So, sir, if ye feel like doin' suthin' fer me--which I didn't never expect it, when I done what I did--I'll say be good to the boy.

You'd never have to be 'shamed o' him." "He's a likely lad," said Colonel Hare.

"And I am rather impressed by your words, although they present a view that is new to me.

We shall be returning soon and I dare say they will presently forget each other, but if not, and he becomes a good man--as good a man as his father--let us say--and she should wish to marry him, I would gladly put her hand in his." A letter of the handsome British officer to his friend, Doctor Benjamin Franklin, reviews the history of this adventure and speaks of the learning, intelligence and agreeable personality of John Irons.

Both Colonel and Mrs.Hare liked the boy and his parents and invited them to come to England, although the latter took the invitation as a mere mark of courtesy.
At Fort Stanwix, John Irons sold his farm and house and stock to Peter Bones and decided to move his family to Albany where he could educate his children.