“Ah, she would know just how to appreciate it,” said Max. Then, turning to their father, “I was much interested in your account of Morgan, sir,” he said. “He was a grand man and did a great deal to win the independence of these United States, now the greatest, grandest country the sun shines upon.”
“He did, indeed,” the captain said emphatically, “and deserves to be remembered with love and gratitude. He was a very successful leader in those times of our country’s sore distress; and he could not have been had not God given him wisdom and skill in answer to prayer. My son, I hope you will follow his example in that.”
“Such is my purpose, my dear father, and has been my practice thus far,” Max returned with emotion. “Trusting in God it seems to me is the only thing that can enable one to go calmly and composedly to the post of duty when that lies where the messengers of wounds and death are flying thick and fast.”
“Yes, I think so,” assented the captain. “Washington, our great and successful commander-in-chief, was a man of prayer—raised up, I have no doubt, by a kind Providence, for the work that he did. And there were other praying men among our leaders. It was a fearful struggle, but God helped us and enabled us to become the free, strong nation that we are.”
“Oh, how thankful we ought to be!” exclaimed Lucilla. “It seems to me it was a very ridiculous idea that this great, big country should be governed by that little one away across the ocean; especially as she wanted to be so tyrannical; for it is certainly true that ‘taxation without representation is tyranny.’”
“Yes,” said Max. “An Englishman, arguing with me the other day about it, said it was so small a tax that the colonists were decidedly foolish to make such a fuss and go to war to avoid it. I told him it was principle which made them so determined; because if they allowed the English Parliament to impose a small tax without the consent of the colonies, they might—and would be very likely to—go on and levy other and much heavier ones. The colonists were a free-born people, and meant to remain free; preferring even death to slavery.”
“Yes, indeed!” exclaimed Lucilla; “and that last word of yours, Max, reminds me that George III. highly approved of the slave trade and wanted it carried on; and it seems as if he was by no means averse to enslaving the whites of this country.”
“Quite desirous to do so; even to the setting of the savages to the butchering of women and children,” added Max. “But all that being so long in the past, he in his grave, and our liberties secure, it is hardly worth while now to rake up the faults and failings of the poor, crazy old king.”
“His granddaughter has proved a much better and wiser sovereign,” said Lucilla. “Women do sometimes do better than men.”
“At some things-things not requiring much physical strength, for example,” the captain said, with an amused glance down into his daughter’s face.