Carefully unfolding the stiff old parchment or pigskin deed, yellowed and brown spotted with age, Mary could faintly decipher the writing wherein, beautifully written, old-fashioned penmanship of two hundred years ago stated that a certain piece of land in Bucks County, Beginning at a Chestnut Oak, North to a post; then East to a large rock, and on the South unsettled land, which in later years was conveyed to John Landis.
"This deed," said Mary's Aunt, "was given in 1738, nearly two hundred years ago, by John, Thomas and Richard Penn, sons of William Penn by his second marriage, which occurred in America. His eldest son, John Penn, you have no doubt heard, was called 'The American,' he having been born in this country before William Penn's return to Europe, where he remained fifteen years, as you've no doubt heard."
At the bottom of the deed a blue ribbon has been slipped through cuts in the parchment, forming a diamond which incloses what is supposed to be the signature of Thomas Penn.
"Aunt Sarah, I am not surprised that you value this old deed of the farm and these 'Taufschiens' of your grandmother I should frame them, so they may be preserved by future generations."
CHAPTER XXIV.
THE OLD STORE ON THE RIDGE ROAD.
Aunt Sarah found in Mary a willing listener when talking of the time in years past when her grandfather kept a small "Country Store" on the Ridge Road in Bucks County. She also remembered, when a child of ten, accompanying her grandfather on one of his trips when he drove to Philadelphia to purchase goods for his store.
"They had no trolley cars in those days?" asked Mary.