through the gaping crowd with Mollie on his arm, breathing general maledictions as he went. Which proceeding soothed the feeling of John himself, and was also a sweet satisfac tion to Mollie; but it had an effect far from quieting on the Puritan fathers who had been so roundly cursed. Their indignation at his breaking the Sabbath was deepened now by a real grievance and their determination bebecame unchangeable that he should pay the penalty for his sin which a wise generation had provided in the law of the Province. Only their reluctant deference to his rank saved him from spending the night in the town house, but justice deferred was only the more .certain. Next morning two constables waited on him, and explained that they were sent to conduct him to Elisha Dunton, justice of the peace, before whom he must answer for his conduct upon the previous day. He had thought little of the matter after he and Mol lie were in their own lodgings, and even now he was inclined to treat it lightly, so he fol lowed the constables without any show of temper. But when he reached the court room where Master Dunton was dispensing the King's justice, he found that the affair was really serious. The room was filled with the leading people of the town, who had come to enjoy the rare spectacle of an officer of the royal navy pleading before the bar of the colony. The legal proceedings were very brief. Master Dunton accused John Carter of breaking the Fourth Commandment, read him the statute against breaking the Sab bath from a big book on the desk before him, and then asked if he would pay the ten shillings' fine thereby imposed. John Carter knew the Puritan character too well to argue the matter. The men be fore him would have enjoyed nothing more than a long debate for and against keeping the Lord's day, and this satisfaction he was determined not to give them, so he threw a

gold piece on the counter against which he was leaning, and merely said that he had not known about the law when he broke it. He expected that this would end the mat ter, but he did not know either the Puritan character or his own so well as he had thought. Master Dunton, having disposed of one misdemeanor and received the fine for it, now proceeded to the next charge, which related to Capt. Carter's violent curs ing. He read the statute, which provided a fine of ten shillings for the first offense, with two shillings apiece for each additional curse, and reluctantly he admitted that no one pres ent had been able to count the curses which John Carter had used, for which he said he had decided to name the round sum of forty shillings as a proper compensation to the out raged community; and during the whole of this exhortation John kept his temper. But when Master Dunton ended by saying that in view of his ignorance the court would pass over his indecent behavior in three times kissing his wife before the public, a misdemeanor forbidden by law, John's pot of wrath boiled over, and once more his hissing curses fell upon astonished ears. Again he roundly damned the company be fore him, and he vowed that he would never pay a farthing of this last most unjust fine. Of course John Carter didn't know the alternative in store for him and was sur prised when Dunton ordered that he should bear the full rigor of the law, that on the Common he should be given forty stripes save one from the cat o' nine tails. Had he known just what Dunton could do, per haps he would have swallowed his pride and paid the fine, but he had vowed that he wouldn't pay it, and there was no other course open for him now but to take his pun ishment with what grace he could. So he merely said that the sooner he was whipped and through with it the better he would be pleased, and the court graciously granted him his wish. Indeed, they adjourned in a body to the Common to enjoy the spectacle,