Congressman Vasa:
Men unload guns in our street. He say killa me if I tell. I tell him go t’ell. I tell him go t’ell two times. I Americano. My kid he be president—maybe—
Tommaso Benda.
He hurried Angela into her best new American cut dress and sent her with the boy to Long Island to tell Vassar.
The visit all but ended in a tragedy for poor Angela. While searching the spacious Holland grounds for her leader, the boy suddenly spied a hatchet with which the master had been mending a box in which he was cultivating a precious orange-tree that had been carefully guarded in a hothouse during the winter months.
The kid saw his chance to emulate the example of George Washington. He lost no time. The tree was well hacked before Holland pounced upon him.
The old man had him by the ear when Angela dashed to the rescue. She saw the scarred tree with horror and her apologies were profuse.
“Ah, pardon, signor! You see his little suit—he play George Wash—and cutta the cherry-tree—”
She paused and shook the boy fiercely.
“Ah—you maka me seek!”