Hugh Wynne, Free Quaker

end Jack in

g over. The Stamp Act had come and gone. The Non-importation Agreement had been signed even by men like Andrew Allen and Mr. Penn. Lord North, a gentle and obstinate person, was minister. The

disorder appeal to most boys' minds as desirable. My father was terrified at the disturbance of commerce, and the angry words which began to be heard. Mr. John Wynne very coo

re used to it, the business had for fellows like ourselves a certain charm. The horses we learned to know and understand. Their owners were of a class with which in those days it was not thou

Peggy Chew, and I think Miss Shippen, stood awhile without the forge, making very merry. Jack got red in the face, but I was angry, worked

as useful as to the management of horses, so that I was not long unhappy. My father, pleased at my diligence, once said to me that I seemed to be atten

and quite too pretty, with his blond locks. After our third month began, Lowry married a widow, and moved away to her farm up the country and beyond the Blue Bell tavern, where he c

He stood and watched me shoe a horse, and asked Lowry if I had learned the business. When he replied th

d go home. There will be o

ek Tom Lowry, our master, appeared with a fine beaver for me, saying, as I knew, that it was the custo

r as I was concerned, she would soon or late relent. This, in fact, came about in midwinter, upon her asking my mother to send me to see her. My father

ch, and stockings with brown clocks, and also a brown beaver, the back looped up, all of wh

ies for her, just come from Jamaica. Bulbs they are; I will care for them in the cellar. I was near to forget the marmalade of bitter orange. She must send

I shall never let any woman but me kiss thee. I shall be jealous. And now, sir, a bow. That was better. Now, as I curtsey, it is bad manners

?" said my father at the

ot yet bow as well as thou. It would crack some Quaker backs,

! Thou art a ch

pretty that he could not help but lift up her slight figure, and, kissing her, set

t ruin hi

come the warehouse; but take the sweets of life as they offer. Adieu." She stood to watch me, all h

warned me of her having company. As I entered she rose, expecting an older guest

n so long!" I could have said

his to an English major; "and, Captain

and the other a man with too much manner,

shoulder, which I did not relish. "Zounds

a quiet gentleman, who saw, I fancy, by my fac

now them;" and as I turned aside, "I beg pardon, Sir William; this is my nephew, Hugh Wynne." This was addressed to a high-c

il later that he was one of the victims of the sharp pen of Junius, with whom, for the sake of the Marqu

teen! I was in service three years earlier. Should he

been, a year or so ago, but now

rbid! Our po

guson. "She reads Dickinson's 'Farmer's Letters,

Otis has been beaten by our officers, and because our bands play 'Yankee Doodle' on Sundays in front of the churche

hort measures,"

t. It is like a nest of ants in a turmoil, and the worst of all are the officers who serv

k," said my aunt. "I can remember how they all looked. Not a wig among them

call them wigwams?" c

r mamma, while my a

ton, "'pon my soul-and with such airs,

d not had your opportunities of k

now how, and I trust, madam, I shall have the pleasure to

to see, Hugh," sai

Chew said, "Let us defeat these

said my aunt, glad of

guson. "What a big fellow you are! Your aunt

the guineas and gold half-joes passed from one to another, while the gay Mrs. Ferguson, who was at th

n, and the great Dr. Rush, with his delicate, clean-cut face under a full wig. Dr. Shippen was ful

en said. I chanced to hear Dr. Rush deep in talk behind the punch-

ams, of things being unendurable. He is bold enough to talk

in London. He advises conciliation, and not to act with

this was all I heard or remember, for my aunt bade me run h

ore likely Galloway's gazette, the "Chronicle," which was rank Tory, and was suppressed in 1773. But outside of the house I learned the news readily. Mr. Warder took papers on both sides, and als

l the judges in Massachusetts, who were in future to be paid by the crown, and would thus pass under its cont

had not lost its romance. Men could remember Kidd and Blackbeard. In the low-lying dens below Dock Creek and on King street, were many, it is to be feared, who had seen the black flag flying, and who knew too well the keys and shoals of the West Indies. The captain who put to sea with such sailors had need to be resolute and ready. Ships went armed, and I was amazed to see, in the hold

s to come. Once I would have gone to the Madeiras with Captain Biddle, but unluckily my mother prevailed with my father to fo

all grades, who came and went, and brought with them much licence and contempt for colonists in general, and a silly way of parading their own sentiments on all occasions. Gambling, hard dr

dom only equalled by that with which she spoke her good Whig mind. The air was full of

drank or ate more than was wise. As regards worse things than wine and cards, I think Miss Wynne was right when she described me as a girl-boy; for t

religious safeguards, although. I trust I was not altogether without these helps. I have seen now and then that to be refined in tastes and feelings is a great aid to a virtuous life. Also I have known some who would have been drunkards but for their heads and stomachs, which so behaved as to be good substitutes fo

r me. If I state this awkwardly it is because all excuses are awkward. Looking back, I wonder that I was not worse, and that I did not go to the uttermost devil. I was vigorous, and had the stomach of a temperate ox, and a head which made no

t to win me to her own she took an ill way to do it. I was presented to the English officers, and freely supplied with money, to which I had been quite unused, so long as my father was the only source of supply. We were out late when I was presumed to be at my Aunt Gainor's; and to drink and bet, or to see a race or cock-fight, or to pull off knockers, or to bother the ancient watchmen, were now some of my most reputable amusements. I began to be talked abo

, dost thou strive for more and more money? Hast thou not enough? Let us give up all this care and go to our great farm at Merion, a

ngshore to the south of Dock street. She would dismount, leave her horse to the groom, and, with a heavily mounted, silver-topped whip in hand, and her riding-petticoat gathered up, would march al

and loaded her with gods of the

ventured some rudeness to me-no, no, mon cher, nothing to anger you; il avait peur de cette femme. He was afraid of her-her and her whip.

ged; "what did he s

ng. Comme ca." She became that man in a moment, turning up the edge of her silk shawl, and nodding solemnly. I screamed with laughter. Ever since I was a c

graver face than common, and I rising to leave her with my father, she put her whip

s it, G

aking trouble in the East. The chief justice of Rhode Island, Hopkin

!" said

e. We shall all be p

that all? It doe

res he will dance to whatever tune the king likes. He was a nice, amiable young fellow when I stayed at his fathe

hat I think, Gainor. We have but to obey those whom the Lord has set over us. We are

on, although not public, that it is meant to tax our tea. Now we do not buy; we smuggle it from Holland; but if the India Compan

y scheme, Gainor. I

atter of a few hundred pounds a year. It will be tried not n

e as thou art info

pest in a teap

ommercial sagacity of this clear-headed woman. Moreover, he was sure, as us

r, as one sees through glass. "You g

at got to do

d not sign the Non-impor

el

k you to rece

an I refuse? I should lo

in Holland. Use all your ships this summer. Go to Madeira from London. Buy freely, and pay at once so as to save interest; it will rise fas

he boldness and sagacity of the scheme impressed a man traine

or before; you will need

s-y

e my Aunt Gainor switched the dust off her petticoat or looked out o

rd them talking of it last night at thy house. I think the king's officers want a war." I took refuge

hou?" said my f

s si

think yo

, Gainor? We have neve

talk t

He was testing the sincerity of

on me from London, and buy powder an

ost thou talk

od cloth. I will take them of

objectio

saying, "The poor will need

eaning, while my father, reflecting

do it,"

up your business, and retire with the profit you will make?

talking to my

plied, surpr

r, I should be but a lost man. I am not

of them. You like the game, and, after all, what is it but a kind of gambling? How do you know what hands the ocean holds? Your ventures

cern to James Pemberton and to my friend, Nicholas Wain, and to me-to me. Thy gambling and idle redcoats are snares to his soul. He has begun to have

!" cried

e," I said, "

to answer thy elders." And with this he shook me violent

me, and, perfectly passive, I looked up at him and smiled. A

ACH THEE TO ANSWER THY EL

nd in a room. One of the men is holding a stick over his head; th

aised his stick. My Aunt Gainor jerked it out of his hand, and,

crying, "Gai

Welsh blood. What would my good Marie say? Why have you not had the sense to make a fri

not angry; neither was I ashamed; but an hour later I was both angry and ashamed.

, he stood with set features, looking from her to me,

ou see that it is your accursed repression and dry

have brought this about. I have lost my temper and would have struck in anger, w

d no in

nor. Why dost thou always pro

to me that the boy has had a good lesson in

inor!" said I,

ed my father. "Go

do not mention my new

hall

-by! Com