“I am afraid you will be disappointed, Charley,” answered Grandfather.  “It is true, that Colonel Shute had probably never led so unquiet a life while fighting the French, as he did now, while governing this province of Massachusetts Bay.  But his troubles consisted almost entirely of dissensions with the legislature.  The king had ordered him to lay claim to a fixed salary; but the representatives of the people insisted upon paying him only such sums, from year to year, as they saw fit.”

Grandfather here explained some of the circumstances, that made the situation of a colonial governor so difficult and irksome.  There was not the same feeling towards the chief magistrate, now, that had existed, while he was chosen by the free suffrages of the people.  It was felt, that, as the king appointed the governor, and as he held his office during the king’s pleasure, it would be his great object to please the king.  But the people thought, that a governor ought to have nothing in view, but the best interests of those whom he governed.

“The governor,” remarked Grandfather, “had two masters to serve—­the king, who appointed him, and the people, on whom he depended for his pay.  Few men, in this position, would have ingenuity enough to satisfy either party.  Colonel Shute, though a good-natured, well-meaning man, succeeded so ill with the people, that in 1722, he suddenly went away to England, and made complaint to King George.  In the mean time, Lieutenant-Governor Dummer directed the affairs of the province, and carried on a long and bloody war with the Indians.”

“But where was our chair, all this time?” asked Clara.

“It still remained in Cotton Mather’s library,” replied Grandfather; “and I must not omit to tell you an incident, which is very much to the honor of this celebrated man.  It is the more proper, too, that you should hear it, because it will show you what a terrible calamity the small pox was to our forefathers.  The history of the province, (and, of course, the history of our chair,) would be incomplete, without particular mention of it.”  Accordingly, Grandfather told the children a story, to which, for want of a better title, we shall give that of

THE REJECTED BLESSING

One day, in 1721, Doctor Cotton Mather sat in his library, reading a book that had been published by the Royal Society of London.  But, every few moments, he laid the book upon the table, and leaned back in Grandfather’s chair, with an aspect of deep care and disquietude.  There were certain things which troubled him exceedingly, so that he could hardly fix his thoughts upon what he read.

It was now a gloomy time in Boston.  That terrible disease, the small pox, had recently made its appearance in the town.  Ever since the first settlement of the country, this awful pestilence had come, at intervals, and swept away multitudes of the inhabitants.  Whenever it commenced its ravages, nothing seemed to stay its progress, until there were no more victims for it to seize upon.  Oftentimes, hundreds of people, at once, lay groaning with its agony; and when it departed, its deep footsteps were always to be traced in many graves.