arvel, and I after him, with all a boy's curiosity, as fast as my small
legs would carry me. My grandfather hurried out to order his barge to
be got ready at once, so that I knew something important was at hand. At
first he refused me permission to go, but afterwards relented, and about
eleven in the morning we pulled away strongly, the ten blacks bending to
the oars as if their lives were at stake.

A wind arose before we sighted Greensbury Point, and I saw a bark
sailing in, but thought nothing of this until Mr. Carvel, who had been
silent and preoccupied, called for his glass and swept her decks. She
soon shortened sail, and went so leisurely that presently our light
barge drew alongside, and I perceived Mr. Zachariah Hood, a merchant
of the town, returning from London, hanging over her rail. Mr. Hood was
very pale in spite of his sea-voyage; he flung up his cap at our boat,
but Mr. Carvel's salute in return was colder than he looked for. As
we came in view of the dock, a fine rain was setting in, and to my
astonishment I beheld such a mass of people assembled as I had never
seen, and scarce standing-room on the wharves. We were to have gone
to the Governor's wharf in the Severn, but my grandfather changed his
intention at once. Many of the crowd greeted him as we drew near them,
and, having landed, respectfully made room for him to pass through. I
followed him a-tremble with excitement and delight over such an unwonted
experience. We had barely gone ten paces, however, before Mr. Carvel
stopped abreast of Mr. Claude, mine host of the Coffee House, who cried:

"Hast seen his Majesty's newest representative, Mr. Carvel?"

"Mr. Hood is on board the bark, sir," replied my grandfather. "I take it
you mean Mr. Hood."

"Ay, that I do; Mr. Zachariah Hood, come to lick stamps for his
brother-colonists."

"After licking his Majesty's boots," says a wag near by, which brings a
laugh from those about us. I remembered that I had heard some talk as
to how Mr. Hood had sought and obtained from King George the office of
Stamp Distributor for the province. Now, my grandfather, God rest him!
was as doughty an old gentleman as might well be, and would not listen
without protest to remarks which bordered sedition. He had little fear
of things below, and none of a mob.

"My masters," he shouted, with a flourish of his stick, so stoutly that
people fell back from him, "know that ye are met against the law, and
endanger the peace of