for fellows like ourselves a certain charm. The horses we learned to know
and understand. Their owners were of a class with which in those days it
was not thought seemly for persons of our degree to be familiar; here it
was unavoidable, and I soon learned how deep in the hearts of the people
was the determination to resist the authority of the crown.

The lads we knew of the gay set used to come and laugh at us, as we plied
the hammer or blew the bellows; and one day Miss Franks and Miss Peggy
Chew, and I think Miss Shippen, stood awhile without the forge, making very
merry. Jack got red in the face, but I was angry, worked on doggedly, and
said nothing. At last I thrashed soundly one Master Galloway, who called me
a horse-cobbler, and after that no more trouble.

I became strong and muscular as the work went on, and got to like our
master, who was all for liberty, and sang as he struck, and taught me much
that was useful as to the management of horses, so that I was not long
unhappy. My father, pleased at my diligence, once said to me that I seemed
to be attentive to the business in hand; and, as far as I remember, this
was the only time in my life that he ever gave me a word of even the
mildest commendation.

It was what Jack most needed. His slight, graceful figure filled out and
became very straight, losing a stoop it had, so that he grew to be a
well-built, active young fellow, rosy, and quite too pretty, with his blond
locks. After our third month began, Lowry married a widow, and moved away
to her farm up the country and beyond the Blue Bell tavern, where he
carried on his business, and where he was to appear again to me at a time
when I sorely needed him. It was to be another instance of how a greater
Master overrules our lives for good.