alone of them all I liked. Indeed, Jack and I built over a brook in my Aunt
Gainor's garden at Chestnut Hill a fair model of Caesar's great bridge over
the Rhine. This admired product of our ingenuity was much praised by
Captain Montresor, who was well aware of my aunt's weakness for a certain
young person.

My father's decisions came always without warning. In the fall of 1769 I
was just gone back to the academy, and put to work at mathematics and some
Greek under James Wilson, at that period one of the tutors, and some time
later an associate judge of the Supreme Court. This great statesman and
lawyer of after-days was a most delightful teacher. He took a fancy to my
Jack, and, as we were inseparable, put up with my flippancy and deficient
scholarship. Jack's diary says otherwise, and that he saw in me that which,
well used, might make of me a man of distinction. At all events, he liked
well to walk with us on a Saturday, or to go in my boat, which was for us a
great honour. My father approved of James Wilson, and liked him on the
holiday to share our two-o'clock dinner. Then, and then only, did I
understand the rigour and obstinacy of my father's opinions, for they
ofttimes fell into debate as to the right of the crown to tax us without
representation. Mr. Wilson said many towns in England had no voice in
Parliament, and that, if once the crown yielded the principle we stood on,
it would change the whole political condition in the mother-land; and this
the king would never agree to see. Mr. Wilson thought we had been foolish
to say, as many did, that, while we would have no internal taxes, we would
submit to a tax on imports. This he considered even worse. My father was
for obedience and non-resistance, and could not see that we were fighting a
battle for the liberty of all Englishmen. He simply repeated his opinions,
and was but a child in the hands of this clear-headed thinker. My father
might well have feared for the effect of Mr. Wilson's views on a lad of my
age, in whose mind he opened vistas of thought far in advance of those