Note 4 — Chapter IX
Reading edition
It was a custom with the three daughters of John Adams, even until advanced age, to meet together, and read a portion of God’s word. They would unfailingly close their devotions by singing the tune their father taught them. A stanza from the second psalm, which they always sang, found in the Scottish Bibles, seems peculiarly associated with the plaintive air. It is as follows:—
“A sure decree I will declare,— The Lord has said to me, ‘Thou art my only Son; this day Have I begotten thee.’”
On his first visit to Norfolk Island, and at his special request, the three old ladies sang the above to the late and much-loved Bishop Selwyn, their pleasant acquiescence and unaffected, simple manners winning for them the admiration and esteem of the good bishop and his lady.