ods the morning of
their arrival and returned in the afternoon with his money, which he
gave to John Irons to be invested in land. Jack, having had a
delightful stay at home, took a schooner for New York that evening with
Solomon.

The night before they sailed for England his friends in the craft gave
Jack a dinner at The Gray Goose Tavern. He describes the event in a
long letter. To his astonishment the mayor and other well-known men
were present and expressed their admiration for his talents.

The table was spread with broiled fish and roasted fowls and mutton and
towering spiced hams and sweet potatoes and mince pies and cakes and
jellies.

"The spirit of hospitality expresses itself here in ham--often, also,
in fowls, fish and mutton, but always and chiefly in ham--cooked and
decorated with the greatest care and surrounded by forms, flavors and
colors calculated to please the eye and fill the human system with a
deep, enduring and memorable satisfaction," he writes.

In the midst of the festivities it was announced that Jack was to be
married and as was the custom of the time, every man at the table
proposed a toast and drank to it. One addressed himself to the eyes of
the fortunate young lady. Then her lips, her eyebrows, her neck, her
hands, her feet, her disposition and her future husband were each in
turn enthusiastically toasted by other guests in bumpers of French
wine. He adds that these compliments were "so moist and numerous that
they became more and more indistinct, noisy and irrational" and that
before they ended "Nearly every one stood up singing his own favorite
song. There is a stage of emotion which can only be expressed in
noises. That stage had been reached. They put me in mind of David
Culver's bird shop where many song birds--all of a different
feather--engage in a kind of tournament, each pouring out his soul with
a desperate determination to be heard. It was all very friendly and
good natured but it was, also, very wild."

CHAPTER IV

THE CROSSING

There were curious events in the voyage of Jack and Solomon. The date
of the letter above referred to would indicate that they sailed on or
about the eleventh of October, 1773. Their ship was _The Snow_ which
had arrived the week before with some fifty Irish servants, indentured
for their passage. These latter were, in a sense, slaves placed in
bondage to sundry employers by the captain of the ship for a term of
years unti