he happy bustle of preparation in the
household, then took part in the wedding festivities, and saw the
bride pass out of the old mansion to become mistress of a home of her
own, Dorothy was quick to perceive the important part played by man in
a woman's life, and, young as she was, she felt within herself that
power of fascination which was to be hers to so great a degree in the
coming years. Dorothy had dark eyes which were wells of feeling when
she was deeply moved, her hair was velvet smooth, and also dark, and
the play of feelings grave and gay which lighted up her mobile face
when in conversation was a constant charm to those who knew the
vivacious girl. When she first met John Hancock she had won an
enviable popularity by reason of her beauty and grace, and was admired
and sought after even more than her sisters had been; yet no
compliments or admiration spoiled her sweet naturalness or her charm
of manner.

In those days girls married when they were very young, but Dorothy
withstood all the adoration which was poured at her feet beyond the
time when she might naturally have chosen a husband, because her
standards were so high that not one of her admirers came near to
satisfying them. But in her heart there was an Ideal Man who had come
to occupy the first place in her affection.

As she had sat by her father's side, night after night, listening
while John Adams spoke with hot enthusiasm of his friend John Hancock,
the boy of Braintree, now a rising young citizen of Boston, the
resolute advocate of justice for the colonies, who stood unflinchingly
against the demands of the mother country, where he thought them
unfair,--the conversation had roused her enthusiasm for this unknown
hero, until she silently erected an altar within her heart to this
ideal of manly virtues.

Then John Hancock came to the old mansion to seek the girl who had
attracted his attention on that Sabbath Day in June, little dreaming
that in those conversations which Dorothy had heard between her father
and John Adams she had pieced together a complete biography of her
Hero. She knew that in 1737, when the Reverend John Hancock was
minister of the First Church in the North Precinct of Braintree
(afterward Quincy), he had made the following entry in the parish
register of births:

JOHN HANCOCK, MY SON, JANUARY 16, 1737.

Dorothy also knew that there in the simple parsonage the minister's
son grew up, and together with his brother and