harbor until the
custom-house duties upon the tea should be paid. Now, the payment of
these duties was the very thing against which the people had set their
faces; because it was a tax unjustly imposed upon America by the English
government. Therefore, in the dusk of the evening, as soon as Governor
Hutchinson's reply was received, an immense crowd hastened to Griffin's
Wharf, where the tea-ships lay. The place is now called Liverpool Wharf.

"When the crowd reached the wharf," said Grandfather, "they saw that
a set of wild-looking figures were already on board of the ships. You
would have imagined that the Indian warriors of old times had come back
again; for they wore the Indian dress, and had their faces covered with
red and black paint, like the Indians when they go to war. These grim
figures hoisted the tea-chests on the decks of the vessels; broke them
open, and threw all the contents into the harbor."

"Grandfather," said little Alice, "I suppose Indians don't love tea;
else they would never waste it so."

"They were not real Indians, my child," answered Grandfather. "They
were white men in disguise; because a heavy punishment would have been
inflicted on them if the king's officers had found who they were.
But it was never known. From that day to this, though the matter has
been talked of by all the world, nobody can tell the names of those
Indian figures. Some people say that there were very famous men among
them, who afterwards became governors and generals. Whether this be true
I cannot tell."

When tidings of this bold deed were carried to England, King George
was greatly enraged. Parliament immediately passed an act, by which all
vessels were forbidden to take in or discharge their cargoes at the
port of Boston. In this way they expected to ruin all the merchants,
and starve the poor people, by depriving them of employment. At the
same time another act was passed, taking away many rights and privileges
which had been granted in the charter of Massachusetts.

Governor Hutchinson, soon afterward, was summoned to England, in order
that he might give his advice about the management of American
affairs. General Gage, an officer of the old French War, and since
commander-in-chief of the British forces in America, was appointed
governor in his stead. One of his first acts was to make Salem, instead
of Boston, the metropolis of Massachusetts, by summoning the General
Court to meet there.

According to Grandf