sands appear upon every side. What course you can or will take is all wrapped in the bosom of futurity. Uncertainty and expectation leave the mind great scope. Did ever any kingdom or state regain its liberty, when once it was invaded, without bloodshed? I cannot think of it without horror. Yet we are told that all the misfortunes of Sparta were occasioned by their too great solicitude for present tranquillity, and from an excessive love of peace, they neglected the means of making it sure and lasting.. I have taken a great fondness for reading Rollins's 'Ancient History' since you left me. I am determined to go through with it if possible in these my days of solitude. I find great pleasure and entertainment, and I have persuaded Johnny [the future President] to read me a page or two every day. . . . The first of September or the month of September may

be of as much importance to Great Britain as the Ides of March were to Cæsar. I long impatiently to have you upon the stage of action."

The action, however, of that September was in Boston rather than in Philadelphia, as the Massachusetts city was besieged by the enemy. One can scarcely fancy the terrible anxiety to which the absent husband must have been prey when the news of Boston's bombardment reached him. From Philadelphia, September 8, 1774, he writes: "When I shall be at home I can't say, but if there is distress and danger in Boston, pray invite our friends, as many as possible, to take asylum with you." A little later his letter runs: "My babes are never out of my mind nor absent from my heart."

The horrible uncertainty of the mails is again and again the theme of the corre

spondence between these wedded lovers, and one's sympathy is keenly aroused by such a letter as this of Abigail's, dated Braintree, September 14, 1774: "Five weeks have passed, and not one line have I received. I would rather give a dollar for a letter by the post, though the consequence should be that I ate but one meal a day these three weeks to come. Every one I see is inquiring after you, when did I hear. All my intelligence is collected from the newspaper, and I can only reply that I saw by that, you arrived such a day. This town appears as high as

you can well imagine, and if necessary would soon be in arms. Not a Tory but hides his head."

The contrast at this time between conditions in Massachusetts and those in Pennsylvania is very well illustrated by two paragraphs from letters written then by

John Adams to his wife. One of these urges upon her the greatest possible attention to the mickles that make the muckle.

Frugality, my dear, frugality, economy, parsimony, must be our refuge. I hope the ladies are every day diminishing their ornaments, and the gentlemen too. Let us eat potatoes and drink water." The other extract runs: "I shall be killed with kindness in this place. We go to Congress at nine, and there we stay most earnestly engaged in debates upon the most abstruse mysteries of state, until three in the afternoon; then we adjourn, and go to dine. with some of the nobles of Pennsylvania at four o'clock, and feast upon ten thousand delicacies, and sit drinking Madeira, claret, and Burgundy till six or seven."

Just before leaving this " perpetual round of feasting," which occupied perforce so large a share of his first visit to

Philadelphia, Mr. Adams received two letters which must greatly have delighted his home-loving heart. One of these was written by his seven-year-old son, John Quincy Adams, and runs as follows: "October 13, 1774. Sir, I have been trying ever since you went away to learn. to write you a letter. I shall make poor work of it; but, sir, mamma says you will accept my endeavours, and that my duty to you may be expressed in poor writing as well as good. I hope I grow a better boy, and that you will have no occasion to be ashamed of me when you return. Mr. Thaxter says I learn my books well. He is a very good master. I read my books to mamma. We all long to see you. I am, sir, your dutiful son, John Quincy Adams." The other letter is one of very wonderful beauty, reflecting as it does the loving wife's unselfish determination to