There was no change of tone, at least, with the elder gentlemen.  They plainly showed me an added respect.  And so I fell into the habit, after my work was over, of joining them in their suppers rather than the sons and daughters.  There I was made right welcome.  The serious conversation spiced with the wit of trained barristers and men of affairs better suited my changed condition of life.  The times were sober, and for those who could see, a black cloud was on each horizon.  ’Twas only a matter of months when the thunder-clap was to come-indeed, enough was going on within our own province to forebode a revolution.  The Assembly to which many of these gentlemen belonged was in a righteous state of opposition to the Proprietary and the Council concerning the emoluments of colonial officers and of clergymen.  Honest Governor Eden had the misfortune to see the justice of our side, and was driven into a seventh state by his attempts to square his conscience.  Bitter controversies were waging in the Gazette, and names were called and duels fought weekly.  For our cause “The First Citizen” led the van, and the able arguments and moderate language of his letters soon identified him as Mr. Charles Carroll of Carrollton, one of the greatest men Maryland has ever known.  But even at Mr. Swain’s, amongst his few intimate friends, Mr. Carroll could never be got to admit his ‘nom de guerre’ until long after ‘Antilon’ had been beaten.

I write it with pride, that at these suppers I was sometimes asked to speak; and, having been but lately to England, to give my opinion upon the state of affairs there.  Mr. Carroll honoured me upon two occasions with his confidence, and I was made clerk to a little club they had, and kept the minutes in my own hand.

I went about in homespun, which, if good enough for Mr. Bordley, was good enough for me.  I rode with him over the estate.  This gentleman was the most accomplished and scientific farmer we had in the province.  Having inherited his plantation on Wye Island, near Carvel Hall, he resigned his duties as judge, and a lucrative practice, to turn all his energies to the cultivation of the soil.  His wheat was as eagerly sought after as was Colonel Washington’s tobacco.

It was to Mr. Bordley’s counsel that the greater part of my success was due.  He taught me the folly of ploughing with a fluke,—­a custom to which the Eastern Shore was wedded, pointing out that a double surface was thus exposed to the sun’s rays; and explained at length why there was more profit in small grain in that district than heavy tobacco.  He gave me Dr. Eliot’s “Essays on Field Husbandry,” and Mill’s “Husby,” which I read from cover to cover.  And I went from time to time to visit him at Wye Island, when he would canter with me over that magnificent plantation, and show me with pride the finished outcome of his experiments.