"I found yesterday," said Hamilton, "an invoice of fifty-eight pipes of Madeira, of the date of 1760. The wine is set down as costing one dollar and four cents a gallon. I should have thought it might have been less, but then it is spoken of as very fine." "My father," returned Wilmington, "used to say that the newer wines in his day were not much dearer than good old cider. They drank them by the mugful." "I remember," said Francis, "that Graydon speaks of it in his ’Memoirs.’" "Who? What?" cried Wilmington, who was a little deaf. "Oh! Graydon—yes, I know the man and the book, of course, but I do not recall the passage." "He says: ’Our company’—this was in 1774—’our company was called "The Silk-Stocking Company." The place of rendezvous was the house of our captain,[#] where capacious demijohns of Madeira were constantly set out in the yard, where we formed for regular refreshment before marching out to exercise.’ He was most amusing, too, as to why the captain was so liberal of his wine: but I can’t quite recall it, and I hate to spoil a quotation. You would find the book entertaining, Chestnut." [#] Afterward General John Cadwalader. "How delightful!" exclaimed Chestnut. "Capacious demijohns in the yard, and the descendants of Penn’s Quakers—anti-vinous, anti-pugnacious Quakers—drilling for the coming war! By George! one can see it. One guesses that it was not out of such fairy glasses as these they drank the captain’s Madeira." "I am reminded," cried Hamilton, "that I have a letter of the captain’s brother, Colonel Lambert Cadwalader, to Jasper Yeates, at Lancaster, in 1776. It is interesting. Wait a moment; I will get it." And so saying, he left the table, and presently returning said, "I will read only the bit about the wine. It shows how much store they set by their good wine even in those perilous days." "Take particular care of the red chest clampt with iron herewith sent, which contains some bonds and mortgages which I could not take out, the key being lost; and also that you would be kind enough to let the two quarter-casks of Madeira, painted green, be deposited in some safe place under lock and key in your cellar, if possible where you keep your own liquors in a safe place, as I value them more than silver and gold in these times of misfortune and distress." "Then he goes on to tell the news of Washington’s victory at Trenton." "What a glimpse at the life of those days!" said Chestnut. During the chat the servant had placed before the host a half-dozen quart decanters filled with wine of various hues and depths of color. "And now for the wine! We have been losing time," exclaimed their host.