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An old copy of the Yarmouth (Massachusetts) _Register_ gives an anecdote
concerning John Thacher, son of one of the first settlers at Yarmouth.

He married, in 1661, Miss Rebecca Winslow, of Duxbury,
Plymouth County, if we mistake not. On his way home with his
new bride, he stopped for the night at the house of a
friend, a Colonel Gorham, of Barnstable, one of the most
prominent citizens of the town.

Merriment and gaiety prevailed, and during the evening a
female infant about three weeks old was introduced, and the
night of her birth being mentioned, Mr. Thacher observed,
"That is the very night on which we were married," and,
taking the child in his arms, he presented it to his bride
and jokingly said: "Here, my dear, is a little lady that was
born on the same night that we were married. I wish you
would kiss her, for I intend to have her for my second
wife."

"I will, my dear, with great pleasure," replied she, "but I
hope it will be very long before your intention is fulfilled
in that respect."

Mr. Thacher and his wife lived happily together until her
death, about twenty years later. She left him a large family
of children, among whom was a son named Peter.

After Mr. Thacher had mourned a reasonable length of time he
began to think of getting another partner. None of the
maidens, young or old, seemed to please him like Lydia
Gorham, the little lady of the preceding part of the story,
now grown up, if we may believe tradition, to a fair, comely
girl.

But there was one impediment in the way. His eldest son,
Peter, had shown a predilection for the girl, and the old
man was at a loss to decide whether she favored the suit of
the sire or the son.

The one rode a black horse in his visits, and the other rode
a white. There was a kind of tacit agreement between the two
that one should not interfere with the visits of the other;
so when the father found a white horse tied in front of
Colonel Gorham's, unlike the good Samaritan, he crossed over
on the other side; and the son, when the black horse was
there, returned the favor.

Thus things went on till the patience of the elder gentleman
was well-nigh exhausted, and he resolved upon a desperate
step to decide the matter. Taking his son one side, he said
to him:

"Peter, are you or are yo