CHAPTER IV 



THE MAKING Of" AN AMERICAN 



Gray's Ferry, Kingsessing, Pennsylvania, was a 

 far different place in the first decade of the nine- 

 teenth century from what we should find it to-day. 

 Wilson has feelingly painted it in his "Solitary 

 Tutor" and in "The 'invitation." The schoolhouse 

 in which he taught was a square stone building of 

 small pretension, down in a "bridge-built hollow" 

 about half a mile from Gray's Ferry and the Schuyl- 

 kill. Around it on the sloping green "the old gray 

 white-oaks" and the "tufted cedars" shed their 

 grateful shade and a line of tall young poplars stood 

 near in even columns, while behind it rose the forest 

 in whose depths lived Wilson's truest friends, the 

 birds. Across from the school-house green, was 

 the Sorrel-horse Tavern and adjoining it, the white- 

 washed blacksmith's shop. Along the road, espec- 

 ially just before market days, a throng of travel- 

 ers passed to and from the city, "an ever-varying 

 scene * * * with horsemen, thundering 

 stage and stately team." Not far from the 

 school-building was the house where Wilson 

 lived, a "yellow-fronted cottage" sheltered by great 

 poplars and a weeping willow. In the yard, full 

 of roses and catalpa trees, the hopvines and honey- 

 suckle grew luxuriant, and every sort of fruit 

 ripened on the plentiful boughs, while the woods 

 so near at hand were full of many kinds of birds 

 and the streams plentiful with fish. 



