Suggestions
Use up and down arrows to review and enter to select.Please wait while we process your payment
If you don't see it, please check your spam folder. Sometimes it can end up there.
If you don't see it, please check your spam folder. Sometimes it can end up there.
Please wait while we process your payment
By signing up you agree to our terms and privacy policy.
Don’t have an account? Subscribe now
Create Your Account
Sign up for your FREE 7-day trial
Already have an account? Log in
Your Email
Choose Your Plan
Save over 50% with a SparkNotes PLUS Annual Plan!
Purchasing SparkNotes PLUS for a group?
Get Annual Plans at a discount when you buy 2 or more!
Price
$24.99 $18.74 /subscription + tax
Subtotal $37.48 + tax
Save 25% on 2-49 accounts
Save 30% on 50-99 accounts
Want 100 or more? Contact us for a customized plan.
Your Plan
Payment Details
Payment Summary
SparkNotes Plus
You'll be billed after your free trial ends.
7-Day Free Trial
Not Applicable
Renews April 2, 2023 March 26, 2023
Discounts (applied to next billing)
DUE NOW
US $0.00
SNPLUSROCKS20 | 20% Discount
This is not a valid promo code.
Discount Code (one code per order)
SparkNotes Plus subscription is $4.99/month or $24.99/year as selected above. The free trial period is the first 7 days of your subscription. TO CANCEL YOUR SUBSCRIPTION AND AVOID BEING CHARGED, YOU MUST CANCEL BEFORE THE END OF THE FREE TRIAL PERIOD. You may cancel your subscription on your Subscription and Billing page or contact Customer Support at custserv@bn.com. Your subscription will continue automatically once the free trial period is over. Free trial is available to new customers only.
Choose Your Plan
For the next 7 days, you'll have access to awesome PLUS stuff like AP English test prep, No Fear Shakespeare translations and audio, a note-taking tool, personalized dashboard, & much more!
You’ve successfully purchased a group discount. Your group members can use the joining link below to redeem their group membership. You'll also receive an email with the link.
Members will be prompted to log in or create an account to redeem their group membership.
Thanks for creating a SparkNotes account! Continue to start your free trial.
Please wait while we process your payment
Your PLUS subscription has expired
Please wait while we process your payment
Please wait while we process your payment
Don’t touch me! Don’t touch me with that dreadful hand!
See Important Quotations Explained
Johnny is unable to earn money and now is just an added expense for the Laphams. Mrs. Lapham begins insulting Johnny the way she once insulted the other boys, and looks at him with uncloaked resentment. She complains about having to feed someone who does not help put food on the table. Cilla begins hiding food in Johnny’s pockets so that he does not have to eat in front of Mrs. Lapham. Mr. Lapham assures Johnny that he can remain a part of their household for as long as he needs, but Johnny’s pride is severely hurt by his lowered status. Consequently, he dwells in self-pity and longs to find a new home. Unfortunately, as he makes his rounds from artisan to artisan he is consistently rejected because of his crippled hand. Only the butcher offers to take him in, but Johnny cannot bring himself to accept such unskilled work. Meanwhile, Mrs. Lapham begins negotiating a business partnership with an adult silversmith named Mr. Tweedie to ensure that there will be someone to take over the shop when Mr. Lapham dies. Johnny resents Mr. Tweedie for usurping a position that was once his, and when they run into each other one day at the Lapham house, Johnny viciously attacks Tweedie with a barrage of insults and accusations, earning himself another enemy.
While in search of work, Johnny enters the print shop of the Boston Observer, a Whig newspaper. The quiet, dark, older boy minding the shop sizes Johnny up silently and offers him something to eat. Johnny is drawn to the boy, who introduces himself as Rab, and finds himself sharing the story of his accident, the Laphams, and his search for a new trade. Rab offers Johnny a job delivering the Observer, but Johnny still hopes to find skilled labor as an artisan. Rab kindly tells him to return if he can find nothing else.
Johnny next approaches John Hancock for a job. Hancock does not recognize Johnny as the silversmith who was supposed to make his basin, but Johnny’s quantitative skills impress Hancock so much that he prepares to take him in as a clerk. However, he rescinds the offer when sees Johnny’s handwriting, which is illegible because of his injury. Hancock sends Johnny away, but later sends his slave boy to give him a bag of silver. Johnny wastes this small windfall on expensive foods, and he is ashamed by his lack of prudence, reflecting that Rab would never act so foolishly. With the remainder of his money, he purchases new shoes for himself and spends the rest on gifts for Isannah and Cilla. When Johnny returns home, Mrs. Lapham accuses him of stealing the new shoes he is wearing, but she cannot ruin his good mood. Cilla and Isannah are delighted with their gifts, but when Johnny tries to pick up Isannah, she declares that she does not want him to touch her with his “dreadful hand.” Heartbroken, Johnny cries himself to sleep on his mother’s unmarked grave. He decides that he has finally hit rock bottom and the time has come to approach Jonathan Lyte.
Lyte thinks that Johnny is a conniving impostor, but Johnny announces that he can prove his story with a silver cup bearing the Lyte seal. Lyte urges Johnny to bring the cup to his house that evening. On his way to the Lyte home, Johnny stops by the Observer to tell Rab what happened. Rab warns that Lyte is a crooked man who pretends to be a loyal British citizen when dealing with Tories and pretends to be sympathetic to the rebel cause when dealing with Whigs. He loans Johnny a fine linen shirt and corduroy jacket. When Johnny returns to Lyte and presents the cup, Lyte accuses him of theft. Lyte announces to his houseguests that he once owned four such cups, but that one was stolen on August 23. Mrs. Lapham, he continues, has already sworn that Johnny never owned such a cup and has confided in Lyte her suspicion that Johnny has resorted to crime. Mr. Tweedie has further offered that Johnny is a known liar. Based on this evidence assembled by Lyte, the sheriff places Johnny under arrest.
Rab visits Johnny in jail. Johnny stays in a comfortable, private cell because the jailor, the turnkey, and Rab are all members of the Sons of Liberty, a semisecret, slightly violent organization that tries to resist the alleged tyranny of Britain. Rab asks Johnny whether anyone saw the cup in his possession prior to August 23, and Johnny remembers that he showed the cup to Cilla in early July. Later, Rab discovers that Lyte is attempting to block Cilla’s testimony in court by bribing the Laphams with a big silver order and a promise of further orders should they cooperate. Mrs. Lapham forbids Cilla from testifying, but Rab attests that he will find a way to sneak her to court on the day of the trial. Rab also secures a lawyer for Johnny, the famous Whig attorney Josiah Quincy, who agrees to defend Johnny free of charge.
At the trial, Rab appears with Cilla as planned. Afterward, he reveals how he accomplished this feat: he presented Mrs. Lapham with a letter bearing the seal of the governor. Though the letter bore no relation to the trial, the illiterate Mrs. Lapham had no way of knowing this. Cilla testifies that she saw the cup in early July. Isannah repeats Cilla’s testimony, although she herself did not actually see the cup and is merely mimicking her older sister. Convinced by the testimony of the two girls, the judge rules that Johnny is innocent and orders that his cup be returned to him. After the trial, the famous beauty Lavinia Lyte, daughter of Jonathan Lyte and the object of Johnny’s reluctant infatuation, seems drawn to Isannah, taking her hand and remarking on her ethereal beauty. Isannah kisses Johnny’s burned hand before they leave the courtroom, restoring his spirits.
Please wait while we process your payment