The miners' express. (Dubuque, Iowa) 1849-1854, 1850-08-21
THE PINE TREE SHILLING.
ny NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE.

ness, for, in the early days of the Colony, the
coinage consisted of the gold and silver
money of England, Portugaland Spain These
coins being scarce, the people were often fore
ed to barter their commodities instead of selling
them.
For instance, if man wanted to buy coat,
he perhaps exchanged bear skin for it. 1.-The
wished a barrel of molasses, he might purchase
it with pile of pine boards. Musket bullets
were used instead of farthings The Indians
had a kind of money called wampnm, which was
Gle was likewise taken in payment of debts by
the English settlers. Bank bills had never been
heard Of There was not enough OF any kind,
in many parts Of the country, to pay their min
isters-..so that they had sometimes to take quln-
tails of fish, bushels of corn, or cords OF wood,
instead of silver or gold.
AS the people grewmore numerous, and their
trade with one another increased, the want OF
current money was still more sensibly felt. To
supply this demand the general court passed a
law for the coinage of shilings, sxpences and
ed to manufacture the money, and was to have
about one shilling out of every twenty, to pay
him for his trouble of making them.
Hereupon, all the old silver in the colony was
handed over to Captain John Hull. The bat
tered silver cans and tankards, l suppose, and
silver buckles, and broken spoons, and silver
buttons of worn out coats, and silver hits of
swords that had figured at court-all such curl
GUS old articles were doubtless thrown into the
pot together. But by far the greatest 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 Massachu-
sets.
All this old and new silver being melted to-
gether and coined, the result was an amount of
splendid shllings, siXpences and threepences
Each had the date of 1862 on one side, and the
figure of pine tree on the other. Hence they
were called pine tree shilings. And for every
twenty shilngs that he coined, you will remem-
Der, Captain Hull was entitled to put one into
his own pocket.
The magistrates began to suspect that the
mint master would have the best Of the bargain.
They offered him large sum Of moneyif he
would give up that Goth shilling which he was
continually dropping into his own pocket
Capt. Hull declared that he was perfectly salts
fed 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 overlooking with pine-tree shillings.-
This was probably the case when he came into
possession of his grandfather chair to rest HIM
self on.
When the mint master had grown very rich,
"a young man, Samuel Sewel by name, came a
counting his only daughter. This daughter
(whose name | do not know, but we will call
her Bctsy,) was a fine hearty damsel, by Ino
means slender as some young ladies Of our own
days.
On the contrary, having always fed heartily
on pumkn pies, doughnuts, Indian buildings,
and other Puritan daintes, she was round and
plump as a pudding. With this round, rosy
Miss Betsy did Samuel fall in love. AS he was
a young man Of good character, industrious in
business, and member of the church, the mint
master very readily gave his consent.
On the wedding day, as may suppose, hon
est Hull dressed himself in plain colored coat,
all the buttons of which were made of pine tree
shillings. The buttons Of his waistcoat were
made of three pences. Thus alfred, he sat
with great dignity in his grandfather's chair ;
and being portly old gentleman, he complete
ly filled it from elbow to elbow. On the oppo-
site side of the room, between the bridesmaids
sat Miss Betsy. She was blushing with all her
might, and looked like full blown peony, a
great red apple, or any other round and scarlet
object.
fine pusple coat, and gold lace wast-coat with
as much other fnery as the puritan laws and Gus
toms would allow him to put on. His hsr was
cropt close to his head because Gov. Endicott
had forbidden any one to wear it below the ears;
but he was very personable young man, and
so thought the bridesmaids and Miss Betsy her
SELF
The mint master was pleased with his new
| n-in-law-especiallya as he had said nothing at
| all about her portion So when the marriage
ceremony was over, Capt Hull whispered a
| ately went out and soon returned Juggling pair
| n They bo1ac 10
chants use for weighing; a bulky commodity
| was now to be weighed in them.
"Daughter Betsy said the mint masters ego
into one side of the scales
Miss Betsy, or Mrs. Sewell, as we must now
| call her, did as she was bid like dutful child
without any questions, or why or 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 dear bargain, she
had not the least idea.
"And now,' said honest John Hull to his SER
wants, ''bring that box hither.''
| This box to which the mint master pointed,
was large, sqnare, iron-bound, oaken chest; it
was big enough my children, for all four of you
to play hide and seek in.
The servants tugged with night and main but
could not lift this enormous receptacle, and
were finally obliged to drag it across the floor
Capt. Hull then took key from his girdle, un
locked the cneSt ana llfted It's pOnderOuS lid -
! Behold it was full to the brm of bright pine
tree shillngs, fresh from the mint, and Samuel
Sewel began to think that his father-in-law had
got possession of all the money in the Massa-
chusetts Treasury. But it was only the mint
masters honest share in the coinage.
Then the servants at Capt Hulrs command
heaped double handfuls of shiIlings into one side
of the scale, while Betsy remained in the other
Jingle, jingle, went the shillings, as handful af
ter handful was thrown in, till, plump and pom
derous as she was, they fairly weighed the young
lady from the floor.
"There, son Sewel - cried the honest min
master, resuming his seat in his grandfather
chair, stake these shillings for my daughters
portion Use her kindly, and thank heaven fol
her. 1t is not every wife that is worth hei
weight in silver
| The children laughed heartily at this legend
and would hardly be convinced bnt that grand
father had made it out of his own head. He as
sured them faithfully however, that he had found
it in the pages Of grave historian, and had
merely tried to tell it in somewat funnier man.
ner.
"Well, grandfather" remarked Clara, eli
wedding portions now-a-d days were paid as Miss
Betsey's was, young ladies' would not pride
themselves upon an airy fipure MS nanv offhau,