2. THE PINE-TREE SHILLINGS

NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE

See how quickly you can find and name the two main parts into which this story is divided.

Captain John Hull, the mint-master of Massachusetts, coined all the money that was made there. This was a new line of business; for in the earlier days of the colony the coinage consisted of gold and silver money of England, Portugal, and Spain. These coins being scarce, the people were often forced to barter their commodities instead of selling them.

For instance, if a man wanted to buy a coat, he perhaps exchanged a bearskin for it. If he wished for a barrel of molasses, he might purchase it with a pile of pine boards. Musket bullets were used instead of farthings. The Indians had a sort of money, called wampum, made of clam-shells; this strange specie was likewise taken in payment of debts by the English settlers. Bank bills had never been heard of. There was not money enough of any kind, in many parts of the country, to pay the salaries of the ministers; they sometimes had to take quintals of fish, bushels of corn, or cords of wood, instead of silver or gold.

As the people grew more numerous and their trade one with another increased, the want of money was still more sensibly felt. To supply the demand, the General Court passed a law for establishing a coinage of shillings, sixpences, and threepences. Captain John Hull was appointed to manufacture this money, and was to have about one shilling out of every twenty to pay him for the trouble of making them.

Hereupon all the old silver in the colony was handed over to Captain Hull. The battered silver cans and tankards, and silver buckles, and broken spoons, and silver buttons of worn-out coats, and silver hilts of swords that had figured at court- all such curious old articles were doubtless thrown into the melting-pot together. But by far the greater part of the silver consisted of bullion from the mines of South America, which the English buccaneers, who were little better than pirates, had taken from the Spaniards and brought to Massachusetts.

All of this old and new silver being melted down and coined, the result was an immense amount of splendid shillings, sixpences, and threepences. Each had the date, 1652, on the one side, and the figure of a pine-tree on the other. Hence they were called pine-tree shillings. And for every twenty shillings that he coined, you will remember, Captain John Hull was entitled to put one shilling into his own pocket.

The magistrates soon began to suspect that the mint-master would have the best of the bargain. They offered him a large sum of money if he would but give up that twentieth shilling which he was continually dropping into his own pocket. But Captain Hull declared himself perfectly satisfied with the shilling. And well he might be; for so diligently did he labor that in a few years his pockets, his money-bags, and his strong-box were overflowing with pine-tree shillings.

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When the mint-master had grown very rich, a young man, Samuel Sewell by name, came courting his only daughter. His daughter whose name I do not know, but we will call her Betsey was a fine, hearty damsel, by no means so slender as some young ladies of our own days. On the contrary, having always fed heartily on pumpkin pies, doughnuts, Indian puddings, and other Puritan dainties, she was as round and plump as a pudding herself.

With this round, rosy Miss Betsey Samuel Sewell fell in love. As he was a young man of good character, industrious in his business, and a member of the church, the mint-master very readily gave his consent. "Yes, you may take her," said he, in his rough way; "and you'll find her a heavy burden enough."

On the wedding-day we may suppose that honest John Hull dressed himself in a plum-colored coat, all the buttons of which were made of pine-tree shillings. The buttons of his waistcoat were sixpences. Thus attired, he sat with great dignity in his armchair; and, being a portly old gentleman, he completely filled it from elbow to elbow. On the opposite side of the room, between her bridemaids, sat Miss Betsey. She was blushing with all her might, and looked like a full-blown peony or a big red apple.

There, too, was the bridegroom, dressed in a fine purple coat and gold-lace waistcoat, with as much other finery as the Puritan

laws and customs would allow him to put on. His hair was cropped close to his head, because Governor Endicott had forbidden any man to wear it below the ears. But he was a very personable young man; and so thought the bridesmaids and Miss Betsey herself.

The mint-master also was pleased with his new son-in-law, especially as he had courted Miss Betsey out of pure love, and had said nothing at all about her marriage portion, or dowry. So, when the marriage ceremony was over, Captain Hull whispered a word to two of his menservants, who immediately went out, and soon returned, lugging in a large pair of scales. They were such a pair as wholesale merchants use for weighing bulky commodities; and quite a bulky commodity was now to be weighed in them.

"Daughter Betsey," said the mint-master, "get into one side of these scales."

Miss Betsey or Mrs. Sewell, as we must now call her did as she was bid, like a dutiful child, without any question of the why and wherefore. But what her father could mean, unless to make her husband pay for her by the pound (in which case she would have been a dear bargain), she had not the least idea.

"And now," said honest John Hull to the servants, “bring that box hither."

The box to which the mint-master pointed was a huge, square, iron-bound oaken chest, big enough for four or five children to play hide and seek in. The servants tugged with might and main, but could not lift this enormous receptacle, and were finally obliged to drag it across the floor.

Captain Hull then took a key from his girdle, unlocked the chest, and lifted its ponderous lid. Behold, it was full to the brim of bright pine-tree shillings, fresh from the mint; and Samuel Sewell began to think that his father-in-law had obtained possession of all the money in the Massachusetts treasury. But it was only the mint-master's honest share of the coinage.

Then the servants, at Captain Hull's command, heaped double handfuls of shillings into one side of the scales, while Betsey remained in the other. Jingle, jingle went the shillings, as handful

after handful was thrown in, till, plump and ponderous as she was, they fairly weighed the young lady from the floor.

"There, son Sewell!" cried the honest mint-master; "take these shillings for my daughter's portion. Use her kindly and thank Heaven for her. It is not every wife that's worth her weight in silver!"

CLASS ACTIVITIES

1. Enterprise for a volunteer committee: Dramatize in pantomime (without words) the courting and the wedding of Miss Betsey.

2. Did Captain Hull get his money honestly? Give reasons for your

answer.

3. Find three places in the story in which there is humor.

Are the pas

sages you select humorous in themselves (as facts) or are they humorous because of the way Hawthorne writes of them. Explain. 4. If money did not exist, mention articles or goods which you could give in exchange for groceries, for a pair of shoes, and for admission to a motion-picture theater; be sure to name articles which the proprietor would probably accept.

5. Explain the disadvantages of barter. Has it any advantages? Tell about something you once bartered.

6. What is money? Name three commodities other than gold, silver, nickel, copper, and paper, which have been used as money. (Look up "money" in the encyclopedia or in one of the references on p. 246.)

7. Problem: How much would you be worth at your weight in silver? at your weight in gold? How can you find out?

8. What do you like best about this selection the narrative, the humor, or the style?

9.

Volunteer research problem: How money is made. Tell whether governments are paid for making money in some such way as Captain Hull was paid.

10. Special report for a volunteer: Explain the services of money. (H. C. Hill, Community Life and Civic Problems, 366–367.)

II. Volunteer compositions, oral or written:

a. A glimpse into Betsey's home ten years later.

b. Autobiography of a pine-tree shilling discovered in an old garret, 1925.

c. Why rare coins have value.

d. What savage tribes use for money.

e. What a great-great-great-great-grandchild of Mrs. Sewell might

think of the wedding.

3. A PIECE OF RED CALICO

FRANK RICHARD STOCKTON

I was going into town the other morning when my wife handed me a little piece of red calico, and asked me if I would have time during the day to buy her two yards and a half of calico like that. I assured her that it would be no trouble at all; and, putting the piece of calico in my pocket, I took the train for the city.

At lunch-time I stopped in at a large dry-goods store to attend to my wife's commission. I saw a well-dressed man walking the floor between the counters, where long lines of girls were waiting on much longer lines of customers, and asked him where I could see some red calico.

"This way, sir," and he led me up the store. "Miss Stone," said he to a young lady, "show this gentleman some red calico." "What shade do you want?" asked Miss Stone.

I showed her the little piece of calico that my wife had given me. She looked at it and handed it back to me. Then she took down a great roll of red calico and spread it out on the counter. "Why, that isn't the shade!" said I.

"No, not exactly," said she; "but it is prettier than your sample."

"That may be," said I; "but, you see, I want to match this piece. There is something already made of this kind of calico, which needs to be made larger, or mended, or something. I want some calico of the same shade."

The girl made no answer, but took down another roll. "That's the shade," said she.

"Yes," I replied, "but it's striped."

"Stripes are worn more than anything else in calicoes," said she. "Yes; but this isn't to be worn. It's for furniture, I think. At any rate, I want perfectly plain stuff, to match something already in use.'

"Well, I don't think you can find it perfectly plain, unless you get turkey red."

"What is turkey red?" I asked.

"Turkey red is perfectly plain in calicoes," she answered.