dared to introduce it with the petitions and letters and protests from the other colonies. They claimed for their constituents" that great badge of English liberty, the being taxed only with their own consent." They spurned the idea of claiming this exemption as a privilege. "They found it on a basis.more honorable, solid, and stable; they challenge it and glory in it as their right." These protests and petitions were disregarded. George Grenville, Minister, introduced the Stamp Act into Parliament.

WORDS OF FIRE.

THERE was then a great debate. Charles Townshend, on the government side, supported the bill with a speech in which he said: "Now will these Americans-children planted by our care, nourished up by our indulgence, and protected by our arms-will they grudge to contribute their mite to relieve us from the heavy weight of that burden which we lie under?"

To this appeal, Colonel Barré, a friend of America in the House of Commons, replied in this eloquent strain :

They planted by your care! No! Your oppression planted them in America. They fled from your tyranny to a then uncultivated and inhospitable country, where they exposed themselves to almost all the hardships to which human nature is liable, and yet, actuated by principles of true English liberty, they met all hardships with pleasure, compared with those they suffered in their own country, from the hands of those who should have been their

friends.

They nourished up by your indulgence! They grew by your neglect of them. As soon as you began to care for them, that care was exercised in sending persons to rule them, to spy out their liberties, to misrepresent their actions, and to prey upon them-men whose behavior on many occasions has caused the blood of those sons of liberty to recoil within them.

They protected by your arms! They have nobly taken up arms in your defence, have exerted their valor, amidst their constant and

laborious industry, for the defence of a country whose frontier was drenched in blood.

The Stamp Act was passed in the House of Commons by a vote of 294 to 42, on March 22, 1764.

The night after the passage of the Stamp Act, which has been called a

THE postponement of the operation of the Stamp Act was a fatal error. It gave the people in the colonies time to agitate the subject and prepare to defeat the enforcement of the bill. When the news of the passage of the act arrived in Boston and New York, the fury of the people was raised to the highest pitch. In both Boston and New York, "Sons of Liberty" were organizedadopting the name given by Colonel Barré in his eloquent speech, and there were many disturbances of the peace. It was not alone the abstract principle of no taxation without representation, but the consequences of a violation of that principle, which was felt rather than expressed. It was well understood that if taxes were imposed upon American colonies by an English Parliament 3,000 miles away, not only would the people be taxed against their will, but they would be subjected to all sorts of imposition on the part of rulers, who knew little and cared less about the needs and financial ability of the people.

Unjust discrimination, oppression, poverty, and distress would be the evils following closely upon such taxation.

As John Fiske well says: "To expect our forefathers to submit to such legislation as this was about as sensible as it would have been to expect them to obey an order to buy halters and hang themselves."

H

I

ESTER SWAIN was hurrying along the old main street of Nantucket. Her gray cloak blew briskly in the cold east wind, which made her shiver.

But she welcomed the east wind, and she welcomed the burden she carried in her basket. The former was keeping the hostile ships of the British stormbound at Martha's Vineyard, and her basket contained a supply of food, which was like gold in that awful winter of 1779, a reign of terror of the British and of starvation.

Hester's face was set straight ahead, and, protected by her gray head-gearthe plaited bonnet of the Society of Friends—she did not notice the figure of a man standing in a door-way as she speeded on. Like a wimpled maid she seemed, with her plaited dress of gray, dimly lighting up the scene of darkness and storm. Her appearance startled the man into a being of animation.

"Ah, Hester Swain," he cried; "why does thee hasten so fast? Does thee know that every one is waiting"

"But my father," the girl answered quickly, scarcely turning; "he is very ill at ease, he is so tried, and I must not keep him waiting."

-Praed.

impatience in the. girl's manner. She seemed ill-pleased with the interruption.

"Father is sore perplexed," she answered, sadly, "and I doubt if aught that thee-or any one-can say will give him comfort."

Her companion took her basket with a masterful air, and no more words were spoker as they approached a plain white house-the home of Israel Swain, an elder of the Friends of Sherburne, as the island village was then called.

There was sore distress on every hand, in this island territory, during the closing days of the Revolutionary War. But these thrifty people, whose worldly wisdom still remains to-day, had managed to exist for the most part unmolested, up to the autumn of 1779. People will sometimes hint to-day, that they were Tories at heart.

The streets, once so busy with the sailors of the whaling days, with shipcarpenters, oil-merchants, chandlers, and the rest, while the mother-country and her offspring were fighting their battles, had long been silent and deserted. The wharves were lined with the massive hulks of dismantled whalersfor none dared to plough the seas in those days. They had given up the chase of the oil-producing mammoths of the ocean. They had tried the experiment and it had failed. The crews were invariably taken and imprisoned. Better to remain at home for the present, had been the decision of the sturdy shipmasters.

The plea of non-resistance the keystone of the religion of the Friendshad been urged with vigor. The islanders were comforted with the promise of "Sir George Collier, commodore and commander-in-chief of His Majesty's ships and vessels imployed in North America," that they would not be disturbed.

Once the islanders had been visited by a force, which made pretence of being under the command of His Majesty's officers. These had landed and taken from the islanders property said to have reached the value of $50,000. It was after this event that Sir George issued the following order:

"As great numbers of the inhabitants of the island of Nantucket are represented to me to be of the sect called Quakers, and consequently not accustomed to bear arms; and believing the remainder of the inhabitants to be quiet, inoffensive people, who have suffered severely the calamities of war, I therefore think proper to forbid all pri

vateers, letters of marque, armed vessels, or bodies of armed men from molesting, ravaging, or plundering the estates, houses, or persons of the inhabitants of said island. And if they shall be found to act inconsistently with these directions, their commissions as privateers, or letters of marque, shall be vacated, and themselves pun

ished for the offence."

Thus protected and cheered by this magnanimous document, the people "luffed their sails and lay to," anxiously awaiting the dawn of peace. But as the months passed, the times grew worse for them. They were wholly dependent on the resources of the island for their bread. Even salt was costly, and works were established which reaped a rich profit for the owners. Those who had ploughed the sea for their maintenance little knew how to plough the land-the same soil which to-day gives but scanty encouragement for agriculture. Fortunes melted away, and the poorer classes suffered keenly during the weary winters for the lack of food and warmth.

But Israel Swain, the Quaker, was a shrewd business man. He had erected

the salt-works, and he reaped the profit. There was an element in his Quaker blood adapted to make bread of stones. He was near to eighty-five years of age, but none would suspect it, to see him going briskly down the street. "He is our salvation," said the poor. He did, indeed, give to some of them; yet, while he gave, he saved more. It is characteristic of the Friends everywhere to be "prudent," and Israel Swain was far from being an exception.

Hester Swain was his only daughter. She had never known her mother's attention and care, for she had died in the girl's infancy, and the Indian servants of her father-his bonded slaves, in fact were the only members of the home, with its thrifty sufficiency for household. Her plain, ungarnished home, with its thrifty sufficiency for mere human subsistence, and its bare

absence of all means for humane culture, was the sole field of her experience, and she was but a child at twenty years, when the islanders received those tidings which paralyzed them all with

fear.

The news was, in brief, that a small

fleet of His Majesty's ships had set sail for the island of Nantucket, with intown of Sherburne, and to burn it if structions to plunder the people of the

resistance were offered.

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This was, indeed, enough to make Israel Swain what purpose had he toiled and stored sore perplexed." For away his wealth? Was Providence to punish him for not being more generous in the days of need? His religion had taught him to place all faith in the "Higher Power," to resist nothing. And there were none who expounded this doctrine with more fervency than he, when, in the plain old meetinghouse, the "spirit" moved him to speak.

But how was it with him now, he wondered? Such reflections gripped the old man's life-long convictions. His trust in the supreme being was shaken. His treasure! Ah! yes, his treasure, locked away so securely; its impending fate tried him sorely. It was the foremost thought in the mind of this old Friend when danger threatened it.

Hester and her companion entered the house.

"Good-evening to thee, Friend Huxford," the old man exclaimed. There was an effort at cordiality in his voice, which was not in keeping with the times. "Come up near to me by the fire. I feel cold this evening, and I fear I am not well. But that, after all, is a small matter, when the plight of all of us is considered."

"Thee is right," said Huxford, "and should this east wind fall, we might all as well be at the bottom of the sea as on land when the British come."

"Ah, yes! ah, yes! And they will come! It is the will of the devil! Yes, I say it it is the will of the evil one! We may all labor and save, and now everything will be destroyed!" The old man wrung his hands in agony. He seemed, indeed, sick; like a man who should be in his bed.

"I had thought to myself," resumed Walton Huxford, "that thee might need some aid just now. Thee knows, of course, what all the people are doing? They don't mean to leave much lying around, and precious little the Redcoats will find when they get here, I'm thinking, unless they may discover something here," and he looked searchingly about the room.

But he saw nothing that hinted at treasure in Israel Swain's living-room. His remarks, however, had acted like an electric shock upon the elder. He sat upright, with burning eyes, making a grotesque figure in the light of the leaping flames arising from the peat fire upon the hearth.

"Friend Walton Huxford," he cried, "I'll have naught of treasure for those red-coated scamps! I'm old, and I'm sick; and yet I'm alive enough, mark my words, lad. Let them search! I'll warrant thee, they'll be sadly jammed* if they depend on me to furnish them with treasure!"

"But it is certain they will search thy house, Goodman Swain. Ay, thine will be the first, for thy worldly condition has been well marked before now." He spoke as if to lead him on.

"Let them search, I say! Let them look from my garret to my cellar!" the old man shouted, shaking his fist. "I'll defy them to find my gold. I may die,

A nautical idiom, meaning hard-pressed for money.

but that will be safe, and my lips will be sealed. They may torture me, but they will not find it."

The young man seemed bewildered. He had come with a purpose, but now that apparently was to be thwarted. He knew the old man too well to question him much. The ways of Israel Swain were as inscrutable to Walton Huxford as to the rest of the world. Although he had been as much in his confidence as any one, yet there were secret chambers in that man's nature to which none was given admittance. Still, the younger man felt thankful that he had gained the admiration of Israel Swain, by the kinship of the qualities of character in both. The chief of the gifts which bound the two was the capacity for making and saving money.

II

HUXFORD was one of the youngest captains among the Nantucket whalers. His staunch ship, The Argonaut, had not yet returned without a cargo. He had already been on several long voyages, of about four years each, when the Revolution put an end to his labors on the deep. Israel Swain, too, was a large owner in many ships, and understood the personnel of the whole whaling guild. When he had cast about him for a suitable man to assist him in his salt-works, he had selected Huxford as the one most likely to put in the energy to make it pay. His choice was another proof of his superb sagacity in business matters.

Thus it was but natural that the young man should know what the works had produced during the few years of its existence. The gossips said he had been putting away a tidy sum himself during his service as the foreman of the works. Israel Swain trusted the young man as much as one of his nature could. He had even done more than this; he had come to look upon him as one much nearer to him than a hireling; and the town talk was not far astray when it said he would end by making him his son-inlaw.

Hester Swain, during this conversation, had been preparing her father's fru

gal supper, and she now came in with the tea. She possessed a pure and fresh face. Her fair hair was combed straight back, and hung in two simple, heavy braids. Probably it had never occurred to her that she was rather old for this childish fashion. Still, it is doubtful if anyone would note any incongruity in her appearance. Her eyes were bright and clear, such as one might imagine a fawn's to be, whose woody haunts had never been disturbed by the feet of the huntsman; she was certainly quite as innocent and inexperienced. Whatever she knew of life and of men was instinctive, and her lack of any society among the world's people had probably cultivated the quality which in women we call intuition. She looked so wholesome in her neat, plain costume of gray, that one would know at once that she had never come in contact with the rubbish of the world. Just now, as she placed the supper on the table she may have appeared a little ill at ease, and anxious to escape from her father and his companion. The latter was far from being unconscious of her presence. His furtive glance noted her every movement, and also saw the subdued excitement of her manner.

But, father, I do not need food and I have duties without," she answered. Nay, but I would have thee with us, Hester. Thee little knows how long we shall eat together, and we must sit in council over our food. I am not well, and the times prove too strong a strain on me. I feel weak and faint ;" and indeed he seemed so as he tottered to his place.

Walton Huxford seemed glad to accept the invitation, though apparently taking it as a matter of course. Hester also seated herself, and ministered to the wants of her father and his guest. There

"But thy worldly goods-did thee say thee had hidden them?" The young man had spoken at last.

"I have not seen father go forth from the house," Hester ventured; "and surely he ought not to in this east wind.”

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I have said nothing as to that," was the evasive answer. 'But tell me all that has been done."

"Well, the island is pretty well planted with treasure by this time; and I came to tell thee, that all our people, whether they possess little or much, have put it safely away. I had thought it would occur to thee, that such would be the wise course. All the carts and wagons have been busily engaged carrying property far out on the moors, in all directions. The British will find but little plunder, except by hard searching and by much use of the spades, unless it might be here," he said.

"Do not burden thyself with care for me. I've told thee I'll give the rascally Red-Coats nothing but my body. But as to thyself, I hope thee has looked well to thy own. I have not read thee right if thee has not."

'Before this morning's dawn, I was hard at work; and I'll warrant thee that the British will get naught of me!

"Ah! That is well," Israel Swain, answered fervently. "I have been sure that thee would be wise-and I depend much on thee. Thee knows I am old, and I feel now that I am aging fast. I have not been unmindful of the future. What has thee to say, my lad?"

The young sea captain felt uncomfortable. He understood the old man's vague words. He knew what he wanted him to say. But the words were hard to form and the silence was unbroken. There appeared, too, an unwonted color