Page:The Granite Monthly Volume 9.djvu/105

Rh Left an orphan when a small child, her grandfather had brought her up in his desolate home. Dr. Carwin had educated the girl; and she had found a playmate in John Pendexter, five years her senior. Mrs. Pendexter had taught her many womanly accomplishments, and had told the two children tales of her ancestors. The landing of the little band in November, 1620, on the bleak shores of Cape Cod, the names of Carver, Bradford, Winslow, and Miles Standish, were familiar to them. The little fellow. Peregrine White, seemed almost a baby then, when Mrs. Pendexter told them about the first New Englander. With open eyes they listened to the rehearsal of the hardships of the sixty men, women, and children who started out from Newtown and Watertown in Massachusetts, for Connecticut. With tears running down their ruddy cheeks, they heard of their journeying through swamps, over rivers, and up mountains, driving their cattle before them; and how, in November, they reached the frozen Connecticut, and had to halt to build huts to protect themselves and their herds. To divert their minds from this sadness, "Mother Goose Melodies" for children, printed in Pudding Lane, Boston, would be read; and this never failed to chase their tears away.

In this manner Susanna grew to be a tall, graceful, handsome girl; and John Pendexter knew that he loved her, and told her so. She accepted his love, and in return gave him the wealth of her pure heart.

As John grew to manhood, he had the wrongs of the Stamp Act to dwell on; and he smiled at the account of the raid by Boston citizens on the house of Oliver, the stamp-officer; he rejoiced at the bold assertions of Patrick Henry. A little later, the manner in which tea was received by the Americans pleased him; and when he read the notice of the strong cup of tea made in Boston Harbor, at the expense of Great Britain, in "The Essex Gazette" of March 29, 1774, printed in Salem by Samuel and Ebenezer Hall, he was proud of his countrymen.

Following close on this came the besieged condition of Boston. The insolent way in which the citizens were treated by the British soldiers fired every American heart; and James Pendexter, John's father, marched to the aid of the distressed city. June 17, 1775, the brave man fell; and with this sad news came the story of the burning of Charlestown, and of the hundreds of people who were left homeless, and of the thousands of pounds in property scattered in ashes.

In less than a year after this George Washington was made lawful commander of the army; and in answer to the call for more men, John Pendexter stepped boldly forward to fill the place of his slaughtered father, willing to fight for his country, come weal or woe.

Susanna found no comfort in the fields, the woods, or the sky, on this gloomy spring night. A heavy mist hung from the shaggy branches of the pitch-pines, and every little knoll in the fields was bare and brown, and the snow looked dirty and sullen as it slipped down their sides. Pools of muddy water stood in the road, and the whole world about seemed weeping and sad.

With much fluster, the forestick burned in two, and dropped down on either side of the tall brass andirons; a cloud of sparks went up as if in