Three colonial boys; a story of the times of '76.

Front matter

n 0

•*.

o ^

Preface

This book is the first of a series and is therefore introductory. While it is my design to cover the outlines of the struggle for independence in the series, it is in the form of stories that I wish to do this, and through the stories to lead the younger readers into the history itself.

The setting of this story is in the main historically true. The feeling between the Whigs and Tories, the London Trading and Whale-boat Warfare, the characteristics of the soldiers, the sending of the powder from New Jersey to Cambridge, and the pictures of town life are all true. The life and feelings of the people who did the great deeds ought as much to be known as the deeds themselves. Indeed, this is the history of which the other is only the manifestation.

In times like the present there is special need of these lessons. To hold fast is as necessary as to prove. In the hope that some lessons of patriotism as well as an interest in the story itself may be aroused, this book is sent forth.

Everett T. Tomlinson.

Contents

CHAPTER PAGE

I. An Angry Master n

II. A Colonial Serenade 19

Chapter I. An Angry Master

TV /T ARK me, sir ! Mark me ! ”

A silence quickly came over the schoolroom as the angry master spoke. It was almost the hour of closing, and some of the younger boys already had been dismissed. Those who were yet in the room looked toward the schoolmaster with a frightened face, and even the older boys on the back seats were startled and attentive. No one was studying, but the master was too angry to notice that which usually drew from him a sharp reprimand. The face of John Shotwell, to whom these words were spoken, became white and hard, and his seat-mate, Joseph Swan, looked at him in surprise.

John Shotwell was one of the oldest and strongest of the boys in Master Chase’s Grammar School, in Elizabeth Town, in February, 1775. He had been the leader among his young friends, for no one could bat so far the little hard rubber ball

THREE COLONIAL BOYS .

with which they played in those days, and for which John had his own special club, so thick through that it was known among the boys as the “ pudden stick.” No one could throw it so straight and swift as he, for they more frequently threw the ball to hit than to be caught, in those days.

When skating came on the bay, into which the Passaic and the Hackensack flowed, few could keep up with him; and when they trapped the rabbits that were always plentiful in winter in the woods that were near the town, John always had the best success ; and in the handling of a boat few were his equals.

He had always been peaceable, never picking a quarrel, yet never running from it when once it came.

There was something about his well-knit, active, athletic figure, or else about the glance that came forth from his eyes at times, that made few care to disturb him.

Two years before this time, Schoolmaster Chase had come from England and cast in his lot with the Colonies, but his life here had never been a happy "*bne, as few people cared to be reminded constantly of their own lacks and of the superiority of another country. During those two years he had conducted a school, and now there were between thirty and forty boys under his care, varying in ages from the little fellow just learning his letters, to the sturdy

AN ANGRY MASTER.

John and Joseph, who were almost men in size and strength.

The schoolmaster had ruled by the aid of the rod and the strap. Every morning the entire school stood in a row around the schoolroom with their toes upon a certain crack, and each scholar read a verse from the Bible, “ reading around ” until a chapter from the Old Testament, a Psalm, and a chapter from the New Testament had been read. If any luckless youngster were unfortunate enough to lose his place, or make a mistake in the reading, he at once stepped forward with his toes upon another crack, and joined that portion of the class which steadily grew until the reading lesson was finished. All those in the rear row then went back to their seats, while the master took his ferule and inflicted a punishment upon the outstretched palms of those who were unfortunate enough to be members of the front row.

During the day the sound of the ferule and the rod were frequently heard, and the expression with which this chapter opens — “ Mark me, sir! Mark me ! ” — was one which the master delighted to shout and which meant that some unfortunate pupil was to come to the front of the room and, placing his toes upon one crack, bend forward until his fingers touched another crack in the floor, and in this position receive the punishment which the vindictive Englishman appeared to take delight in giving.

THREE COLONIAL BOYS.

H

He was thoroughly detested by all the scholars, and yet, because he could give some opportunities that were not often to be had then, he had built up quite a large school. John Shotwell had been out of school for a year or two, but had come back with the thought that possibly a little later he might go to Nassau Hall (Princeton) which he knew first had been founded at Elizabeth Town. On his next birthday he would be eighteen years old and already he felt as if he were a young man.

Schoolmaster Chase, as has been said, was an ardent friend of the mother country. He was a large, strong, quick-tempered man, whose face flushed at the slightest provocation and of whom the smaller boys stood in great fear. They doffed their hats in the most abject manner when they met him on the street, or else ran away when they saw him approaching, to avoid even a slight contact with this great man.

John had despised him as a bully and a coward at heart, and yet never before this day had he come to an open rupture. The master had somehow avoided an issue, for, perhaps, he did not care to draw out the athletic young student, who always knew his lessons and who quietly attended to his own business. There was something about the look of his eye which showed he was not afraid of him, and he was well aware of the reputation he had among the boys.

AN ANGRY MASTER.

Perhaps also he felt that John had no respect for him, which, while it did not add to his own comfort, helped him to avoid a meeting-.

John was as ardent in his devotion to the cause of the Colonies as the master was in belittling them and in magnifying the goodness and power of England. John came of a strong patriotic family, and he was the third generation born in America. His father had been one of the men who had helped to restore the powder which had been seized by the Tories in Stamford, Connecticut, only a few days before this time, and John had been greatly excited over the expedition.

Mr. Shotwell was also one of the “Sons of Liberty,” and had been one of the number who nearly ten years before this time had built a large gallows at Elizabeth Town, and on which they had declared that the first person that ever distributed or took out a “Stamped paper,” should be hanged without judge or jury.

It was true that the gallows never had been used, but it had had a wholesome effect on the people. He also had been one of those who had presented an address to Colonel Templar five years before, telling of the good qualities of the twenty-sixth regiment when they had been withdrawn from Elizabeth Town, and the hated twenty-ninth, which had been stationed at. Boston at the time of the Boston Massacre, had been sent to take their place. When they had heard of the Boston troubles, John’s father had been at the meeting held at the Court House in Newark on the eleventh of June, when the paper of William Livingston calling on all the people to stand firm in their opposition to Parliament had been adopted.

Only the previous morning John had laughed heartily when his father read to him from the New York Journal the definition of a Tory which recently had been given at a dinner party in New York.

He had come to school that morning with his blood stirred, and it was strange that on that very morning Master Chase should have been specially abusive. John watched him quietly, and while his lip curled sometimes with contempt at the master’s abuse of the younger boys, he had no thought of a personal collision with him himself ; but John’s class had taken their places on the floor, and one of the problems in arithmetic had been to compute the amount of duty which England might collect on certain articles of import into America, and this had served the irascible schoolmaster as a text. John had solved the problem and had given the answer.

“ Is that the right duty? ” said the teacher.

“Yes, that’s the right duty,” replied John, “but that duty is n’t right.”

The schoolroom was silent in a moment, and some of the boys looked aghast at the boldness of anyone

AM ANGRY MASTER.

I 7 who would dare to speak such words, in view of the well-known sentiments of the master.

“ What do you mean, sir?” thundered the master.

“ My father says that almost none of our people around here ever used the stamps, and that none but Tories wanted to.”

“ What did you say, Tory or traitor?”

“Either will do,” replied John quickly, “but I said Tory.”

“ Tory, Tory ! What is a Tory ? ” said the master, growing more and more angry every moment.

“ I heard my father read a good definition of one out of the New York Journal yesterday morning,” said John quietly, but with a strange look in his eyes.

“ Pray, sir,” said the schoolmaster sarcastically, “ be good enough to give it to us. We ’ll all stop and listen to it,” he added, turning to the entire school.

“ There were some men dining together in New York the other day, and one of them asked the very same question that you asked just now, ‘ What is a Tory ? ’ and since you have told me to tell you what it was, I ’ll give you the answer ; but it ’s his, and not mine.”

The master waited a moment, and John continued: “This man said that a Tory was a thing that had its head in England, and its body in America, and whose neck ought to be stretched.”

The face of the schoolmaster became livid. He clenched his fist and grasped his heavy ferule, and in his loudest tones he shouted, “Mark me, sir! Mark me ! ” but John did not move. The entire school was breathless waiting for the issue.

“ Stay,” said the schoolmaster. “ There are not enough here now, and such an open insult must be openly punished. To-morrow morning you will come prepared to toe the mark before the entire school.” Then he hurriedly dismissed them all.

The smile which John had upon his face almost made the angry man start for him then and there, ferule in hand ; but he restrained himself, and smiling grimly he decided to bide his time, and permitted the school to pass out of the building.

Chapter II. A Colonial Serenade

JOHN SHOTWELL walked home thoughtfully. J His seat-mate, Joseph Swan, started to go with him, but when John turned to him and said, “ I ’ll see you at the singing school to-night,” he knew that he wanted to be left alone.

John’s heart was hot within him. He felt mortified that he, one of the oldest of the boys and the leader of them all, should have been so spoken to before the school ; and yet what could he do ? Should he tell his father? But his father frequently had told him that if ever he had trouble with his teachers at school he might expect to find more when he came home, and he knew that his father was one to keep his word. His only hope was in the intense patriotism of his father, and the thought that he might prove to be his friend when he knew the cause of the trouble.

John was the youngest of seven brothers, and the only one of them all at home now. Being the seventh son, he was familiarly known as “ Doctor,” as there was a tradition in those days that the seventh son should be called by that name. But he hesitated about telling his father, for his stern ways 19

THREE COLONIAL BOYS.

and his uncompromising loyalty to the officials in school and church, made him know that he would be angry at first ; but when he entered the house he found his mother there all alone, and to her he told his whole story.

She listened quietly, although John thought he detected a slight flush upon her cheeks as he recited his story, and she promised to tell his father all about it.

The boys of those days respected their fathers, but loved their mothers ; and that which John did in telling his mother of his trouble, and getting the promise of her intercession, was something not unknown in other families and by other boys.

John ate his supper, and as he glanced at his father at the other end of the table he knew that his mother had not yet told him. He did his chores for the night and then started for the singing school.

He knew that many of the boys would be there, but, mortified and angered alike at his experience of the day, he did not care to see them ; but if he stayed away, he was even more afraid that they would assign another cause for his absence, and so he decided to go.

For a number of evenings he had walked home after the singing school with Hannah Boudinot, the sister of Master Chase’s wife. She was a demure little maiden, as gentle as Master Chase was stern. John laughed a little to himself as he walked on, as

A COLONIAL SERENADE. 21

he thought of the way in which he had first walked home with her. He was not quite sure but that he was on one side of the street and she on the other. At any rate, he was certain that not a word had been spoken by either of them before they had arrived at her home. He wondered a little as to what she would say to him now.

The singing school had opened, and they all were singing with great enthusiasm the first piece of the evening when John entered and took his seat. One of the boys whispered to him: “We’re going to fix Chase. Will you go into it?” But John only shook his head by way of reply, and tried to give his attention to the work of the evening.

The singing school was over at last, and Joseph Swan, who also had come in late, John noticed with surprise was not waiting for his sister, but had sent her home with another party of young people who would of necessity go in that direction.

Just as John was trying to get up his courage, for the fear of the “ Mitten ” was the great fear of his life, and had stepped forward from the line of boys waiting outside in the cold, to speak to the demure little Hannah, Master Chase suddenly came up and took her home with him.

“ Come on, John ; I know you ’ll join us now,” said Joseph as he grasped his friend by the arm and started off down the street with him. “ We Ve stood the old curmudgeon just as long as we’re

THREE COLONIAL BOYS.

going to;” and as he walked along by the side of his friend, with many a laugh he told him of the plan which had been devised, and in the execution of the first part of which he had spent the early part of the evening.

“That’s what made me late at the singing school. He is the meanest man that ever lived. The way he hammers at the Colonies, and at us if we say a word for our own homes, is more than we want, and what he said to you to-day is the worst thing yet. You aren’t going to stand it, are you, Doctor?” said Joseph.

John said nothing by way of reply, and Joseph continued his story. “ We ’ve been up to the schoolhouse and what do you suppose we did ? We bored a hole through the bottom of the chair that old Chase sits in, and another right through the platform and the floor under it. It’s only a little hole and you could n’t see it unless you were looking for it. Then we ran a string through the holes we had bored, and along under the floor and out at the window. I don’t suppose we ’ll use it outside of the window, but we just put it that way, so that when it goes off he ’ll think it ’s some one outside. Well, right under the chair, and in the hole, we ’ve fixed a darning-needle on a spring, and we ’ve connected a cord with the whole thing, and we can pull that spring back, and send that darning-needle up through that hole in the chair in a way that will

A COLONIAL SERENADE.

wake up the glorious old Tory. When he starts to get up to-morrow we ’re going to help him.”

John laughed aloud. In his mind he could see the burly schoolmaster pricked with the needle, and the angry face which he would have when the trick should have been played upon him.

“Don’t you want to pull that string?” said Joseph.

“ No,” replied John, “ that is n’t in my line, and he ’d charge me with it, anyway.”

“ Well, we ’re going around to serenade him now ; will you come ?” continued Joseph. In a moment John had forgotten about Hannah, and all his troubles, and said: “Yes, I’ll come around with you and join in the chorus, anyway.”

The schoolmaster lived in a house that stood back from the street and in a large yard. There were many trees and bushes there, and behind these the boys were to take their places.

John was surprised when he saw nearly fifty in the company that had gathered, and watched them with interest as they sought their positions. Soon all things were ready, and Joseph struck up a song in which all joined.

The cruel lords of Britain,

Who glory in their shame,

The project they have hit on They joyfully proclaim ;

THREE COLONIAL BOYS.

’T is what they ’re striving after Our right to take away,

And rob us of our charter In North America.

Old Satan, the arch-traitor Who rules the burning lake,

Where his chief navigator Resolved a voyage to take ;

For the Britannic ocean He launches far away,

To land he had no notion In North America.

He takes his seat in Britain —

It was his soul’s intent Great George’s throne to sit on,

And rule the Parliament.

His comrades were pursuing A diabolic way For to complete the ruin Of North America.

0 George ! you are distracted ;

You ’ll by experience find

The laws you have enacted Are of the blackest kind.

1 ’ll make a short digression,

And tell you, by the way,

We fear not your oppression In North America.

The boys sang each stanza louder than the preceding one, but no response as yet had come from the house. Suddenly John heard some one on the steps of the piazza say : “ Sic ’em, Tige ! Sic ’em,

A COLONIAL SERENADE .

Tige ! ” and the savage dog, which the schoolmaster kept, started toward the singers. John never knew just what happened, but the dog began to howl and returned limping to the house, and once more the boys resumed the song which had been interrupted.

Proud George, you are engaged All in a dirty cause,

A cruel war have waged Repugnant to all laws.

Go tell the savage nations ' You ’re cruder than they,

To fight your own relations In North America.

Confusion to the Tories !

That black, infernal name,

In which Great Britain glories,

Forever to her shame :

We ’ll send each foul revolter To smutty Africa,

Or noose him in a halter,

In North America.

“ Oh, give them something else ! ” called out Joseph. “ ‘ American Taxation ’ ’s all right, but let’s give them now the ‘ Banks of the Dee’ ; ” and once more they began to sing : —

’T was winter, and blue Tory noses were freezing,

As they marched o’er the land where they ought not to be ;

The valiants complain’d at the fifers’ curs’d wheezing, —

The song was interrupted by the sound of a gun discharged from an upper window in the house.

THREE COLONIAL BOYS.

The company of serenaders quickly scattered, and Joseph said: “ ’T was only salt, I know, but we ’ve stirred him up enough for to-night, I guess. What are you going to do to-morrow ? ” said he quizzically.

“ I ’m not sure just yet,” replied John thoughtfully as he left his companion to go to his own home ; but the question was still in his mind when he found all were in bed, and he himself, wrapped in his blankets, was trying to get to sleep — “ What am I going to do to-morrow ? ”

Chapter III. How The Master Became A Prisoner

\ yt /HEN John took his place at the breakfast v * table the next morning, he saw by the expression on his father’s face that his mother had told him all about his trouble with the schoolmaster. Little, however, was said during the meal, and it was only after the morning prayers, for which the servants and all the members of the household were assembled, that his father spoke to him.

“John, how is this that I hear you have been having trouble with the master ? ”

“ It was n’t any trouble of my seeking,” said John. “ I ’ve tried to do everything he told me to ; but when he abused the Colonies I could n’t keep still.”

“ What was it you said to him ? ” asked his father.

“ Why all I did,” replied John, “ was to tell him of the definition you read in the New York Journal day before yesterday morning of a Tory, and he did n’t seem to like it.”

His father smiled but made no reply, and John went on to tell him all the circumstances of the preceding day, even to Hannah and the singing school, and the serenade which Schoolmaster Chase had received.

“ That is what I blame you most for,” said his father; “you had no right at all on his grounds.”

“ I suppose so,” said John ; “ but as all the boys were going I did n’t like to hold back.”

“ That does n’t make any difference,” said his father decidedly. “ Every man’s house is his castle, and he has a perfect right to keep out all who try to enter without his consent. If it had n’t been for the serenade, I hardly think I should have made you go to school to-day ; but, as it is, you ’ll have to go and take the consequences.”

“ Do you think I ought to stand still and let him thrash me just for saying what I did?” John anxiously asked.

H is father hesitated a moment and then said : “I sha’n’t uphold you in any rebellion against your teachers. You ’ve gotten into this trouble yourself, and you ’ll have to get yourself out of it ; still, I don’t think I should take, back any of the words I used yesterday if I were in your place, if you have told me all there was of it.”

John assured his father that he had told him everything, and feeling somewhat confident that he would not blame him if he did stand up a little further for his own rights, he took his books and started for the schoolhouse.

It was not quite time, when John arrived, for the boys to be summoned to the schoolroom. They all looked at him curiously when he approached, but in

HOW THE MAS TEE BECAME A PRISONER.

reply to the questions which they put to him as to what he intended to do in the event of the master carrying out his threat of the previous day, John only shook his head and would say nothing.

The bell soon was rung, and the boys took their places at their desks. As they came trooping into the room, one of the boys started up a verse of the song they had used on the previous night : —

Old Satan, the arch-traitor

Who rules the burning lake, —

but the expression on the master’s face soon stopped any inclination to sing.

While John had not told the boys what he had in mind, he nevertheless had decided upon the course of action he should pursue, and he calmly took his seat.

When .the other boys took their places he felt that the schoolmaster was watching him, but he seldom glanced in his direction. At a rap of the ferule on the desk all the boys took their places on the floor, to read from the Bible after their morning custom ; but somehow the master did not notice their mistakes that morning, and no one was called upon to step forward upon the advance line, as was the usual morning practice.

This exercise had been finished, and they all once more had taken their seats, when a hush came over the room. Everyone was anxious and won-

THREE COLONIAL BOYS .

dering what was to come next, but the brief silence was soon broken by the voice of Schoolmaster Chase. He still sat in his seat, as he always did till the boys had taken their places on the line whenever he called out “ Mark me, sir ! Mark me ! ” This morning he was unusually slow and cool in all his movements, but at last he began to speak.

“ Yesterday,” said he, “ I was grievously insulted in this room. The position I hold and the positions you hold entitle me to your respect at all times and under all circumstances. In spite of the grave insult which I received, I still am willing to forgive it, if the one who made it will apologize as openly as he gave the insult.”

H is words produced a marked effect upon the scholars, and the eyes of everyone were turned toward John, who sat, undisturbed and quiet, in his seat on the back row. The suspense was broken when John arose in the midst of a stillness that was almost oppressive, and replied to the words of the teacher.

“ I presume you are speaking of me, are you not ? ” he said.

“ Yes, sir ! ” gruffly replied the teacher.

“ I never meant to insult you,” replied John. “ I have always been taught by my parents and the minister to be respectful to my elders and to my betters. If I was disrespectful yesterday, I am sorry for it and willing to say so before the school.”

HOW THE MASTER BECAME A PRISONER. 3 I

The face of the schoolmaster was glowing. Already the victory seemed to be his, and in a confident manner he said : “ That ’s right, that’s right ; we ought never to forget the duty we owe to England. She has a right to all of the Colonies and to all that the Colonies can do for her.”

“That’s not what I said,” said John quietly. “ If I was disrespectful to you, I am willing to apologize ; but I am not willing to take back one word I said about the right of England to tax us.”

“You said something about ‘traitors,’” said the schoolmaster angrily.

“ Yes,” replied John ; “ but it was only to answer a question you asked of me. I feel more than ever that Tory and traitor are spelled in the same way.”

The face of the schoolmaster flushed and a look of intense anger spread over it. “ Then mark me, sir ! mark me ! ” he shouted in a voice that could have been heard far from the schoolhouse.

John knew that the contest was coming. The suppressed excitement in the room was intense. He heard his seat-mate say in a low tone : “ Now ! now! Draw it hardy draw it hard ! ”

“ Mark me ! Mark me, sir ! ” continued the schoolmaster. “ M-a-r-k me, m-a-r-k me ! ” he suddenly screamed, and came up over the table in front of him, something after the manner in which the boys played leapfrog.