ngers, by the "Mary and John," of which
my ancestor was one, then lying in the Thames, in the year 1633, amongst
other regulations, the daily service to be observed on board, according
to the ordinances of the Prayer Book.

No doubt the dinner was all which the domestic celebration of the
festival imports, for the farm was well stocked with every description of
creature, and with most other things needful for the purpose; but I may
be excused if I remember none of the particulars, now that so many years
have intervened. I know that Uncle Richard always prided himself upon his
excellent cider, and there is little question that there was a due
allowance of spirits, which most persons of fair means kept, in those
days, in decanters openly ranged upon the parlor sideboard. Indeed, about
the same period, while I was a student at a famous Academy not many miles
distant from our own home, the English teacher, an orthodox clergyman of
high repute, who cultivated a few acres of land at the place where he
lived on the outskirts of the town, invited a few of the pupils, myself
in the number, to assist him in making hay, one play-afternoon. The boys
had a good frolic, and, after work was ended, our master treated us to
milk-punch, a highly agreeable, but rather exhilarating beverage. Our
uncle's house was of the old-fashioned New England description,
pleasantly facing the south, with a high-peaked roof, which descended,
in the opposite quarter, to not much more than a man's stature from the
ground. In front was a spacious green yard, leading on one side to the
garden for vegetables and trees of the choicer kinds of fruit, and
sprinkled here and there with bunches of gay flowers; and at the entrance
gate by the road two magnificent elms, of an age and height which denoted
that they must have given shade to several past generations from the
summer heat, flung out drooping branches which extended a very great
distance from the parent trunks. After dinner, our host entertained us
with a narrative of his recent visit to the capital town of Boston, to
testify, in company with a former neighbor, now resident there, in behalf
of his hired man, Jasper Towne, of English birth, who having, duly and at
a long term beforehand, declared his intention, in proper form, was at
length, after a continuous residence of fourteen years in the United
States, admitted by the Federal Court to all the rights and privileges
which free citizenship could confer