The ‘proper little martin box’ was situated on Harvard street, but they soon removed to Cottage place, a small street leading out of Washington street, on the neck, beyond Dover. It may be that it is one of several quaint wooden houses still standing, sufficiently attractive even now in their tenement-house decadence, and suggestive of the time when they commanded a view of Dorchester and Brookline over the water. To the years spent in this house, Mrs. Child afterwards referred as the happiest in her life.
Not long after their marriage a Spanish pirate ship was captured, and brought to Boston. The men were charged with most cruel crimes and were threatened with summary punishment. David Lee Child offered his services in their behalf and urged a fair trial. Mrs. Child believed in their innocence and warmly espoused their cause, to the length of travelling all the way to Washington by stage-coach in the depth of winter, to intercede for them with President Jackson. In this interview she employed all her eloquence, and at last cast herself on her knees before him, begging for their lives, without avail; she could not move him. His only reply was, ‘By the Eternal, let them hang!’ But, according to Mr. Wendell Phillips, the efforts of Mr.Child and Mrs. Child secured the miserable men a trial according to law.
During all this time Mrs. Child's pen was never idle. In the interval between her marriage in 1828, and that
