of 1705.

"Obed!" called Mistress Achsah Ely from her front porch, "step thee
over to Squire Belding's, quick! Here's a teacup! Ask Mistress Belding
for the loan of some molasses. Nothing but molasses and hot water
helps the baby when he is having such a turn of colic. Beseems me he
will have a fit! Make haste, Obed!"

[Footnote 3: From _Wideawake_, November, 1891, Lothrop, Lee & Shepard
Company.]

[Footnote 4: The main facts in this story are strictly historical.]

At that very moment Squire Belding's little daughter Hitty was
travelling toward Mistress Ely's for the purpose of borrowing molasses
wherewith to sweeten a ginger cake. Hitty and Obed, who were of an
age, met, compared notes, and then returned to their respective homes.
Shortly afterward both of them darted forth again, bound on the same
errands as before, only in different directions.

Mr. Chapin, the storekeeper, hadn't "set eyes on any molasses for a
week. The river's frozen over so mean and solid," he said, "there's no
knowing when there'll be any molasses in town."

There had been very peculiar weather in Colchester during this month
of October, 1705. First, on the 13th (Old Style), an unprecedently
early date, had come a "terrible cold snap," lasting three days. This
was followed by two days of phenomenal mildness. The river had frozen
over during the "cold snap," and the ice had melted during the warm
days, until, on the 19th, it was breaking up and preparing to go out
to sea. In the night of the 19th had descended a frigid blast, colder
than the original one. This had arrested the broken ice, piled it up
in all sorts of fantastic forms, and congealed it till it looked like
a rough Alaskan glacier. After the cold wind had come a heavy
snowstorm. All Colchester lay under three feet of snow. Footpaths and
roads were broken out somewhat in the immediate village, but no
farther. It was most unusual to have the river closed so early in the
season, and consequently the winter supplies, which were secured from
New London and Norwich, had not been laid in. Even Mr. Chapin, the
storekeeper, was but poorly supplied with staples of which he
ordinarily kept an abundance on hand.

Therefore when Obed and Hitty had made the tour of the neighbourhood
they found but one family, that of Deacon Esteem Elliott, the richest
man in the place, which had any molasses. Mistress Elliott, in spite
of her wealth, was said to be "none too free with her stuff,"