s for a
week's excursion, and she had a happy time. Cary went to Plymouth to his
aunt's, and was fascinated with sea-going matters and the naval wars in
progress. Josiah March was a stanch patriot, and said the thing would
never be settled until we had taught England to let our men and our
vessels alone.

Only a few years before our commerce had extended over the world.
Boston--with her eighty wharves and quays, her merchants of shrewd and
sound judgment, ability of a high order and comprehensive as well as
authentic information--at that time stood at the head of the maritime
world. The West Indies, China,--though Canton was the only port to which
foreigners were admitted,--and all the ports of Europe had been open to
her. The coastwise trade was also enormous. From seventy to eighty sail
of vessels had cleared in one day. Long Wharf, at the foot of State
Street, was one of the most interesting and busy places.

The treaty between France and America had agreed that "free bottoms
made free ships," but during the wars of Napoleon this had been so
abridged that trade was now practically destroyed. Then England had
insisted upon the right of search, which left every ship at her mercy,
and hundreds of our sailors were being taken prisoners. There was a
great deal of war talk already. Trade was seriously disturbed.

There was a very strong party opposed to war. What could so young a
country, unprepared in every way, do? The government temporized--tried
various methods in the hope of averting the storm.

People began to economize; still there was a good deal of money in
Boston. Pleasures took on a rather more economical aspect and grew
simpler. But business was at a standstill. The Leveretts were among the
first to suffer, but Mr. Leverett's equable temperament and serene
philosophy kept his family from undue anxiety.

"It's rather a hard beginning for you, my boy," he said, "but you will
have years enough to recover. Only I sometimes wish it could come to a
crisis and be over, so that we could begin again. It can never be quite
as bad as the old war."

Doris commenced school with the Chapman girls at Miss Parker's. Uncle
Win had a great fancy for sending her to Mrs. Rowson.

"Wait a year or so," counseled Madam Royall. "Children grow up fast
enough without pushing them ahead. Little girlhood is the sweetest time
of life for the elderly people, whatever it may be for the girls. I
should like Helen and Eudora to stand s