Page:The Green Bag (1889–1914), Volume 12.pdf/366

 Captain John Carter vs. The Province of Massachusetts Bay. 335 not wholly to blame; but in the afternoon when Mollie called for her little negro slave to go with her to the shore, the good woman felt that at least she must protest. "It's against the law to visit the beach on the Lord's Day," she told Mollie. But Mollie did not take the warning seri ously. " Surely the elders won't mind my going to meet my husband," she answered, and quite unheedful of the looks of disap proval cast upon her, she and her young at tendant walked away down Summer Street toward the shore. "Does the woman expect her husband upon the Lord's Day? " asked one of the Puritan fathers who had stopped at the door on his way to the afternoon meeting. "Captain Carter said that he would be back in five days," replied Mollie's hostess, taking the indirect road to truth, "and he left on Tuesday." "But he wouldn't bring in his ship upon the Sabbath! " her visitor protested. " He could wait at Portsmouth or at Salem." "You know as much about it as I do," she answered, scenting danger and rather liking the smell of it. And her intuition was right, for it was hardly two hours later, just when Mollie was beginning to tire of watching the channel be tween the islands and when the minister up at the meeting-house had reached only the middle of his sermon, that the whole com munity was startled by the report of a cannon. The Eagle had entered the harbor and John Carter, through his spyglass seeing Mollie on the bea'ch, from the very gladness of his heart had ordered a salute. The roar of his cannon, however, had a far greater effect than to cheer his sweetheart. It brought a large part of the population hurrying to the shore to learn its meaning. Even the minister shortened his sermon by some thirty closely written pages and with a brief benediction ciismissed his congregation, whose flight to the shore he followed as quickly as decency permitted.

So it happened by the time the Eagle had come to anchor and the long boat had been launched from her side, that a goodly com pany was waiting on the shore to see John Carter land. Mollie was not surprised at their presence. To her mind nothing could be more natural than that people should want to see John Carter as soon as they could, and John thought it quite fitting that the townsfolk should be on hand to take care of Mollie. Neither Mollie nor John felt the least embarrassment when he jumped out of the long boat, and taking her in his arms kissed her on both cheeks. Indeed they might have been tempted to continue in this pleasure, had not one of the magistrates interrupted them by asking John Carter if urgent business with the Colony had brought him into port upon the Lord's Day. John laughed, and with his arm still around Mollie, he answered, " Isn't here enough reason to bring any man to port, Mas ter Dunton?" But Master Dunton was a justice of the peace and the eyes of the community were upon him, so he hardened his heart against the picture of youth and love before him. He replied that Captain Carter had defied the law of the Province, and that it would be the duty of the constables to act in the matter. John Carter was slow to believe that this Puritan magistrate before him was in earnest, but he was forced to recognize that such was the case when Master Dunton ended his ha rangue by saying, " And you've kissed your wife three times, Sir, before all these people, a most indecent proceeding, Sir." Now John Carter had been born a sailor and would not have been afraid of the devil himself, and besides his fearless spirit he had at his command a rare and rich vocabulary of curses which he proceeded in no stinted way to pour out upon the astonished magis trate. He damned the morning that un happy Puritan was born, the colony that bred him, the very rocks and rills around Massa chusetts Bay, and he ended by walking off