Gunpowder and Tea Cakes: My Journey with Felicity

I tell Felicity I’d love to see her father’s store. We head inside, and I pause to take it all in. It’s tidy, and there are all kinds of things for sale. Coffee beans, dried peas, sacks filled with flour or rice. Bolts of cloth, jars of spices, and tin coffeepots. Baskets, skillets, hoes, and other tools hang from the ceiling. Felicity points out her father, a ginger-haired man behind the counter. He’s talking with a woman who is explaining that her family now drinks more hot chocolate since they’re not drinking tea. Felicity whispers to me that her father no longer sells tea, since he’s protesting the king’s high taxes. But his decision has made Loyalists in town very angry!

I ask Felicity where her father gets things to sell. She explains a lot comes from Great Britain. It can take months for things to arrive by ship. And once he receives a shipment, it could sit on a shelf for months before selling. It sounds like Mr. Merriman has to pay for goods long before he sells them to make a profit. He must have to plan carefully.

When Mr. Merriman is finished with his customer, he beckons us over. Felicity explains I traveled to Williamsburg with my father, but lost him in the crowd. Mr. Merriman asks if my father is a Patriot who came with the others. I picture him in his costume, and nod that he is a Patriot. I know the Patriots were brave to stand up to the British king and his mighty army. I am suddenly very proud of my father.

Mr. Merriman turns to his daughter and asks her if she’ll mind the shop while he makes an important delivery with Ben. Felicity stands a little taller and says she will of course help. Felicity hurries behind the counter and says it’s a rare treat to mind the store. Mother tries to teach her to be ladylike, but sometimes she’s ready to weep from boredom. I laugh, and then spot a china tea set displayed on the counter. It is white with blue flowers. Felicity says it was displayed on a high shelf for a long time, but they’re hoping by moving it lower, it’ll attract a customer’s fancy.

I scoot to the side so I don’t knock it over. Just then, a black-haired boy runs into the shop asking for Mr. Merriman. Felicity says her father and Ben are making a delivery. What’s the matter. The boy responds that there’s trouble on the way.