Page:Barbour--Metipoms Hostage.djvu/18

6 wife. David’s recollection of his mother was undimmed in spite of the more than eight  years that had passed, but, as he had been  but a small lad at the time of her death, his  memory of her, unlike his father’s, held little  pain. The grant, part woodland and part meadow, lay sixteen miles from Boston and  north of Natick. It was a pleasant tract, with much fine timber and a stream which, rising  in a spring-fed pond not far from the house,  meandered southward and ultimately entered  the Charles River. The river lay a long mile to the east and was the highway on which  they traveled, whether to Boston or Dedham.

Nathan Lindall had brought some forty acres of his land under cultivation, and for  the wheat, corn, and potatoes that he raised  found a ready market in Boston.

The household consisted of Nathan Lindall, David, and Obid Dawkin. Obid had come to the Colony many years before as a  “bond servant,” had served his term and  then hired to Master Lindall. In England he had been a school-teacher, although of small  attainments, and now to his duties of helping  till and sow and harvest was added that of  instructing David. Considering the lack of books, he had done none so badly, and David