JOHN ATWOOD. 



39 



schoolmate of my oldest brother, Harleigh. His father 

 was the Secretary of War in President Tyler's Cabinet in 

 1841. Young Spencer had a copy of "The Pirates' Own 

 Book," and left it with one of the village boys with the 

 remark, "Keep this until you hear that I am a pirate;" and 

 through his father he was appointed midshipman in the 

 Navy in November, 1841. He planned a mutiny on the 

 U. S. brig Somers, was discovered, and with two others 

 was tried by summary court-martial and hanged at the 

 yardarm on December I, 1842. This book passed around 

 among the boys of the village for years, until John At- 

 wood loaned it to me. It had pictures of heroic pirates, 

 with belts well stuffed with pistols, boarding merchant- 

 men and putting the crew to the sword or making them 

 walk the plank, and it had in it Spencer's autograph and 

 newspaper slips of his execution. My mother found it in 

 my trunk, and after making me tell where I got it, took it 

 to Mrs. Atwood with the request that no more books of 

 that character be loaned to her son. John said: "It was a 

 fool book, anyway, and there was no fun in sinking ships 

 and killing people." And here again we can agree with 

 John. 



An old darkey who had been a cook for my father in 

 his young days, when he was a sloop captain on the Hud- 

 son, had smallpox, and father fitted up a room for him in 

 the barn, and John Atwood volunteered to attend him, 

 and stayed by him until he was out of danger. As I have 

 said, John may not have been a good boy, but he was not 

 a bad one. Idle, shiftless and lazy? Yes, if you will, but 

 that is a combination to get much out of life, in a way. 

 John may have been "shiftless," but legs that followed 

 him on a day's tramp would deny the charge of laziness. 

 It would be fairer to say that he could only apply himself 

 to things which interested him. That is my latter-day 



