| ACT THE FIRST. |
| Scene 1.—A Chamber in an Old-fashioned House. |
| MUSIC. |
| Scene 2.—An Ale-house Room. |
| MUSIC. |
| ACT THE SECOND. |
| Scene 1.—A Room in Hardcastle’s House, supposed by Marlow and |
| Hastings to be a Room in an Inn. |
| MUSIC. |
| ACT THE THIRD. |
| Scene 1.—A Room in Hardcastle’s House. |
| MUSIC. |
| ACT THE FOURTH. |
| Scene 1.—The same Room. |
| MUSIC. |
| ACT THE FIFTH. |
| Scene 1.—The same Room. |
| MUSIC. |
| Scene 2.—The back of the Garden. |
| MUSIC. |
| Scene 3.—A Room in Hardcastle’s House. |
| MUSIC. |
| 3. Epilogue.—United States Speaker. Theodore S. Pomeroy, Jr. |
| MUSIC. |
CHAPTER II
EARLY LIFE IN NEW YORK
(1835-1840)
IT was on Wednesday, April 29, 1835, and only a few weeks after “She Stoops to Conquer” had been performed in the village academy at Stockbridge, that Cyrus Field, having persuaded his parents that he was old enough to go out into the world and seek his fortune, left his home. For three years before he had kept the family accounts, and had most carefully entered every item of expense in a small paper book, and he was well aware that it was only with strict economy that the eight dollars given to him by his father at parting could be spared from the family purse. Stockbridge in April lies bare and brown in the valley of the Housatonic, and the tops of the mountains that are near are at that season often still white with snow, and his heart was in harmony with the scene as he looked back for the last sight of his beloved mother’s face. His first letter is dated
“New York, May 12, 1835.
“Dear Father,—I received yours, Henry’s, and Mary’s kind letters of the 7th on the 9th by Jonathan, and I assure you that it did me good to hear from sweet home.
“I stopped at Mr. Moore’s, in Hudson, and they had not seen mother’s handkerchief.
“Your account of the Field family I was glad to receive, but I wish to know also from whom we are descended on my mother’s side.
“Tell Stephen, Henry, and Mary that I intended to write them all a long letter, but as I have not been very well for the last two days, and have a good deal to do to-day, it is impossible.
“The purse which Mary mentioned in her letter Jonathan says that he did not bring.