as its representative, and he was in the Legislature when the
members voted themselves an increase of pay. Mr. Wallace believed the
thing illegal. He took the money in trust. One day after his return to
Amesbury he limped up to his physician (the same one who had brought
about the better construction of the new corporation houses) and handed
him fifty dollars of this over pay, to be used at his discretion among
the poor, explaining as he did so where the money came from, that he
felt that it belonged to Amesbury, and that he returned a part through
this channel.

Half way between the Mills and the Ferry stands an old well that a
native of Amesbury dug by the roadside for the benefit of travellers
because he had once been a captive in Arabian deserts, and had known the
torments of thirst. Here was a man to whom the uses of adversity had
been sweet, for they had taught him humanity. Mrs. Spofford has written
an appropriate poem upon this incident.

The elms in Amesbury are very beautiful, and they are found everywhere;
but on the ferry road there are magnificent ones not far from the river.
They are growing on each side of the road, arching it over with their
graceful boughs.

[Illustration: WHITTIER'S HOME, AMESBURY.]

The Ferry proper near which was born Josiah Bartlett, one of the signers
of the Declaration of Independence, is at the foot of the street that
runs from the Mills down to the river. In old times there was a
veritable ferry here a few rods above where the Powow empties into the
Merrimack. This ferry is mentioned in the records, two years after the
town had been set upon its feet. In a book written about Amesbury by Mr.
Joseph Merrill, a native of the town, it is stated that the town
petitioned the general Court for leave to keep a Ferry over the river at
this place. This is the record from the same source:--

"The County Court held at Hampton, ye 13th of ye 8th month 1668, Mr.
Edward Goodwin being presented by ye Selectmen of ye town of Amesbury to
Court to keep ye Ferry over Merrimac river about ye mouth of ye Powow
river where ye said Goodwin now dwelleth, the Court do allow and approve
of ye sd person for one year next following and until ye Court shall
take further orders therein, and ye prices to be as followeth so, for
every single passenger two pence, for a horse and man six pence, and for
all great cattle four pence, for sheep and other small cattle under two
years old two pence per head."