The Boy Spies with the Regulators. Otis James

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СКАЧАТЬ and that Master Fanning and other court officers be restrained from oppressing the people by exorbitant fees whenever a legal document was required or served.

      As I chanced to know full well, neither my father nor Master Hamilton approved such a course as pleading with the governor after showing his minions that the Regulation was sufficiently strong to make demands; but the majority of the gentlemen were in favor of proving that the Regulators were not disposed to transgress the laws, and the petition was written out by Malichi Tyke, who had once served as clerk of courts.

      Sidney and I were both very much dissatisfied with the turn of affairs, although we took good care not to give words to our discontent in the hearing of the gentlemen who formed the Regulation.

      In our opinion we should have encamped near about Hillsborough until all which Master Edwards promised had been performed, for Governor Tryon could better be moved by a show of force than an humble petition.

      However, as Sidney wisely said, it was no real concern of ours, since the elders of the association would contrive to manage affairs after their own fashion, without giving overly much heed to boys or hot-heads, and if we wished to be numbered among the Regulators it stood us in hand to obey the voice of the majority without grumbling.

      It was also decided at this meeting in George Sally's barn, that Masters Rednap Howell and James Hunter be appointed deputies of the Regulation to present the petition to Governor Tryon, and that they set out at once for Brunswick, where his excellency then was.

      Now the upper Carolina was not in as peaceful a state as could have been desired. Some of the more wealthy inhabitants favored the representatives of the king, and upheld them in all their iniquitous proceedings; calling themselves royalists, and us of the Regulation rebels. They oftentimes, when a fair opportunity presented itself, took the right to discipline the people who grumbled against the money-gluttons.

      It was not impossible that some of these aristocrats might meet our deputies, and, being the stronger in numbers, attempt to prevent them from appearing before Tryon, therefore to put a check upon such a possibility it was decided that at least two others should accompany Masters Howell and Hunter.

      It was my father who proposed that Sidney and I be chosen as the escort, giving as a reason why we two lads should be selected, that it was possible, despite the promise of Master Edwards, Sandy Wells might try to make trouble for us because of our taking him prisoner. It was better, so he urged, that we be kept out of sight until the Regulation had accomplished its work, and by accompanying the deputies to Brunswick, Sandy would not readily find us.

      Master Howell himself seconded the proposition, kindly stating that he desired no abler escort than our two selves, and thus was the matter settled, much to my satisfaction, even though there was more than the shadow of a suspicion in my mind as to the reception with which we might meet.

      The Regulation also decided that we four should set out as soon as Master Malichi Tyke had made a fair copy of the petition, and he was so expeditious with the work that everything was in readiness for our departure on the following morning.

      We had before us a ride of about two hundred miles, and to Sidney and me, who had never before traveled an eighth part of that distance from home, the journey offered much in the way of novelty.

      There were no preparations to be made save saddling our horses: we would sleep wheresoever night overtook us, and procure food at such dwellings as we came across, or, failing in this, depend upon finding game enough to satisfy our wants.

      "Remember that Masters Howell and Hunter are to be obeyed strictly by you, lads," my father said to us as we were saddling the steeds, "and do not put me to shame by behaving other than as gentlemen."

      As a matter of course we promised faithfully to heed his words, and with high anticipations set off, riding immediately behind those whom we were supposed to guard.

      During this first day, when we were yet within our own home neighborhood, the ride was without especial incident, save that at nightfall, when we were encamped in a lean-to which Sidney and I had put up while the gentlemen were cooking a couple of hares I had killed late in the afternoon, Master Howell amused himself with writing the verses I shall set down below, and which I afterward saw in a pamphlet entitled "A Fan for Fanning," that had been printed in Boston in 1771:

      "When Fanning first to Orange came,

      He looked both pale and wan;

      An old patched coat upon his back —

      An old mare he rode on.

      "Both man and mare wa'n't worth five pounds,

      As I've been often told,

      But by his civil robberies

      He's laced his coat with gold."

      When these lines had been read to us Master Hunter declared that it was no more than right Master Howell should touch up Thomas Frohock, who, as clerk of the Superior Court in Salisbury, had done quite as much as Fanning to extort money from the people, and then it was that our deputy wrote these verses, which were afterward published in the same pamphlet of which I have spoken:

      "Says Fanning to Frohock, to tell the plain truth,

      When I came to this country I was but a youth;

      Me father sent for me; I wa'n't worth a cross,

      And then my first study was to steal for a horse.

      I quickly got credit, and then ran away,

      And haven't paid for him to this very day.

      "Says Fanning to Frohock, 'tis a folly to lie;

      I rode an old mare that was blind of an eye;

      Five shillings in money I had in my purse,

      My coat it was patched, but not much the worse:

      But now we've got rich, and 'tis very well known

      That we'll do very well if they'll let us alone."

      Master Howell laughingly said that as poetry the verses were of little account; but the sentiment could not be bettered, according to my ideas, and before we went to sleep that night I could repeat the lines without missing a word.

      We set out on our journey next morning shortly after sunrise, and, just before noon, when we were looking for a place in which to camp, two men, attended by a negro slave, undertook to make us explain our business.

      The whites had halted in the middle of the road, with the black immediately behind them, and when we advanced made a great showing of pistols.

      "Halt, gentlemen, and make us acquainted with your destination and your purpose in traveling this way!" one of them cried peremptorily, and in a twinkling Sidney and I, who were slightly in the rear of the deputies, had our rifles ready for use.

      "Why shall we make explanations to you or any other in the Carolinas?" Master Hunter cried angrily.

      "Fair and softly, good sir," the spokesman said, looking well to the priming of his weapon. "We are told that there are in the Carolinas those who speak against his majesty the king, and with such as they we would have a few words."

      "Except we are so minded, you will have no words with us," Master Howell said sharply, and I observed that he was fingering his revolver as if itching to draw it from the holster.

      "You will at least explain from what part of the colony you have lately come," the stranger said, this time speaking in a more gentle tone.

      "I am willing to give you so much information as that; but no more, for I deny that any person, save the king's representatives, have СКАЧАТЬ