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their own for the first time in their lives.
    Now Nathan saw the questions in his father’s eyes, and knew that if he decided his sons weren’t to be trusted, he’d just take the furs himself. Right then Caleb jumped in, and for the first time in Nathan’s life he was glad his brother was such a talker!
    Caleb knew his father, and he began talking cheerfully about how good it was for young fellows to learn responsibility and how glad he was to have an older brother. As always, he got his way. Nathan saw through it in a second, but he’d learned to accept the fact long ago that his father had a weakness for his younger son.
    “It’ll be good for them, Adam.” Molly came over and put her arm around him, something which always gentled him down. “Charles wants them to come.”
    “I know. And I suppose the boys can learn something about business from him.” His eyes fell on Nathan and there was a peculiar glint in his glance that the older son couldn’t read. “But I can’t see what good it will do a minister to know about business.”
    There it was. Nathan felt his face flush, for he resented the fact that his father had never put much stock in his call to the ministry. Ever since that day when Nathan had told his parents that he felt God wanted him to be a minister, the wall between him and his father had grown thicker. Now he said quickly, “Well, Father, I don’t think it will do a minister any harm to know something of business.”
    “I suppose not.”
    Mother pulled at Father’s arm, saying, “We’d better hurry if we don’t want to be late for service, Adam.” Then she smiled at Nathan and there was a gleam in her gray eyes as she said, “And it wouldn’t look very good for you to be late, Nathan. Rev. Patterson might feel your dedication is lacking.”
    Adam snorted and there was a flash of anger in his dark eyes. “I wish he’d preach the gospel instead of singing the praises of King George!”
    “He’s not doing that, sir!” Nathan said, and was sorry at once.
    Adam stared at the tall young man, his face settling down into an angry look that made Nathan wish he’d kept his mouth shut.
    “Nathan, the man is no more than a mouthpiece for the Crown! He has a right to speak his mind, but he uses his pulpit for attacking loyal men in these Colonies—and he has no sense of justice!”
    “Sir—I think that’s not fair!”
    “Not fair!” There was a thick silence in the room, and Nathan saw that they were into another of their argumentsover politics. Adam Winslow had fought in the French and Indian War under Colonel Washington and sympathized with the group led by Sam Adams who were out to challenge English authority. And it saddened Nathan, for his father was not an unreasonable man—quite the contrary. But he’s just as blind as the rest of that crew who want to push us into a war we can’t win! the boy thought.
    “You think I’m unfair? ” Adam demanded, stepping closer to Nathan. “Why, Patterson has branded my friends traitors from his pulpit! And you don’t think it’s unfair for a minister to use his office for a political platform?”
    “You don’t say that about those ministers who use their pulpits to demand freedom, Father,” Nathan shot back, but over his father’s head he saw his mother shaking her head violently, and it brought him up short. He realized that if his father got angry, he’d not let them go to Boston, so he said, “Oh, Father, I’m sorry we got into this. Let’s drop it and go to service.”
    Adam was caught off guard with the sudden apology, and Nathan’s mother came forward quickly, saying, “Yes, we have to go, Adam.”
    “All right, Molly.”
    Nathan and Caleb went quickly to hitch the team and saddle their own mounts. Nathan drove the wagon out of the stable to the front gate, and held the lines until his father helped his mother into the wagon. “Don’t race those horses, boys,” he said as he took the reins. “Not on the