t it has been rubbed off," replied Grandfather,
"when you hear all the adventures that have since befallen the chair.
Gilded it was; and the handsomest room in the Province House was adorned
by it."

There was not much to interest the children, in what happened during the
years that Governor Belcher remained in the chair. At first, like Colonel
Shute and Governor Burnet, he was engaged in disputing with the
legislature about his salary. But, as he found it impossible to get a
fixed sum, he finally obtained the king's leave to accept whatever the
legislature chose to give him. And thus the people triumphed, after this
long contest for the privilege of expending their own money as they saw
fit.

The remainder of Governor Belcher's term of office was principally taken
up in endeavoring to settle the currency. Honest John Hull's pine-tree
shillings had long ago been worn out, or lost, or melted down again, and
their place was supplied by bills of paper or parchment, which were
nominally valued at three pence and upwards. The value of these bills kept
continually sinking, because the real hard money could not be obtained for
them. They were a great deal worse than the old Indian currency of
clam-shells. These disorders of the circulating medium were a source of
endless plague and perplexity to the rulers and legislators, not only in
Governor Belcher's days, but for many years before and afterwards.

Finally, the people suspected that Governor Belcher was secretly
endeavoring to establish the Episcopal mode of worship in the provinces.
There was enough of the old Puritan spirit remaining, to cause most of the
true sons of New England to look with horror upon such an attempt. Great
exertions were made, to induce the king to remove the governor.
Accordingly, in 1740, he was compelled to resign his office, and
Grandfather's chair into the bargain, to Mr. Shirley.

Chapter VIII

"William Shirley," said Grandfather, "had come from England a few years
before, and begun to practise law in Boston. You will think, perhaps,
that, as he had been a lawyer, the new governor used to sit in our great
chair, reading heavy law-books from morning till night. On the contrary,
he was as stirring and active a governor as Massachusetts ever had. Even
Sir William Phips hardly equalled him. The first year or two of his
administration was spent in trying to regulate the currency. But, in 1744,
after a peace of more than thirty years, war