. King had a friend at Hingham, and one day they went there in a sort
of family party. Uncle Winthrop obtained a carriage and drove them
around. It was still famous for its wooden-ware factories, and Uncle Win
said in the time of Governor Andros, when money was scarce among the
early settlers, Hingham had paid its taxes in milk pails, but they
decided the taxes could not have been very high, or the fame of the milk
pails must have been very great.
Mrs. Gerry said in the early season forget-me-nots grew wild all about,
and the ground was blue with them.
"Oh, Uncle Win, let us come and see them next year," cried Doris.
Then they hunted up the old church that had been nearly rent asunder by
the bringing in of a bass viol to assist the singers. Party spirit had
run very high. The musical people had quoted the harps and sacbuts of
King David's time, the trumpets and cymbals. At last the big bass viol
won the victory and was there. And the hymn was:
"Oh, may my heart in tune be found,
Like David's harp of solemn sound."
But the old minister was not to be outdone. The hymn was lined off in
this fashion:
"Oh, may my heart go diddle, diddle,
Like Uncle David's sacred fiddle."
There were still a great many people opposed to instrumental music and
who could see no reverence in the organ's solemn sound.
Uncle Winthrop smiled over the story, and Betty said it would do to tell
to Aunt Priscilla.
Betty begged that they might take Doris to Salem with them. Doris
thought she should like to see the smart little Elizabeth, who was like
a woman already, and her old playfellow James, as well as Ruth, who
seemed to her hardly beyond babyhood. And there were all the weird old
stories--she had read some of them in Cotton Mather's "Magnalia," and
begged others from Miss Recompense, who did not quite know whether she
believed them or not, but she said emphatically that people had been
mistaken and there was no such thing as witches.
"A whole week!" said Uncle Winthrop. "Whatever shall I do without a
little girl that length of time?"
"But you have Cary now," she returned archly.
Cary was a good deal occupied with young friends and college associates.
Now and then he went over to Charlestown and stayed all night with one
of his chums.
"I suppose I ought to learn how it will be without you when you want to
go away in real earnest."
"I am never going away."
"Suppose Mrs. King should invite you to Ne
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