trying out different combinations of flavors Adding dried strawberries to tea was one of his fine ideas one his mother approved of Over the course of a year their tea had earned a fine reputation in the neighborhood and had won them a number of devoted customers even a few British sympathizers His mother served them Jonathan couldn’t bear to Still another of his ideas had been to set up a table and chairs near the window so that customers might take tea and sit and talk This worked out well because Jonathan had a need for information When people talked he listened And sometimes they left behind pamphlets circulated by the Sons of Liberty One time Mr and Mrs Prickford sat at the table taking a break from the harsh winter snow Mrs Prickford said This snow is dreadful isn’t it Dreadful yes said Mr Prickford I daresay we have weeks of it left 10
I daresay you’re right I see no sign of No sign at all I’m afraid spring in all this snow Mrs Prickford sighed and went on to discuss the dreadful condition of the drapes in their dining room Their conversation did not hold Jonathan’s interest but when they departed they left behind on the table a pamphlet called Common Sense by Thomas Paine In the pamphlet Jonathan read In America the law is king For as in absolute governments the king is law so in free countries the law ought to be king and there ought to be no other Jonathan didn’t fully understand Thomas Paine’s pamphlet but he did get the feeling that beyond the fighting the war was about ideas ideas about what role a government should play in people’s lives And what of the fighting Where was General Washington What was the Continental Congress saying about 11
the war effort What was the plan Was there a plan Did anyone have a plan Sometimes from his perspective the war effort seemed disorganized and random He hoped he was wrong He hoped he only thought this because he knew so little He listened to conversations on the street He heard news passed about sometimes in whispers sometimes loudly proclaimed What he did know was that the British underestimated the zeal with which the colonists fought He knew George Washington’s forces were growing stronger and that when the Continental Congress met their words grew bolder their dreams bigger But how exactly he couldn’t say And while the war raged mostly beyond the city limits he crafted tea He was proud of his tea but something else was brewing He began to observe he was not alone in listening for news of the war 12
His mother tried to hide her interest in the war from him but he saw it anyway in the way she watched the street in the way she listened closely for news of fighting and the whereabouts of General Washington He heard it in her conversations before she turned quiet when he drew near He knew she wanted to protect him but at fourteen years old and taller than she it was only a matter of time before he must choose to be safe or join the revolution and fight for freedom as his father had Some people in Boston spoke of staying neutral as a way to ride out the war without suffering personal loss He suspected this was his mother’s intention though she never said so outright and he never asked her She was conflicted he knew that When he was conflicted she gave him space He would do the same for her Although he respected his mother’s struggle to identify her loyalties staying neutral did not seem right to Jonathan He did not know 13
