True Stories From History and Biography Read Online Free PDF Page B

English buccaniers—(who were little better than
pirates)—had taken from the Spaniards, and brought to Massachusetts.
    All this old and new silver being melted down and coined, the result was
an immense amount of splendid shillings, sixpences, and threepences. Each
had the date, 1652, on the one side, and the figure of a pine-tree on the
other. Hence they were called pine-tree shillings. And for every twenty
shillings that he coined, you will remember, Captain John Hull was
entitled to put one shilling into his own pocket.
    The magistrates soon began to suspect that the mint-master would have the
best of the bargain. They offered him a large sum of money, if he would
but give up that twentieth shilling, which he was continually dropping
into his own pocket. But Captain Hull declared himself perfectly satisfied
with the shilling. And well he might be; for so diligently did he labor,
that, in a few years, his pockets, his money bags, and his strong box,
were overflowing with pine-tree shillings. This was probably the case when
he came into possession of Grandfather's chair; and, as he had worked so
hard at the mint, it was certainly proper that he should have a
comfortable chair to rest himself in.
    When the mint-master had grown very rich, a young man, Samuel Sewell by
name, came a courting to his only daughter. His daughter,—whose name I do
not know, but we will call her Betsey,—was a fine hearty damsel, by no
means so slender as some young ladies of our own days. On the contrary,
having always fed heartily on pumpkin pies, doughnuts, Indian puddings,
and other Puritan dainties, she was as round and plump as a pudding
herself. With this round, rosy Miss Betsey, did Samuel Sewell fall in
love. As he was a young man of good character, industrious in his
business, and a member of the church, the mint-master very readily gave
his consent.
    "Yes—you may take her," said he, in his rough way; "and you'll find her a
heavy burden enough!"
    On the wedding day, we may suppose that honest John Hull dressed himself
in a plum-colored coat, all the buttons of which were made of pine-tree
shillings. The buttons of his waistcoat were sixpences; and the knees of
his smallclothes were buttoned with silver threepences. Thus attired, he
sat with great dignity in Grandfather's chair; and, being a portly old
gentleman, he completely filled it from elbow to elbow. On the opposite
side of the room, between her bride-maids, sat Miss Betsey. She was
blushing with all her might, and looked like a full blown pæony, or a
great red apple.
    There, too, was the bridegroom, dressed in a fine purple coat, and gold
lace waistcoat, with as much other finery as the Puritan laws and customs
would allow him to put on. His hair was cropped close to his head, because
Governor Endicott had forbidden any man to wear it below the ears. But he
was a very personable young man; and so thought the bride-maids and Miss
Betsey herself.
    The mint-master also was pleased with his new son-in-law; especially as he
had courted Miss Betsey out of pure love, and had said nothing at all
about her portion. So when the marriage ceremony was over, Captain Hull
whispered a word to two of his men-servants, who immediately went out, and
soon returned, lugging in a large pair of scales. They were such a pair as
wholesale merchants use, for weighing bulky commodities; and quite a bulky
commodity was now to be weighed in them.
    "Daughter Betsey," said the mint-master, "get into one side of these
scales."
    Miss Betsey,—or Mrs. Sewell, as we must now call her,—did as she was bid,
like a dutiful child, without any question of the why and wherefore. But
what her father could mean, unless to make her husband pay for her by the
pound, (in which case she would have been a dear bargain,) she had not the
least idea.
    "And now," said honest John Hull to the servants, "bring that box hither."
    The box, to which the mint-master pointed, was a huge, square, iron bound,
oaken chest; it was big