“Now, next,” she said, “do you know what the Boston Tea Party was?”
Tom meekly said that he remembered that in December, 1773, a number of Boston men disguised as Indians had thrown overboard from a ship in the harbor, boxes of tea on which they refused to pay the British duty.
Helen nodded approvingly.
“I’m glad you remember that much,” she said tartly. “After that Tea Party there was a continual and rapid growth of dislike for the Old Country, which was trying to tax the colonists, without allowing them any representation in the Parliament which was governing them. The feeling grew so strong that a Continental Congress, made up of delegates from the thirteen original Colonies, was called to meet here in Philadelphia, in September, 1774. It met here at Carpenters’ Hall,” she concluded triumphantly.
Tom glanced up at the Hall with an entirely new interest.
“In this same old building?” he asked.
“In this very identical place,” said Helen, and then she allowed the procession to enter the building.
“September 17, 1774,” repeated Ethel Brown thoughtfully. “Why, that was the autumn before the battles of Concord and Lexington.”
“Yes, the Revolution had not yet begun. The Continental Congress met to talk over the situation, and here are the very chairs the members used.”
Ethel Blue touched one of them with the tips of her fingers.