ets by and by! Listen,
ye men who have purchased seats in parliament to satisfy your greed!

[Illustration: Lord North.]

The assembled multitude, the tolling bells, the tramping feet, the
emblems of mourning, are the indignant protest of an outraged
community against tyranny and oppression,--the enforcement of law by
the show of force,--by musket, sword, and bayonet. Listen, and take
warning.[41]

[Footnote 41: Historians have made little account of the shooting of
Christopher Snider, but there can be no question that it led directly
to the collision between the ropemakers and soldiers one week later,
resulting in the Massacre of March 5, 1770.]

IX.

THE LOBSTERS AND ROPEMAKERS.

Although March had come, the snow was still deep upon the ground.
Robert and Rachel could prolong their stay in Boston and enjoy the
hospitality of their friends. It was Monday evening the 5th of the
month. Berinthia had invited Ruth Newville to tea.

"The soldiers and the ropemakers are at loggerheads," said Tom, as he
came in and laid aside his coat.

"What is the trouble?" Robert asked.

"It seems that a negro hemp-stretcher, down in Gray's ropewalk[42],
last Friday asked a soldier if he wanted to work, and the redcoat
replied he did. What the ropemaker told him to do wasn't very nice,
and they had a set-to. The soldier got the worst of it, and swore
vengeance. The redcoat went to the barracks, but was soon back again
with eight others, armed with clubs, swearing they'd split the skulls
of the beggars. The ropemakers seized their woolding-sticks, and they
had it hot and heavy, but the lobsters got a licking. You'd better
believe there was a buzzing in the barracks. Pretty soon between
thirty and forty of the hirelings, armed with bayonets, clubs, and
cutlasses, rushed down to the ropewalk. The ropemakers rallied, but
all told they were only fourteen. They showed what stuff they were
made of, though, and proved themselves the better men. They whacked
the lobsters' skulls and drove them."

[Footnote 42: Edward Gray, in 1712, purchased a large tract of land on
the westerly side of Hutchinson's Lane, now Pearl Street, and erected
a ropewalk seven hundred and forty feet long. The large number of
ships built in Boston and other New England towns made it a lucrative
occupation. His son, Harrison Gray, was appointed treasurer of the
Province. He was a loyalist, and took his departure from Boston upon
its evacuation by the Bri