Page:Dorothy's spy; a story of the first "fovrth of Jvly" celebration, New York, 1776.djvu/14

 CHAPTER I

THE DECLARATION

opened her eyes a full half-hour before the sun peeped in at her window to give notice that the ninth day of July, in the year of grace 1776, had begun.

Although Dorothy was no more than ten years old, she had a very good idea of the excitement and bustle which would be apparent in the streets of New York on this particular day. Her father was a member of that association known as the Sons of Liberty, and many times had she heard him talking with Masters Sears, Lamb and Livingston about a certain Declaration of Independence which it was believed the Congress at Philadelphia would adopt.

Then, as it chanced, after the passage of the Declaration, she was walking with her mother in the vicinity of Fraunce's tavern at the very moment when the post rider from Master Penn's 5