nd
here, even, it was cold enough to give me rheumatism. The climate's
always in extremes--like the people."
"I'm sorry to find you don't like the States, Uncle Archie."
The young man sat down beside his uncle. They were in the deck saloon of
a steamer which had left Washington about an hour before for Mount
Vernon. Through the open doorway to their left they saw a wide expanse
of river, flowing between banks of spring green, and above it thunderous
clouds, in a hot blue. The saloon, and the decks outside, held a great
crowd of passengers, of whom the majority were women.
The tone in which Roger Barnes spoke was good-tempered, but quite
perfunctory. Any shrewd observer would have seen that whether his uncle
liked the States or not did not in truth matter to him a whit.
"And I consider all the arrangements for this trip most unsatisfactory,"
the General continued angrily. "The steamer's too small, the
landing-place is too small, the crowd getting on board was something
disgraceful. They'll have a shocking accident one of these days. And
what on earth are all these women here for--in the middle of the day?
It's not a holiday."
"I believe it's a teachers' excursion," said young Barnes absently, his
eyes resting on the rows of young women in white blouses and spring hats
who sat in close-packed chairs upon the deck--an eager, talkative host.
"H'm--Teachers!" The General's tone was still more pugnacious. "Going to
learn more lies about us, I suppose, that they may teach them to
school-children? I was turning over some of their school-books in a shop
yesterday. Perfectly abominable! It's monstrous what they teach the
children here about what they're pleased to call their War of
Independence. All that we did was to ask them to pay something for their
own protection. What did it matter to us whether they were mopped up by
the Indians, or the French, or not? 'But if you want us to go to all the
expense and trouble of protecting you, and putting down those fellows,
why, hang it,' we said, 'you must pay some of the bill!' That was all
English Ministers asked; and perfectly right too. And as for the men
they make such a fuss about, Samuel Adams, and John Adams, and Franklin,
and all the rest of the crew, I tell you, the stuff they teach American
school-children about them is a poisoning of the wells! Franklin was a
man of profligate life, whom I would never have admitted inside my
doors! And as for the Adamses--intrigue
|