calm and quiet life he was leading. A good many people have given guesses on this subject, and this is offered as a brand new guess.
He lived in the good old way that Americans lived in those good old days, the days we hear of in song and story, but which have faded away as our beloved country has grown larger and richer; the good old-fashioned days that are no more.
While this rover of the seas was thus passing his days in the retirement of his fine country home, great events were taking place in the Virginia colony, and in the other colonies along the shore. All about him were beginning to be seen preparations for a mighty struggle. Up in the grand old commonwealth of Massachusetts, brave men were speaking out brave thoughts that rang through the land, and stirred the good people as they had never been stirred before. Samuel Adams, the sturdy old Quaker, was being called a rebel, And the British commander held a warrant for the arrest of John Hancock, which he
