“Hello Thomas and welcome all of you to my house,” said cousin William. The house was four stories tall and made of stone and brick. There were only a few lights in the windows even though it was starting to get dark.

Everyone said hello.

“These are my new friends from England,” said Mr. Binns. “Meet Charles Haigh, Arthur, Kate, Bertie, and Vicki.”

“It is pronounced ‘hay’,” said Vicki who stamped her foot.

“Oh, I am sorry, ‘Hay’” said Mr. Binns.

Bertie looked at the house and frowned. But before he could say anything, Dawsey said, “Do not worry. Cousin William is a good guy. I have been here many times.”

“Well thanks for saying so.” Cousin William who winked at Dawsey. “Please, everyone come in and we can have supper.”

“Yes, everybody grab something and let us get everything inside,” said Mr. Binns. So all of the children grabbed their bags and brought them in the front foyer. Then the boys went back out and brought in the boxes that Mr. Binns had bought.

“Please everyone, have a seat and make yourself comfortable,”said cousin William. As they sat down, a servant came in the room and offered them drinks.

Once everyone was served, cousin William raised his glass and said, “Welcome to Philadelphia! Cheers to you all for making it safely across the ocean!” Everyone raised their glasses.

“Hurray,” said Mr. Binns

“Amen,” said Father.

“Yay,” said the children.

“So what brings you here to Philadelphia? Will you be staying long,” asked Cousin William.

“No, we will not. We will leave tomorrow and go with Mr. Binns to visit his family in Springfield. Then we will leave for our new home in Texas. We need to get there before they revoke their offer of land,” said Father.

“We will be raising sheep,” send Bertie.

“Lots of pretty sheep,” said Vicki.

“You are a farmer then,” said Cousin William.

“That is what I will become, but I am really a weaver. I will use the wool from all of my pretty sheep to make cloth. I have been told that there is a big need for people who can make cloth in the part of Texas that I am headed.”

“I wish you luck. Establishing yourself in a new land is difficult,” said Cousin William.

“You should know all about that. You are not from here either,” said Dawsey.

Mr. Binns glared at Dawsey. “You know better then to talk about your elders that way.”

“I am sorry Papa.”

“That is okay. I do not mind people knowing that I am from Virginia, that evil place down south.” Cousin William winked at Dawsey.

“That is where I want to go, not Texas. In Virginia they already have factories that make cloth and use machines to do it,’ said Arthur.

“You are right. A new textile mill is set to open soon in Danville, if it is not open already,” said Cousin William.

“That is where I want to go, not hot, dreary, and far away Texas,” said Arthur.

“Well then, you should go to Virginia,” said Cousin William.

“That is where I would go, except that I need to help father set up his farm. But when that is done, I will definitely come back to work on the new machines,” said Arthur.

“You are a good man Arthur for helping your father,” said Mr. Binns.

“Some man, he has been whining about going to Texas as soon as we got on the boat,” said Kate.

“I want to help father, I just do not want to go to Texas. I am told that it is hot, dry, and flat. Virginia is none of that. Also, Texas has savage Indians there,” said Arthur.

“Well, you got some of that right. Virginia is not flat or particularly dry, but it can get hot. Plus, there are some Indians still left in Virginia, but they are not much of a problem anymore,” said Cousin Williams.

“Virginia is the place for me,” said Arthur.

“I would join you in Virginia,” said Vicki.

“No Vicki. You will be staying with me in Texas until you are of age and that will not be for a while,” said Father.

“Oh well, at least I will have some pretty sheep to play with,” said Vicki.

Just then a servant walked in. “Dinner is served.”

“Please go upstairs to the dinning room,” said Cousin William.

“Good! I was getting hungry,” said Vicki. “So was I,” said Bertie.

Everybody went upstairs to the dining room. It took up at least half of the second floor. There were chairs for everybody at the large table. On the windows, there were heavy, thick drapes. The fireplace had a small fire in it. The ornate chandelier over the table had twelve candles brightly burning in it. There were plates of food on the table and on the sideboards.

“Everyone please take a plate and take what you like from the sideboard. Then sit down and we can eat,” said cousin William. So after a few minutes everyone was seated with a plate of sumptious looking food and after saying grace, everyone started to eat. There was little talk. Everyone was hungry.

“This food is great,” said Bertie.

“Yes, it is much better then what they served to us on the ship,” said Arthur.

“What is this dish? It looks like some sort of organ meat, but it does not taste anything like that. It is very good,” said Kate.

“That is shad roe. I am glad that you like it,” said cousin William.

“What is shad roe,” said Arthur.

“Fish eggs,” said cousin William.

“Yick,” said Arthur.

“That did not stop you from eating them,” said Bertie. Everyone laughed.

“Well, they were pretty tasty. I just do not like the idea of eating fish eggs,” said Arthur.

“Will we be able to get these in Texas? I would like to be able to cook this when we get there,” said Kate.

“Probably not, it is a local delicacy,” said cousin William.

“I am sure that we can find you some fish eggs in Texas,” said Father and turned back to cousin William. “Do they have shad in Virginia?”

“Yes, they do. Catching shad is a large seasonal business along the Potomac,” said cousin William.

“Did you catch any shad fish,” said Vicki.

“Yes, occasionally I would go fishing with friends. But usually I just bought them from other people. Although the ones that I caught tasted best,” said cousin William.

“Do you catch shad fish up here,” said Bertie.

“Not often, I have other things to do here in Philadelphia. I am often too busy to do anything fun like fishing,” said cousin William.

“What sorts of things do you do that keep you away from your fishing,” said Vicki.

“I do some odd jobs, but the biggest thing that I do is working at mint,” said cousin William. “Mostly I work on the presses. I keep them running so we never run out of money.”

“Oh, so you could print us some money. We are going to need a lot of that in Texas,” said Arthur.

Cousin William chuckled then glanced at Mr. Binns. Mr. Binns did not smile or even move.

“We have plenty of money Arthur. What we really need right now is some sleep. We have a long day ahead of us tomorrow. I would like to get up early and leave for Springfield. Is that something we can do Mr. Binns,” said father. As father said that, all of the children yawned except Bertie.

“Yes, by all means. We can have a light breakfast and be on our way by 7 AM. Would that be OK with you William,” said Mr. Binns.

“We can do that. I will have breakfast ready for you at 5:30. Let me take you upstairs and show you your rooms for the night,” said cousin William.

Everybody went upstairs.

“Thomas, here is your room and Mr. Haigh here is your room. Everyone else please follow me upstairs,” said cousin William. All of the children followed cousin William up the stairs to the fourth floor. “Arthur, here is your room. Kate and Vicki can have this room in the front that borders the street. You two rascals can have this room. If anyone needs an extra blanket, they are here in this closet. I will have someone come wake you. Sleep well and have a good night,” said cousin William.

Everybody went into the rooms and closed the doors.

Dawsey quickly took off his shirt and pants then jumped in his bed.

“Where are you going? I thought that we could play some games,” said Bertie.

“That is what I wanted to do, but I am so tired. I can hardly keep my eyes open. So I am just going to go to sleep now. We will be traveling all day tomorrow and will have plenty of time to play games,” said Dawsey who closed his eyes and was soon lightly snoring.

Bertie got in bed and pulled the covers up. He tried to fall asleep, but found it difficult to get to sleep. After a while, he eventually did fall asleep.

Thud!