Among the very first settlers sent over from England by William Penn was a little girl named Rebecca, who lived in a house that was simply a cave dug in the bank of the river. One day, as she sat at the door of the cave, eating her bowl of milk-porridge, a snake glided up to her, attracted by the odor of the warm porridge, for snakes are very fond of milk. The kind-hearted girl pitied the snake, looking up at her out of its bright eyes, as much as to say, “I’m so hungry.” “I will give thee half of my supper,” she said, and she began to divide her porridge with the snake. But the greedy creature wanted all of it. This Rebecca would not allow. “Nay, nay,” she said, “thou canst have only thy share; keep to thy part.” And although the snake poked its little head again and again into her dish, she made him withdraw it, and justly divided the porridge—a spoonful for the snake and a spoonful for herself—until every drop was gone. Then the snake glided away as silently as he had appeared. The little Quaker girl never saw him again. But she never forgot her strange visitor, and as long as she lived she had pleasure in thinking of the day when she shared her milk-porridge with a hungry snake.
10. THE BRIDE WORTH HER WEIGHT IN SILVER
The first coins used in the American Colonies were made in England and Spain, but there were so very few of them that the colonists were compelled to exchange their goods instead of receiving money. As trade increased all felt the need of some sort of money. So a money-law was passed and the kind of coin decided upon. Captain John Hull was made mint-master. The largest of these new coins had stamped upon them a picture of a pine tree, and they were called “pine-tree shillings.” Captain Hull, for his pay, received one shilling out of every twenty shillings he made, and soon he had a strong, new chest filled with pine-tree shillings. This mint-master had a daughter who was a hearty girl, healthy and plump. A young man fell in love with her, and asked the captain if she might become his wife. As he was an industrious, honest, and good young man, her father consented, saying in his good-natured way, “You will find her a rather heavy burden, I am thinking!” When the wedding-day came the mint-master was at the ceremony, dressed in a plum-colored coat, with bright silver buttons made of pine-tree shillings; and his daughter, the fair bride, looked as plump and rosy as a big red apple. After the ceremony was over, Captain Hull told his servants to bring a great pair of scales. He said, “Daughter, get into one side of the scales,” which she did. Then, pointing to a big iron chest, he said to his servants, “Draw it near the scales.” He unlocked it, raised the cover, and everybody was breathless when they saw the chest was full of bright, shining pine-tree shillings. “Lively, now, boys, pour these shillings into the other side of the scale,” he said to his servants, laughing as he saw the look of surprise on the faces of the people. Jingle, jingle went the shillings as handful after handful was thrown in until, big and plump as she was, the fair young bride was lifted from the floor.
“There, my son,” said the mint-master to the bridegroom, “take these shillings for my daughter’s sake. Treat her kindly and thank God for her. It isn’t every bride that is worth her weight in silver.”
11. EVANGELINE AND THE BURNING OF ACADIA
America grew until thirteen colonies, like those in Virginia and at Plymouth, were settled by the English, along the coast from Maine to Florida. Because they said Sebastian Cabot had discovered America, England claimed all the new country westward to the Pacific Ocean. That included almost all the country there is to-day. The claims of England led to a bitter war with France, which was carried on between the French, aided by the Indians, and the English aided by the colonists. One of the attacks of this war was made on the French settlement in Acadia, or Nova Scotia, in the north. The people of the little village of Grand Pré were peaceful, home-loving families, who refused to take part in the war on either side, and would not take the oath of allegiance to England. Because of this, the English resolved to break up this settlement and scatter its people—a heartless plan! One bright morning the English soldiers in their red coats, came to the village and, with pretended friendliness, requested the people to gather into their church to hear a message of good news. The unsuspecting villagers left their work and gathered pleasantly into the church. As soon as they were all gathered, these redcoated British soldiers seized them, and at the point of the bayonet drove them like sheep down to the shore, crowded them on board several British boats, and sailed away. Families were torn apart; wives lost their husbands; mothers lost their little children; brothers and sisters, lovers and maidens were doomed never to see each other again. The poor people uttered piteous cries, but the hard-hearted redcoats only sneered and laughed at their torture. As the ship sailed out from the harbor, the Acadians saw the soft September sky all one terrible glare of fire. Then they knew that their homes were gone, burned in the flames. This the cruel soldiers had done so that these Acadians might not try to wander back to their old homes. Seven thousand of these unhappy people were dropped here and there from the British vessels, being distributed among the Colonies that there might be no possibility of their reuniting. Longfellow tells of how Evangeline was separated from Gabriel, her lover, on their wedding-day, and how Gabriel was carried far away to the southland. Beautiful Evangeline set out on a long search for him—wandering on, and on, all her life, and at last, when she had grown old in her search, found her lover in a hospital on his dying bed, which proved so great a shock to her that she too died. The story of Evangeline’s womanly devotion is the one ray of light in all that dark and terrible tragedy of the burning of Acadia by which an entire people was blotted out, never to be restored again.
12. THE FIRST COLLEGE IN AMERICA
The people in the thirteen English Colonies soon began to call themselves Americans, one and all. Those in New England especially valued education. It was considered ridiculous to educate a girl, but there were soon nine colleges for boys. There was a printing-press in Cambridge, a public library in New York, a little manufacturing in Massachusetts, and quite a little commerce all along the coast. Most of the traveling was done on horseback, though there were some stage routes. Steam-cars and automobiles were unheard of. Next to their churches the people of New England loved their schools. The city of Boston had been settled only six years when one day the governor of Massachusetts received a letter from his sister in England, who refused to come to America because there was no college where her son could be educated. In her letter she said: “If only there were some place of learning for youths, it would make me go far nimbler to New England, if God should call me to it, than I otherwise should; and I believe a college would put no small life into the plantation.” This letter set the governor thinking and planning, and very soon he convinced those in control that a college should be established. The money was raised, and Harvard College was built. This little red, square building, that has stood in Cambridge for over two hundred years, was the first college in America.