in
the streets outside. They were waiting for the coming of Benjamin Rotch,
who had gone to see if the collector would give him a "clearance," or
permission to sail out of the port of Boston with the tea.

Rotch came in and told the angry crowd that the collector refused to give
the clearance. The people told him that he must get a pass from the
governor. Then the meeting adjourned for the morning.

At three o'clock in the afternoon a great throng of eager men again
crowded the Old South Church and the streets outside to wait for the
return of Rotch. It was an anxious moment. "If the governor refuses to
give the pass, shall the revenue officer be allowed to seize the tea and
land it to-morrow morning?" Many anxious faces showed that men were asking
themselves this momentous question.

[Illustration: The "Boston Tea Party."]

But while, in deep suspense, the meeting waited for Rotch to come they
discussed the situation, and suddenly John Rowe asked: "Who knows how tea
will mingle with salt water?" At once a whirlwind of applause swept
through the assembly and the masses outside. A plan was soon formed.

The afternoon light of the short winter day faded, and darkness deepened;
the lights of candles sprang up here and there in the windows. It was past
six o'clock when Benjamin Rotch entered the church and, with pale face,
said: "The governor refuses to give a pass."

An angry murmur arose, but the crowd soon became silent as Samuel Adams
stood up. He said quietly: "This meeting can do nothing more to save the
country."

These words were plainly a signal. In an instant a war-whoop sounded
outside, and forty or fifty "Mohawks," or men dressed as Indians, who had
been waiting, dashed past the door and down Milk Street toward Griffin's
Wharf, where the tea ships were lying at anchor.

It was then bright moonlight, and everything could be plainly seen. Many
men stood on shore and watched the "Mohawks" as they broke open three
hundred and forty-two chests, and poured the tea into the harbor. There
was no confusion. All was done in perfect order. But what a strange "tea
party" it was! Certainly no other ever used so much tea or so much water.

Soon waiting messengers were speeding to outlying towns with the news, and
Paul Revere, "booted and spurred," mounted a swift horse and carried the
glorious message through the colonies as far as Philadelphia.

SOME RESULTS OF THE "BOSTON TEA PARTY"

The Boston Tea Party was