Fair Laughs the Morn
The settlement now had a name: Westmoreland.
Connecticut had legally attached
the town to Litchfield, many miles away.
The residents felt safe and more secure,
and with a confidence—however flawed—
fell to the business of enacting rules
and regulations, building schools and mills,
improving roads, providing for defense,
expelling bogus Yankees, working hard,
but worshiping and resting on the Sabbath.
Wilmot Munson, twenty-one, had bought
a half-right in the upper Pittstown district
near the confluence of the Lackawanna
and the Susquehanna, where, in time,
he hoped to build a home and raise a family.
Since spring, he had been courting Lucy Pierce,
a tall, outspoken, buxom honey-blonde
from Kingstown, who invariably won
the river common spinning bees, and wore
her homespun frocks with patriotic pride.
This interval of peace would not last long—
the Continental Army needed men.
Three Munson sons were quick to heed the call
in June of ’75, though Wil returned
the following March when Boston was secured.
But in the meantime, faithless Lucy Pierce
had switched her loyalties and bundled with
a Tory, had a child, and moved away.
Wil harbored no resentment toward the girl.
Years later, he would marry Patience Cooper.
NOTE: The chapter titled Fair Laughs the Morn comes from the poem “The Bard: A Pindaric Ode” by Thomas Gray.
COMING SOON: PART TWO, CHAPTER NINE
