business and bustle, or +would witness more important events, or be occupied by a greater variety +of persons." + +Grandfather went on to tell the proceedings of the despotic king and +ministry of England after the repeal of the Stamp Act. They could not +bear to think that their right to tax America should be disputed by the +people. In the year 1767, therefore, they caused Parliament to pass +an act for laying a duty on tea and some other articles that were in +general use. Nobody could now buy a pound of tea without paying a tax to +King George. This scheme was pretty craftily contrived; for the women +of America were very fond of tea, and did not like to give up the use of +it. + +But the people were as much opposed to this new act of Parliament as +they had been to the Stamp Act. England, however, was determined that +they should submit. In order to compel their obedience, two regiments, +consisting of more than seven hundred British soldiers, were sent to +Boston. They arrived in September, 1768, and were landed on Long Wharf. +Thence they marched to the Common with loaded muskets, fixed bayonets, +and great pomp and parade. So now, at last, the free town of Boston was +guarded and overawed by redcoats as it had been in the days of old Sir +Edmund Andros. + +In the month of November more regiments arrived. There were now four +thousand troops in Boston. The Common was whitened with their tents. +Some of the soldiers were lodged in Faneuil Hall, which the inhabitants +looked upon as a consecrated place, because it had been the scene of a +great many meetings in favor of liberty. One regiment was placed in the +Town House, which we now call the Old State House. The lower floor of +this edifice had hitherto been used by the merchants as an exchange. In +the upper stories were the chambers of the judges, the representatives, +and the governor's council. The venerable councillors could not assemble +to consult about the welfare of the province without being challenged by +sentinels and passing among the bayonets of the British soldiers. + +Sentinels likewise were posted at the lodgings of the officers in many +parts of the town. When the inhabitants approached they were greeted by +the sharp question, "Who goes there?" while the rattle of the soldier's +musket was heard as he presented it against their breasts. There was +no quiet even on the sabbath day. The quiet descendants of the Puritans +were shocked by the uproar of military music; the drum, fife, and bugle +drowning the holy organ peal and the voices of the singers. It would +appear as if the British took every method to insult the feelings of the +people. + +"Grandfather," cried Charley, impatiently, "the people did not go to +fighting half soon enough! These British redcoats ought to have been +driven back to their vessels the very moment they landed on Long Wharf." + +"Many a hot-headed young man said the same as you do, Charley," answered +Grandfather. "But the elder and wiser people saw that the time was not +yet come. Meanwhile, let us take another peep at our old chair." + +"Ah, it drooped its head, I know," said Charley, "when it saw how the +province was disgraced. Its old Puritan friends never would have borne +such doings." + +"The chair," proceeded Grandfather, "was now continually occupied +by some of the high tories, as the king's friends were called, who +frequented the British Coffee House. Officers of the Custom House, too, +which stood on the opposite side of King Street, often sat in the chair +wagging their tongues against John Hancock." + +"Why against him?" asked Charley. + +"Because he was a great merchant and contended against paying duties to +the king," said Grandfather. + +"Well, frequently, no doubt, the officers of the British regiments, when +not on duty, used to fling themselves into the arms of our venerable +chair. Fancy one of them, a red-nosed captain in his scarlet uniform, +playing with the hilt of his sword, and making a circle of his brother +officers merry with ridiculous jokes at the expense of the poor Yankees. +And perhaps he would call for a bottle of wine, or a steaming bowl of +punch, and drink confusion to all rebels." + +"Our grave old chair must have been scandalized at such scenes," +observed Laurence; "the chair that had been the Lady Arbella's, and +which the holy apostle Eliot had consecrated." + +"It certainly was little less than sacrilege," replied Grandfather; "but +the time was coming when even the churches, where hallowed pastors had +long preached the word of God, were to be torn down or desecrated by +the British troops. Some years passed, however, before such things were +done." + +Grandfather now told his auditors that, in 1769, Sir Francis Bernard +went to England after having been governor of Massachusetts ten years. +He was a gentleman of many good qualities, an excellent scholar, and a +friend to learning. But he was naturally of an arbitrary disposition; +and he had been bred at the University of Oxford, where young men were +taught that the divine right of kings was the only thing to be regarded +in matters of government. Such ideas were ill adapted to please the +people of Massachusetts. They rejoiced to get rid of Sir Francis +Bernard, but liked his successor, Lieutenant-Governor Hutchinson, no +better than himself. + +About this period the people were much incensed at an act committed by a +person who held an office in the Custom House. Some lads, or young men, +were snowballing his windows. He fired a musket at them, and killed a +poor German boy, only eleven years old. This event made a great noise +in town and country, and much increased the resentment that was already +felt against the servants of the crown. + +"Now, children," said Grandfather, "I wish to make you comprehend the +position of the British troops in King Street. This is the same which we +now call State Street. On the south side of the Town House, or Old State +House, was what military men call a court of guard, defended by two +brass cannons, which pointed directly at one of the doors of the above +edifice. A large party of soldiers were always stationed in the court +of guard. The Custom House stood at a little distance down King Street, +nearly where the Suffolk Bank now stands, and a sentinel was continually +pacing before its front." + +"I shall remember this to-morrow," said Charley; "and I will go to State +Street, so as to see exactly where the British troops were stationed." + +"And before long," observed Grandfather, "I shall have to relate an +event which made King Street sadly famous on both sides of the +Atlantic. The history of our chair will soon bring us to this melancholy +business." + +Here Grandfather described the state of things which arose from the ill +will that existed between the inhabitants and the redcoats. The old +and sober part of the townspeople were very angry at the government +for sending soldiers to overawe them. But those gray-headed men were +cautious, and kept their thoughts and feelings in their own breasts, +without putting themselves in the way of the British bayonets. + +The younger people, however, could hardly be kept within such prudent +limits. They reddened with wrath at the very sight of a soldier, and +would have been willing to come to blows with them at any moment. For it +was their opinion that every tap of a British drum, within the peninsula +of Boston was an insult to the brave old town. + +"It was sometimes the case," continued Grandfather, "that affrays +happened between such wild young men as these and small parties of the +soldiers. No weapons had hitherto been used except fists or cudgels. But +when men have loaded muskets in their hands, it is easy to foretell that +they will soon be turned against the bosoms of those who provoke their +anger." + +"Grandfather," said little Alice, looking fearfully into his face, "your +voice sounds as though you were going to tell us something awful!" + + + +CHAPTER V. THE BOSTON MASSACRE. + +LITTLE ALICE, by her last remark, proved herself a good judge of what +was expressed by the tones of Grandfather's voice. He had given the +above description of the enmity between the townspeople and the soldiers +in order to Prepare the minds of his auditors for a very terrible event. +It was one that did more to heighten the quarrel between England and +America than anything that had yet occurred. + +Without further preface, Grandfather began the story of the Boston +Massacre. + +It was now the 8d of March, 1770. The sunset music of the British +regiments was heard as usual throughout the town. The shrill fife and +rattling drum awoke the echoes in King Street, while the last ray of +sunshine was lingering on the cupola of the Town House. And now all the +sentinels were posted. One of them marched up and down before the Custom +House, treading a short path through the snow, and longing for the +time when he would be dismissed to the warm fireside of the guard room. +Meanwhile Captain Preston was, perhaps, sitting in our great chair +before the hearth of the British Coffee House. In the course of the +evening there were two or three slight commotions, which seemed to +indicate that trouble was at hand. Small parties of young men stood at +the corners of the streets or walked along the narrow pavements. Squads +of soldiers who were dismissed from duty passed by them, shoulder to +shoulder, with the regular step which they had learned at the drill. +Whenever these encounters took place, it appeared to be the object of +the young men to treat the soldiers with as much incivility as possible. + +"Turn out, you lobsterbacks!" one would say. "Crowd them off the +sidewalks!" another would cry. "A redcoat has no right in Boston +streets!" + +"O, you rebel rascals!" perhaps the soldiers would reply, glaring +fiercely at the young men. "Some day or other we'll make our way through +Boston streets at the point of the bayonet!" + +Once or twice such disputes as these brought on a scuffle; which passed +off, however, without attracting much notice. About eight o'clock, for +some unknown cause, an alarm-bell rang loudly and hurriedly. + +At the sound many people ran out of their houses, supposing it to be an +alarm of fire. But there were no flames to be seen, nor was there any +smell of smoke in the clear, frosty air; so that most of the townsmen +went back to their own firesides and sat talking with their wives and +children about the calamities of the times. Others who were younger and +less prudent remained in the streets; for there seems to have been a +presentiment that some strange event was on the eve of taking place. + +Later in the evening, not far from nine o'clock, several young men +passed by the Town House and walked down King Street. The sentinel +was still on his post in front of the Custom House, pacing to and fro; +while, as he turned, a gleam of light from some neighboring window +glittered on the barrel of his musket. At no great distance were the +barracks and the guard-house, where his comrades were probably telling +stories of battle and bloodshed. + +Down towards the Custom House, as I told you, came a party of wild young +men. When they drew near the sentinel he halted on his post, and took +his musket from his shoulder, ready to present the bayonet at their +breasts. + +"Who goes there?" he cried, in the gruff, peremptory tones of a +soldier's challenge. The young men, being Boston boys, felt as if they +had a right to walk their own streets without being accountable to a +British redcoat, even though he challenged them in King George's name. +They made some rude answer to the sentinel. There was a dispute, or +perhaps a scuffle. Other soldiers heard the noise, and ran hastily from +the barracks to assist their comrades. At the same time many of the +townspeople rushed into King Street by various avenues, and gathered +in a crowd round about the Custom House. It seemed wonderful how such a +multitude had started up all of a sudden. + +The wrongs and insults which the people had been suffering for many +months now kindled them into a rage. They threw snowballs and lumps of +ice at the soldiers. As the tumult grew louder it reached the ears of +Captain Preston, the officer of the day. He immediately ordered eight +soldiers of the main guard to take their muskets and follow him. They +marched across the street, forcing their way roughly through the crowd, +and pricking the townspeople with their bayonets. + +A gentleman (it was Henry Knox, afterwards general of the American +artillery) caught Captain Preston's arm. + +"For Heaven's sake, sir," exclaimed he, "take heed what you do, or there +will be bloodshed." + +"Stand aside!" answered Captain Preston, haughtily. "Do not interfere, +sir. Leave me to manage the affair." + +Arriving at the sentinel's post, Captain Preston drew up his men in a +semicircle, with their faces to the crowd and their rear to the Custom +House. When the people saw the officer and beheld the threatening +attitude with which the soldiers fronted them, their rage became almost +uncontrollable. + +"Fire, you lobsterbacks!" bellowed some. + +"You dare not fire, you cowardly redcoats!" cried others. + +"Rush upon them!" shouted many voices. "Drive the rascals to their +barracks! Down with them! Down with them! Let them fire if they dare!" + +Amid the uproar, the soldiers stood glaring at the people with the +fierceness of men whose trade was to shed blood. + +Oh, what a crisis had now arrived! Up to this very moment, the angry +feelings between England and America might have been pacified. England +had but to stretch out the hand of reconciliation, and acknowledge that +she had hitherto mistaken her rights, but would do so no more. Then +the ancient bonds of brotherhood would again have been knit together as +firmly as in old times. The habit of loyalty, which had grown as strong +as instinct, was not utterly overcome. The perils shared, the victories +won, in the old French War, when the soldiers of the colonies fought +side by side with their comrades from beyond the sea, were unforgotten +yet. England was still that beloved country which the colonists called +their home. King George, though he had frowned upon America, was still +reverenced as a father. + +But should the king's soldiers shed one drop of American blood, then it +was a quarrel to the death. Never, never would America rest satisfied +until she had torn down the royal authority and trampled it in the dust. + +"Fire, if you dare, villains!" hoarsely shouted the people, while the +muzzles of the muskets were turned upon them. "You dare not fire!" + +They appeared ready to rush upon the levelled bayonets. Captain Preston +waved his sword, and uttered a command which could not be distinctly +heard amid the uproar of shouts that issued from a hundred throats. But +his soldiers deemed that he had spoken the fatal mandate, "Fire!" The +flash of their muskets lighted up the streets, and the report rang +loudly between the edifices. It was said, too, that the figure of a +man, with a cloth hanging down over his face, was seen to step into the +balcony of the Custom House and discharge a musket at the crowd. + +A gush of smoke had overspread the scene. It rose heavily, as if it were +loath to reveal the dreadful spectacle beneath it. Eleven of the sons +of New England lay stretched upon the street. Some, sorely wounded, were +struggling to rise again. Others stirred not nor groaned; for they were +past all pain. Blood was streaming upon the snow; and that purple stain +in the midst of King Street, though it melted away in the next day's +sun, was never forgotten nor forgiven by the people. + +Grandfather was interrupted by the violent sobs of little Alice. In his +earnestness he had neglected to soften clown the narrative so that it +might not terrify the heart of this unworldly infant. Since Grandfather +began the history of our chair, little Alice had listened to many tales +of war. But probably the idea had never really impressed itself upon +her mind that men have shed the blood of their fellow-creatures. And +now that this idea was forcibly presented to her, it affected the sweet +child with bewilderment and horror. + +"I ought to have remembered our dear little Alice," said Grandfather +reproachfully to himself. "Oh, what a pity! Her heavenly nature has now +received its first impression of earthly sin and violence. Well, Clara, +take her to bed and comfort her. Heaven grant that she may dream away +the recollection of the Boston massacre!" + +"Grandfather," said Charley, when Clara and little Alice had retired, +"did not the people rush upon the soldiers and take revenge?" + +"The town drums beat to arms," replied Grandfather, "the alarm-bells +rang, and an immense multitude rushed into King Street. Many of them +had weapons in their hands. The British prepared to defend themselves. A +whole regiment was drawn up in the street, expecting an attack; for the +townsmen appeared ready to throw themselves upon the bayonets." + +"And how did it end?" + +"Governor Hutchinson hurried to the spot," said Grandfather, "and +besought the people to have patience, promising that strict justice +should be done. A day or two afterward the British troops were withdrawn +from town and stationed at Castle William. Captain Preston and the eight +soldiers were tried for murder. But none of them were found guilty. +The judges told the jury that the insults and violence which had been +offered to the soldiers justified them in firing at the mob." + +"The Revolution," observed Laurence, who had said but little during the +evening, "was not such a calm, majestic movement as I supposed. I do +not love to hear of mobs and broils in the street. These things were +unworthy of the people when they had such a great object to accomplish." + +"Nevertheless, the world has seen no grander movement than that of our +Revolution from first to last," said Grandfather. "The people, to a man, +were full of a great and noble sentiment. True, there may be much fault +to find with their mode of expressing this sentiment; but they knew no +better; the necessity was upon them to act out their feelings in the +best manner they could. We must forgive what was wrong in their actions, +and look into their hearts and minds for the honorable motives that +impelled them." + +"And I suppose," said Laurence, "there were men who knew how to act +worthily of what they felt." + +"There were many such," replied Grandfather; "and we will speak of some +of them hereafter." + +Grandfather here made a pause. That night Charley had a dream about the +Boston massacre, and thought that he himself was in the crowd and struck +down Captain Preston with a great club. Laurence dreamed that he was +sitting in our great chair, at the window of the British Coffee House, +and beheld the whole scene which Grandfather had described. It seemed to +him, in his dream, that, if the townspeople and the soldiers would but +have heard him speak a single word, all the slaughter might have been +averted. But there was such an uproar that it drowned his voice. + +The next morning the two boys went together to State Street and stood on +the very spot where the first blood of the Revolution had been shed. The +Old State House was still there, presenting almost the same aspect that +it had worn on that memorable evening, one-and-seventy years ago. It is +the sole remaining witness of the Boston massacre. + + + +CHAPTER VI. A COLLECTION OF PORTRAITS. + +THE NEXT evening the astral lamp was lighted earlier than usual, +because Laurence was very much engaged in looking over the collection of +portraits which had been his New-Year's gift from Grandfather. + +Among them he found the features of more than one famous personage who +had been connected with the adventures of our old chair. Grandfather +bade him draw the table nearer to the fireside; and they looked over +the portraits together, while Clara and Charley likewise lent their +attention. As for little Alice, she sat in Grandfather's lap, and seemed +to see the very men alive whose faces were there represented. + +Turning over the volume, Laurence came to the portrait of a stern, +grim-looking man, in plain attire, of much more modern fashion than that +of the old Puritans. But the face might well have befitted one of those +iron-hearted men. Beneath the portrait was the name of Samuel Adams. + +"He was a man of great note in all the doings that brought about the +Revolution," said Grandfather. "His character was such, that it seemed +as if one of the ancient Puritans had been sent back to earth to +animate the people's hearts with the same abhorrence of tyranny that +had distinguished the earliest settlers. He was as religious as they, as +stern and inflexible, and as deeply imbued with democratic principles. +He, better than any one else, may be taken as a representative of the +people of New England, and of the spirit with which they engaged in the +Revolutionary struggle. He was a poor man, and earned his bread by +a humble occupation; but with his tongue and pen he made the King of +England tremble on his throne. Remember him, my children, as one of the +strong men of our country." + +"Here is one whose looks show a very different character," observed +Laurence, turning to the portrait of John Hancock. "I should think, by +his splendid dress and courtly aspect, that he was one of the king's +friends." + +"There never was a greater contrast than between Samuel Adams and John +Hancock," said Grandfather. "Yet they were of the same side in politics, +and had an equal agency in the Revolution. Hancock was born to the +inheritance of the largest fortune in New England. His tastes and +habits were aristocratic. He loved gorgeous attire, a splendid mansion, +magnificent furniture, stately festivals, and all that was glittering +and pompous in external things. His manners were so polished that there +stood not a nobleman at the footstool of King George's throne who was a +more skilful courtier than John Hancock might have been. Nevertheless, +he in his embroidered clothes, and Samuel Adams in his threadbare coat, +wrought together in the cause of liberty. Adams acted from pure and +rigid principle. Hancock, though he loved his country, yet thought quite +as much of his own popularity as he did of the people's rights. It is +remarkable that these two men, so very different as I describe them, +were the only two exempted from pardon by the king's proclamation." + +On the next leaf of the book was the portrait of General Joseph Warren. +Charley recognized the name, and said that here was a greater man than +either Hancock or Adams. + +"Warren was an eloquent and able patriot," replied Grandfather. "He +deserves a lasting memory for his zealous efforts in behalf of liberty. +No man's voice was more powerful in Faneuil Hall than Joseph Warren's. +If his death had not happened so early in the contest, he would probably +have gained a high name as a soldier." + +The next portrait was a venerable man, who held his thumb under his +chin, and, through his spectacles, appeared to be attentively reading a +manuscript. + +"Here we see the most illustrious Boston boy that ever lived," said +Grandfather. "This is Benjamin Franklin. But I will not try to compress +into a few sentences the character of the sage, who, as a Frenchman +expressed it, snatched the lightning from the sky and the sceptre from a +tyrant. Mr. Sparks must help you to the knowledge of Franklin." + +The book likewise contained portraits of James Otis and Josiah Quincy. +Both of them, Grandfather observed, were men of wonderful talents and +true patriotism. Their voices were like the stirring tones of a trumpet +arousing the country to defend its freedom. Heaven seemed to have +provided a greater number of eloquent men than had appeared at any other +period, in order that the people might be fully instructed as to their +wrongs and the method of resistance. + +"It is marvellous," said Grandfather, "to see how many powerful writers, +orators, and soldiers started up just at the time when they were wanted. +There was a man for every kind of work. It is equally wonderful that men +of such different characters were all made to unite in the one object +of establishing the freedom and independence of America. There was an +over-ruling Providence above them." + +"Here, was another great man," remarked Laurence, pointing to the +portrait of John Adams. + +"Yes; an earnest, warm-tempered, honest and most able man," said +Grandfather. "At the period of which we are now speaking he was a lawyer +in Boston. He was destined in after years to be ruler over the whole +American people, whom he contributed so much to form into a nation." + +Grandfather here remarked that many a New-Englander, who had passed his +boyhood and youth in obscurity, afterward attained to a fortune which he +never could have foreseen even in his most ambitious dreams. John Adams, +the second President of the United States and the equal of crowned +kings, was once a schoolmaster and country lawyer. Hancock, the first +signer of the Declaration of Independence, served his apprenticeship +with a merchant. Samuel Adams, afterwards governor of Massachusetts, was +a small tradesman and a tax-gatherer. General Warren was a physician, +General Lincoln a farmer, and General Knox a bookbinder. General +Nathaniel Greene, the best soldier, except Washington, in the +Revolutionary army, was a Quaker and a blacksmith. All these became +illustrious men, and can never be forgotten in American history. + +"And any boy who is born in America may look forward to the same +things," said our ambitious friend Charley. + +After these observations, Grandfather drew the book of portraits +towards him and showed the children several British peers and members of +Parliament who had exerted themselves either for or against the rights +of America. There were the Earl of Bute, Mr. Grenville, and Lord North. +These were looked upon as deadly enemies to our country. + +Among the friends of America was Mr. Pitt, afterward Earl of Chatham, +who spent so much of his wondrous eloquence in endeavoring to warn +England of the consequences of her injustice. He fell down on the floor +of the House of Lords after uttering almost his dying words in defence +of our privileges as freemen. There was Edmund Burke, one of the wisest +men and greatest orators that ever the world produced. There was Colonel +Barry, who had been among our fathers, and knew that they had courage +enough to die for their rights. There was Charles James Fox, who never +rested until he had silenced our enemies in the House of Commons. + +"It is very remarkable to observe how many of the ablest orators in the +British Parliament were favorable to America," said Grandfather. "We +ought to remember these great Englishmen with gratitude; for their +speeches encouraged our fathers almost as much as those of our own +orators in Faneuil Hall and under Liberty Tree. Opinions which might +have been received with doubt, if expressed only by a native American, +were set down as true, beyond dispute, when they came from the lips of +Chatham, Burke, Barre, or Fox." + +"But, Grandfather," asked Lawrence, "were there no able and eloquent men +in this country who took the part of King George?" + +"There were many men of talent who said what they could in defence of +the king's tyrannical proceedings," replied Grandfather. "But they had +the worst side of the argument, and therefore seldom said anything worth +remembering. Moreover, their hearts were faint and feeble; for they +felt that the people scorned and detested them. They had no friends, +no defence, except in the bayonets of the British troops. A blight +fell upon all their faculties, because they were contending against the +rights of their own native land." + +"What were the names of some of them?" inquired Charley. + +"Governor Hutchinson, Chief Justice Oliver, Judge Auchmuty, the Rev. +Mather Byles, and several other clergymen, were among the most noted +loyalists," answered Grandfather. + +"I wish the people had tarred and feathered every man of them!" cried +Charley. + +"That wish is very wrong, Charley," said Grandfather. "You must not +think that there is no integrity and honor except among those who stood +up for the freedom of America. For aught I know, there was quite as +much of these qualities on one side as on the other. Do you see nothing +admirable in a faithful adherence to an unpopular cause? Can you not +respect that principle of loyalty which made the royalists give up +country, friends, fortune, everything, rather than be false to their +king? It was a mistaken principle; but many of them cherished it +honorably, and were martyrs to it." + +"Oh, I was wrong!" said Charley, ingenuously. + +"And I would risk my life rather than one of those good old royalists +should be tarred and feathered." + +"The time is now come when we may judge fairly of them," continued +Grandfather. "Be the good and true men among them honored; for they +were as much our countrymen as the patriots were. And, thank Heaven, +our country need not be ashamed of her sons,--of most of them at +least,--whatever side they took in the Revolutionary contest." + +Among the portraits was one of King George III Little Alice clapped her +hands, and seemed pleased with the bluff good-nature of his physiognomy. +But Laurence thought it strange that a man with such a face, indicating +hardly a common share of intellect, should have had influence enough on +human affairs to convulse the world with war. Grandfather observed that +this poor king had always appeared to him one of the most unfortunate +persons that ever lived. He was so honest and conscientious, that, if he +had been only a private man, his life would probably have been blameless +and happy. But his was that worst of fortunes,--to be placed in a +station far beyond his abilities. + +"And so," said Grandfather, "his life, while he retained what intellect +Heaven had gifted him with, was one long mortification. At last he grew +crazed with care and trouble. For nearly twenty years the men arch of +England was confined as a madman. In his old age, too, God took away +his eyesight; so that his royal palace was nothing to him but a dark, +lonesome prison-house." + + + +CHAPTER VII. THE TEA PARTY AND LEXINGTON. + +"OUR old chair?" resumed Grandfather, "did not now stand in the midst +of a gay circle of British officers. The troops, as I told you, had been +removed to Castle William immediately after the Boston massacre. Still, +however, there were many tories, custom-house officers, and Englishmen +who used to assemble in the British Coffee House and talk over the +affairs of the period. Matters grew worse and worse; and in 1773 the +people did a deed which incensed the king and ministry more than any of +their former doings." + +Grandfather here described the affair, which is known by the name of +the Boston Tea Party. The Americans, for some time past, had left off +importing tea, on account of the oppressive tax. The East India Company, +in London, had a large stock of tea on hand, which they had expected +to sell to the Americans, but could find no market for it. But after a +while, the government persuaded this company of merchants to send the +tea to America. + +"How odd it is," observed Clara, "that the liberties of America should +have had anything to do with a cup of tea!" + +Grandfather smiled, and proceeded with his narrative. When the people +of Boston heard that several cargoes of tea were coming across the +Atlantic, they held a great many meetings at Faneuil Hall, in the Old +South Church, and under Liberty Tree. In the midst of their debates, +three ships arrived in the harbor with the tea on board. The people +spent more than a fortnight in consulting what should be done. At last, +on the 16th of December, 1773, they demanded of Governor Hutchinson that +he should immediately send the ships back to England. + +The governor replied that the ships must not leave the harbor until the +custom-house duties upon the tea should be paid. Now, the payment of +these duties was the very thing against which the people had set their +faces; because it was a tax unjustly imposed upon America by the English +government. Therefore, in the dusk of the evening, as soon as Governor +Hutchinson's reply was received, an immense crowd hastened to Griffin's +Wharf, where the tea-ships lay. The place is now called Liverpool Wharf. + +"When the crowd reached the wharf," said Grandfather, "they saw that +a set of wild-looking figures were already on board of the ships. You +would have imagined that the Indian warriors of old times had come back +again; for they wore the Indian dress, and had their faces covered with +red and black paint, like the Indians when they go to war. These grim +figures hoisted the tea-chests on the decks of the vessels; broke them +open, and threw all the contents into the harbor." + +"Grandfather," said little Alice, "I suppose Indians don't love tea; +else they would never waste it so." + +"They were not real Indians, my child," answered Grandfather. "They +were white men in disguise; because a heavy punishment would have been +inflicted on them if the king's officers had found who they were. +But it was never known. From that day to this, though the matter has +been talked of by all the world, nobody can tell the names of those +Indian figures. Some people say that there were very famous men among +them, who afterwards became governors and generals. Whether this be true +I cannot tell." + +When tidings of this bold deed were carried to England, King George +was greatly enraged. Parliament immediately passed an act, by which all +vessels were forbidden to take in or discharge their cargoes at the +port of Boston. In this way they expected to ruin all the merchants, +and starve the poor people, by depriving them of employment. At the +same time another act was passed, taking away many rights and privileges +which had been granted in the charter of Massachusetts. + +Governor Hutchinson, soon afterward, was summoned to England, in order +that he might give his advice about the management of American +affairs. General Gage, an officer of the old French War, and since +commander-in-chief of the British forces in America, was appointed +governor in his stead. One of his first acts was to make Salem, instead +of Boston, the metropolis of Massachusetts, by summoning the General +Court to meet there. + +According to Grandfather's description, this was the most gloomy time +that Massachusetts had ever seen. The people groaned under as heavy a +tyranny as in the days of Sir Edmund Andros. Boston looked as if it were +afflicted with some dreadful pestilence,--so sad were the inhabitants, +and so desolate the streets. There was no cheerful hum of business. +The merchants shut up their warehouses, and the laboring men stood idle +about the wharves. But all America felt interested in the good town of +Boston; and contributions were raised, in many places, for the relief of +the poor inhabitants. + +"Our dear old chair!" exclaimed Clara. "How dismal it must have been +now!" + +"Oh," replied Grandfather, "a gay throng of officers had now come +back to the British Coffee House; so that the old chair had no lack of +mirthful company. Soon after General Gage became governor a great many +troops had arrived, and were encamped upon the Common. Boston was now +a garrisoned and fortified town; for the general had built a battery +across the Neck, on the road to Roxbury, and placed guards for its +defence. Everything looked as if a civil war were close at hand." + +"Did the people make ready to fight?" asked Charley. + +"A Continental Congress assembled at Philadelphia," said Grandfather, +"and proposed such measures as they thought most conducive to the public +good. A Provincial Congress was likewise chosen in Massachusetts. They +exhorted the people to arm and discipline themselves. A great number of +minutemen were enrolled. The Americans called them minute-men, because +they engaged to be ready to fight at a minute's warning. The English +officers laughed, and said that the name was a very proper one, because +the minute-men would run away the minute they saw the enemy. Whether +they would fight or run was soon to be proved." + +Grandfather told the children that the first open resistance offered +to the British troops, in the province of Massachusetts, was at Salem. +Colonel Timothy Pickering, with thirty or forty militia-men, prevented +the English colonel, Leslie, with four times as many regular soldiers, +from taking possession of some military stores. No blood was shed on +this occasion; but soon afterward it began to flow. + +General Gage sent eight hundred soldiers to Concord, about eighteen +miles from Boston, to destroy some ammunition and provisions which +the colonists had collected there. They set out on their march on the +evening of the 18th of April, 1775. The next morning the general sent +Lord' Percy with nine hundred men to strengthen the troops that had gone +before. All that day the inhabitants of Boston heard various rumors. +Some said that the British were making great slaughter among our +countrymen. Others affirmed that every man had turned out with his +musket, and that not a single soldier would ever get back to Boston. + +"It was after sunset," continued Grandfather, "when the troops, who +had marched forth so proudly, were seen entering Charlestown. They were +covered with dust, and so hot and weary that their tongues hung out +of their mouths. Many of them were faint with wounds. They had not all +returned. Nearly three hundred were strewn, dead or dying, along the +road from Concord. The yeomanry had risen upon the invaders and driven +them back." + +"Was this the battle of Lexington?" asked Charley. + +"Yes," replied Grandfather; "it was so called, because the British, +without provocation, had fired upon a party of minute-men, near +Lexington meeting-house, and killed eight of them. That fatal volley, +which was fired by order of Major Pitcairn, began the war of the +Revolution." + +About this time, if Grandfather had been correctly informed, our chair +disappeared from the British Coffee House. The manner of its departure +cannot be satisfactorily ascertained. Perhaps the keeper of the Coffee +House turned it out of doors on account of its old-fashioned aspect. +Perhaps he sold it as a curiosity. Perhaps it was taken, without leave, +by some person who regarded it as public property because it had +once figured under Liberty Tree. Or perhaps the old chair, being of a +peaceable disposition, has made use of its four oaken legs and run away +from the seat of war. + +"It would have made a terrible clattering over the pavement," said +Charley, laughing. + +"Meanwhile," continued Grandfather, "during the mysterious +non-appearance of our chair, an army of twenty thousand men had started +up and come to the siege of Boston. General Gage and his troops were +cooped up within the narrow precincts of the peninsula. On the 17th of +June, 1775, the famous battle of Bunker Hill was fought. Here General +Warren fell. The British got the victory, indeed, but with the loss of +more than a thousand officers and men." + +"Oh Grandfather," cried Charley, "you must tell us about that famous +battle." + +"No, Charley," said Grandfather, "I am not like other historians. +Battles shall not hold a prominent place in the history of our quiet +and comfortable old chair. But to-morrow evening, Laurence, Clara, and +yourself, and dear little Alice too, shall visit the Diorama of Bunker +Hill. There you shall see the whole business, the burning of Charlestown +and all, with your own eyes, and hear the cannon and musketry with your +own ears." + + + +CHAPTER VIII. THE SIEGE OF BOSTON. + +THE next evening but one, when the children had given Grandfather a full +account of the Diorama of Bunker Hill, they entreated him not to keep +them any longer in suspense about the fate of his chair. The reader will +recollect that, at the last accounts, it had trotted away upon its poor +old legs nobody knew whither. But, before gratifying their curiosity, +Grandfather found it necessary to say something about public events. + +The Continental Congress, which was assembled at Philadelphia, was +composed of delegates from all the colonies. They had now appointed +George Washington, of Virginia, to be commander-in-chief of all the +American armies. He was, at that time, a member of Congress; but +immediately left Philadelphia, and began his journey to Massachusetts. +On the 3d of July, 1775, he arrived at Cambridge, and took command of +the troops which were besieging General Gage. + +"O Grandfather," exclaimed Laurence, "it makes my heart throb to think +what is coming now. We are to see General Washington himself." + +The children crowded around Grandfather and looked earnestly into his +face. Even little Alice opened her sweet blue eyes, with her lips apart, +and almost held her breath to listen; so instinctive is the reverence of +childhood for the father of his country. + +Grandfather paused a moment; for he felt as if it might be irreverent +to introduce the hallowed shade of Washington into a history where +an ancient elbow-chair occupied the most prominent place. However, he +determined to proceed with his narrative, and speak of the hero when it +was needful, but with an unambitious simplicity. + +So Grandfather told his auditors, that, on General Washington's arrival +at Cambridge, his first care was to reconnoitre the British troops with +his spy-glass, and to examine the condition of his own army. He found +that the American troops amounted to about fourteen thousand men. They +were extended all round the peninsula of Boston, a space of twelve +miles, from the high grounds of Roxbury on the right to Mystic River +on the left. Some were living in tents of sailcloth, some in shanties +rudely constructed of boards, some in huts of stone or turf with curious +windows and doors of basket-work. + +In order to be near the centre and oversee the whole of this +wide-stretched army, the commander-in-chief made his headquarters at +Cambridge, about half a mile from the colleges. A mansion-house, which +perhaps had been the country seat of some Tory gentle man, was provided +for his residence. + +"When General Washington first entered this mansion," said Grandfather, +"he was ushered up the staircase and shown into a handsome apartment. He +sat down in a large chair, which was the most conspicuous object in the +room. The noble figure of Washington would have done honor to a throne. +As he sat there, with his hand resting on the hilt of his sheathed +sword, which was placed between his knees, his whole aspect well +befitted the chosen man on whom his country leaned for the defence of +her dearest rights. America seemed safe under his protection. His face +was grander than any sculptor had ever wrought in marble; none could +behold him without awe and reverence. Never before had the lion's head +at the summit of the chair looked down upon such a face and form as +Washington's." + +"Why, Grandfather!" cried Clara, clasping her hands in amazement, "was +it really so? Did General Washington sit in our great chair?" + +"I knew how it would be," said Laurence; "I foresaw it the moment +Grandfather began to speak." + +Grandfather smiled. But, turning from the personal and domestic life of +the illustrious leader, he spoke of the methods which Washington adopted +to win back the metropolis of New England from the British. + +The army, when he took command of it, was without any discipline or +order. The privates considered themselves as good as their officers; +and seldom thought it necessary to obey their commands, unless they +understood the why and wherefore. Moreover, they were enlisted for so +short a period, that, as soon as they began to be respectable soldiers, +it was time to discharge them. Then came new recruits, who had to be +taught their duty before they could be of any service. Such was the army +with which Washington had to contend against more than twenty veteran +British regiments. + +Some of the men had no muskets, and almost all were without bayonets. +Heavy cannon, for battering the British fortifications, were much +wanted. There was but a small quantity of powder and ball, few tools +to build intrenchments with, and a great deficiency of provisions +and clothes for the soldiers. Yet, in spite of these perplexing +difficulties, the eyes of the whole people were fixed on General +Washington, expecting him to undertake some great enterprise against the +hostile army. + +The first thing that he found necessary was to bring his own men into +better order and discipline. It is wonderful how soon he transformed +this rough mob of country people into the semblance of a regular army. +One of Washington's most invaluable characteristics was the faculty +of bringing order out of confusion. All business with which he had any +concern seemed to regulate itself as if by magic. The influence of his +mind was like light gleaming through an unshaped world. It was this +faculty, more than any other, that made him so fit to ride upon the +storm of the Revolution when everything was unfixed and drifting about +in a troubled sea. + +"Washington had not been long at the head of the army," proceeded +Grandfather, "before his soldiers thought as highly of him as if he had +led them to a hundred victories. They knew that he was the very man whom +the country needed, and the only one who could bring them safely +through the great contest against the might of England. They put entire +confidence in his courage, wisdom, and integrity." + +"And were they not eager to follow him against the British?" asked +Charley. + +"Doubtless they would have gone whithersoever his sword pointed the +way," answered Grandfather; "and Washington was anxious to make +a decisive assault upon the enemy. But as the enterprise was very +hazardous, he called a council of all the generals in the army. +Accordingly they came from their different posts, and were ushered into +the reception-room. The commander-in-chief arose from our great chair to +greet them." + +"What were their names?" asked Charley. + +"There was General Artemas Ward," replied Grandfather, "a lawyer by +profession. He had commanded the troops before Washington's arrival +Another was General Charles Lee, who had been a colonel in the English +army, and was thought to possess vast military science. He came to the +council, followed by two or three dogs which were always at his heels. +There was General Putnam, too, who was known all over New England by the +name of Old Put." + +"Was it he who killed the wolf?" inquired Charley. + +"The same," said Grandfather; "and he had done good service in the old +French War. His occupation was that of a farmer; but he left his plough +in the furrow at the news of Lexington battle. Then there was General +Gates, who afterward gained great renown at Saratoga, and lost it again +at Camden. General Greene, of Rhode Island, was likewise at the council. +Washington soon discovered him to be one of the best officers in the +army." + +When the generals were all assembled, Washington consulted them about +a plan for storming the English batteries. But it was their unanimous +opinion that so perilous an enterprise ought not to be attempted. The +army, therefore, continued to besiege Boston, preventing the enemy +from obtaining supplies of provisions, but without taking any immediate +measures to get possession of the town. In 'this manner the sum met, +autumn, and winter passed away. + +"Many a night, doubtless," said Grandfather, "after Washington had been +all day on horseback, galloping from one post of the army to another, +he used to sit in our great chair, rapt in earnest thought. Had you seen +him, you might have supposed that his whole mind was fixed on the blue +china tiles which adorned the old-fashioned fireplace. But, in reality, +he was meditating how to capture the British army, or drive it out of +Boston. Once, when there was a hard frost, he formed a scheme to cross +the Charles River on the ice. But the other generals could not be +persuaded that there was any prospect of success." + +"What were the British doing all this time?" inquired Charley. + +"They lay idle in the town," replied Grandfather. "General Gage had been +recalled to England, and was succeeded by Sir William Howe. The British +army and the inhabitants of Boston were now in great distress. Being +shut up in the town so long, they had consumed almost all their +provisions and burned up all their fuel. The soldiers tore down the Old +North Church, and used its rotten boards and timbers for firewood. To +heighten their distress, the small-pox broke out. They probably lost far +more men by cold, hunger, and sickness than had been slain at Lexington +and Bunker Hill." + +"What a dismal time for the poor women and children!" exclaimed Clara. + +"At length," continued Grandfather, "in March, 1776, General Washington, +who had now a good supply of powder, began a terrible cannonade and +bombardment from Dorchester Heights. One of the cannon-balls which he +fired into the town struck the tower of the Brattle Street Church, where +it may still be seen. Sir William Howe made preparations to cross over +in boats and drive the Americans from their batteries, but was prevented +by a violent gale and storm. General Washington next erected a battery +on Nook's Hill, so near the enemy that it was impossible for them to +remain in Boston any longer." + +"Hurrah! Hurrah!" cried Charley, clapping his hands triumphantly. "I +wish I had been there to see how sheepish the Englishmen looked." + +And as Grandfather thought that Boston had never witnessed a more +interesting period than this, when the royal power was in its death +agony, he determined to take a peep into the town and imagine the +feelings of those who were quitting it forever. + + + +CHAPTER IX. THE TORY'S FAREWELL. + +"ALAS for the poor tories!" said Grandfather. "Until the very last +morning after Washington's troops had shown themselves on Nook's Hill, +these unfortunate persons could not believe that the audacious rebels, +as they called the Americans, would ever prevail against King George's +army. But when they saw the British soldiers preparing to embark on +board of the ships of war, then they knew that they had lost their +country. Could the patriots have known how bitter were their regrets, +they would have forgiven them all their evil deeds, and sent a blessing +after them as they sailed away from their native shore." + +In order to make the children sensible of the pitiable condition of +these men, Grandfather singled out Peter Oliver, chief justice of +Massachusetts under the crown, and imagined him walking through the +streets of Boston on the morning before he left it forever. + +This effort of Grandfather's fancy may be called the Tory's Farewell. + +Old Chief Justice Oliver threw on his red cloak, and placed his +three-cornered hat on the top of his white wig. In this garb he intended +to go forth and take a parting look at objects that had been familiar to +him from his youth. Accordingly, he began his walk in the north part +of the town, and soon came to Faneuil Hall. This edifice, the cradle of +liberty, had been used by the British officers as a playhouse. + +"Would that I could see its walls crumble to dust!" thought the chief +justice; and, in the bitterness of his heart, he shook his fist at +the famous hall. "There began the mischief which now threatens to rend +asunder the British empire. The seditious harangues of demagogues in +Faneuil Hall have made rebels of a loyal people and deprived me of my +country." + +He then passed through a narrow avenue and found himself in King Street, +almost on the very spot which, six years before, had been reddened by +the blood of the Boston massacre. The chief justice stepped cautiously, +and shuddered, as if he were afraid that, even now, the gore of his +slaughtered countrymen might stain his feet. + +Before him rose the Town House, on the front of which were still +displayed the royal arms. Within that edifice he had dispensed justice +to the people in the days when his name was never mentioned without +honor. There, too, was the balcony whence the trumpet had been sounded +and the proclamation read to an assembled multitude, whenever a new king +of England ascended the throne. + +"I remember--I remember," said Chief Justice Oliver to himself, "when +his present most sacred Majesty was proclaimed. Then how the people +shouted! Each man would have poured out his life-blood to keep a hair of +King George's head from harm. But now there is scarcely a tongue in all +New England that does not imprecate curses on his name. It is ruin and +disgrace to love him. Can it be possible that a few fleeting years have +wrought such a change?" + +It did not occur to the chief justice that nothing but the most grievous +tyranny could so soon have changed the people's hearts. Hurrying from +the spot, he entered Cornhill, as the lower part of Washington Street +was then called. Opposite to the Town House was the waste foundation of +the Old North Church. The sacrilegious hands of the British soldiers had +torn it down, and kindled their barrack fires with the fragments. + +Farther on he passed beneath the tower of the Old South. The threshold +of this sacred edifice was worn by the iron tramp of horses' feet; +for the interior had been used as a riding-school and rendezvous for a +regiment of dragoons. As the chief justice lingered an instant at the +door a trumpet sounded within, and the regiment came clattering forth +and galloped down the street. They were proceeding to the place of +embarkation. + +"Let them go!" thought the chief justice, with somewhat of an old +Puritan feeling in his breast. "No good can come of men who desecrate +the house of God." + +He went on a few steps farther, and paused before the Province House. +No range of brick stores had then sprung up to hide the mansion of the +royal governors from public view. It had a spacious courtyard, bordered +with trees, and enclosed with a wrought-iron fence. On the cupola that +surmounted the edifice was the gilded figure of an Indian chief, +ready to let fly an arrow from his bow. Over the wide front door was a +balcony, in which the chief justice had often stood when the governor +and high officers of the province showed themselves to the people. + +While Chief Justice Oliver gazed sadly at the Province House, before +which a sentinel was pacing, the double leaves of the door were thrown +open, and Sir William Howe made his appearance. Behind him came a throng +of officers, whose steel scabbards clattered against the stones as they +hastened down the court-yard. Sir William Howe was a dark-complexioned +man, stern and haughty in his deportment. He stepped as proudly in that +hour of defeat as if he were going to receive the submission of the +rebel general. + +The chief justice bowed and accosted him. + +"This is a grievous hour for both of us, Sir William," said he. + +"Forward! gentlemen," said Sir William Howe to the officers who attended +him; "we have no time to hear lamentations now." + +And, coldly bowing, he departed. Thus the chief justice had a foretaste +of the mortifications which the exiled New-Englanders afterwards +suffered from the haughty Britons. They were despised even by that +country which they had served more faithfully than their own. + +A still heavier trial awaited Chief Justice Oliver, as he passed onward +from the Province House. He was recognized by the people in the street. +They had long known him as the descendant of an ancient and honorable +family. They had seen him sitting in his scarlet robes upon the +judgment-seat. All his life long, either for the sake of his ancestors +or on account of his own dignified station and unspotted character, +he had been held in high respect. The old gentry of the province were +looked upon almost as noblemen while Massachusetts was under royal +government. + +But now all hereditary reverence for birth and rank was gone. The +inhabitants shouted in derision when they saw the venerable form of the +old chief justice. They laid the wrongs of the country and their own +sufferings during the siege--their hunger, cold, and sickness--partly to +his charge and to that of his brother Andrew and his kinsman Hutchinson. +It was by their advice that the king had acted in all the colonial +troubles. But the day of recompense was come. + +"See the old tory!" cried the people, with bitter laughter. "He is +taking his last look at us. Let him show his white wig among us an hour +hence, and we'll give him a coat of tar and feathers!" + +The chief justice, however, knew that he need fear no violence so long +as the British troops were in possession of the town. But, alas! it was +a bitter thought that he should leave no loving memory behind him. His +forefathers, long after their spirits left the earth, had been honored +in the affectionate remembrance of the people. But he, who would +henceforth be dead to his native land, would have no epitaph save +scornful and vindictive words. The old man wept. + +"They curse me, they invoke all kinds of evil on my head!" thought he, +in the midst of his tears. "But, if they could read my heart, they would +know that I love New England well. Heaven bless her, and bring her again +under the rule of our gracious king! A blessing, too, on these poor, +misguided people!" + +The chief justice flung out his hands with a gesture, as if he were +bestowing a parting benediction on his countrymen. He had now reached +the southern portion of the town, and was far within the range of +cannon-shot from the American batteries. Close beside him was the bread +stump of a tree, which appeared to have been recently cut down. Being +weary and heavy at heart, he was about to sit down upon the stump. + +Suddenly it flashed upon his recollection that this was the stump of +Liberty Tree! The British soldiers had cut it down, vainly boasting +that they could as easily overthrow the liberties of America. Under its +shadowy branches, ten years before, the brother of Chief Justice Oliver +had been compelled to acknowledge the supremacy of the people by taking +the oath which they prescribed. This tree was connected with all the +events that had severed America from England. + +"Accursed tree!" cried the chief justice, gnashing his teeth; for anger +overcame his sorrow. "Would that thou hadst been left standing till +Hancock, Adams, and every other traitor, were hanged upon thy branches! +Then fitly mightest thou have been hewn down and cast into the flames." + +He turned back, hurried to Long Wharf without looking behind him, +embarked with the British troops for Halifax, and never saw his country +more. Throughout the remainder of his days Chief Justice Oliver was +agitated with those same conflicting emotions that had tortured him +while taking his farewell walk through the streets of Boston. Deep love +and fierce resentment burned in one flame within his breast, Anathemas +struggled with benedictions. He felt as if one breath of his native air +would renew his life, yet would have died rather than breathe the +same air with rebels. And such likewise were the feelings of the other +exiles, a thousand in number, who departed with the British army. Were +they not the most unfortunate of men? + +"The misfortunes of those exiled tories," observed Laurence, "must have +made them think of the poor exiles of Acadia." + +"They had a sad time of it, I suppose," said Charley. "But I choose to +rejoice with the patriots, rather than be sorrowful with the tories. +Grandfather, what did General Washington do now?" + +"As the rear of the British army embarked from the wharf," replied +Grandfather, "General Washington's troops marched over the Neck, through +the fortification gates, and entered Boston in triumph. And now, for the +first time since the Pilgrims landed, Massachusetts was free from +the dominion of England. May she never again be subjected to foreign +rule,--never again feel the rod of oppression!" + +"Dear Grandfather," asked little Alice, "did General Washington bring +our chair back to Boston?" + +"I know not how long the chair remained at Cambridge," said Grandfather. +"Had it stayed there till this time, it could not have found a better or +more appropriate shelter, The mansion which General Washington occupied +is still standing, and his apartments have since been tenanted by +several eminent men. Governor Everett, while a professor in the +University, resided there. So at an after period did Mr. Sparks, whose +invaluable labors have connected his name with the immortality of +Washington. And at this very time a venerable friend and contemporary of +your Grandfather, after long pilgrimages beyond the sea, has set up his +staff of rest at Washington's headquarters." + +"You mean Professor Longfellow, Grandfather," said Laurence. "Oh, how I +should love to see the author of those beautiful Voices of the Night!" + +"We will visit him next summer," answered Grandfather, "and take Clara +and little Alice with us,--and Charley, too, if he will be quiet." + + + +CHAPTER X. THE WAR FOR INDEPENDENCE. + +WHEN Grandfather resumed his narrative the next evening, he told the +children that he had some difficulty in tracing the movements of the +chair during a short period after General Washington's departure from +Cambridge. + +Within a few months, however, it made its appearance at a shop in +Boston, before the door of which was seen a striped pole. In the +interior was displayed a stuffed alligator, a rattlesnake's skin, a +bundle of Indian arrows, an old-fashioned matchlock gun, a walking-stick +of Governor Winthrop's, a wig of old Cotton Mather's, and a colored +print of the Boston massacre. In short, it was a barber's shop, kept by +a Mr. Pierce, who prided himself on having shaved General Washington, +Old Put, and many other famous persons. + +"This was not a very dignified situation for our venerable chair," +continued Grandfather; "but, you know, there is no better place for news +than a barber's shop. All the events of the Revolutionary War were heard +of there sooner than anywhere else. People used to sit in the chair, +reading the newspaper, or talking, and waiting to be shaved, while Mr. +Pierce, with his scissors and razor, was at work upon the heads or chins +of his other customers." + +"I am sorry the chair could not betake itself to some more suitable +place of refuge," said Laurence. + +"It was old now, and must have longed for quiet. Besides, after it had +held Washington in its arms, it ought not to have been compelled to +receive all the world. It should have been put into the pulpit of the +Old South Church, or some other consecrated place." + +"Perhaps so," answered Grandfather. "But the chair, in the course of its +varied existence, had grown so accustomed to general intercourse with +society, that I doubt whether it would have contented itself in the +pulpit of the Old South. There it would have stood solitary, or with no +livelier companion than the silent organ, in the opposite gallery, six +days out of seven. I incline to think that it had seldom been situated +more to its mind than on the sanded floor of the snug little barber's +shop." + +Then Grandfather amused his children and himself with fancying all the +different sorts of people who had occupied our chair while they awaited +the leisure Of the barber. + +There was the old clergyman, such as Dr. Chauncey, wearing a white wig, +which the barber took from his head and placed upon a wig-block. Half +an hour, perhaps, was spent in combing and powdering this reverend +appendage to a clerical skull. There, too, were officers of the +Continental army, who required their hair to be pomatumed and plastered, +so as to give them a bold and martial aspect. There, once in a while, +was seen the thin, care-worn, melancholy visage of an old tory, with a +Wig that, in times long past, had perhaps figured at a Province House +ball. And there, not unfrequently, sat the rough captain of a privateer, +just returned from a successful cruise, in which he had captured half +a dozen richly laden vessels belonging to King George's subjects. And +sometimes a rosy little school-boy climbed into our chair, and sat +staring, with wide-open eyes, at the alligator, the rattlesnake, and the +other curiosities of the barber's shop. His mother had sent him, with +sixpence in his hand, to get his glossy curls cropped off. The incidents +of the Revolution plentifully supplied the barber's customers with +topics of conversation. They talked sorrowfully of the death of General +Montgomery and the failure of our troops to take Quebec; for the +New-Englanders were now as anxious to get Canada from the English as +they had formerly been to conquer it from the French. + +"But very soon," said Grandfather, "came news from Philadelphia, the +most important that America had ever heard of. On the 4th of July, +1776, Congress had signed the Declaration of Independence. The thirteen +colonies were now free and independent States. Dark as our prospects +were, the inhabitants welcomed these glorious tidings, and resolved to +perish rather than again bear the yoke of England." + +"And I would perish, too!" cried Charley. + +"It was a great day,--a glorious deed!" said Laurence, coloring high +with enthusiasm. "And, Grandfather, I love to think that the sages +in Congress showed themselves as bold and true as the soldiers in the +field; for it must have required more courage to sign the Declaration of +Independence than to fight the enemy in battle." + +Grandfather acquiesced in Laurence's view of the matter. He then touched +briefly and hastily upon the prominent events of the Revolution. The +thunderstorm of war had now rolled southward, and did not again +burst upon Massachusetts, where its first fury had been felt. But she +contributed her full share. So the success of the contest. Wherever +a battle was fought,--whether at Long Island, White Plains, Trenton, +Princeton, Brandywine, or Germantown,--some of her brave sons were found +slain upon the field. + +In October, 1777, General Burgoyne surrendered his army, at Saratoga, +to the American general, Gates. The captured troops were sent to +Massachusetts. Not long afterwards Dr. Franklin and other American +commissioners made a treaty at Paris, by which France bound herself to +assist our countrymen. The gallant Lafayette was already fighting for +our freedom by the side of Washington. In 1778 a French fleet, commanded +by Count d'Estaing, spent a considerable time in Boston harbor. It marks +the vicissitudes of human affairs, that the French, our ancient enemies, +should come hither as comrades and brethren, and that kindred England +should be our foe. + +"While the war was raging in the Middle and Southern States," proceeded +Grandfather, "Massachusetts had leisure to settle a new constitution of +government instead of the royal charter. This was done in 1780. In the +same year John Hancock, who had been president of Congress, was chosen +governor of the State. He was the first whom the people had elected +since the days of old Simon Bradstreet." + +"But, Grandfather, who had been governor since the British were driven +away?" inquired Laurence. "General Gage and Sir William Howe were the +last whom you have told us of." + +"There had been no governor for the last four years," replied +Grandfather. "Massachusetts had been ruled by the Legislature, to whom +the people paid obedience of their own accord. It is one of the +most remarkable circumstances in our history, that, when the charter +government was overthrown by the war, no anarchy nor the slightest +confusion ensued, This was a great honor to the people. But now Hancock +was proclaimed governor by sound of trumpet; and there was again a +settled government." + +Grandfather again adverted to the progress of the war. In 1781 General +Greene drove the British from the Southern States. In October of the +same year General Washington compelled Lord Cornwallis to surrender his +army, at Yorktown, in Virginia. This was the last great event of the +Revolutionary contest. King George and his ministers perceived that all +the might of England could not compel America to renew her allegiance +to the crown. After a great deal of discussion, a treaty of peace was +signed in September, 1783. + +"Now, at last," said Grandfather, "after weary years of war, the +regiments of Massachusetts returned in peace to their families. Now the +stately and dignified leaders, such as General Lincoln and General Knox, +with their powdered hair and their uniforms of blue and buff, were seen +moving about the streets." + +"And little boys ran after them, I suppose," remarked Charley; "and the +grown people bowed respectfully." + +"They deserved respect; for they were good men as well as brave," +answered Grandfather. "Now, too, the inferior officers and privates came +home to seek some peaceful occupation. Their friends remembered them as +slender and smooth-checked young men; but they returned with the erect +and rigid mien of disciplined soldiers. Some hobbled on crutches and +wooden legs; others had received wounds, which were still rankling in +their breasts. Many, alas! had fallen in battle, and perhaps were left +unburied on the bloody field." + +"The country must have been sick of war," observed Laurence. + +"One would have thought so," said Grandfather. "Yet only two or three +years elapsed before the folly of some misguided men caused another +mustering of soldiers. This affair was called Shays's war, because a +Captain Shays was the chief leader of the insurgents." + +"Oh Grandfather, don't let there be another war!" cried little Alice, +piteously. + +Grandfather comforted his dear little girl by assuring her that there +was no great mischief done. Shays's war happened in the latter part of +1786 and the beginning of the following year. Its principal cause +was the badness of times. The State of Massachusetts, in its public +capacity, was very much in debt. So likewise were many of the people. +An insurrection took place, the object of which seems to have been to +interrupt the course of law and get rid of debts and taxes. + +James Bowdoin, a good and able man, was now governor of Massachusetts. +He sent General Lincoln, at the head of four thousand men, to put down +the insurrection. This general, who had fought through several hard +campaigns in the Revolution, managed matters like an old soldier, and +totally defeated the rebels at the expense of very little blood. + +"There is but one more public event to be recorded in the history of +our chair," proceeded Grandfather. "In the year 1794 Samuel Adams was +elected governor of Massachusetts. I have told you what a distinguished +patriot he was, and how much he resembled the stern old Puritans. Could +the ancient freemen of Massachusetts who lived in the days of the first +charter have arisen from their graves, they would probably have voted +for Samuel Adams to be governor." + +"Well, Grandfather, I hope he sat in our chair," said Clara. + +"He did," replied Grandfather. "He had long been in the habit of +visiting the barber's shop, where our venerable chair, philosophically +forgetful of its former dignities, had now spent nearly eighteen not +uncomfortable years. Such a remarkable piece of furniture, so evidently +a relic of long-departed times, could not escape the notice of Samuel +Adams. He made minute researches into its history, and ascertained what +a succession of excellent and famous people had occupied it." + +"How did he find it out?" asked Charley; "for I suppose the chair could +not tell its own history." + +"There used to be a vast collection of ancient letters and other +documents in the tower of the Old South Church," answered Grandfather. +"Perhaps the history of our chair was contained among these. At all +events, Samuel Adams appears to have been well acquainted with it. When +he became governor, he felt that he could have no more honorable seat +than that which had been the ancient chair of state. He therefore +purchased it for a trifle, and filled it worthily for three years as +governor of Massachusetts." "And what next?" asked Charley. + +"That is all," said Grandfather, heaving a sigh; for he could not help +being a little sad at the thought that his stories must close here. +"Samuel Adams died in 1803, at the age of above threescore and ten. +He was a great patriot, but a poor man. At his death he left scarcely +property enough to pay the expenses of his funeral. This precious chair, +among his other effects, was sold at auction; and your Grandfather, who +was then in the strength of his years, became the purchaser." + +Laurence, with a mind full of thoughts that struggled for expression, +but could find none, looked steadfastly at the chair. + +He had now learned all its history, yet was not satisfied. + +"Oh, how I wish that the chair could speak!" cried he. "After its long +intercourse with mankind,--after looking upon the world for ages,--what +lessons of golden wisdom it might utter! It might teach a private +person how to lead a good and happy life, or a statesman how to make his +country prosperous." + + + +CHAPTER XI. GRANDFATHER'S DREAM. + +GRANDFATHER was struck by Laurence's idea that the historic chair +should utter a voice, and thus pour forth the collected wisdom of two +centuries. The old gentleman had once possessed no inconsiderable share +of fancy; and even now its fading sunshine occasionally glimmered among +his more sombre reflections. + +As the history of his chair had exhausted all his facts, Grandfather +determined to have recourse to fable. So, after warning the children +that they must not mistake this story for a true one, he related what we +shall call Grandfather's Dream. + +Laurence and Clara, where were you last night? Where were you, +Charley, and dear little Alice? You had all gone to rest, and left old +Grandfather to meditate alone in his great chair. The lamp had grown so +dim that its light hardly illuminated the alabaster shade. The wood-fire +had crumbled into heavy embers, among which the little flames danced, +and quivered, and sported about like fairies. + +And here sat Grandfather all by himself. He knew that it was bedtime; +yet he could not help longing to hear your merry voices, or to hold a +comfortable chat with some old friend; because then his pillow would be +visited by pleasant dreams. But, as neither children nor friends were +at hand, Grandfather leaned back in the great chair and closed his eyes, +for the sake of meditating more profoundly. + +And, when Grandfather's meditations had grown very profound indeed, +he fancied that he heard a sound over his head, as if somebody were +preparing to speak. + +"Hem!" it said, in a dry, husky tone. "H-e-m! Hem!" + +As Grandfather did not know that any person was in the room, he started +up in great surprise, and peeped hither and thither, behind the chair, +and into the recess by the fireside, and at the dark nook yonder near +the bookcase. Nobody could be seen. + +"Poh!" said Grandfather to himself, "I must have been dreaming." + +But, just as he was going to resume his seat, Grandfather happened to +look at the great chair. The rays of firelight were flickering upon it +in such a manner that it really seemed as if its oaken frame were all +alive. What! did it not move its elbow? There, too! It certainly lifted +one of its ponderous fore legs, as if it had a notion of drawing +itself a little nearer to the fire. Meanwhile the lion's head nodded +at Grandfather with as polite and sociable a look as a lion's visage, +carved in oak, could possibly be expected to assume. Well, this is +strange! + +"Good evening, my old friend," said the dry and husky voice, now a +little clearer than before. "We have been intimately acquainted so long +that I think it high time we have a chat together." + +Grandfather was looking straight at the lion's head, and could not be +mistaken in supposing that it moved its lips. So here the mystery was +all explained. + +"I was not aware," said Grandfather, with a civil salutation to his +oaken companion, "that you possessed the faculty of speech. Otherwise I +should often have been glad to converse with such a solid, useful, and +substantial if not brilliant member of society." + +"Oh!" replied the ancient chair, in a quiet and easy tone, for it had +now cleared its throat of the dust of ages, "I am naturally a silent +and incommunicative sort of character. Once or twice in the course of +a century I unclose my lips. When the gentle Lady Arbella departed this +life I uttered a groan. When the honest mint-master weighed his plump +daughter against the pine-tree shillings I chuckled audibly at the joke. +When old Simon Bradstreet took the place of the tyrant Andros I joined +in the general huzza, and capered on my wooden legs for joy. To be sure, +the by-standers were so fully occupied with their own feelings that my +sympathy was quite unnoticed." + +"And have you often held a private chat with your friends?" asked +Grandfather. + +"Not often," answered the chair. "I once talked with Sir William Phips, +and communicated my ideas about the witchcraft delusion. Cotton Mather +had several conversations with me, and derived great benefit from my +historical reminiscences. In the days of the Stamp Act I whispered in +the ear of Hutchinson, bidding him to remember what stock his countrymen +were descended of, and to think whether the spirit of their forefathers +had utterly departed from them. The last man whom I favored with a +colloquy was that stout old republican, Samuel Adams." + +"And how happens it," inquired Grandfather, "that there is no record nor +tradition of your conversational abilities? It is an uncommon thing to +meet with a chair that can talk." + +"Why, to tell you the truth," said the chair, giving itself a hitch +nearer to the hearth, "I am not apt to choose the most suitable moments +for unclosing my lips. Sometimes I have inconsiderately begun to speak, +when my occupant, lolling back in my arms, was inclined to take +an after-dinner nap. Or perhaps the impulse to talk may be felt at +midnight, when the lamp burns dim and the fire crumbles into decay, +and the studious or thoughtful man finds that his brain is in a mist. +Oftenest I have unwisely uttered my wisdom in the ears of sick persons, +when the inquietude of fever made them toss about upon my cushion. And +so it happens, that though my words make a pretty strong impression at +the moment, yet my auditors invariably remember them only as a dream. +I should not wonder if you, my excellent friend, were to do the same +to-morrow morning." + +"Nor I either," thought Grandfather to himself. However, he thanked this +respectable old chair for beginning the conversation, and begged to know +whether it had anything particular to communicate. + +"I have been listening attentively to your narrative of my adventures," +replied the chair; "and it must be owned that your correctness entitles +you to be held up as a pattern to biographers. Nevertheless, there are a +few omissions which I should be glad to see supplied. For instance, you +make no mention of the good knight Sir Richard Saltonstall, nor of the +famous Hugh Peters, nor of those old regicide judges, Whalley, Goffe, +and Dixwell. Yet I have borne the weight of all those distinguished +characters at one time or another." + +Grandfather promised amendment if ever he should have an opportunity to +repeat his narrative. The good old chair, which still seemed to retain a +due regard for outward appearance, then reminded him how long a time +had passed since it had been provided with a new cushion. It likewise +expressed the opinion that the oaken figures on its back would show to +much better advantage by the aid of a little varnish. + +"And I have had a complaint in this joint," continued the chair, +endeavoring to lift one of its legs, "ever since Charley trundled his +wheelbarrow against me." + +"It shall be attended to," said Grandfather. + +"And now, venerable chair, I have a favor to solicit. During an +existence of more than two centuries you have had a familiar intercourse +with men who were esteemed the wisest of their day. Doubtless, with your +capacious understanding, you have treasured up many an invaluable lesson +of wisdom. You certainly have had time enough to guess the riddle of +life. Tell us, poor mortals, then, how we may be happy." + +The lion's head fixed its eyes thoughtfully upon the fire, and the +whole chair assumed an aspect of deep meditation. Finally it beckoned to +Grandfather with its elbow, and made a step sideways towards him, as if +it had a very important secret to communicate. + +"As long as I have stood in the midst of human affairs," said the chair, +with a very oracular enunciation, "I have constantly observed that +Justice, Truth, and Love are the chief ingredients of every happy life." + +"Justice, Truth, and Love!" exclaimed Grandfather. "We need not exist +two centuries to find out that these qualities are essential to our +happiness. This is no secret. Every human being is born with the +instinctive knowledge of it." + +"Ah!" cried the chair, drawing back in surprise. "From what I have +observed of the dealings of man with man, and nation with nation, I +never should have suspected that they knew this all-important secret. +And, with this eternal lesson written in your soul, do you ask me +to sift new wisdom for you out of my petty existence of two or three +centuries?" + +"But, my dear chair "--said Grandfather. + +"Not a word more," interrupted the chair; "here I close my lips for +the next hundred years. At the end of that period, if I shall have +discovered any new precepts of happiness better than what Heaven has +already taught you, they shall assuredly be given to the world." + +In the energy of its utterance the oaken chair seemed to stamp its +foot, and trod (we hope unintentionally) upon Grandfather's toe. The old +gentleman started, and found that he had been asleep in the great chair, +and that his heavy walking-stick had fallen down across his foot. + +"Grandfather," cried little Alice, clapping her hand, "you must dream a +new dream every night about our chair!" + +Laurence, and Clara, and Charley said the same. But the good old +gentleman shook his head, and declared that here ended the history, real +or fabulous, of GRANDFATHER'S CHAIR. + + + + +APPENDIX TO PART III. + +A LETTER FROM GOVERNOR HUTCHINSON NARRATING THE DOINGS OF THE MOB. + +TO RICHARD JACKSON. + +BOSTON, Aug. 30, 1765. + +MY DEAR SIR, I came from my house at Milton, the 26 in the morning. +After dinner it was whispered in town there would be a mob at night, and +that Paxton, Hallowell, the custom-house, and admiralty officers' +houses would be attacked; but my friends assured me that the rabble were +satisfied with the insult I had received and that I was become rather +popular. In the evening, whilst I was at supper and my children round +me, somebody ran in and said the mob were coming. I directed my children +to fly to a secure place, and shut up my house as I had done before, +intending not to quit it; but my eldest daughter repented her leaving +me, hastened back, and protested she would not quit the house unless +I did. I could n't stand against this, and withdrew with her to a +neighboring house, where I had been but a few minutes before the hellish +crew fell upon my house with the rage of devils, and in a moment with +axes split down the doors and entered. My son being in the great entry +heard them cry: "Damn him, he is upstairs, we'll have him." Some ran +immediately as high as the top of the house, others filled the rooms +below and cellars, and others remained without the house to be employed +there. + +Messages soon came one after another to the house where I was, to inform +me the mob were coming in pursuit of me, and I was obliged to retire +through yards and gardens to a house more remote, where I remained until +4 o'clock, by which time one of the best finished houses in the Province +had nothing remaining but the bare walls and floors. Not contented with +tearing off all the wainscot and hangings, and splitting the doors to +pieces, they beat down the partition walls; and although that alone +cost them near two hours, they cut down the cupola or lanthorn, and they +began to take the slate and boards from the roof, and were prevented +only by the approaching daylight from a total demolition of the +building. The garden-house was laid flat, and all my trees, etc., +broke down to the ground. + +Such ruin was never seen in America. Besides my plate and family +pictures, household furniture of every kind, my own, my children's, and +servants' apparel, they carried off about L900 sterling in money, and +emptied the house of everything whatsoever, except a part of the kitchen +furniture, not leaving a single book or paper in it, and have scattered +or destroyed all the manuscripts and other papers I had been collecting +for thirty years together, besides a great number of public papers in +my custody. The evening being warm, I had undressed me and put on a thin +camlet surtout over my waistcoat. The next morning, the weather being +changed, I had not clothes enough in my possession to defend me from +the cold, and was obliged to borrow from my friends. Many articles +of clothing and a good part of my plate have since been picked up in +different quarters of the town, lint the furniture in general was cut to +pieces before it was thrown out of the house, and most of the beds cut +open, and the feathers thrown out of the windows. The next evening, +I intended with my children to Milton, but meeting two or three small +parties of the ruffians, who I suppose had concealed themselves in the +country, and my coachman hearing one of them say, "There he is!" my +daughters were terrified and said they should never be safe, and I was +forced to shelter them that night at the Castle. + +The encouragers of the first mob never intended matters should go this +length, and the people in general expressed the utter detestation of +this unparalleled outrage, and I wish they could be convinced what +infinite hazard there is of the most terrible consequences from such +demons, when they are let loose in a government where there is not +constant authority at hand sufficient to suppress them. I am told the +government here will make me a compensation for my own and my family's +loss, which I think cannot be much less than L3,000 sterling. I am not +sure that they will. If they should not, it will be too heavy for me, +and I must humbly apply to his majesty in whose service I am a sufferer; +but this, and a much greater sum would be an insufficient compensation +for the constant distress and anxiety of mind I have felt for some time +past, and must feel for months to come. You cannot conceive the wretched +state we are in. Such is the resentment of the people against the +Stamp-Duty, that there can be no dependence upon the General Court to +take any steps to enforce, or rather advise, to the payment of it. On +the other hand, such will be the effects of not submitting to it, that +all trade must cease, all courts fall, and all authority be at an end. +Must not the ministry be excessively embarrassed? On the one hand, it +will be said, if concessions are made, the Parliament endanger the +loss of their authority over the Colony: on the other hand, if external +forces should be used, there seems to be danger of a total lasting +alienation of affection. Is there no alternative? May the infinitely +wise God direct you. + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's Grandfather's Chair, by Nathaniel Hawthorne + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK GRANDFATHER'S CHAIR *** + +***** This file should be named 1926.txt or 1926.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/1/9/2/1926/ + +Produced by An Anonymous Volunteer + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, +set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to +copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to +protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. 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