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A NKVV KNULANIJ SUlIAR URCIIAUI).

A FAMILY FLIGHT

AROUND HOME

Rev. E. Ev hale and Miss SUSAN HALE

Authors of "^ Family Flight through France, Germany, Norway and Switzer-
land,'' " A Family Flight over Egypt a7id Syria," and
'^ A Family Flight through Spain."

FULLY ILLUSTRATED

BOSTON
D. LOTHROP AND COMPANY

FRANKLIN AND HAWLEY STREETS

D. LOTHROP AND COMPANY

1884

Hi'*

CONTENTS.

Boston .

Page

CHAPTER I.
13

CHAPTER n.
Old Friends together 21

CHAPTER HI.
In the Train 29

CHAPTER IV.
About Indians 38

CHAPTER V.
Professor Bruce 47

CHAPTER VI.
The Pilgrims 55

CHAPTER VII.
In Bed 65

CHAPTER VIII.
Regular Lessons 74

CHAPTER .IX.
An Adventure 82

CHAPTER X.
Molly Stark's Bonnet 89

CHAPTER XI.
Wild Flowers 98

CHAPTER XII.
A Telegram 107

5 Contents.

CHAP'iER XIII.
A LITTLE History ii6

CHAPTER XIV.

The Chime of Bells 123

CHAPTER XV.

French and English Campaigns 134

CHAPTER XVI.
Lake George 142

CHAPTER XVn.
Schroon Lake iS*

CHAPTER XVI n.
A Pond Lily Picnic 160

CHAPTER XIX.
Work in Earnest 168

CHAPTER XX.
Two Heroes 1 77

CHAPTER XXI.
Moving Tableaux 189

CHAPTER XX n.
The Revolution begun 198

CHAPTER XXIII.
The Declaration of Independence 206

CHAPTER XXIV.
The War 216

CHAPTER XXV.
Painting Lessons 227

CHAPTER XXVI.
After the War 236

ClIAl'l'l'.R XXVI I.
TiiK Ilotrsi', IN I HK Woods 244

Coiitc'iits. 7

CHAPTER XXV 11 1.
Franklin and Lafaye ite 255

CHAPTER XXIX.

Pirates 264

CHAPTER XXX.
Two Papas. 275

CHAPTER XXXI.
Congress 283

CHAPTER XXXn.
Washington's Inauguration 292

CHAPTER XXXni.
Sour Grapes 301

CHAPTER XXXIV.
A Catastropii e 309

CHAPTER XXXV.
Last Days at Utcjpia 318

CHAPTER XXXVI.
The First Day in Boston 324

CHAPTER XXXVII.
The Second Day 332

CHAPTER XXXVIII.
Nahant 344

CHAPTER XXXIX.
A Sea Bath 351

CHAPTER XL.
Scattering 359

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.

A New England Sugar Orchard

Boston Harbor

The Vendome.

Faneuil Hall .

Old South Church .

Enlivening an April Morning

Bunker Hill Monument .

Ornamental

Boston and Lowell Railroad

Signs of Spring

The Small Wheel .

Railroad Crossing .

Indians' Weapons .

Squaws building a Wigwam

Indian Warfare

Barricade against the Indians

• 45

Old Clock

. 48

Andirons and Cranes

• 49

The old Place.

• 50

Falls by the Road .

• 52

Old-fashioned Fireplace .

• 53

Vermont in April.

Early New England Schoolman

ter 56

Still Snowing .

Caravels of Columbus

First New England Washing-

Day ....

The Mayflower

The red Schoolhouse

The Colonial Schoolmaster

Quilting Party

Collections of Coins

Mayflowers

Going after Mayflowers .

Early Settlers ....

Frontispiece
A rude Beginning ... 78
Larch Cones . . . .81

The old Barn . .

Familiarity

The Barn Floor

. 83
. 84
. 86

At Home

. 88

A Puritan Daughter

Old Days and Ways

Odd Style

Home Manufacture.

91
92
93

Molly Stark's Bonnet
The Bennington Trunk .
More old Bonnets .

94
96

Jack-in-the-Pulpit .
The Willow Road .

. 98
100

Rhodora and fringed Polygala
Columbines and Dog-tooth

Violet

105

Giant Cornell .

106

Head of Lake George

108

The cold Heights of the Alps
Crown Point .

110
III

Logging in the Woods

Jacques Cartier
Ticonderoga at Sunset .

117
119

On the Lake Shore .

121

The Chiming Waters

124

Indian Difficulties .

125

Pink Azalea .

127

Hubert's private Practice

129

Floating

131

Death of General Wolfe .

^Zi

Paul Revere's Ride .

139

General Braddock .

141

List of lUustratkms.

Lake George .

143

Shelving Rock, Lake George .

Putnam saving Fort Edward .

147

Blue Flag . . . .

152

Garrison House in Deerfield,

Mass

153

Pitcher Plant .

154

Partridge-Berry

■ 157

A Bit of the Lake .

159

Wild Roses .

161

Under the Trees

162

Pond Lilies

163

Cardinals

1(^5

Pulling up Lilies

167

Professor Bruce

169

l-Iubert's Corner

171

The French Chateau

174

Dandelions and Buttercups

176

Israel Putnam.

178

Mrs. Bruce in her Cape Bonnt

t 179

Fthan Allen ,

181

Putnam riding down the Steps

183

Israel Putnam's Birthplace

^85

One Hundred Years Ago

186

Reading the News .

. 188

Martha Washington

190

Pulling up Ground-pine .

. 192

Indians attacking a New Engl

and

Stage-coach.

• 193

Stuart's Portrait of Washingto

n 196

A distinguished Guest

• ^97

Talking it over

• 199

General Gage .

201

Minute-Man .

202

The North Bride at Concord

204

The Old r:im at Cambri

dge

• 205

House where the Declaration of
Independence was drawn up

Autographs of Signers of the
Declaration of Independence

207

>o8

The Meadow Intervale .
Washington crossing the De

ware ....
Below the Mill
Washington at Valley Forge
Lord Cornwallis
Major Andre .
The Continental Army .
Near Saratoga
Early Birds
Alice's first Subjects
Augustine cooling off
Vignette ....
Alice's Lilies .
Washington at the Battlefield
Continental Currency
Statue of Benjamin Franklin at

Philadelphia
Bars at the End of the Road
The weather-worn Homestead
Festoons of Clematis

Finishing Touches .
Old Liberty Bell .

Historical Picture .

Benjamin Franklin .

Franklin gardening

Statue of Lafayette.

One Type of Pirate.

Watching for a Sail.

The House fared ill during th
wet Weather

Old Swords

Side Doorway.

In the Honeysuckle

Dashing Equipages.

Bessie's favorite Spot

The fringed Orchis

The Round Tower at Newport

Receiving distinguished Guest

First Prayer in Congress.

209-

213

215
217
220
22 1
223
226
229
231
233
235
237

239
241

242

245
246
247

251
256

257
260
261
262
265
269

271

272
276

277

279
280
28 r
282
284
286

List of Illustrations.

Wool Spinning

. 287

Capitol at Washington .

. 289

Arch erected in Boston a

t Wash-

ington's Reception

• 293

Early New York

. 296

Washington on his Tour

. 298

Up River

• 300

Billy Brick's Brother

• 302

An Arrangement by AHc

" • l^Z

The Orchard .

• 304

Early Apples .

. 306

Sour Grapes .

• 307

Vignette .

• 308

Summer was over .

• 3^0

Thaler of Prussia .

• 311

Clematis and Creeper

• l^?>

The Pond

■ 315

Lavinia Mary .

. 316

Last Days

• 319

The House Cat

• 3-0

Miss Lejeune again

• 321

Apples from Utopia

• 3^3

Boston Common

■ 325

The State House, Beacor

Street 327

Dorchester Heights and the Har-
bor 330

The Recluse in the new Town of
Providence . . . -331

Alice Martin in Boston . . 7,^^

Equitable Building . . . 335

City Hall, Boston . , . 337

Pulpit Window in the Old South
Church. . . . 340-

Plan of the Battle of Bunker Hill,
June 17, 1775 . . .341

Near the Wharves . . -343.

Samuel Adams' Statue, Washing-
ton Street .... 345

Gov. J. Winthrop, Scollay Square 346

Christ Church, Salem Street .

King's Chapel, Tremont Street

From the Ferry Boat

The Beach ....

The Home of Longfellow

Boston and Albany Depot

Scenery by the Way

Along the Sound

In Connecticut

34^
349
352
354

355
360
362
364
365

A FAMILY FLIGHT AROUND HOME.

CHAPTER I.

BOSTON.

ON the second day of last April, a hack drove rapidly up to
the warehouses of the Cunard Steamship Company, at East
Boston, and stopped. A boy sprang out, opening the door himself,
and was quickly followed by a gentleman about fifty years old.

" Is she in ? " he demanded of the little crowd of loafers stand-
ing about.

"Just coming up now, sir," one of them replied.

" Ah ! then we are not late. Come, Tom ! "

" Your umbrella, sir," said the hackman,

" Oh, thank you, yes," replied the gentleman. " You must wait.
Probably it will not be long now."

Mr. Horner and his son Thomas turned and walked as fast as
they could through the long barren extent of solid sheds used for
the reception and storing of freight by the Cunard Company.
There was a little crowd setting in the same direction they were
going, for the huge steamer was already coming up the bay, — close
at hand, indeed, for they arrived at the end of the wharf just as
ropes were thrown out and made fast to the stout posts pre-
pared for them. As they hurried along, however, Tom, holding
tight upon his father's arm, said :

"It must be rough outside. I am afraid the voyage has been
pretty bad all the way."

He had to hold his hat on firmly, for the wind was blowing

A FAMILY FLIGHT AROUND HOME.

hard. Against the wharf waves were dashing, and the small boats
fastened there were bumping each other and bobbing up and
down, while out at sea white sails were scudding fast in the

treeze.

-A fine day to come up the harbor," said Mr. Horner. "Noth-
ing prettier than the approach to Boston on a day like this."

Tom Horner was now fifteen. His features were not regular;

BOSTON HARBOR.

his mouth, when he laughed, which was often, might be said to
stretch from ear to ear. but his eyes were bright, and his expres-
sion always was so animated that it did you good to look at

him.

.'Here we are!" he cried, "and here she is," referring tc the
steamer, swarming with passengers, stewards, and sailors, all in a

BOSTON. 15

"hurry to leave the ship ; "and there is Hubert," he added, with
more excitement, running forward, shouting and waving at some one
he had thus quickly discovered leaning over the rail of the upper
deck.

It was Hubert Vaughan, much grown since the Homers had left
him, but slight still ; for some time, he did not find these friends
in search of whom he was anxiously scanning the group of peo-
ple on the wharf, but after a while his face lighted up as he
caught sight of Tom's frantic hat-waving. Mr. Horner was be-
hind, not having made so much headway as his son, but soon
they managed to come together close under the place where
Hubert was, and with some difficulty, on account of the roaring
sound of escaping steam, and all the din and confusion of such a
scene, they managed to make themselves heard.

"Can — you — come — down — to us.^" bellowed Tom.

** Yes ; I think so, in a little while ! " shouted Hubert at the
top of his lungs. "The gangway is too crowded now."

Then they all smiled upon each other longingly, and every one
had so much to say, that no one could think of anything suit-
able for this shouting distance. Hubert, however, leaned over and
said something which the others did not catch.

"What.^" asked both the Homers.

Hubert repeated it with no better success.

" We don't hear what you say ! " called Tom.

Hubert then made a mighty effort, and speaking through his
hands, like a trumpet, said :

" No matter ! I only said ' How do you do ' ! "

After this futile effort at communication, it seemed best for
all to rest their lungs ; very soon Hubert saw a chance of reach-
ing the gangway, and, with his shawl-strap, he pushed for himself
a passage, while his friends below watched his progress and followed
in the same direction, in order to meet him as soon as he could
leave the ship. They saw him stop several times to shake hands

16 A FAMILY FLIGHT AROUND HOME.

with fellow-passengers; and once he stopped to kiss a pretty little
girl, about six years old, who seemed sorry to part with him.

At last, Tom could stand it no longer, and swinging himself
along the outside of the passage plank, by holding fast to the rail,
he alighted on the deck of the steamer close to Hubert's shoulder,
in the middle of the crowding passengers who were somewhat
disturbed and displeased for a moment.

The boys were so glad to meet, that a close grasp of the hand
was hardly enough to express their delight. They would both of
them been pleased to embrace, after the continental fashion, with
a good, cordial kiss, but of course this would not do, between two
staid young gentlemen of English descent.

" I'm so glad to see you, old fellow," said Tom ; " here, let me
take your bag."

" No ; I can manage it," said Hubert, and by this time they
were on the wharf, and Mr. Horner was looking kindly into Hubert's
face, which brought back to him the sorrowful little fellow left
fretting in the hotel at Madrid.

"We must come and see about your baggage at once. It is
baggage, Hubert, here in America. Have you much .? "

" No ; only one rather big box, and my cabin things."

Thanks to the friendliness of the Custom House officials, a friend-
liness made active by Mr. Horner in a manner we need not
describe, there was not much delay in finding and passing Hubert's
modest possessions.

The driver strapped the trunk on the carriage, the three friends
entered it, Mr. Horner banged the door, and called out :

" Now to the Vcnddme ! " and they were off.

" I am afraid, sir, it was inconvenient for you that I came in a
Boston steamer," said Hubert. "My father put me in charge of
the Hungerfords, and their passage was engaged for the Samaria
already."

"That was all right," replied Mr. Horner, "it is perfectly easy

BOSTON.

for us to run on to Boston, and Tom here was glad of the chance."

"Are any of the rest here?" asked Hubert. "I want to see
Bessie tremendously."

"No; we left them all at home; Bessie is very anxious to see
you, and there was Ip^"- - -"-^'-"- ' -^- -- "r^Wi

some little talk of t I

her coming with us, ? ^j

but that plan fell
through."

" But Miss Lejeune
is in Boston ! " said
Tom.

"Is she.''" cried
Hubert, with a little
start of delight.
"Oh ! I am so glad!"'

"She is staying
here with some of
her numerous Boston
friends," said Mr. Horner. " I sent her a telegram inviting her to
meet us at the hotel, so I hope we shall see her in the course
of the day."

It was now about lunch time.

"How jolly!" said both the boys; then Tom exclaimed:

" See, Hubert, that is Faneuil Hall, the ' cradle of American
liberty ' ! "

"Faneuil Hall," repeated Hubert, and looking at the ancient
building with some curiosity but more indifference.

" Hubert does not know yet enough of our history to be inter-
ested in its landmarks," said Mr. Horner. "We must give him
some idea of the way by which America has grown to be'" —

He paused, to see why their carriage was stopping, and Tom
finished his sentence grandiloquently with the words —

FAN FAIL HALL.

A FAMILY FLIGHT AROUND HOME.

" — a great and glorious nation."

The stop was caused only by a block in Washington street,
close by the Old South Church. Huge drays, street cars, herdics,
were tangled together in what seemed to be a hopeless dead-lock.
"What a funny cab," said Hubert, "with a door
at the back I "

"Those are herdics," said Mr. Horner, "a sort of
street conveyance lately introduced and much in use
in Boston. They are not half so nice as hansoms,"
" But have you no hansoms ? " exclaimed Hubert.
"Very few," answered Mr. Horner. "In our Amer-
ican cities, and especially in Boston, the streets are
-^ so taken up with the rails of the street cars that it

would be almost, impos-
sible for hansoms to
dash about as thc-y do
in London.'"

They were now dis-
entangled, and soon
were driving along by
the Common, and after-
wards the Public Gar-
den, large open spaces
pleasantly laid out with
trees, but still dreary
looking, without the first
Z^ sign of spring. Patches
tfB^^ of dirty snow still lin-
gered on the north side
of the streets.

Hubert was much surprised. When he left England, a fortnight
before, the plum-trees were in blossom, crocuses and wall-flowers
were ])rofusc in gardens, and the grass green everywhere.

OI.I) XII'TII CHURCH.

OLD FKltNDa TO«jETHER.

CHAPTER II.

OLD FRIENDS TOGETHER,

AS Mr. Horner, followed by the two boys, passed through the
large vestibule of the Hotel Vendome, a servant stepped
forward and handed him a visiting card, up)on a tray.

"The lady is waiting, sir," he said, "in the drawing-room."
Mr. Homer, smiling, showed the card to Hubert, who read upon
it the name :

-Miss Lejeune had been tor some time in the handsomely fur-
nished parlor of the hotel, inspecting the very good engravings on
the walls. The furniture was new and handsome. The carpet was
soft, and of quiet tones. A few books were scattered upon the
centre-table, an open fire burned in the grate. A melancholy, soli-
tary woman, travelling by herself from Xova Scotia to Manitoba,
sat in a window, holding a book, but not even pretending to read.
She was looking out upon the street, but the prospect was as
dreary outside as in, large flakes of snow falling, accompanied by
a drizzling rain, the sidewalks wet. and only a few pedestrians
passing. A hand-organ was droning away in Commonwealth Avenue.

22 A FAMILY FLIGHT AROUND HOME.

Miss Lejeune turned to put a damp foot upon the fender, and
continued to study the apartment in the large mirror over the
mantelpiece before her

"Every hotel," she reflected, "should employ a decayed gentle-
woman to come in and out of the parlors at intervals, with work
in her hand, and an air of being at home. She might put down
a newspaper on the table, and then go away again. It would not
cost much to pay her, besides her room and board, and would be
an excellent enployment for some deserving" —

Her philanthropic scheme was disturbed by the sound of voices,
and she saw Tom and Hubert and Mr. Horner coming from the
hall.

"Hubert! Hubert \"aughan ! What's this.-*" exclaimed Miss
Lejeune. "Is it really you.' Where did you come from.'*"

She placed her hands on his shoulders and looked earnestl}' in
his face. Then the recollection of their sad parting at Gibraltar
overcame her, filling her eyes with tears. She stoopeci and kissed
him, for Hubert was not yet quite so tall as Miss Lejeune,
though Tom was well above her in height.

Mr. Horner stood by enjoying her surprise. He had purposely,
in his telegram to her, omitted all explanations, and she had no
idea why he came to Boston at this time.

" Time enough for explanations later," he said cheerily, as he
shook hands with her. "Augusta, you look younger than evei'.
Boston agrees with you."

" This climate does not," she replied. " Look at this weather.
It has been just like this for six weeks. It does nothing but
snow."

" Come and lunch with us," said Mr. Horner, " for we are as
hungry as bears, are we not, boys.-*'"

After a good lunch, during which they all talked at once, re-
calling Madrid memories, and the delights of Toledo, the boys
were sent off to explore Boston by themselves, for Hubert pro-

ENLIVENING AN APRIL MORNING.

OLD FRlEXUb TOGETHER. 25

tested he was up to it. He had borne the voyage \er\ well,
with only a few days' sickness at first, and felt now perfectly
well, with the exception of a little giddy feeling in his head, for
which walking would be the best cure. He had had a fairly
good passage, up to the last, when the steamer was greeted by a
rough reception off our coast.

" And now let me hear what this means," said Miss Lejeune,
when she and Mr. Horner were cosily seated, in a small private
parlor, before a cannel-coal fire, little cups of black coffee beside
them.

•■ Mav I have my cigar?" he asked.

" By all means, but begin. "

*• Well,"' he said, with half a laugh. '* history repeals itself, you
know. Xot longer ago than yesterdav, I received a letter from
Colonel Vaughan. The boys, you know, exchange letters regu-
larly."

"I think," interrupted Miss Lejeune, ''that the Colonel has
acquired the impression that you are responsible for Hubert for
the rest of his life."'

Mr. Horner shrugged his shoulders, and went on.

" He is ordered to India again, whatever that means, and it has
occurred to him that Hubert would nowhere be so happy as with
us ; suddenly finding that certain friends were to sail at once for
Boston, on this Samaria, he pops Hubert into the steamer with
them, pops a letter in the bo.x for me, saying he has done so.
ft roila tout .' "

"Well, well," said Miss Augusta, using her favorite means of
comment. " But he must sav something else ; what does he want,
does he mean the boy to be hanging upon you always.'"

'•There's always plenty of money, you know." said Mr. Horner.
" Colonel Vaughan makes that clear in the letter. He simply says
in addition, that he would like Hubert — • to gain some knowledge
of America and American histor\', a subject which at present

W A FAMILY FLIGHT AKOUND HOME.

more than ever interests or should interest Englishmen while it
is one upon which in general they are singularly ignorant.' "

Mr. Horner as he talked had pulled the letter of Colonel
Vaughan from his pocket, and he now read the last sentence from
it.

"Very true," remarked Miss Augusta. "Now what are you going
to do about it ? "

" That's what we expect you to say," replied Mr. Horner.
" You see we received this letter only yesterday, and that by good
luck, as it came in a fast steamer, while the Samaria is slow."

" Is not she, though ! " commented Miss Lejeune.

" I read the letter at dinner last evening." continued Mr. Horner.
■" There was not much time for consultation. Tom and I took
the night train ; breakfasted here ; were told the Samaria would be
up about ten o'clock; we drov^e to East Boston, and just arrived
in the nick of time. Meanwhile, I have been revolving schemes
in my head, as we came in the train, and only want to consult
you about some good summer plan for these boys. Have you
one of your ideas, Augusta .-" "

"Not yet," she replied musingly, "but I feel that there is a
glimmer of one in the back of my head."

" There's no hurry," said Mr. Horner, " let it work. What I
am thinking of is no new plan, but one which Hubert's coming
develops and helps, that is. that my own children are better in-
formed upon the historv of any other country than their own ;
and that a summer might be spent very profitably as well as
pleasantly by I'om, and even Bessie, in looking about them a lit-
tle here in New ICngland."

"Quite so," assented Miss Lejeune. "Take Boston now, Tom is
showing Hubert the lions, but does he know the lions, and how
to make them growl .' "

" I doubt," replied Mr. Horner with a smile ; " we shall see, how-
ever, what they re])()rt."

OLD FRIENDS TOGETHER.

" Let US go to the theatre
this evening," said Miss Lejeune.
"And now tell me what you ^p
hear from the Hervevb. " " ^

"Perfectly happy/' replied Mr.
Horner, "and I judge, from the
letters, that Mary is perfectly-
well. The winter at Pau was
just the thing for her, and I
am glad she escaped our trying
one here. I hoped they might
be coming home this spring ;
but Hervey writes to urge our
■coming to them."

"And do you think" — asked
Miss Augusta.

" Not for a moment," said
Mr. Horner, holding up his hands
to prevent even the mention of
another foreign tour. " My wife
is so happy in her own house,
that she will not listen to any-
thing but a New England sum-
mer, and as we can hardly stay
in New York through the hot
weather, you see we must in-
vent some plan."

While they were thus talking,
the boys returned, in good spirits, but tired and glad to rest, as
indeed they might be. for with the courage of youth, they had
walked over to Charlestown, to inspect Bunker Hill Monument.

"Why, Tom, we do not consider it the height of politeness to
take an Englishman there the first thing."

BUNKER HILL MONUMENT.

A FAMILY FLIGHT AliOUNU HOME.

"I know," said Tom, "but I could not think of anything else
to show him, and we wanted a <;ood long walk. They invited us-
to go to the top, but as there would be no view in this weather,.
we decided to follow aunt Dut's practice, and stay below."

Hubert asked a question which showed that he still knew but
little of what every child in America is familiar with, — the story
of the famous Battle (on June 17, i775, of Bunker Hill.

" I believe, sir, 1 understand it now, only I do not think I quite
know whom Tom means by the British."

The rest tried not to laugh, but it was not a successful effort.
When Hubert saw this, he blushed furiously, but Mr. Horner said :

"Always own up your ignorance, my boy, and you will soon get
over it. ' British ' means subjects of Great Britain ; when the
quarrel began between the American colony and the government
at home, the word British was generally used. So we keep to it
now, in referring to that time, though not much otherwise."

After which Mr. Horner added :

'* Tom, 1 dare say, is not well grounded in his country's early
history ; we must try to work it u):)."

IN THE TRAIN. 29

CHAPTER III.

IN THE TRAIN.

BOSTON and Lowell ! " shouted the conductor of a street car,
rattling the sliding door as he opened it with a bang. Out
swarmed the passengers, — an old woman with a basket, a stout
man with a bundle, a lawyer with his blue bag. Last of all, with
shawl-straps and travelling bags, came Mr. Horner, Miss Lejeune,
Tom and Hubert. All these persons passed into the large and
handsome hall belonging to the station of the Boston and Lowell
railroad.

It was cold and chilly, but not raining or snowing now.

" I believe you will have lovely weather," said Miss Lejeune.

" Change your mind, Augusta, and come with us," said Mr.
Horner, coming back to the group with a handful of tickets for
Wells River Junction and beyond.

" Oh, do, aunt Dut, come with us ! " said Tom, and Hubert
looked it.

" My dear, I have a lunch and a dinner to-day, both made for
me, and am knee-deep in engagements all the week. It was only
by Special Providence that I could give you yesterday."

" And by Special Heroism that you came to see us off so
early," said Mr. Horner.

" I had to see the last of you," she replied cheerfully. " I shall
try to break off here in order to be at home before you are,
and learn the result of your pioneer expedition."

" Come, papa, they are all going to the train," said Tom.

They left Miss Lejeune hastily, who did not follow them to

A FAMILY FLKJHT AROUND HOME.

the cold, bleak platform where a long row of cars was standing,

"Be sure and come to New York to meet us!" called Hubert,
as he ran after the other two.

" You have no umbrellas ! " exclaimed Miss Lejeune at the last
moment.

Mr. Horner stopped, dismayed.

" Mine is at the hotel ! " cried he.

"Never mind," was her ready answer. "I will find it. Go on!"

IJOSTON AND LOWELL RAILROAD.

And so she did ; but it would have been better placed during
the ne.xt few days in the hands of its owner.

This was Hubert's first experience of American cars. He thoui;ht
it very funny to enter at the end of a long passage-way,
with a series of double scats on each side, instead of the short

Sir.NS OF SPRING.

IN THE TRAIN". 33

one, at right angles with the track, of most European compart-
ments.

" How do you like it ? " asked Tom, as they settled themselves
by turning over the back of one seat, so that all of them
could be together, and heaping their possessions in the vacant
corner.

"Very much," said Hubert, "for Miss Lejeune has just been
reminding me that I must like things as they are, and not think
ill of them, because they are different to what I am accustomed."

"That is her favorite philosophy," said Mr. Horner.

"And all because Hubert said a hansom was better than a
horse-car!" cried Tom.

" It is jolly," he added, " to have you with us, Hubert, for it
makes us look at this from a travelling point of view."

They passed out over one of the long bridges which enclose
Boston like a network on its water sides. It was a pretty, ani-
mated scene ; the sun trying to break through the clouds lighted
the water and tinted the smoke and steam from numerous tall
chimneys. The monument on Bunker Hill looked more dignified
at a distance than close under it, the boys thought. Many trains
were darting in and out of their several stations. It seemed as
if they must dash into each other; the engines shrieked as if in
fear of collisions, but no such thing happened. Theirs was an
express train and very soon was sweeping through the open
country, freed from suburban streets, and cheap, squalid-looking
houses, pa.st fields, rusty and sere, with here and there a trace of
spring. As they went farther north, there was more snow on the
ground ; only a few catkins of willow and alder were visible.

Tom's grandmother lived in Keene, N. H., and there he, as a
little boy, had passed many a happy week in her house. This
was his maternal grandmother. Mr. Horner's people came from
Vermont ; and he had spent his earliest years in the little town
of Utopia, far away in the northern part of the State. The family

A FAMILY FLIGHT AROUND HOME.

home there, however, had long been broken up, and its members
scattered. Nobody dared to say how many years it was smce Mr.
Horner had visited the place, although he had it always on his
mind to do so, until now, when he was moved to take the boys
on a little trip to survey the ground, hoping to find some pleas-
ant resting-place for the summer, where all the family, or a part
of them, might settle down. It was rather vague, for Hubert had
suddenly come upon his American friends before they had begun
to think of summer plans.

As the train swept through Lowell and Lawrence, busy manu-
facturing cities on the Merrimac, and afterwards Manchester, m the
lower part of New Hampshire, Mr. Horner reminded the boys that
the wonderful evidence of civiUzed industry they saw was the
growth of but one century.

One hundred years ago, no manufacturing villages were to be
found in all New England. Beavers built their dams unmolested
along the banks of streams since crowded with mills and factories,
each" one of which finds work now for more men and women than,
until the end of the eighteenth century, made up the population
of the largest country town in America.

One hundred years ago Lawrence was a mere handful of houses;
Manchester was no better. When the census was taken in 1820,
the country around Lowell was a wilderness where sportsmen shot
game. The falls which now furnish power to innumerable looms
were all unused, and the two hundred sole inhabitants of the town
found their support in the sturgeon and alewives taken from the
waters of the Concord and the Merrimac.

At that time no manufactories could be said to exist with the
exception of a few mills for making paper, scarce so good in quality
as that grocers are now accustomed to wrap around pounds of
sugar and tea ; a foundry or two where iron was melted into rude
,;igs, or beaten into bars of iron ; or a factory where cocked-hats
and felts were made.

IN THE TRAIN.

As for cotton manufacture, the first cotton mill was not erected
in New England at the time the Constitution was formed. The
place now held by cotton fabrics was filled by linen spun at every
farmer's hearth. To spin well was then esteemed an accoraplish-

THE SMALL WHEEL.

ment, like playing on the piano, or painting china at present, and
every damsel of the old time was proud to excel in it. The
" spinning bee " was once the fashion among the rich ; it continued
in vogue in many country towns when the ladies of the great

A FAMILY FLIGHT AKOUND HOME.

cities had deserted the wheel for the harpsichord and the spinet.
The bee was generally held in the town hall; but if the village
was not prosperous enough to contain such a building, the house
of some minister was chosen. Thither the women went with their
spinning-wheels and flax, and as they spun were brought cake and
wine by the fine gentlemen of the town.

All this spinning is done away with by the introduction of
machinery, and flax and linen have yielded for most household
purposes to cotton and cotton goods.

"Did you ever see a spinning-wheel.?" Mr. Horner asked of
Hubert. Hubert was doubtful.

"Aunt Augusta has one," answered Tom, "in a corner of her
parlor, all tied up in blue ribbon like a pet dog."

"I fancy she would be puzzled to know how to use it. That
used to be called the small wheel."

"Oh! I know," cried Hubert. -I have seen them on the stage
in 'Martha,' the opera, I mean."

Mr. Horner said, " I remember another kind with a much larger
wheel, not uncommon when I was a boy; at which the pretty
spinner had to stand instead of sitting. We must try to find one

in Vermont."

"Was the spinner always pretty, sir.?" asked Tom. "I imagined

them old women."

" As the fashion grew old, the spinners did, I suppose," replied
his father. "The young ladies would not learn, but the old ones
did not give it up. Lately, the fashion of collecting old things
has been so general, that garrets and barns all through New Eng-
land have been pretty thoroughly ransacked, and, as you say, small
spinning-wheels have come out of their cobwebby corners to be
ornaments to modern drawing-rooms."

More and more snow covered the landscape as our travellers
went farther north ; and when they came to Lake Winnepesaukee
horses and sleighs were driving merrily across the lake on the

IN THE TRAIN. :]7

ice. Hubert could not believe it. "On the ice!" he cried. "It
looks like all the rest of the country."

He had never seen so much snow in his life ; and as the ice
of the lake was covered with a white enfolding sheet of it, no one
could have distinguished between underlying land and water, except
that here and there men were fishing through holes cut in the
ice, below which was revealed the black water of the lake.

At noon they reached Wells River Junction, and after that
crossed the Connecticut River, and leaving New Hampshire, passed
into the State of Vermont. The country was very beautiful, even
at that barren season ; certainly it was at least to the eyes of Tom
and his father, familiar with the roughness of American scenery.
To Hubert's unspoken judgment, the heaped-up stone-walls, ragged
root fences, small wooden houses, wide, desolate tracks of burnt-
over land, little fulfilled the boast of progress and civilization of
which Mr. Horner had been speaking.

fMSTf^^^^""

F' )^

A FAMILY FLIGHT AROUND HOME.

CHAPTER IV.

ABOUT INDIANS.

THE Indian names of places were puzzling to Hubert, and he
entirely declined trying to remember how Winnepesaukee
was spelt. Tom assured him that there were much worse ones
down in Maine, such as " Pamedemcook Lake" and " Ambajem-
ackoraas Carry." Hubert asked if they were likely to see any
Indians upon this journey.

"Not one," replied Mr. Horner. "You must travel much farther
West or North to find any of them. Pretty much the only trace
of them here is to be found in the names they gave to lake and
mountain, and arrow-heads which are still dug up occasionally.
Specimens of their weapons are preserved in historical collections.
Yet until the first white colonists settled in America, the Indians-
had the whole of the country to themselves, roaming about, living
upon game of which the forests were full, for the arrows of the
Indians made no such wholesale destruction of animals as our
modern weapons."

"What fun to have been here then!" cried Hubert; "just
fancy an Indian all war-paint, behind that tree, for instance!"

"Brrrr!" said Tom, shivering, "I'm glad he is not, though!"

Time and absence from the early Indian have softened so
much the general impression of his character, novels and legends
have invested it with so much romance, that he has become
an ideal sort of creature of romantic and attractive qualities.
We are no longer in danger of being tomahawked in New Eng-
land. An Indian in his paint and feathers is a rarer show than.

ABOUT INDIANS.

a white elephant. We are therefore more disposed to pity than
to hate. But one hundred years ago, there were few men who
had no reason to hate the Indians, and there were thousands
whose cattle had been driven off, whose homes had been laid in
ashes by the braves of the Six Nations, who had fought with
them from behind rocks and trees, whose women had fled at the

INDIAN WEAPONS.

dead of night from cabins set on fire by these relentless enemies.

Before the arrival of white people in America, the Indians,

without fire-arms, and without whiskey, which had a fatal influence

A FAMILY FLIGHT AROUND HOME.

upon the disposition of the race, possessed, doubtless, many inter-
esting traits of character.

The Indian was essentially a child of nature. His life was one
long struggle, for his daily food depended on the skill with which

SQUAWS BUILDING A WIGWAM.

he used his bow, on the courage with which he fought fierce
beasts, on the quickness with which he tracked, and the cunning
with which he outwitted the timid, keen-scented animals of the
forest. The clearness of his vision, and the sharpness of liis
hearing were wonderful by which he followed an obscure trail
over diflficult ground ; with a cat-like tread, over beds of fallen
leaves and heaps of dried twigs, walking close up to the grazing
deer. Courage and fortitude in bodily suffering he possessed to
a high degree ; yet he was given to the dark and crooked way.s
which belong to the weak and cowardly. His favorite method of
warfare was to rouse his sleeping enemies at dead of night with
an unearthly yell, to massacre them by the light of their burning

ABOUT INDIANS. 41

homes. Cool and brave men who have heard that whoop, have
testified that no number of repetitions could strip it of its terror;
that at the sound of it the blood curdled, the heart ceased to
beat, and a sort of paralysis seized upon the body. Roused, and
on the war-path, the savage was all activity. He would march all
day through the snow, heedless of intense cold, and at night,
rolled in buffalo robes, go hungry to sleep. But when the
war was done, he liked to sleep all day in a wigwam of painted
skins, blackened with smoke, decorated with scalps, and hung
with tomahawks and arrows, singing, laughing and dancing at night
in the moonlight. He made his squaw do all the work. It was
Starlight or Cooing Dove that brought the wood for his fire and
the water for his drink ; that ploughed the field, and sowed the
maize, and adorned his moccasins with bright embroidery and
bead work. When he travelled, she trudged along behind with the
pappoose on her back.

The minds of the Indians were as crude as their characters,
with strong imaginations, and but little reasoning power. They
were full of superstitions, and the simplest things that happened,
were to them fraught with meaning. If they were sick, some
enemy had caused the malady, and the medicine man came and
cured it by pretending to take out of the patient a toad, or a
bright stone. Gay colors pleased them greatly, and the early
settlers could barter with a handful of glittering beads, or a bright
blanket, for a bundle of skins many times more valuable, or a
hundred bushels of corn.

It was natural that the Indians should resist the encroachments
of a civilization so different from their own as that of the whites ;
but their mode of warfare, with which, doubtless, they had dealt
with each other for generations, was most horrible, and a grave
impediment in the way of the early settlers of New England.

In the beginning, the colonists meant to keep on the right side
of the Indians, though it is very likely that injustice was often

42 A FAMILY FLIGHT AROUND HOME.

done. There were men among the Puritans who were always
trying to do good to them, and to secure peace by gentle
methods. "The Apostle" Eliot, as he was called, devoted himself
to making a translation of the Bible into their language. But
after fighting had begun, the only course for the white settlers
was one of self-defence, and for long years the struggle con-
tinued.

When first visited by Europeans, the Indians were said to be
already decreasing in numbers, through their wars among them-
selves, and through diseases they were too ignorant to check.
They have been diminishing ever since, although to this day
settlements of the United States, in the far West, still live in
constant fear of attacks from Indian tribes. But there are many
children in New England who have never seen a real Indian, and
none have heard the dreadful war whoop.

About noon, the conductor came to Mr. Horner to say that
the train would shortly after stop over half an hour at Ellville,
and that there, as he expressed it, " would be as good a chance
as any to get some dinner." This was a joyful sound to the
boys, who had breakfasted early ; they were already on the plat-
form when the engine stopped, and jumped out with alacrity, to-
find themselves facing the broad street of a considerable town,.
with brick sidewalks, blocks of houses and shops. The conductor
showed them about forty rods off the sign " Hotel," placed over
a doorway, assuring them there would be ample time for dinner,
besides going and returning. It was snowing fast, and the mud
was miles deep, according to Tom's description.

"Now would be the time for your umbrella, papa," said he.

"Alas, yes," replied Mr. Horner; "Hubert, how comes it that
you, an English boy, are without an umbrella.''"

"They are not much in use in riil)raltar, sir," he promptly re-
plied.

\W this time they were wading through the mud, crossing the

INDIAN WARFARE.

ABOUT INDIANS.

45-

Street ; a few planks placed for passengers, were sunk deep in
the mire, but gave a clue to the right direction, and on landing
on the opposite side, they found themselves directly in front of
the hotel, where a waiter was ringing a clamorous bell of invita-
tion. They ran up-stairs, and entered a large, clean dining-room,

BARRICADE AGAINST THE INDIANS.

where several people, passengers in the same train with themselves,
were bolting their food, having already finished their soup.

" How in the world did they get here so quickly," murmured
Tom, as his party seated themselves, and shook out their nap-
kins. A plate of hot soup was promptly placed before each, by
a pretty girl with " banged " hair who pronounced at the same time
the following sentence, or single word, for it sounded like only
one :

46 A FAMILY FLIGHT AROUND HOME.

" Roastbeefdinnerpiechickenandporktripe."

"Say it again, please," said Tom, "and a little slower."
When she had repeated it, he said: "Bring it all except the

tripe."

The food was excellent, and well-cooked. Hubert was puzzled by
the little tubs set around his plate containing all kinds of vegetables,
tomato and apple-sauce; but he was warned to waste no time.
This course was followed by a choice of several kinds of pie.

By the time they had finished, with all possible expedition,
every one but themselves had left the place. The pretty waitress,
though she said there was plenty of time, looked anxiously at
the clock.

"Come, boys," said Mr. Horner, taking his hat. "I will go
first and pay, but do not delay!"

Fifty cents apiece was expected for the dinner, which was fully
worthy of that price.

They hurried back to their seats in the train, and had just five
minutes to spare before it started.

"So that's an American Fonda!" cried Hubert, whose spirits
were now rising to their usual level. Poor boy, the novelty of
the scene, the fatigue of the voyage, and the sense of being a
stranger in a strange land, were indeed enough to make him
reserved and silent ; but the kindness of the Homers was irresisti-
ble, and he was beginning to feel the relief of being among true
friends after the comparative solitude of the last ten days on the

steamer.

"Yes," cried Tom, "shall you ever forget the time we all
tumbled out in the night, and bought knives.?"

"It does not look much like Spain outside," said Mr. Horner.
The snow was falling more thickly than ever, and the sky was
dark and lowering. After a few hours they reached East Utopia,
their destination for that day, and went at once to the hotel
opposite the station.

PKOFESbOK BRUCE. 47

CHAPTER V.

PROFESSOR BRUCE.

THE hotel at East Utopia was a modern affair, built of wood,
and painted white. The public parlor, into which our friends
were shown, up one flight, was a square room, containing a stove,
a piano, a marble-topped centre-table, a sofa as hard as the Rock
of Dundas, and two good rocking-chairs. The carpet on the floor
was gaudy with huge roses ; the paper shades in the windows
were decorated with festoons of flowers, coarsely painted. On some
bookshelves in a corner were several odd volumes of Congress-
ional Documents, and a Bible. The paint was clean and fresh ;
everything looked neat, new, but stern and uncompromising. The
days have gone by of old, large, hospitable fireplaces with com-
modious chimney corners. The tall clocks of colonial times have
been first relegated to garrets, then removed to bric-a-brac shops,
and now, burnished and polished, stand in halls of modern houses,
which, by a freak of fashion, represent better the life of two cen-
turies ago, than any really old interior. Even if the old house
be standing, its huge, square chimney has been torn down, to
give way to smaller flues, more economical of fuel. Andirons,
roasting-jacks and cranes have gone up with the chimneys. A
real old-fashioned kitchen would be hard to find in New England
to-day. The best way to get an idea of such relics is through
pictures and reproductions.

So the room of the new hotel seemed bare and forlorn ; but a
man came in with short logs which he popped into tlie stove,
and in a few moments a crackling, snapping sound came from

A FAMILY FLIGHT AROUND HOME.

them, which was by no means cheerless; a bright glow shone
through the little isinglass-covered openings of the stove door, and

a genial heat spread itself about in an
incredibly short space of time.

" These Yankees know what they are
about," said Mr. Horner, as he warmed
his hands ; " an old-fashioned fireplace
consumed twice the amount of wood
without warming half the space."

A cheery voice was heard below, and
then somewhat heavy steps on the stairs ;
the door opened, and a gentleman, whom
the boys considered old, entered.

"Ha! Horner, is this you .^ Well,.
I'm afraid I should not have known-
you."

" Mr. Bruce, this is very kind of you,.
to come over in such weather. I should
know you anywhere, sir. You look
younger than you did twenty years ago."'

" Come, Horner, none of your jokes.
I'm an old man, sir, yes, an old man.
But here are the young ones ; which
is yours.''"

" Tom," said the father, " this is my
old schoolmaster, Professor Bruce. The

first time he saw me, I was about your

>>
age.

"Why, Thomas, how arc you .-' " said

the old man, shaking hands cordially.

And from that time ever afterwards he

OLD CLOCK.

called him nothing hut Thomas.

"And this is Hubert Vaughan, a you

ncf Enfrlish friend of

PKOFESSOR BRUCE.

ours, who has come over to learn something about America."

" You thought you would give him a lesson in climate, first,
hey.-'" asked Mr. Bruce. "This weather is rather rough, even for
us, but it can't last, — it can't last."

He sat down and rubbed his hands before the stove, kicked off
his India rubbers, and loosened the knit comforter from his neck.

Mr. Horner sat down near him, and then between the two, to
the amusement of Hubert and the amazement of Tom, there began
a series of questions and answers about old friends, companions of
Mr. Horner's youth, of whom Tom had never heard in his life
up to this moment.

"Well, Horner, your mother is dead, and your father, too. Let's
see, how long is it since you were here .■* "

" Seventeen years, sir. You know, after my father's death, my
mother came down and lived with us; and so many of the old
folks were gone from here, there has been no real object in a
visit to the old place."

"Abraham is living, you know, ami \(un- aunt Ittsty's second
husband, he is still residing here."

"How is Susan ."^ " asked Mr.
Horner.

" Let's see, she is your father's
niece ; Susan Jones ; why, she's
married and living in Minnesota."

And so on, and so on, till the
boys grew weary of the catalogue,
and slipped away. It seemed to
them as if nearly everybody were
dead, or married and gone West.

" I wonder who is alive in the
place!" exclaimed Tom, as he and
Hubert wandered off to explore the house, and to inspect the
weather, in case there were a chance of going out. Thick mud

ANDIRONS AND CRANFS.

A FAMILY FLIGHT AROUND HOME.

in the village street, encrusted in a kind of frosting of new snow
like wedding-cake, forbade this scheme. Meanwhile the gentlemen
talked on, never weary of old reminiscences.

Mr. Horner had been fitted for college at Montpelier, Vt.,

THE OLD PLACE.

by Professor Bruce, in his charge, and boarding in hi.s family.
This life of several years made them intimate, and a friendship
was formed of the lasting sort, which comes from true respect and
gratitude on the part of the younger man, and affectionate appro-
bation on the older one's side. The difference in years was not
excessive; for Mr. Bruce was but a young man just graduated
when he began his career as a schoolmaster. He was now some-
what over sixty. He married, in early life, a Utopia girl, a cousin
in fact of the Horncrs, and as on the death of her parents she
inherited a comfortable little property, Mr. Bruce then bought the
whole Horner estate, with its old-fashioned house, large barns, and

PROFESSOR BRUCE. 51

ample farms; and thus it came about that he was now occupying
the homestead where Mr. Horner was born, and where he and
his brothers and sisters passed the happy days of their youth.

Mrs. Bruce never had any children ; Mr. Horner remembered
her as a delightful little woman. As soon as he thought of the
plan of coming into Vermont with the boys, he wrote to Mr.
Bruce to inform him of it ; and the genial old gentleman harnessed
up in spite of the weather, and drove into town from the farm,
which was three miles distant from East Utopia, the nearest sta-
tion on the railway.

Mr. Bruce stayed to the early "meat-tea" of the hotel, an
ample meal of nice beefsteak, baked potatoes, real cream and
sweet, fresh butter. Then he drove away in his buggy with the
old white mare, Lucy.

" Get up, Lucy ! get up ! " said he, as he took the reins and
shook them on her back. " Cl'k ! cl'k!"

The leisurely starting of the excellent animal gave him ample
time to say,, as he poked his head out of the side of the buggy :

" Seems Hke better sleighing than wheeling, Horner. Guess you'd
better tell them to send you over on runners ! "

It was snowing more vigorously than ever. It had been agreed
between the gentlemen that it was best for the Horner party to
spend the night at the hotel, where they were, and to drive next
morning to Utopia, about three miles "over the mountain," as the
natives called it. A beautiful road which Mr. Horner well re-
membered.

The boys of course longed to go on runners, and were delighted
next morning with the verdict of the master of horses, that there
was "about as much sleddin' as wheelin' anyway, and always
plenty of snow on the mountain."

The sun, for a wonder, seemed trying to break through the clouds
as they all emerged from the house, well buttoned up in great
-coats ready for an early start. Their driver, the owner of the team.

A FAMILY FLIGHT AROUND HOME.

composed of two stout black horses, was encased in a warm coat
of coarse yellow fur. Thick leather boots were drawn up over his
trousers, and he had a fur cap on his head.

Mr. Horner and Hubert were packed in on the back seat of a

KAI.LS BY THE ROAD.

wide sleigh, with a buffalo robe to sit on, and a buffalo robe over
their knees, tucked in closely about them. Tom was stowed away
on the front seat next the driver ; two huge umbrellas were placed

PKOFESSOK BKUCE.

in the vehicle, one for each seat ; the small travelling effects of
the party were underneath.

And so with cheerful good-bys to the host and several assistants
who were by to see them off, the team started.

At the very outset, a steep ascent was to be made, and this
was more mud than snow. About half-way up, the sleigh was stuck
fast, and for a moment it seemed doubtful if they could get on.

" I don't know but we shall have to give it up ! " said Brick,
the driver; but he jumped out into the mud, and by coaxing the
horses, and pulling at their mouths, he persuaded them to a part
of the hill where the ruts were not so deep. Once at the top,
they found themselves better off, and soon were gliding over almost
unbroken snow, in a lovely wood road. On each side tall trees
rose, and behind them huge rocks. Streams rippled along down
the hillsides, wetting ferns, which, evergreen the winter through,

()LI)-KASHIONF.D FIREPLACE.

overhung their borders ; birds were singing, the air was soft, and
seemed to promise spring, though spring had not arrived.

" How lovely it must be here in summer ! " cried Tom. " It is
like the road under West Mountain, at Keenc, papa!"

A FAMILY FLIGHT AROUND HOME.

"There used to be a crow's nest in the top of that tree," said
his father, "and here is where I fell off the rock once, twenty
feet down." He was full of reminiscences of his boyhood, which
all came back to him vividly, on returning to the spot where they
were enacted.

VERMONT IN APRIL.

THE PILGRIMS. 55

CHAPTER VI.

THE PILGRIMS.

IT was but three miles to their destination, and where the sleigh-
ing was good in the woods, they slipped rapidly over the
ground. Soon after passing some lovely falls and rapids, they began
to approach the little village of Utopia.

Mr. Horner exclaimed :

"There's the house! there's my old home! Do you see it,
boys .-• ' '

It was conspicuously placed on high land, which fell off rapidly
behind the house to the level of the Connecticut. This river here
flowed through a broad valley, in a shallow bed, now encumbered
not only with ice, but logs, which had floated on the water from
some place higher up.

Mr. Bruce was awaiting them on the broad flat doorstep, as the
party drove up. They all stopped to look at the wide view down
the Connecticut valley.

" So that is New Hampshire ! " said Tom.

"Yes; we are just on the boundary," said the old gentleman;
"but come in, come in! Mrs. Bruce is waiting for you, and it is
cold outside."

Good Mr. Brick, dismissed with a friendly good-by, and a suitable
sum in his pocket, now drove off down the hill.

The others entered the house, where Mrs. Bruce was standing
at the door of a large room. She was a little bit of a woman,
with gray hair that had once been yellow, smoothly put away
under a cap ; she was wrapped up in a knit shawl, and she shiv-

A FAMILY FLIGHT AHOUND HOME.

ered as she urged them to come in. The room was nice and
warm from the heat of the inevitable wood stove

Every one sat down for a few minutes; but Mr. Horner, with
all the .mpatience of a boy, wanted to see the old house; and
with Mrs. Bruce s permission, they went all over it from garret to
k, Chen, pausing to look at the extens.ve views from every window,
wh.ch, fine even at that season, promised to be beautiful in
summer.

The hope of the early morning, that pleasant weather was coming,
faded ; before noon snow began to fall, and when the mid-day din-

EARLY Ntw i:n<;la.\d schoolmaster.

ner was over, a storm as heavy as that of the evening before was

'::%:;, " ^-^^ ^--"^^ '° ""-^ °^ ^°-^ -^ '-° <^e mud a:

be 1 '"""' "' ""'^- '"'" '"^ "^'■-^' Which proved

be the most attract.vc room i„ the house. Here, to the delight

"^{■i 'liilt',

*5I ,

"^■^ ir- V

STILL SNOWING.

THE PIL(iRIMS. 59

of our city friends, was an open fire of logs. The walls of the
room were lined on all sides with shelves, crammed with books,
books, books ; old, modern, shabby, some few splendid in calf and
sold.

"This looks natural," said Mr. Horner, as he walked up to the
shelf of dictionaries and pulled out a battered Latin Lexicon.
" Nothing so familiar as a well-worn old friend of this sort." He
turned at once to a certain leaf on which he expected to find, and
did, his own initials scribbled on the margin and decorated with
the American flag, drawn in a flourishing style.

" Here is History," said Mr. Bruce, turning to the boys, point-
ing out one large division of shelves, " and all this is American
History; or ought to be," he added with a smile. "My books
are arranged according to a system, but it is not so unerring as the
Solar one ; my planets often wander from their orbits." As he
spoke, he took a volume of Palfrey's New England from among
the dictionaries and placed it in its own gap on the New Eng-
land shelf.

" You had better amuse yourselves," he continued, " with the
books, while your father and I are talking matters over." The two
elder gentlemen settled themselves before the fire, the professor
with a well-browned pipe, and Mr. Horner with a cigar, while the
younger pair took down various books relating to American His-
tory, and compared notes as to their ignorance or knowledge of
the subject. Tom, of course, had the familiarity of an average boy,
not especially fond of reading, with the past of New England, but
he soon found Hubert's questions were too much for him, and
after a time, and as it grew towards dusk, the boys came to the
fireside, and by their remarks, led Mr. Bruce into some rather
rambling talk on his favorite hobby, the early life of New Eng-
land.

It came out that the aggregate stock of the combined knowledge
of the two boys amounted pretty much to this : that Columbus-

A FAMILY FLIGHT AROUND HOME.

discovered America ; tliat his voyage was not the same as that of
the Mayflower, though Hubert was not clear on this point, on
account of the general resemblance, in pictures, between that vessel

and the caravels of the discoverer.

They also knew that the Puritans left
England for more freedom in religion
than they could have at home ; that
they went through all sorts of suffer-
J ings from the hardships of the climate,
and the lack of the comforts of civili-
zation, also on account of the Indians,
with whom they could not keep peace.
By and by, the boys supposed, the col-
onies became prosperous, and all went
on well until they quarrelled with the
mother country, resisted the control of
rulers and laws sent out to them from
England, and began, with Lexington and
Bunker Hill, the struggle for independence, which ended in the
famous Declaration of July 4, 1776.

"And since then," said Tom, "we have just had a Republic,
with Presidents, beginning with Washington, you know, Hubert,
and going on straight along down to our own times."

On a Saturday noon, near the close of autumn (November ir
1620), the Mayflcnvcr dropped her anchor in the harbor of what is
Provincetown, Cape Cod. This was the beginning of the Colony of
Plymouth. When four years had passed, the village consisted of
only thirty-two cabins, inhabited by a hundred and eighty persons.
Six years later it numbered three hundred jiersons, and at the end
of its life of seventy years, its population had probably not come
to exceed eight thousand. It is on account of the virtue dis-
played in its institution and management, and of the great conse-
quences to which it ultimately led, that the Colony of Plymouth

CARAVELS OF COLUMBUS.

THE PILGRIMS.

QC>

claims its importance. Its early records describe the buildino- of
log houses, turning sand heaps into corn fields, dealings with
stupid Indians, anxious struggles to get a living, and the sufferings
of men, women and children, wasting under cold, sickness and
famine ; it is the heroism and courage, moved by the noble im-
pulse of a sense of religious obligation, which give interest to the
details of the first days of this settlement.

Having kept their Sabbath quietly, the men began the labors of
the week by landing a shallop from the ship and hauUng it up
on the beach for repairs, while
the women went on shore to
wash clothes. While some of the
men were at work on the boat,
sixteen others set off on foot
to explore the country. On this
expedition they saw five or six
savages, who ran away from them.

Such is the simple account of
the first week-day of these pil-
grims in a strange land. The
time of year was most unfavor-
able. December was upon them,
and the severity of the cold was
extreme.

After some exploration, by land and water, it was on the twenty-
second of December that they decided upon a place "as they
supposed fit for situation." Trustworthy tradition has preserved the
knowledge of the landing-place. It was PLYMOUTH ROCK.

No time was now lost. By the end of the week, the Mayflower
had brought her company to keep their Sabbath by their future
home. Their first favorable impressions of the spot they had chosen
were improved by further exploration. There was a convenient har-
bor, "compassed with a goodly land." The country was well-

THE MAYFLOWER.

64 A FAMILY FLIGHT AROUND HOME.

wooded ; the sea and beach promised abundance of fish and fowl,
and four or five small runnuig brooks brought a supply of "very
sweet fresh water." After prayer for further divine guidance, they
fixed upon a spot for the erection of their dwellings ; a storm
came to interrupt their proceedings, very naturally, on the sixteenth
of December. Then they set to work to fell timber and set up
their houses. It was agreed that every man should build his own
house. The frost and bad weather hindered them much. Seldom
could they work half the week.

Yet they persevered through far worse troubles ; sickness from
exposure and want of proper food carried off nearly half their
number during the terrible first winter. But courage and fidelity
never gave out. The well carried out the dead through cold and
snow, and then hastened back from the burial to wait on the
sick ; and as the sick began to recover, they took the places of
those whose strength was exhausted. There was no time, and no
inclination, to despond. The lesson was not forgotten, that " all
great and honorable actions are accompanied with great difficulties,
and must be both enterprised and overcome with answerable
courage." The dead had died in a good service, and the fit way
for survivors to honor and lament them was to be true to one
another, and to work together bravely for the cause to which
dead and living had alike been consecrated.

"Warm and fair weather" came at length, says their record, "and
the birds sang in the woods most pleasantly." Never was spring
more welcome. It began, fortunately for them, to show itself in
early March, a full month earlier than the year when the Homers,
on a day near the middle of April, were sitting before a com-
fortable fire. Snow fell thick without, while Mr. Bruce was reading
or repeating the above, from Palfrey's History of New England.

IN BED. 65

CHAPTER VII.

IN BED.

THE delicious country tea provided by Mrs. Bruce's hospital-
ity failed to tempt Hubert's appetite. He refused muffins,
and even hot brown waffles, to be eaten with maple syrup ; and
finally asked to be excused, saying he felt a little faint.

He was advised to go to bed, and Tom went up with him to
the large room at the top of the house which had been assigned
to the two boys. Mrs. Bruce, a little anxious, followed them a
little later, and on her return, reported Hubert as feverish. She
made him as comfortable as she could, and left him, hoping a good
night's rest would set him right; but Hie next morning he was
quite ill, and kind old Doctor Goodkin was sent for. He pro-
nounced it fever, though not alarming ; th t consequence, probably,
of over fatigue, not an unnatural effect of the voyage, and pre-
scribed staying in bed for the present.

This was awkward, for Mr. Horner's business compelled him to
be back in New York by Saturday night, and for this it was nec-
essary to leave Utopia at noon, that day.

Hubert knew this, and begged Mr. Horner to leave him with
the Bruces, who would, he said, be just as good as possible to
him. Mr. Horner hesitated, then said, at first, that he would
leave Tom with Hubert ; but after all due delicacy, it was decided
that Hubert only should remain, while Tom and his father went on
to Burlington for that night, and home to New York the next day,
through Rutland and Albany.

Thus it happened that Hubert began at once his Vermont life,

66 A FAMILY FLIGHT AROUND HOME.

and did not go to New York, for the present. Tom went back to
school, which was important, as he was finishing his last year.
It was arranged that Mr. Bruce should take the two boys for the
summer, to board and teach, beginnmg at once with Hubert, on a
regular course of study and reading.

"Good-by, old fellow," said Tom, standing at the bedside of his
friend; "it seems rather rough to leave you in this way."

"Don't you worry," returned Hubert with a smile; he was really
not very ill, only not quite up to travelling. " I shall be out and
all over the country directly, while you are grinding away at
school."

"Be sure," said Mr. Horner, "to write us if you feel lonely,
and we will send Bessie up to you, or somebody."

"That would be a temptation to make believe I was lonely,"
replied Hubert gayly ; " for I long to see Bessie. But I think
there are people here I shall make friends with. Tom, did not
you see a pretty girl in the snow storm yesterday, just as we were
arriving .'' "

" Was she pretty ? I did not look at her, but her dog. I hope
she is, for your sake."

" Come ! " called Mr. Bruce from the foot of the stairs, and the
parting was hastened.

Tom and his father again packed into a sleigh, went back over
the mountain to the station, while Hubert turned on his pillow
with a sigh, more disheartened, now that he was really left, than
he had allowed to appear. Poor fellow, he had a stout heart, and
had already in life met with sad experiences.

Before long, Mrs. Bruce came to him, and put a soft hand on
his head.

"If you feel equal to it," she said, "I want you to slip on my
husband's dressing-gown and come down-stairs one flight. You will
be more comfortable there, and we can look after you more
easily."

IN BED.

The change to the Blue Room was very pleasant. It was
a small chamber opening from Mrs. Bruce's own room, — a sort of
boudoir in fact, though she would have been amazed at such a
name. It contained some old-fashioned things, — an old easy chair
with high sides, to rest the cheek against, a work-table with
drawers and a bag beneath, and a nice little bed, just put up on
purpose for the

invalid, with a de- .^^y'

lightful patchwork __ ff ~=^ - ^

quilt made of bits ,;ai»^-

of very old prints,

— cocks and hens, -^^ .-

gaudy fl o w e r s ,
men and beasts,
sewed together in
d i am o n d s and
squares.

The room was
on the sunny side
of the house, and
the sun, for a won-
der, was streaming in at the window ; the warmth of a large
stove in the adjoining chamber penetrated it pleasantly. Here
Hubert was installed, and here, by and by, Mrs. Bruce came and
sat by him, knitting a stocking. Her fingers flew fast, and she
chatted cheerfully, about all manner of things. That first day
Hubert was too languid to talk much himself. He slept a good
deal, and the rest of the time liked to lie looking at the patterns
of his bedquilt.

Mrs. Bruce had lived all her life in the country, where her pa-
rents and grandparents were born and died, true representatives of
the New England type. She remembered herself a primitive sort of
life, and she could repeat also a thousand traditions of olden times.

THE RED SCHOOLHOU.SF.

A FAMILY FLIGHT AROUND HOME.

"My grandfather," she said, "was a schoolmaster, just as Mr,
Bruce has always been, but things were very different in old
times. No such comforts as we enjoy fell to his lot, and yet he
raised a large family. He kept school in the little red schoolhouse

THE COLONIAL SCHOOLMASTER.

T will show you, the first time we drive out. It is standing yet ;
but you will see also, some day, what a fine Academy there is over
at East Utopia.

" School was held for two months in the winter, by a man, and
for two months in summer by a woman. The boys went in.
winter, the girls in the summer.

IN BED. G9

"My grandfather," she said, "was scarce out of his teens when
iie began teaching, and some of his boys were bigger than he was.
He did think of studying for the pulpit, but he kept straight along
teaching all his life. His pay was small, but he did not have to
lay out any of it on his keep, that is, not till after he was mar-
ried, for the district paid for his board with whatever farmer would
board and lodge him the longest time for the amount.

*' In some districts this was far too expensive a method, and the
master was expected to live with the parents of his pupils, regu-
lating the length of his stay by the number of the boys in the
family who went to his school. So it happened that in the course
■of his teaching, he became an inmate of all the houses in the dis-
trict, and not seldom had to walk five miles, in the worst of
weather over the worst of roads, to his school. But he was
always a welcome and honored guest. He slept in the best
room, sat in the warmest nook by the fire, and had the best food
set before him at the table. In the long winter evenings, he
helped the boys with their lessons, held yarn for the daughters, and
escorted them to spinning matches and quiltings."

"What are quiltings.^" asked Hubert feebly.

" Why, that quilt that you are lying under was made at a quilt-
ing bee," said Mrs. Bruce; "it was when Grandfather Horner was
■courting his wife."

"What! My Horners .? "

"To be sure. Tom's great-grandfather was this same school-
master. We have quilting matches now once in a while, up here
in the country. When you get well, I will show you the great
•quilting-frame in the garret."

When Mr. Bruce came in to see Hubert after dinner, and heard
what they had been talking about, he added some of his own remi-
niscences, as a schoolbov, when manners were but little changed
irom those of a hundred years ago. They used to sit eight hours
a day on hard benches, poring over Cheever's Accidence, puzzling

70 A FAMILY FLIGHT AROUND HOME.

out long words in Dilworth's Speller ; they had to read long chap-
ters in the Bible, and learn by heart Doctor Watts' Hymns for
Children ; to be drilled in the Assembly Catechism ; to go to bed
at sundown, get up at sunrise, and live on brown bread and pork,
porridge and beans. When Sunday came round, or, as they called
it, the Sabbath, they found it anything but a day of rest. There
were long prayers in the morning by the master, and commenta-
ries on some Scripture text to be got by rote before meeting,,
to which, dressed in their best, they marched off, with ink-pot and
paper, to take down the heads of the sermon, in order to give
what account of it they could at evening prayers. Between morn-
ing and afternoon meeting they were indulged with a cold
dinner.

"The master did not, in old days, consider it his duty to explain
anything to his school. His business was to stand, rod in hand,,
while his pupils pondered hopelessly over lessons which ten words
would have made clear. There were no modern appliances to help
the eye and mind, such as maps and charts, blackboards, globes and
models."

" Oh, dear," sighed Hubert, " I'm glad I was not there ! "
The early colonial schoolboy had more trouble with his arithmetic
than those of the present day, on account of the confusion caused
by the different kinds of coin. Our easy table —

!0 niill.s nuike ;i cent

10 cents make a dime, etc.,

would have seemed to him but a trifle. Until after the framing
of the Constitution, there was no national currency based upon a
universally recognized unit. The English pound and the Spanish
milled dollar were equally current, the pound being divided into
shillings and pence, while the Spanish dollar was divided into shil-
lings, Spanish bits or pistareens, half-bits or half-pistareens, coppers
or pennies, while these varied in value in different States. The

rS' BED.

schoolboy therefore was expected to convert with readiness pounds
and shilhngs into dollars and bits, and to know whetijer a pista-
reen, New York money, was worth more or less than a pistareen,
New England money. Not that he was allowed to spend himself
many of either.

COLLECTION OF COINS.

74 A FAMILY FLIGHT AROUND HOME.

CHAPTER VIII.

REGULAR LESSONS.

HUBERT'S illness was hardly anything more than the over
fatigue of his voyage. The rest in the quiet country house
where he now found himself, the gentle care of Mrs. Bruce, and
her husband's pleasant manner to him, were all comforting and
salutary. In a few days he was anxious to be up and out, espe-
cially as there began to be signs of spring weather.

One morning he asked Mrs. Bruce, when she came in as
usual, after her household cares :

" Whose voice is that I heard down-stairs .-* A little girl's voice,,
I should think."

"That is Alice," replied Mrs. Bruce with a smile, "my niece,
who lives over in that house." She pointed through the window at
a house not very far distant. " She has been here once or twice
to hear how you are, and she wants to see you. See, here are a
few May-flowers ! By the time you are well, there will be plenty
in the woods, and she wants to go with you and show you where
to find them."

Hubert had never seen the pretty flowers of the Epigcea rcpcns,
trailing arbutus, or May-flower. It bears all these names, the first
being its true botanical one, the second given to it, in various
places where it grows, for no imaginable reason, and the last a
tribute to the welcome it gave, the first spring flower they saw,
to the Pilgrims at Plymouth, after the dreary winter of 1620.

That afternoon, when Hubert had been established in llie old
easy chair, and partaken of a juicy bit of beefsteak, Alice Martin

REGULAR LESSONS.

75.

was allowed to come up and make him a visit. As soon as he
saw her, he recognized the pretty girl in the snow storm, whom
he had noticed the day he arrived.

She looked about his own age, and she was very pretty. At
first, she was shy, and so was Hubert. Neither of them thought
of anything to say, after the first few sentences.

"Are you Tom Horner's cousin.?" asked Hubert^ at length.
" Sixth or seventh only, I believe," said Alice, " and you know
I have never seen any ot the Homers. They have never been

here, and I have never been in New
York. I suppose they are rather
stuck up, they have been abroad so
much."

Alice had been boarding at
A,. ^ East Utopia, to "attend the
:^0^ Academy," for two-

" <3f years, from which
.she had returned
feeling herself some-
what superior to or-
dinary beings, which
accounts, perhaps,
for ascribing to oth-
ers the condition
called "stuck-up."

" Oh, no, they are
not in the least!"
cried Hubert,
prompt to defend
his friends, " al-
though I don't know
at all what you mean, only something unpleasant."

"Oh, I didn't mean anything unpleasant," hurriedly replied the

MAY-FLOWERS.

A FAMILY FLIGHT AROUND II0:ME.

num. iii"»'^^ijw>iJi*iMrjrx«c'»'u.UjjuH^ijiij

(-.OING AFTER MAV-IXU\VKKS.

girl, as she buried her face
in the sweet-smelling May-
flowers. " Are they not
sweet ? " she continued, to
change the subject. "We
are going to have a party
to gather them, as soon
as they are plenty. Won't

" With pleasure," replied
Hubert, "only if it is a
large party I shall be
afraid."

" You stick close to me,"
said Alice with a smile,
"and you will be safe
enough."

Not many days after-
wards, the party came
off, — several children of

REGULAR LESSONS.

the place, with Alice and Hubert, and Professor Bruce, as young
and active as any of them.

Going after May-flowers has not the ideal charm of going a-May-
ing as described by the poets. Hubert knew nothing of an Eng-
lish May, as his life had been chiefly passed away from home ;
but he fancied there must be a difference. The day was bright.
The road was muddy ; after they had turned from it into a wild
cart path through the woods, they walked on damp, dead leaves of
the year before.

By and by they came to a sort of opening, where the sun

EARLY SETTLERS.

streamed in and made it warmer. Tall pine-trees surrounded the
spot, and the ground was red with the fallen pine tassels.

" Here it is ! Mine is the first ! " cried Alice.

Hubert had seen nothing, though he was walking by her side:

A FAMILY FLIGHT AROUND HOME.

but now, as she stooped, he perceived she had found a bunch of
the pretty, starry flowers, poking their heads up from the leaves
and pine tassels. To his surprise, as she pulled the stem, a long
string of the plant came up. with plenty of flowers attached to
the strong stems. The leaves were of the year before, which,
.under the warm covering of fallen pine, had passed the winter

A RUDE BEGINNING.

comfortably, the incipient buds hidden in their axils, all ready
with the first breath of spring, to push up and open.

After this they found plenty, and their baskets were rapidly
filled. A kind of mania seized every one to find the pinkest
blossoms. There was every shade, from pale pure white to deep-
ening rose color.

Mr. Bruce wandered off, searching for botanical specimens, but
there was nothing yet to be found. The May-flower precedes
everything else. Evergreen ferns, left from the autumn, and bright

REGULAR LESSONS. 7j)

green moss, in the wet places, were the only variety of color
upon the gray and reddish tints of bare branches, and the yellow
leaves still clinging to birches and some oaks.

As they came home by a roundabout road, Hubert saw, for the
first time, maple-trees ready for sugaring. Each tree had a hole
bored in its trunk, and a pail hanging on a peg below the open-
ing, waiting for the sap to run. All the pails were empty.

"The sap don't run worth a cent this year," said Mr. Brick,
the day he drove them over ; " we don't seem to have the rio-ht
kind of nights. Real cold, and then the sun out bright afterwards.
That's what makes it come. I ain't sure as there'll be 'ny more
sugar."

Somehow or other there was sugar, and very delicious maple
syrup, to be eaten on griddle cakes and waffles.

Meantime, Hubert's trunks had arrived ; and he had returned
to the up-stairs room, where he installed himself with all his pos-
sessions.

A corner of the library was also allotted to him, and regular
lessons began. Mr. Bruce found him on the whole, better grounded
than Mr. Horner had led him to hope ; the boy's training had
been so desultory, there was little reason to expect much in the
way of results. He wrote a good hand. His spelling was rather
wide of the mark, bearing traces of the different languages he had
made acquaintance with. As yet, he had no settled habits of
study ; but he was willing to apply himself, and on the whole, did
not waste much of the three hours, daily devoted to study, in
scribbling over pieces of paper, and practising styles of hand-
writing.

He read aloud every day, for Mr. Bruce believed that daily
practice alone makes perfect in an accomplishment so well worth
having as a good style of reading and enunciation, not elocutionary,
but simple and distinct.

Hubert was surprised to find how much ground he went over

80 A FAMILY FLIGHT AROUND HOME.

by such steady reading aloud for two hours every day. It seemed
much slower than reading to himself, and yet the pages of Palfrey's
New England melted like snow beneath the sun ; and he found,
moreover, that what he read in this way he understood and en-
joyed more thoroughly than what he read to himself, in the skim-
ming, skipping fashion which may suit a story book, but is bad as
a habit.

The Plymouth Colony was the first of the early settlements of
New England. It was followed by others, and in 1692, united with
that of Massachusetts Bay, under the name of Massachusetts, which,
being thus first settled, was in a manner the parent of the later
colonies.

Maine was one of the earliest parts of the country visited and
explored by Europeans. An English colony tried to establish it-
self there, and a French colony soon after. But in the end, during
the colonial period, Maine was reckoned as a part of Massachusetts.

New Hampshire was visited very early, and Portsmouth and Dover
were settled in 1623. These settlements were chiefly on the coast
for fishing ; the colony extended very slowly, and it was long
before the northern and interior townships were filled up ; in many
cases, by people coming from Scotland and Ireland. By the time
of the American Revolution, New Hampshire was a strong and in-
dependent colony, taking its name from Hampshire in England,
whence came some of its early settlers.

Vermont was first explored in 1609; but had no European set-
tlers for more than a century after that. Down to the time of
the Revolution it was not recognized as a separate colony, but
went by the name of the " New Hampshire Grants," as if that
State had the control of its land. New York, however, also laid
claim to these same "Grants;" it was a long time before the
Green Mountain Boys, as they called themselves, became inde-
pendent of the other colonies. The name Vermont means only
Green Mountain.

KEGULAE LESSONS.

During all this time the different eolonies were under rulers
appointed from England, and had no thought of a separate gov-
ernment. The first planting of the soil, and foundation of settle-
ments, from the very beginning, as we have seen of the seventeenth
century up to the period of the Revolution, were under the au-
spices of the English government. The wars were English wars,
the troops were British troops, who fought against the enemies of
the English crown, whether French or Indian.

Up, therefore, to the time of the separation, the interests of the
American colonies and of the Home Government were the same ;
and the colonists became involved in the quarrels between England
and France. Thus the war known in American History as " King
William's War," in which Indians fighting for the French, perpe-
trated horrid barbarities upon the settlements of the colonies, was
in fact between England and France, or rather between Catholic
France and the Protestant countries of Europe. It lasted for nine
years, during which Louis the Fourteenth of France won many
battles ; but at the end of which he was willing to make peace^
at Ryswick, just before 1700.

LARCH CONES.

82 A FAMILY FLIGHT AROUND HOME.

CHAPTER IX.

AN ADVENTURE.

LICE and Hubert became, perforce,
constant companions ; not so much
from any great congeniality, as by strength
of circumstances. Hubert felt himself greatly
superior to the country girl, who, in spite
of certain airs and graces acquired at school,
was lacking in polish, and whose pronuncia-
tion of some words was a constant surprise
to him. Alice, on the other hand, while she
stood in awe of Hubert's fine manners, and
somewhat dainty ways, held her own very well. She had no idea
of being patronized, and if on any occasion there seemed danger
of his getting the better of her, in points of etiquette or good
grammar, she readily turned the tables on him by exposing his
utter ignorance concerning all country things. The science of the
barn, the hen-coop, and the farm was one in which she was well
versed, while he had not even studied its rudiments.

Mr. Martin, the father of Alice, owned a large farm, and with
the help of many men, took care of it himself. As the spring
opened, Hubert spent most of the time over at Alice's, where
the attractions for the two children were greater than at the
professor'.^.

Hubert loved animals, and he delighted in the long barn, where
the long row of cows and a yoke of oxen were at home in their
stalls, six of them, sticking out their great friendly heads, and

AN ADVENTURE.

giving steamy puffs of breath that smelt like hay. He was, to tell
the truth, a little afraid of them, and never learned to venture so
near them as Alice did. Hens wandered freely about the place, and
took familiar liberty with the good-natured cattle, and little birds
flew in at the door to peck the scattered corn upon the ground.
Over the horse-stalls was the loft, reached by a somewhat shaky set
of steps, where feats of climbing could be performed by means of

THE OLD BARN.

the bars, stretching from one stall to another. Alice was well
versed in these feats, although at fifteen she considered them
beneath her dignity ; she rather despised Hubert for his awkward-
ness in getting about over beams and down cribs ; it was an
awkwardness caused by ignorance rather than want of courage, and
at last a little adventure redeemed him in her eyes from a sus-
picion of cowardice.

A FAMILY FLIGHT AROUND HOME.

Above one part of the barn was a large barn-chamber, so called,
which ran the whole length of the building. It was approached by a
steep flight of stairs, directly at the top of which was the door
opening outwards with an old-fashioned latch, and secured from
swinging by a stout hook on the outside. The great room had
been used for all sorts of things, — threshing on the floor, drying
corn, and the like, but now was nearly empty, with the exception
of a pile of old barrels, broken rakes, and the remains of a de-
crepit sleigh which were heaped up in one corner. The place was

lighted at each end by
a small window with
a number of small
panes, covered with
the dust of ages, and
plentv of cobwebs.
Hubert took a sort
of fancy to the long,
low, dingy apartment,
and he proposed tO'
himself, when Tom
came, to make it the
scene for some tourn-
ament, wrestling match
or theatricals.

One afternoon, Hu-
bert came over as us-
ual ; it was a windy day,
and not very attractive
outdoors, and learning
that Alice was not at
home, he established
himself alone, in the sitting-room, and soon became absorbed in a
book which he found there.

FAMILIARITY.

AN ADVENTURE. 85

By and by Alice came in, full of high spirits after a walk in
the wind and sun.

Hubert looked up, but did not otherwise notice her, going on
■with his book. This was not unusual, for the two were so much
together, scant ceremony was used between them. Now, however,
Alice unfortunately wanted to talk.

" Hubert, there are cowslips down in the brook. I wanted to get
them, but I had on my good boots and I was afraid of wetting them."

"Ah.''" said Hubert, reading on.

" But if you will go, I will put on my old boots. Do you have
•cowslips in England, Hubert ? "

"Yes, plenty. Just let me finish this."

"What, that HVrt^r Awake? It is an old one. I read it long
:ago, and guessed all the riddles."

Hubert grunted, and shook himself as he would to drive off an
impertinent fly. This roused Alice, and she laid hold of the book
to pull it away from him, whereat he sprang up in deep dis-
pleasure, and exclaiming, half in fun,

" Alice, you are a nuisance," he dashed off out of the open front
■door, with his Wide Awake still in his hand. Alice followed, and
an active chase ensued, round the house, in and out of the gar-
den, which suited her very well, as she considered it all fun.
Hubert, however, was in earnest, and really wanted to get out of
the way. As she fell behind a corner of the barn, he darted into
it without her seeing him, and up the stairs to the barn chamber,
unhooked the hasp, let himself in, and hastened to hide himself
behind the sleigh. The door swung to in the wind. As Hubert
heard no sound of Alice following, he ventured to peep out of the
window, and saw her in full career running away from the barn
toward the house, where, luckily for him, at that moment, her
•mother appeared, calling her.

With a sigh of relief, Hubert slid down upon the floor and fin-
ished his story ; then went on to consider the rest of the number.

A FAMILY FLIGHT AROUND HOME.

It was perhaps an hour after that he got up, stretched himself,
and thought of looking up Alice, to make peace with her. He
went to the door, lifted the latch, and found it would not open.
Shaking it did no good, neither did kicking it, though he tried
both, and though it was a loose old door, on rusty hinges ; but of
course he did not care to break it down.

A very slight inspection showed that it was hooked on the out-
side. At first he was very angry, suspecting a trick played upon
him by Alice, but when he came to think about it, — and he had

THE r.ARN FLOOR.

plenty of time to think, — he was convinced that the great hook on^
the outside had fallen over of itself into its hasp when the door
was blown to ; and this must have been the case.

Hubert resolved to be philosophical, and he returned to his
Wide Aivakc. But the number had lost its charm ; interested as
he had been at the first in its contents, he was indifferent tO'
reading it over so soon a second time. Moreover, he was hungry.

So Hubert set about looking for means of deliverance. He tried

AN ADVENTURE. 87

the nearest window, the one which looked toward the house. It
stuck fast, and he soon perceived that the sash was kept down
by stout nails. After giving the door one more futile shake, he
crossed to the other end of the chamber, and tried the window
there.

That too was fastened, but more loosely, the woodwork of the
old window-pane was rotten, and the nail which held it gave way,
so that he could pull it out. To his great joy, he pushed up the
little sash, and looked forth.

There was barely room for his head and shoulders to push
through, and when he looked down, the prospect was not promis-
ing of escape.

The ground was some fifteen feet below, and the nature of it
not attractive, the pigpen being placed directly under this part
of the barn. Two immense great hogs were grunting in a good
old-fashioned sty ; they turned their emotional noses upward at the
unusual sound over their heads, caused by the opening of the
window, and gazed feebly at Hubert with their small blinking eyes.

'• Pig ! pig ! " called Hubert, and flattered them by imitating their
noise, "how shall I get out of this window.-'"

There was nothing to keep the sash open when it was not rest-
ing on the back of his neck. Hubert continued his inspection of
the outside for a few moments, and at last determined on a some-
what precarious plan.

Meanwhile, teatime arrived.

"Is Hubert going to stay to tea.?" asked Mrs. Martin of her
daughter.

" I don't know," replied Alice crossly. " He is a tiresome, hate-
ful boy. I don't care what becomes of him. I dare say he has
gone home, and I hope he will never come back ! "

"Why, what's the matter.?" exclaimed her mother, surprised.
She was a thin, nervous woman, given to worrying. " He cannot
have gone home, for here's his hat on the chair."

88 A FAMILY FLIGHT AROUND HOME.

" Probably it's the English fashion to go home without your
hat," said Alice, "especially when you take French leave."

" Now don't be silly," said her mother, with a plaintive tone.
" You must look him up, Alice ; he is not used to the place, and
if he should get lost, and a foreigner at that" —

Mrs. Martin looked as if she thought the diplomatic harmony
between America and England might be disturbed by the loss of
Hubert. Alice replied :

"The great baby! Can't he take care of himself.-*"

She saw her mother was seriously angry ; and besides she felt
a little anxious herself. As she suspected Hubert was still lurk-
ing in the barn, she turned her steps in that direction, looked into
it, went through it, but was too proud to call to him. As she
came out at the further end, she was just in time to see Hubert
in mid air, one leg still within the barn, the other placed upon
a precarious wooden spout, or gutter, which slanted along below
the window.

Alice gasped, afraid to scream. Her anger was changed to gen-
uine alarm.

Two steps along the spout, still grasping the window-sill with
his hands, brought Hubert to an upright gutter-way which ran up
and down the barn, slightly projecting from it. He clasped it, pre-
pared to slide down. The whole thing gave way, and he was
precipitated into — the pigsty !

AT UUMt:.

MOLLY STARK'S BONNET.

CHAPTER X.

MOLLY STARK S BONNET.

HUBERT'S landing-place, though not attractive, was a very
lucky one, for he fell without coming to the slightest hurt.
Alice's scream brought old Jacob from the barn ; the pigs, astonished
at the arrival of their headlong guest, left him the field. He was
:soon picked out of the mire in a sorry plight, so ridiculous that
he had to laugh, in which Alice joined him, half-crying, at the
same time.

This was the end of the adventure. The old gutter was never
put up again, having served its last good purpose in promoting
Hubert's escape. Peace was made, in few words, between the two
young people, and Hubert secretly became a hero in Alice's eyes,
though the older folks reproved his heedless rashness. After
this, Alice learned to leave Hubert alone when he was absorbed
in reading, while Hubert also resumed a little of his early polite-
ness to her, feeling that he had been at fault.

The farm of Mr. Martin was a very prosperous one, carried on
with all the modern improvements ; Hubert saw all sorts of
machines, of which, during the summer, he came to know the use ;
such as were little thought of in the early colonial days. Thresh-
ing and mowing machines, drills, potato-diggers, hay-rakes, corn-
cutters, were all unknown a hundred years ago.

The Massachusetts farmer who witnessed the Revolution, ploughed
his land with the wooden bull-plough, sowed his grain broadcast,
and when it was ripe, cut it with a scythe and threshed it with
a flail, on the floor of such a barn-chamber as was the scene of

!.0

A FAMILY FLIGHT AROUND HOME.

cially as
was still

Hubert's imprisonment.
Very simple, too, were
the circumstances of his
life, and his daily habits.
His food was of the
plainest kind, served upon
coarse crocker}^ and eaten
with the knife chiefly, for
silver forks were unknown.
Split-spoons, these were
called by the country folk,,
when first introduced, but
this was later.

Beef and pork, salt fish,,
dried apples and vegeta-
bles made up the daily
fare from one year's end
to the other.

In these early days of
New England, wheaten
bread was not so com-
mon as that made of
Indian corn. A mi.\ture
of two parts of Indian
meal, with one of rye,
has continued far into
the present century, to
furnish the bread of the
great body of people.
Hubert liked it very well,
good brown bread, espe-
buttcrcd toast, which on Sunday morning, with baked beans,
the regular breakfast jirovided by Mrs. Bruce. In old times,.

.•\ I'UKITAN lJAUt.il ] J l;

MOLLY STARK* S BONNET.

the minister had white bread, for brown bread gave him the heart-
burn, and he could not preach upon it, according to the idea of
the day ; but brown bread is now universally considered very
healthy, and a useful change upon too much white.

OLD DAYS AND WAYS.

If the food of the farmer was plain, so were his clothes, which
would, to his descendants, be thought to furnish a wardrobe scanty
in the extreme.

For going to meeting on the Sabbath, and for state occasions
during the week, he had a suit of broadcloth, or corduroy, which
lasted him a lifetime, and was at length bequeathed, little the
worse for wear, with his cattle and his farm, to his son. The
suit in which his neighbors commonly saw him, the one in which

«2

A FAMILY FLIGHT AROUND HOME.

he followed the plough, tended the cattle and dozed • in the chimney-
corner, was of cloth spun and woven at home.

The New England farmer, we may suppose, had no great regard
for the fashions, as he took whatever was supplied to him in
whatever form it came. It is interesting' to see how the steeple-
crowned hat of the Puritan, with jerkin, small clothes and ruff,
gave way to the cocked hat, straight coat, with large cuffs and
square-toed shoes, introduced in the reign of William and Mary.
These have been followed in the course of the century by gradual
changes. Breeches have grown to trousers, jerkins have become
cutaways, and the steeple crown has turned into a bean-pot.

To us, a rough country boy driving a sled through the woods

Ti:^!

^^M^^$$

MM>^

S«-f-tu ••-

oi.n sivi.K

in a three-cornered hat and breeches, seems like a masquerade;
but to bim it was as natural as a wide-awake and ulster. Such
was the dress of the fanner. A man of fashion or means in the
last century, with clothes based on the same models, was far
more splendid. Me wore a three-cornered cocked hat heavily laced.
His hair was done up in a queue, and profusely powdered. His

MOLLY STARK'S BONNET. 93

coat was light-colored, very long in the back, with silver buttons

engraved with the letters of his name. His small clothes came

scarce to his knees, his shoes were adorned with huge buckles :

HOME MANUFACTURE.

his vest had flap-pockets, his cuffs were loaded with lead to keep
them in place.

Thus it seems that the fashions of men are as changeful and
fantastic as those of women. The simple costume of the Puritan
maiden, with her modest cap, gave way to cumbrous hoops and
huge bonnets, even in the country where gorgeous brocades, tall
feathers and high-heeled shoes were not likely to be seen.

In the garret of the Bruce house was an immense collection of
bonnets of all ages ; and in a period of rainy days, Hubert and

-94

A FAMILY FLKiHT AROUND HOME.

Alice found some amusement in rummaging these specimens of
head gear.

Mrs. Bruce promised to come up and give the history of some

■of these things.

"For I dare say," she said to Hubert, "I can find the bonnet
I wore to Mrs. Horner's wedding. It was considered a gorgeous
thing; sent for to New York on purpose for the occasion."'

Alice and Hubert pleased themselves by trying to discover in

MOU.Y STARK'S bonnet

the collection which was the one that had appeared at the'
wedding of Tom's father and mother.

" Let us take it down-stairs, and when Bessie comes she can
wear it," said Hubert.

"You talk a great deal about Bessie," said Alice, with a little
impatience, " is she so very wonderful ? "

" She is not so very wonderful," replied Hubert, who was

MOLLY STARK'S BONNET. 95

sitting in an old swing, which, strange to say, was suspended
from a beam of the old garret. "She is simply the nicest girl
that ever was."

"Oh," said Alice.

"But then, she is older than you," added Hubert consolingly, as
if to imply that Alice had time for improvement.

"Do you believe they will really come up here.?" asked Alice.

"What! the Homers.? Of course, Tom certainly, and I do
hope Bessie will come. But let us see about the bonnets."

After a good deal of disagreement, they settled on one bonnet
which had an air of faded style about it, they both thought; so
they brought it down to Mrs. Bruce, whom, after some search,
they found in the very kitchen from which a delicious odor, and
an equally alluring sound, issued. She was frying doughnuts ; a
dish piled up with hot brown rings was on a table near the stove,
on which the rest of the batch were hissing and sputtering in
the hot fat.

The doughnuts at once turned the thoughts of the young peo-
ple, and, for a few moments, they discussed with tooth and tongue,
two favorable specimens, fresh from the fire ; but afterward Hubert said:
"See, Mrs. Bruce, is this the wedding bonnet.?"
"That — no, indeed; why, that bonnet belonged to Molly Stark!"
But who was Molly Stark.? Such ignorance was punished by
the banishment of the offenders from the kitchen, where indeed
they were in the way, while the batch of doughnuts was much in
danger from their presence, and Hubert betook himself to the
library, with the intention of looking up Molly Stark.

His attention was again diverted, however ; for on the library
table a letter was lying for him.

It was from Bessie Horner herself, and when Alice was allowed
to read it, she was forced to acknowledge it was a very good
letter. The excellence of it lay chiefly in the good news that the
Horner house in New York was to be shut up at once, and that

A FAMILY FLIGHT AROtJND HOME.

Mrs. Horner and Bessie herself would come for a while, at least,
to Utopia, on the first of June. May was now drawing near its
end, so there would not be long to wait.

Tom was still busy at school, but he and his father were to.
shift for themselves, like many other unfortunate New Yorkers de-
tained in town after the dust and heat have driven away their

families.

•'But just imagine where they are to be!" added Bessie. "Miss
Lejeune will of course be away in June, and papa and Tom are
to live in her apartments, and have dinner and all, ^^if they like,
sent in from the restaurant below, just as she does."

"I wonder where Miss Lejeune is going.?" said Hubert to him-
self.

"Is she splendid also.?" demanded Alice.

"It would do you a great deal of good to know her," replied

Hubert, with a smile.

Bennington is a town in the southwestern part of Vermont,
noted as "the place in which one of the early battles of the Revo-
lution was fought. In I777 ^he British army of General Burgoyne,

marching to the South from Canada,
created great commotion in New Eng-
land, since Boston was supposed to be
its point of destination. General Stark,
who chanced to be at Bennington, has-
tily collected the continental forces in
the neighborhood, and after a hot action
of two hours, forced the enemy to retreat.
The battle was renewed, but the Brit-
ish were obliged to retire, leaving behind

///// ///,

THE Hli.N.NI.NC.TON IRUNK.

their baggage and ammunition.

This was on the morning of Augu.st i6, XJTJ. As he led the
men to the attack, Stark cried out to them :

" See there, men ! there are the red coats ! Before night they

MOLLY STARK'S BONNET. 9^

are ours, or Molly Stark is a widow." So much Hubert learned.

"Mrs. Bruce," said he, pausing to attract her attention, still
concentrated on the doughnuts.

"Well.? "

" I don't believe that was Molly Stark's bonnet at all ! "

"Why not.? You are a daring boy, to doubt the traditions of
the family ! "

"Why, because I don't see how it came in your garret!"

"That was because my grandmother used to spend a great deal
of her time at Bennington."

" But the Starks did not belong in Bennington," said Alice, who
had been looking up the subject with Hubert, "they were ' New
Hampshire folks."

" You young people are getting far too learned for me," replied
Mrs. Bruce ; " all I know is, that amongst my grandmother's things
there was a trunk called the Bennington trunk. It was an old
hair trunk, with the hair all worn off of it; and this bonnet
came out of that trunk, and it was always said to be Molly Stark's
bonnet."

MORE OLD BONNETS.

A FAMILY FLIGHT AROUND HOME.

CHAPTER XL

WILD FLOWERS.

EFORE June
came, bringing
the Horners, the
spring wild flowers
came and went, with
a rush, as their cus-
tom is. It is in vain

in order by the ahnanac, or reminding
them when they are due, according to
Gray's Botany. They insist upon waiting,
past their dates, if necessary, until the
inevitable warm breezes and hot suns
summon them, after which they burst
forth all together, and are gone. He who
would sec and gather specimens of all
kinds of wild flowers, has to lead an ac-
tive life when they have once appeared.
Professor Bruce was an enthusiastic bot-
anist, who every year devoted himself at the
right season, to the cariy wild flowers. He
knew their homes, and where to watch for
them, and was often tlic first to find the lit-
tle blue hei^atica, hiding behind its stout old
list year's leaf, which acts as a waterproof cloak to shield it

jACK-iN-THK-rui.rrr

WILD FLOWERS.

iintil it is ready to show itself. He knew that on the willow
road, close by the edge of a flooded meadow, the overflow of the
river at this season, there was sure pretty soon to be known, by
a deep pink flush all over the bushes, the flowering of the rho-
-dora, whose blossoms come out before the leaves appear. He knew
that any time about then it was well to scan closely wet swamps
among the bushes, for the sake of finding an early jack-in-the-
pulpit poking up its head between huge light-green leaves of skunk
■cabbage, splendid in color and luxuriance.

As for cowslips, no search was needed to find them, for they
spread themselves abroad over the meadows in great yellow patches,
as good as sunshine on a cloudy day.

Hubert declared they were not real cowslips, and so they are
not, from the English point of view, but Alice refused to call them
anything else, or to believe that the English cowslip was any
prettier than the American one.

Our cowslip, commonly so called, is a caltha, botanically speak-
ing, a flower nearly allied to the buttercup. In fact, it is a stout
buxom buttercup, with thick stems, broad leaves and good, honest,
bright yellow flowers, rather coarse to examine, but with plenty of
sunshine in them. The proper popular name for it is marsh
marigold, but as it is no more like a garden marigold, than it
is like an English cowslip, it may as well .keep the prettier
name.

The English cowslip is a primrose, and is much like the pink
primroses easily raised here in pots, but where it grows wild it
seeks the open pasture, while primroses hide themselves in hedges,
or in the shade and shelter of the woods. Cowslips, as well as
primroses, are favorites of the poets.

Milton calls them

Cowslips wan that hang the pensive head;

a description full of truth, for the English cowslip is essentially a

jOO A FAMILY FLIGHT AROUND HOME.

pale hanging flower, unlike our sturdy marigold, which keeps its.
head well up to the sun.

Hubert was a Httle persistent in defence of his own cowslip,

THE WILLOW ROAD.

while these, he said, were cnlle.l nothins but n.arc-hlobs at home,.
where they grew in plenty.

Mr. Bruce came to the rescue when the quarrel was grown^g

dangerous. , . .

"Shakespeare's name for the marsh marigold is the prettiest.

DcAibtlcss he means your mare-blob in the lines —

Winking mary-buds begin
To ope their golden eyes ! "

Con,p,o,„ises are never agreeable, but the diseussiou was silenee.l
}t ln„k ulaee in the middle of a wet meadow, where Al.ce and

RHODORA AND FRIJVGED I'OLVGALA.

WILD FLOWERS. 103

Hubert were both gathering big bunches of the flowers in question.
They turned away from them to pull up long-stemmed, pale violets,
which grew also in the wet, very different from the little darker
blue violets, scattered everywhere close to the ground hidden in their
leaves. Here again Hubert was critical, for the wild violets in
England are sweet-smelling, while ours, alas ! with the exception
of the little white violet, have no perfume.

" Come, friends," said Mr. Bruce at last, " I think I shall leave
you and go home, unless you can find some better way to regard
the flowers than squabbling about them. The true way is to enjoy
what you have got, and not to be comparing it with things which
you might, could, would or should have had at some past indefi-
nite time."

He spoke lightly, but with decision. He was, in fact, becoming
a little wearied with the want of harmony between Alice and
Hubert, which increased as the time went on. The solitude in
which Hubert found himself away from boys of his own age,
was having a bad effect upon him, and Alice had not sufflcient
character to counteract it. However, the time would not be long
before Tom Horner's arrival, which would, it was to be hoped,
set everything to rights.

"Let us come on, now," said Mr. Bruce; "if we go back through
the woods, we shall find anemones and perhaps columbines."

The anemone {ncjiioroso) of New England is a delicate little
flower, hanging its head among the dead oak leaves in the woods,
of every variety of "rose-tint, from pure white to deep pink. In
other parts of the world, a flower, similar in construction, which
bears the same name, is large and brilliant, sometimes bright red,
like the field poppy, sometimes purple, again yellow. It is more
showy, but not so delicate as the pretty little wind-flower, as ours
is sometimes called.

Not far off, in a cleft of rock, they spied the first columbine,
holding itself up proudly, though its red head hung down with the

104

A FAMILY FLIGHT AROUND HOME.

weight of its tubes filled with honey. Against this flower, Hubert
had nothing to say. A little ashamed of his former mood, he
burst into bud approbation of it, and after this he called it always

his favorite.

The next time they went for it the ground was red with its
bright bells, and a slanting ledge of gray rock was covered with
them. The columbine loves little crevices in rocks where a scanty
measure of soil and moss is enough for its foothold.

Not far off, but avoiding the rocks, grew the dog-tooth-violet,
not a violet at all by the way, as it belongs to the lily tribe.
It is said to have its name because the large bulb at its base
bears a mark as if it were bitten by a dog's tooth. It is a
graceful, pretty yellow flower, with long leaves shaped like those
of the lily of the valley, spotted with brown.

The trees at this time, the end of May. were still without
their leaves, with the exception of a shimmer of green on the
birches. The maples were red with their feathery blossoms appear-
ing before the leaves, and all the woods in the distance were
spread with a marvellous sheen of faint, delicate tints, green, pink,
yellow, the most lovely effect of the whole year, and the most
difficult to catch in a picture.

Town people who do not reach the country before the middle
of June or later, lose all this; it is a little early for comfort,
for roads are bad, the weather is capricious, and the cities are stdl
attractive. It is, though, a i^ity not to know the tender richness of
the early spring foliage, as exquisite as the autumn tints arc brilliant.
Through the many tinted branches, Hubert spied a mass of
white, as if a flock of white pigeons had alighted upon a tree.

"Ah," cried Mr. Hruce. "that is giant cornel, as we call it.
Is it possible that is in blossom already ! "

The tree was twenty feet or more high, and, still bare of
leaves, was covered with large white blossoms, an inch or more
across, showy and decorative in the extreme.

WILD FLOWERS.

105

Hubert scambled up on a rock from which he could reach the
blossoms, and broke off large branches of them.

When they reached the house, they were laden with their trea-
sures, the most conspicuous of which were the great
white cornels.

Mrs. Bruce was in gardening trim, her
skirt turned up, old gloves on her hands,
holding a trowel, with which she was turn-
ing up the soil of the beds before
the house. Crocuses were there,
but already going out of blossom,
tulips, hyacinths, and daffodils were
iust coming on, and a great

bed of lilies of the valley
was crowded with buds.
This was at the end
of a long, warm day.
The robins were sing-
ing, the air was all
full of golden light.
Hubert and Alice sat
down on the door-
steps, laying their great
bunches of flowers
aside ; Mr. Bruce wiped
his brow, for the last
part of their walk had
been fast. He was
Avarm and tired.

The children were
tired, but it was a good comfortable tired, and it seemed delight-
ful to sit and rest, and watch the changing lights.

"I do believe," said Hubert, "that spring is just the loveliest

^^^-^\

^:.-'-^

COLUMKINES AND DOG-TOOTH-VIOI,F.T.

106

A FAMILY FLIGHT AROUND HOME.

season of the year. It is such fun to go off and find these
flowers, and then to think that the whole long summer is conv
ing."

"Yes," said Alice. "Autumn is all very well, but then the days
are short, and you know that winter is coming, with lessons, and
cold weather, and India rubber boots."

Mr. Bruce had gone to his library, and Mrs. Bruce had takers
trowel, basket and gloves round the house to put them away in.
the tool house.

"Alice," said Hubert suddenly, "I think I have been very dis-
agreeable to you lately. I mean to turn over a new leaf from,
this very time."

"Do you.?" said she simply; "well, then, I will too."

GIANT CORNEL

A TELEQRAM. 107

CHAPTER XII.

A TELEGRAM.

IT was Saturday, the very last day of May, and Hubert was
giowinp; restless, because no absolute tidings came of the plans
of the Horners, He had been studying diligently all the morning,
and as the clock struck one, ho shut up his books, stretched him-
self, and went to the front dooi' to look about and draw a breath
of fresh air.

The village was quiet, as usual, but slowly coming up the steep
hill before the house, he saw the singular phenomenon of a horse
and buggy, and as it drew near, he recognized the now familiar
face of Mr. Brick, who drove him over to East Utopia, with the
Homers, on the first day of his life in Vermont. It seemed
already an age ago. At East Utopia was the nearest railway
station, and thus the nearest communication with the world which
the Utopians had at command, was by means of the three-mile
drive over the mountain. Such communication was not frequent,
but Mr. Brick had been over twice ; once to bring Hubert's
trunk, and once, a few weeks later, upon his own affairs. The
mail carrier drove through three times a week from East Utopia
to Burnett and back.

'•Hallo! Mr. Brick," called Hubert, "what brings you over the
mountain .'' "

"Telegram, Mr. Hubert," was the brief reply, as Mr. Brick
jumped out. He handed him a pale yellow envelope, and looked
away, pretending to busy himself with the check-rein at his hor.se's
head.

108

A FAMILY FLIGHT AKOlXD HO.Mi:.

In the country the very outside of the yellow envelope means mis-
fortune, as it is generally the bearer of tidings of illness or death.

Hubert turned pale as he tore open the cover. He was not only
relieved, but delighted at the contents.

Meet u.s at lUiilington, Van Ness House, Monday evening. — Thomas Horner.

His whoop of joy caused Mr. Brick to turn round.

" Xawthing serious, I expect ? "

" It is serious, Mr. Brick," cried Hubert.

The good news spread through the house. Wr. Brick was engaged

HEAD oi

to come on Monday, to take Hubert to the necessary train at a
preternaturally earlv hour of the morning.

Sunday was ]-)assed in a pleasing state of wonderment as to what
vhe plan was. wlio " us " meant, whom he was to meet at Burling-
ton, and where they might be going afterward.

" At any rate. I know it's something nice, for that's the way the
Homers do things."

" I wish I v\ere going," said Alice, with a sigh.

A TELEGRAM. Ifl©

" So do I," said Hubert, as the vague thought passed through
his mind that he would like to have her.

Monday came, and vrith the mail came letters to Mr. Bruce, ex^
plaining the intentions of the Homer family: but these arrived
after Hubert was off, and he took his solitar)- joumev still in
doubt and speculation on what was to happen next.

This was Hubert's first essay at travelling alone in . ; -

had to change cars for Montpelier at Wells River Junction, where
many engines were snorting upon their respec: r

many different destinations. But he mamr^ _ :

train, when the time came, after waiting u; >

teen minutes, and even to advise a woman. rr

head, to stick close to the conductor of her hne.

The train he took passed through Montj>elier, the capital of
\'ermont, and then on to Burlington.

It was dark when he arrived, but he could guess that Bur'insiton
was a large city, from the bustle and importance of the An

omnibus was in waiting to take him to the hoteL and after :hr
delay of waiting for baggage, it started. The city seemed to be
all up hill. It reminded him of arri\4ng at Mad-^' -" - : half-
expected to see a custom house oflScial poke h> _ :_ the
omnibus, demanding to examine the small baggage, but no such
thing occurred.

They stopped before the door of a large hotel, gaslight stream-
ing from its many windows. The f)assenger3 gr " : t " *' r
vehicle, and stood dazed in the bright light of a - ~..
the stree:.

•' Hubert I *' said a voice, and Tom Homer seized him bv the
hand. In a moment, he was hustled up a broad flight of stairs to
a large parlor, where he found, to his delight, several friends.

Mr. Homer was waiting for him in the <loorway. Instantly
Bessie advanced, and greeted him cordially. He had not time
to take in how tall she was, how grown up, what a mature kind

110

A FAMILY ILlGirr AKOUND HOME.

of hat she was wearing, for Miss Lejeune's cheery voice was

heard, saying:

"Come and be introduced to Mrs. Horner, Hubert;" and to her,
'■"My dear, this is Hubert Vaughan/'

There was no stifthess in the introduction, for they all regarded

THE COLD HEIGHTS OF THE ALPS.

Hubert as one of the family; and although lie felt awkward for a

moment, Mrs. Horner's kind and easy manner put him at his ease

at once. He really fell more stiff with Bessie than any of the rest.

Not nuicli was told iii:n that night about plans ; only that they

A TELECiKAM.

Ill

were to stay the next day and see Burlington, "the Queen City
of Vermont."

It is beautifully situated on a long, sloping hill, on the east shore
of Lake Champlain. It is the largest city in the State, having a
large business in lumber, which is brought from the Canadian
forests, sorted and planed in Burlington, after which it is sent by
rail to Boston and other Eastern cities.

Burlington is an academic city, containing the University of Ver-
mont, beautifully placed on the stunmit of the hill on u-hich the

CKO\V.\' POINT.

town is built, a mile from the lake, and more than three hundred
feet above it. There are besides several fine schools, a Seminary
and an Institute.

The town was settled about 1775, and named in honor of the
Burlino- familv of New York.

J12 A FAMILY FLIGIir AROUND HOME.

Tom and Hubert shared a room in tlie hotel which overlooked
not only streets and houses, built upon the slopmg hill, but the
broad expanse below of the lake itself. As soon as they were
awake they were at the windows, admiring the lovely view. Put-
tino- their heads out, they perceived Bessie's stretched from her
window on the opposite side of the entry; all three exchanged ex-

pressions of praise.

From the dome of the University the same view is seen, only
more extended, and therefore to better advantage.

Lake Champlain is to be seen from below Crown Point on the
south to Plattsburg on the north, dotted with many wooded islands.
Beyond the lake the Adirondacks f^ll the horizon, over sixty peaks
beincr visible on a clear day, among them Marcy, the highest be-
twee'^. the White Mountains and the Alleghanies. The lake is ten
miles wide at this part. In the opposite direction, looking toward
the east from the University, arc the Green Mountains, the vnis
vionts for which the State is named.

It was a lovely June day, and the Homers employed it in visit-
,nc. some hospitable friends, who were proud to do the honors of
their beautiful town by driving them to the different points of

interest.

The sunset across the lake, with the dark outlines sharp against
the -lowino- Hght, was wonderful. As they sat enjoying it, in the
o-^rdrn of one of their friends, the travelled Homers willingly acknowl-
edged it to be fully as beautiful as similar scenes among the lakes
of^Swit.erlan<l, with the addition of a certain charm of wildnes..
which to Americans. American scenery alone possesses.

.. The onlv thing is," said Bessie, " that, after all. these mountains
seem low. ' T should like it better if they did not call them

mountains." ^ , i r

..Mount Marcy," said the host, "is about five thousaud f™,
M,„d,e,l feet above the level of the sea. Tl,e Indi:,,, name, 1 a-ha-
„as means 'he splits the sky.'" He added, "You must not be

A TELEGRAM.

115

too critical. Marcy is the highest to be had east of the Missis-
sippi, except the White Mountains, and the Black Mountains of
North Carolina." '^

"For my part," said Miss Lejeune, "I like it all much better
than if the hills were higher. The Alps are all very well, but
they weary me with their cold heights. I am always wishing to
get away from them. Here, where we look across the broad ex-
panse of water, these hills compose themselves in exactly the
right way to suit the exigencies of the landscape."

"Miss Lejeune is celebrated," said Mr. Horner, in cx])lanation
to the host, "for always liking best the 'best that is to be had,'
as you have expressed it." ,

The Adirondack chain proper is the backbone of the five ranges
of the wilderness, dividing the waters that flow northerly into the
St. Lawrence, from those that run south into the Hudson. These
five separate chains constitute a great mountain belt full of the
most varied scenery, much resorted to now in summer by pleasure
travellers. The whole great wilderness was once an old Indian hunt-
ing-ground, which has come to be called by an Indian name, Adiron-
dack, a term of derision given by one family of Indians to
another tribe of despised enemies who, during the long Canadian
"winters, when their game grew scarce, lived, driven by hunger, for
many weeks together, upon the buds and bark, and sometimes
even upon the wood of forest trees. Ad-i-ron-dacks means trcc-
xatcrs.

This great wild region of Northern New York is almost every-
where as high at least as two thousand feet above sea level.
It contains more than a thousand lakes, and from its heights run
countless rivers and streams in every direction, while over all is
spread a primeval forest, broken here and there only by a few small
settlements. It will long remain under the uncontested dominion
•of nature.

316

A FAMILY FLIGHT AROUND HOME.

CHAPTER XIII.

A LITTLE HISTORY.

WHILE English Colonists were settling upon the shores of
Maine and Massachusetts, the French were making explo-
rations farther North in Canada.

Early in the sixteenth century, Jacques Cartier had sailed up the
St. Lawrence; and m 1603, Samuel de Champlain sailed from
France, to found a settlement in North America, with the per-
mission of his king, Henry the Fourth (the hero of Ivry and
Navarre), who gave him the title of General Lieutenant of Canada.
Champlain founded a colony at Quebec, upon the site of an old
Indian hamlet which Jacques Cartier had seen seventy years before;
and there, or daring his hunting excursions with the Indians, sit-
ting around their wild camp-fires, he heard from them marvellous
stories of a great inland sea filled with islands, lying far to the
southward of the St. Lawrence river. His curiosity was excited,
and as soon as the snow melted in the spring, he set out upon a
voyage of discovery, with only two companions besides his Indian
escorl: of sixty warriors, with twenty-four canoes. These Indians
were -of the Algonquin nation, and they were about to penetrate
into regions inhabited and controlled by their hereditary enemies,
the fieixe Iroquois, called " Mohawks " by the New England Colo-
nists. After a toilsome passage up the rapids, they came to the
lake to which Champlain has given his name, the far-famed "wilder-
ness -sea of the Iroquois." It was studded with islands clothed in
the early summer verdure. From the thickly wooded shores on
either side rose ranges of mountains, the highest peaks still white

A LITTLE HISTORY.

11-;

with patches of snow. Over all hung a soft blue haze that seemed
to temper .the sunlight and to shade oft the landscape into spec-
tral forms of vague beauty.

One morning, after paddling as usual all night, they retired to
the western shore of the lake to take their daily rest. The sav-
ages were soon stretched along the ground in their slumbers, and

JACQrFS CARTIER.

Champlain, after a short walk in the woods, laid himself down to
sleep upon his bed of fragrant hemlock boughs. He dreamed that
he saw a band of Iroquois warriors drowning in the lake. Upon
his attempting to save them, the Algonquins told him that "they
were of no consequence, — nothing but Iroquois."

His Indian friends were constantly besetting him to tell his
dreams, and this was the first one he had remembered since the
beginning of his voyage. It was considered bv his allies as a

118 A FAMILY FLIGHT AROUND HOME.

most auspicious vision, and its relation filled them with joy. Per-
haps in telling- it, Champlain colored the recital a little, as we are
all apt to do in repeating our dreams.

At nightfall they set out again in their canoes, flushed with a
hope of an easy victory. About ten in the evening, near what is
now Crown Point, not many miles from the southern end of the
lake, they saw dark, moving objects on the lake before ihem. It
was a flotilla of Iroquois canoes. In a moment more each party of
savages saw the other, and their hideous war-cries mingling, pealed
along the lonely shores.

Thus Champlain, and through him the whole French nation,
became involved upon one side of an hereditary quarrel between
two sets of Indian tribes. The consequences of this first encounter
extended down through all the subsequent struggles between the
contending powers on the continent ; for the Algonquins remained
allied to the French, while the powerful Iroquois, their inveterate
enemies, became from that moment hostile to the French and
pledged to the opposite cause, that of the English colonists.

In this first forest encounter Champlain and his Algonquins had
the advantage. The sight of Champlain, clad in the metallic armor
of the time, struck amazement and terror to the hearts of the
Iroquois warriors ; one shot from his arquebuse made one of their
chiefs fall. Panic-stricken at the strange appearance of a white
man in glittering steel, sending forth from his weapons fire, smoke,
thunder, and leaden hail, they broke and fled in uncontrollable
terror toward their homes on the Mohawk, leaving everything

behind them

In 1620, the year the Pilgrims arrived at Plymouth, Champlain
was made Governor-General of Canada, and brought his wife to
Quebec. She was then very young, having married when she was
chilly twelve years old. The Indians were struck with her frail and
gentle beauty, and made her the object of their adoration. Cham-
plain died in Quebec, in 1635- His wife returned later to France

A LITTLE HI!STOKY.

119

and founded there a convent, we are told, where she died in the
year 1 654.

The lake to which he gave his name has since been the scene
of long campaigns and desperate battles in the course of the his-
tory of the settlement of this part of America.

It is a large and picturesque sheet of water more than one

TICONDEROGA AT SUNSET.

hundred miles long, containing large islands with populous towns
upon them.

In the same summer that Champlain discovered his lake, Henry
Hudson discovered and entered the mouth of the Hudson, now
since called by his name, and ascended it as far as the Mohawk,
one of its branches.

This same Hudson was an Englishman, but he was employed
at that time in the service of a Dutch company. Thus, while the

l:iO A FAMILY FLIGHT AROUND HOME.

French were exploring the upper region of New York, the English
were establishing their right to the lower part of it ; and out uf
these contiicting claims arose the series of bloody conflicts between
the two nations and their respective Indian allies.

After leaving Burlington, the Homers found themselves on the
deck of one of the large and commodious lake steamers, on their
way to Ticonderoga, at the southern end of Lake Champlain.
The day was lovely, and the scenery interesting ; the little party
sat together at the stern of the boat. It was the first time really
that there was a chance for what might be termed family talk,
for the day at Burlington had been taken up with sight-seeing,
and the attentions of their hospitable friends.

Tom and Hubert were leaning over the rail talking to each
other apart, when Tom turned to the rest of the party, and
said :

" Hubert wants to know what we are here for, and where we
are going, if you do not mind."

"I did not say any such thing!" said Hubert, coloring; "I only
wondered ' —

Mr. Horner laughed, and so did the others.

" I believe nobody has taken pains to tell you our plans, Hubert.
The telegram we sent you was short, but we thought you would
ship for the voyage, wherever bound."

"Why, Hubert," said Miss Lejeune, "we thought we would do
a little sight-seeing in our own land, without crossing the Atlantic,
and we began at the wrong end, by coming up first to Burlington,
for the sake of having you with us."

" Does it not seem," said Bessie, while Hubert was expressing
his pleasure, "as if we were all on the Rhine or some foreign
lake.?"

It did indeed, for they were surrounded with the usual travelling
paraphernalia. Even the red guide-book, on the seat by the side of
Miss Lejeune, was got up to resemble Baedeker, which they always

A. LITTLE UlsTOKY.

I2i

had at baud in Europe. It wa^ Osgood's New Eiiglaiid, 3. valuable
companion.

■ We are going tu Ticouderoga," said Mr. Horner, ••and thence
_icro5i Lake George ; after that we shall see. This is only a little
trip, Hubert, before settling down for the summer."

The rush of travel sets in later, — not till July has begun. — af:er
■which railways, steamboats and hotels, all over the picturesque

OK rVTE. I.4KK >HOXR.

part of Xew England, are thronged with summer tourists. July
and August, the popular months, are, however, in themselves hot,
dustN- and uncomfortable : the discomfort is increased by the crowd.
Therefore for those to whom it is possible, the fresh, long days of
-early June are more agreeable for travelling. Hotels, just open for

122 A FAMILY FLIGHT AKOUND UOME.

the summer, are clean and empty, landlords, maids and waiters are
fresh and attentive ; above all, the fly, that pest of a New England
summer, has not made his appearance.

They began to ask Hubert about his life at Utopia, and Mr.
Horner made some inquiry into his progress in lessons and read-
ing. He found by the intelligent answers he received, that the
bov was really interested in the subjects he had been going over,
and fully ready to understand what they were to see of historic
interest in the scenes of battle-fields and early events.

"I should not wonder, Bessie," said her father, "if Hubert could
give you points in American history already."

"I am afraid he can, papa," she replied, "for I have not been
cramming, you know."

" I have not been cramming either," said Hubert. " But I have
a few more ideas in my head than the day I landed, Tom. Then I
hardly knew the difference between Bunker Hill and Plymouth
Rock."

Hubert was beginning now to see clearly how it was that New
England became settled; how a century or more, after 1620, was
occupied in contesting discovered territory with the French, the
founding of towns and States, all under the name of colonies of
England ; how the battles were the quarrels of England, embittered,
of course, by the personal antagonism between the Indians and all
white settlers.

These difficulties were scarcely over, in the middle of the eighteenth
century, when the greater one arose, of disagreement with the mother
country. The growing colonies were become too strong to submit
to home rule. Then came the Revolution, the war for the sake
of freedom of the colonics, which resulted in the Declaration of
Independence, in 1776. This, though the close of one struggle,
was but the beginning of an effort for separate existence, for it
was long before the United States became firmly ostablished.

THE CHIME OF BELLS. 12a

CHAPTER XIV.

THE CHIME OV BELLS.

r- |"»ICONDEROGA is particularly remarkable for the prominenl

I place held in American History by its fortifications.

As early as 1731, a century after its discovery by Champlain,
the French built Fort St. Frederick, and occupied it, at Crown
Point, and then, after a careful survey of the lake, advanced to
Ticonderoga and began a fortification there in order to command
the passage of the lake. This fort they called " The Carillon," or
chime of bells, on account of the music of the falls near it.

Soon after, the commander of the English and colonial army.
Sir William Johnson, intended to attack the two French fortresses,
but as the P'rench re-enforced them largely, he contented himself
with fortifying P"ort William Henry at the southern extremity of
Lake Georo-e, as he now called it for the first time, in honor of
the English king, and in token of his empire over it. The P^rench
name for the smaller lake was St. Sacrament.

This was the beginning of the last French and Indian War,,
which lasted from 1755 to 1759, and resulted in the loss by the
French of their control over the region of Lake Champlain and
the St. Lawrence.

Fort Carillon remained in the possession of the French nearly all
this time, but in 1759 it was invested by the English forces, and
fell into their hands. Crown Point also was soon after abandoned.
These events were closely followed by the final victory at Quebec,
by General Wolfe over Montcalm, which closed the war. In 1765
peace was declared between France and England, which was a cause

124

A FAMILY FLIGHT AROUND HOME.

for great joy among the war-worn inhabitants of the northern valley.
The name of Fort Carillon was now changed to Ticonderoga,
which means chiming ivatcrs, and it became an English fort. As
the times were peaceful it was allowed to fall into decay, and was
held by so small a force that it fell easily into the hands of
Ethan Allen, one of the boldest leaders of the rebellious colonists,
who, upon the receipt of the news of the battle of Lexington, sur-
prised the fort, on the tenth of May, 1775, and captured the little

garrison of fifty
men, with their
artillery and mu-
nitions of war.

Later the En-
glish regained pos-
session of it, and
it continued in
their hands until
the end of the Rev-
olutionary War,
when its English
garrison retreated
down Lake Cham-
plain, dismantling
the fort. After
this war, it was
suffered to fall in-
to ruins ; these
are large enough
in extent to give evidence to all its old importance.

The ruins of the fort crown a rocky promontory close to the
steamboat wharf. Near them rises a forest-covered mountain, beyond
which the lake narrows to a river. Between the promontory and
the mountains a stream issues from the woods and falls into the

i'HE CHlMINi; VV.MEKii.

INDIAN difficulties;

THE CHIME OF BELLS.

127

lake, making the fall which Champlain heard, but did not see,

which has given both the French and Indian names to the locality.

Here the little party of Horners established themselves in the

pleasant hotel, an old-fashioned mansion-house near the lake and

PINK A7AI,EA.

landing. It was interesting to scramble about the ruins of the
fort, which though less extensive than those of Heidelberg, and less
glowing than the Alhambra, have their own claim to the interest
of Americans, while the views of the lake, and the mountains across
it, are very lovely.

There were ]:)lcasant expeditions to be made to Crown Point,
along the lake, and to the top of Mt. Defiance, across the widenings
of the outlet of Lake George. The summit is eight hundred feet
above the level of the lake, and the view is very fine.

The last excursion was accomplished by Bessie and the two boys,
along the nearly vanished military road constructed by General
Burgovne. The elder portion of the party were content to stay
at home, and to receive the merry accounts of the returned climbers,
and to put in water the branches of wild cherry-blossoms, pink
azalea and the like, they brought back.

There were good boats to be had. and often after tea the family
went out to row on the lake. Tom, of course, pulled a good oar,

128 A FAMILY FLKillT AROUND HOME.

and Bessie did fairly well for a girl. As for Hubert, he disgraced
himself, and caught many a crab, having no knowledge of the art.
He secretly resolved to remedy this deficiency.

There was one boat large enough to contain the whole party,
and in this family excursions were often made, not altogether pop-
ular with Tom and Bessie, who had to do the rowing on such
trips, but pleasant occasions for general talk. Mrs. Horner took
her place always in the stern, under the vague impression that she
could steer. Indeed she could, if she set her mind to it, but in
the ardor of conversation she was apt to let the rudder stray at
its own sweet will. This was of no great consequence, as the
party were seldom going anywhere in particular. There were seats
enough also for Miss Lejeune and Mr. Horner, in the stern. Mr.
Horner always offered his services at the oars, but Bessie and Tom
preferred to pull for themselves. Hubert, meanwhile, stretched him-
self out 'in the pointed bow of the boat, enduring, as best he might,
the slurs of laziness which were put upon him. He would have
gladly taken his turn in rowing, but was too clumsy, as yet, to-
be tolerated.

One late afternoon, as they were floating about, rather than row-
ing, among the shady nooks of a narrow part of the lake, Mrs.
Horner exclaimed,

" Augusta ! we have never told you about the Stuy vesants ! "

"What about them.?" asked Miss Lejeune.

" They have left Paris and come home to live."

" Impossible ! " she replied. " Leave their beloved Avenue Jose-
phine ! I can't believe it."

"Nevertheless I have seen them," replied Mrs. Horner. " Thev
are at the Fifth Avenue Hotel; all their furniture is stored some-
where. Miss Stuyvesant is to come out in New York next win-
ter ; they mean to s])end the summer in Newport, and they are
looking about for a place for the twins."

" Well, well ! " ejaculated Miss Lejeune.

THE CHIME OF BELLS.

129

"Mamma thinks," called out Tom from his oar, "that I had
best take the boys to Utopia for the summer."

"And you do not approve of her plan?" said Miss Lejeune, in-
quiringly.

"The boys are nothing but a couple of monkeys," grumbled

huffrt's private practice.

Tom, "and if they are in mv charge, I had best engage a hand-
organ at once, to go with them."

"They may have improved," suggested Miss Augusta; "how old
are they now.?"

"Two years younger than I am," said Tom. " Come, Bessie, pull
all you can, and let us trv, if we can, to turn the corner in time
to see the sun go down."

While they were both silent, putting all their forces into their

130

A FAMILY FLIGHT AROUND HOME.

rowing, the grown-up people at their end of the boat went on dis-
cussing the Stuyvesants.

"Mr. Horner thinks," said his wife, "that their investments are
down, and so they want to retrench."

"The worst thing they can do^ then, is to try and live in New
York and Newport."

"Yes; but their establishment at Paris was very extravagant; if
they give up their horses and their apartment there, they can
manage more simply for a year or two, and then if their income
improves, they can go back again."

" RcciLler pour viiciix Santera remarked Miss Lejeune ; then sud-
denly changing her tone, exclaimed, with every one else in the boat,

" Oh, how lovely ! "

Vigorous pulls of the rowers had brought the boat round a
wooded corner to an open space, where the shores receded and lay
flat before them, just in time to see the sun go down in a cloud-
less sky, a ball of living fire.

Tom and Bessie, panting, rested upon their oars. The little party
watched the sun setting until the last rim had disappeared.

"We ought to go home now," remarked Mrs. Horner; "it will
be growing cool directly."

"Who are these Stuyvesants.?" called out Hubert from the end
of the boat.

" They are some boys who were with us on the Nile," replied
Tom; "they were small, ill-bred creatures, who had not the
faintest idea of minding what anybody told them, least of all their
father; as for their mother, she had no idea of telling them any-
thing."

"Tom! Tom!" called his father in a warning voice.
"You arc hard on them, really, Tom," said Bessie. "One of
them was rather nice, though I do not recollect which ; but Mary
could manage them.''

"I say," began Hubert, "let us have them come to Utopia, Tom;

THE CHIME OF BELLS.

I4.i

you've no idea how dull it is there withojt any fellows, only a o^irl
to talk with all day long."

"Only a girl! thank you!" said Bessie.

"There are girls aud girls, you know. Bessie," quickly replied
■Hubert. " Alice Martin is all very well, but " —

"Tell us all about her," said Bessie; and Hubert, sitting up in
his end of the boat, began an account, lively for him, of his
acquaintance with Alice Martin, his adventure in the barn, and
other tales of his life in Utopia.

" I think," said Bessie condescendingly, " that Alice must be a
nice girl."

*' But if there were other boys, we could have all sorts of o-ood
excursions, and build huts in the woods, and that," pursued Hubert •
"'^ especially little boys whom we could make mind."

"You wait and see if you can make these boys mind," grumbled
Tom.

However, he did not vigorously oppose the scheme. Mr. Horner
knew the Bruces wanted to fill up their house with boys for the
summer, and he thought the chances were more in favor of two
boys they already knew something about, than entire strangers. It
was decided that he might as well talk to Mr. Stuyvesant about
it, who was a sensible man.

• r — — : . .

! L... ^ __.:

[__. ____ I

134 A FAMILY FLIGHT AROUXD HOME.

CHAPTER XV.

FRENCH AND ENGLISH CAMPAIGNS.

THE English were not disposed to allow their F"rench enemie&
the control of the two lakes, and Colonel Johnson was already
making preparations to attack Crown Point when he learned that
the French had firmly established themselves at Ticonderoga. The
French general, Baron Dieskau, sent to defend Crown Point, deter-
mined to advance upon the English, at their encampment upon
Lake George. In this encounter the French were driven off, and
Dieskau was mortally wounded. Johnson did not pursue them, or
at that time make any attempt upon their works at Lake Cham-
plain. The rest of the campaign of 1755 was spent by the Eng-
lish in erecting a fort at the south end of Lake George, which
was called William Henry, after the Duke of Cumberland. Up to
this time, their nearest stronghold was Fort Edward, at the south-
ern end of Lake George.

At this time, the French side had the advantage of being con-
trolled by a man of great heroism and courage. Louis Joseph de
St. Veran, Marquis de Montcalm, was born in France in 171 2.
He entered the army when fourteen years old, and had served
bravely in several campaigns, when, in 1756, being then a brigadier-
general, he was appointed to command the French troops in Canada.

As soon as he arrived, he began operations against the English
with great activity and success, making the field of his exertions
the southern end of Lake Champlain. For this purpose, he col-
lected at Crown Point and Ticonderoga all his forces, consisting
of regular troops, Canadians and Indians. As early as the twen-

FRENCH AND ENGLISH CAMPAIGNS.

185

tieth of March, 1757, he attacked Fort William Henry, but his
object was defeated by the bravery of the garrison there, which
Colonel Monroe was then sent to reinforce. The day after his
arrival, the French and Indians, under Montcalm, again appeared
upon the lake, effected a landing with but little opposition, and
immediately laid siege to the fort. Montcalm at the same time
sent a letter to Monroe, stating that he felt himself bound in
humanity to urge the English commander to surrender before any
of the Indians were slain and their savage temper further inflamed

DEATH OF GENERAL WOLFE.

by a resistance which would be unavailing. Monroe replied that
as the fortress had been entrusted to him, both his honor and
his duty required him to defend it to the last extremity.

The garrison, amounting to only twenty-five hundred men, made
a gallant defence, while Monroe, aware of his danger, sent frequent
expresses for succor to Fort Edward, farther south, the head^

136 A FAMILY FLIGHT AROUXD IIOMI..

quarters at that time of the English commander, GcnerrJ Webb.
But Webb remained inactive and apparently indilTcrcnt during these
alarming transactions. On the eighth or ninth d.:y of the siege
General Johnson was permitted to set out for Fort William Henry
with some troops ; but he had proceeded only three miles when
he received orders from Webb for his immediate return, Webb
at the same time advising Munroe to surrender on the best terms
he could obtain.

Munroe and his garrison had defended themselves with much
spirit, in hourly expectation of relief from Fort Edward, till the
ninth of August, when all their hopes were blasted by the recep-
tion of Webb's letter, which Montcalm had intercepted, and now
sent in with further proposals of a surrender of the fort.

Articles of capitulation were therefore signed, and no further
trouble was apprehended. But the Indians belonging to the French
army attached no importance to the pledge made by their general
for the safety of the conquered enemy. The garrison had no sooner
marched out of the fort than they fell upon the defenceless
soldiers, plundering and murdering all who came in their way.
On this fatal day more than half the English were either mur-
dered by the savage's, or carried by them into captivity, never to
return. The fort was entirely demolished ; the barracks, out-houses
and building were a heap of ruins ; the cannons, stores, boats and
vessels were all carried away.

The French, satisfied with their success, retired to their works
at Ticonderoga and Crown Point ; and for that year nothing more
was done cither by French or English in this quarter. The Eng-
lish had suffered much in loss of life and property, and had
gained nothing. This want of success was chiefly owing to the inef-
ficiency and ignorance of the Britisli ministry in relation to American
affairs, which led as a natural result, to want of ability and energy
in the generals to whom (he prosecution of the war was entrusted, a
deficiency made conspicuous by the talent and boldness of Montcalm.

FREXCU AND ENGLISH CAMl'AlGNfei. 1:^,7

The next year, however, the tables were turned. The repeated
failure of the British arms in America created so much dissatis-
faction both at home and in the colonies, that a change was found
indispensable in the conduct of affairs, which began to assume a
more favorable aspect. Instead of defeat and disgrace, victory and
triumph now usually attended the English arms.

On the other hand, the personal bravery of Montcalm, although
it raised his popularity with his soldiers, could not redeem the want
of energy of the French government. There was dissension in the
-councils of the governor of Canada and the commander. Even in
the midst of victory, Montcalm predicted that in the end the
English would be masters of the French colonies in America.
Resolved, however, to struggle to the last, and as he himself said,
to find his grave under the ruins of the colony, he actively car-
ried on the campaign.

The English determined that the French settlements should be
attacked at several points at once ; one of these was the strong-
hold at Ticonderoga. The fort was favorably situated for defence,
as can still be easily seen. It was surrounded on three sides by
vv^ater, and about half the other side was protected by a deep
-swamp, while the line of defence was completed by tlie erection of
a breastwork nine feet high. The ground before this breastwork
v/as covered with felled trees and bushes, to impede the approach
of the enemy.

The English general, Abercrombie, believing that this, place
might be attacked with a fair prospect of success, marched forward,
imdismayed by the heavy fire from the French, till they became
^entangled and stopped by the timber. For four hours they strove
with their swords to cut their way to the breastwork, through
branches and bushes, but the attempt was futile. At last they
retreated, with severe loss, and were forced to hasten back to their
encampment at Lake George.

Everywhere else the British troops had been successful, and in

138 A FAMILY FLIGHT AROUND HOME.

spite of the unlucky defeat at Ticonderoga, the confidence of the
colonists began to revive, and that of the French to languish.

The next year the French, dreading an attack which was in
preparation, abandoned the fortress at Ticonderoga, and repaired t&
Crown Point. This also they relinquished later in the summer, with-
out destroying their works.

While this was taking place on Lake Champlain, the brave
Montcalm was concentrating his forces at Quebec, where General
Wolfe, with a large army, presented himself. The success of the
conquest of Canada depended upon the taking of that city.

The battle on the Heights of Abraham, which decided the con-
test, took place September 13, 1759. Both generals were deter-
mined to conquer or die ; both fell at the head of their respective
armies. The English carried the day, and the French were defeated^
dispersed or made prisoners.

Montcaltn, having received one musket ball early in the action,
was mortally wounded while attempting to rally son)e fugitive
Canadians. On being told his death was near, he said, "So much
the better ; 1 shall not live to see the surrender of Quebec."

He died the next morning, and his death was followed by the
loss to France of Canada.

"I should like to go to Quebec," said Miss Lejeune, adding, "do
you mean to visit all the battle-fields of American history.?" with
a smile, as she addressed Mr. Horner.

" I am afraid wc shall not hold out to do that." he replied.
"There are many other places of equal interest to Ticonderoga,
merely looking at the story of these French and English contests
for territory. It seems as if one place might serve as a sort of
specimen for all. If we become interested in the scene of a part
of the struggle, and study carefully the actual ground over which the
contending parties came and went, we shall acquire a living knowledge
of the whole. Of course it is to be remembered thnt this spot was
hut one point in the struggle going on all along the line. The

PAUL REVERE'S ride.

FRENCH AND ENGLISH CAMPAIGNS. 141

story of Braddock's defeat, at Fort Du Ouesne, and the subsequent
taking of it, is just as interesting as that of the events we are
now looking at ; the fact that Washington was there engaged makes
it perhaps more so. But," he added, " I doubt if the neighborhood
is so picturesque."

On the site of Fort Du Ouesne, in the western part of Penn-
sylvania, the "city of Pittsburg now stands, and blackens the neigh-
borhood with the smoke of its many chimneys. It
was a post contested, like Ticonderoga, between
French and English. Washington, then a young
man, selected the spot for an English fort. The
French drove away the workmen employed upon it,
and finished the fort themselves, calling it Fort Du
Quesne. A veteran English army was sent there "^

under General Braddock, with Washington as a staff \ . -l, ^3

oflicer, but the General was defeated, and mortally

C.EN. DRADDOCK.

wounded. This took place July 9, 1755.

Three years after, Washington was again sent to Fort Du Ouesne,
and took it at last. These events had great consequences among
the colonists. They taught them that the red coats were not in-
vincible, and in the training of battle, they themselves were pre-
paring for the greater struggle against the same generals who were
now their commanders.

General Wolfe, the English commander at Quebec, displayed
as much bravery as his French opponent. Hubert and Bessie had
a quarrel over their respective merits, Hubert taking the side of
the EngHsh hero, Bessie teasing him with her preference for the
French.

"Oh, come along, Hubert!" cried Tom, "what do you care for
either of them } Come down to the lake for a row."

142 A FAMII.Y FIJ(4HT AROUND HOiME.

CHAPTER XVI.

LAKE GEORGE.

NOTHING induced Tom to take an interest in these historical
discussions. He was tall, strong and active, with a fine ap-
petite, and thorough enjoyment of muscular exercises. He had never
been known to devote himself to books, and was the only Horner
without a decided aptitude for foreign languages. On the other
hand, he was of a most genial, sociable disposition, and \vas a
general favorite wherever he went, among schoolfellows, young ladies,
.and especially matrons, to whom he had naturally an attractive,
gratifying manner of addressing himself.

Bessie was extremely pleased with Hubert's lately developed
taste for lier favorite pursuit of history, and if she loved to disa-
gree with him, it was to discover how well he could defend his
■own side of the question.

"Hubert," she said, "how did you come upon all this knowledge
about Wolfe and the Heights of Abraham.?"

" Why, I have been reading about it, with Professor Bruce.
You will like him, Bessie; he is just loaded to the muzzle with
facts."

After a charming week at Ticonderoga, our party left that place,
and crossed Lake George, one afternoon, to Caldwell, at the head,
or soutiiern end, of that lake. Here they established themselves at
the huge Fort William Henry Hotel, built actually on the site of
the old fort, witli a fine view down the lake.

They found Lake George even more picturesque than its far
larger companion, and plentifully supplied with points of historic

LAKE GEORGE. ]4:'.

interest of which the stories are, with time, becoming legends, like
those of the Old World.

"The only difficulty with our early history," said Miss Lejeune,
•*• is that we still have to see it too near. It is like these hills

LAKE GEORGE.

in this clear atmosphere. They were intended to 'carry' for a long
distance, and we come close up to them, like an amateur critic in
a picture gallery."

J44 A FAMILY FLK4HT AliOUxXD HOME.

-Time is remedying that, Augusta, as fast as it can; it is
already two centuries and a lialf since the first white man saw
Lake George," said Mr. Horner.

This was a Jesuit priest, Father Jogues, who was brought hither
as a prisoner by Iroquois, in 1642, thirty-three years after Cham-
plam had terrified the savages so that they fled in terror from
his murderous weapons, to their home on the Mohawk. Smce
then they themselves had been supplied with firearms, and learned
the use of them, and now their turn of revenge was come. They
took the war-path and infested the forests all over the country like
ravening wolves. It was one of these hostile bands that had attacked
Father ''jogues and his companions as he was returning with sup-
plies from Quebec to a far-off mission where he was doing his best
to give to Indians the faith and benefit of civilized life.

Having seized these captives, the savages returned with them,
inflicting horrid tortures to their home on the Mohawk, and thus
they came, after passing "the chiming waters" at Ticonderoga, to
the shores of the beautiful lake sleeping in the depths of the
limited forest, the fairest gem of the wilderness.

Jogues remained among the Mohawks for nearly a year, a cap-
tive; in the midst of his suff-erings, he lost no opportunity to con-
vert' his tormentors to Christianity. In a lonely spot in the forest
he cut bark from a large tree into the form of a cross, before
which, half-clad in furs, he used to kneel in prayer upon the frozen

ground.

One of bis companions tliey adopted into one of tl,e,r lamii.es;
the other they killed. At last, after a year of sulfern,;;, Jogues
managed to escape, and was secreted by the Dutch at fort Orange,
near Albany. These l<in.l-hcarted people paid a large ransom for
bin,, and gave him a tree passage home to I'rance. He arrived
in lirittany, his native place, one Christmas day, an.l was rece.ved
bv his friends, who had heard of his captivity, as one risen fron,
the dead, lie was treated everywhere with nnngled reverence .and

LAKE GEOKGE.

145

curiosity, and was summoned to court, where the Queen Anne of
Austria kissed the poor mutilated hands of the slave of the Mo-
hawks.

He returned to Canada, and twice revisited the country of the
Mohawks ; the second time was the last, for he was treacherously
slain by the savages, for whom he had done so much. He was
struck on the head with a tomahawk as he entered a wigwam

SHELVING ROCK, — LAKE GEORGE.

where he had been invited to supper. His head was cut off and
displayed upon one of the palisades that surrounded the village.
His body they threw into the river.

Lake George is thirty-six miles long, but so narrow that it seems
everywhere like a river. The shores are steep and rocky in some
places ; as at the spot called Rogers Slide, where Major Robert
Rogers was chased to the edge of the cliff by Indians, in the winter
of 1758. Hidden from them for a few moments, he managed to turn
round upon his snow-shoes, and retreated from the edge of the cliff, so
that his tracks, being reversed, made it appear as if he had cast him

146

A FAMILY FLIGHT AKOUND HOME.

self over it. He slid down the ravine close at hand, and when
the Indians came up a few minutes later, they saw him skimming
away over the ice towards Fort William Henry, and attributed his
escape to the protection of the Great Spirit.

Lake George is now quiet and still, but for the daily steam-
boats which in summer ply across it from end to end; but it was
the scene of imposing spectacles during the contests of French
and English. In 1758, the English army advanced up the lake
with sixteen thousand men, in large bateaux, convoyed by gun-
boats, all brilliant with rich uniforms and waving banners, while
the music of the regimental bands echoed among' the hills. A
few days later the scattered and defeated army passed back up
the lake, having left half their number dead and dying under the
walls of Fort Carillon; this was the time of the unsuccessful at-
tack among the bushes and timber. The next year another mar-
tial procession crossed the lake, and this march was soon followed
by the Conquest of Canada.

Cooper's novel, "The Last of the Mohicans," has for its plot and
situation the campaign at Fort William Henry. The story is
very exciting, and though highly colored, adheres closely to the
facts. The Red Indian as depicted by Cooper is a more romantic,
emotional being than it is possible to consider him after reading
Parkman's description of his characteristics; but the painted figure
seems better for a romance than the cold reality.

The description of Fort William Henry in the novel is faithful
to the scene.

"Directly on the shore of the lake, and nearer to its western
than its eastern margin, lay the extensive earthen ramparts and
low buildings of the Fort. Two of the sweeping bastions appeared
to rest on the water, which washed their base, while a deep ditch
and extensive morasses guarded its other sides and angles. The
land had been cleared of wood for a reasonable distance around
the work, but every other part of the scene lay in the green

■ J¥ ' '

PUTNAM SAVINC FORT EDWARD.

LAKE GEORGE. 14<j

livery of nature, except where the limpid water mellowed the view,
or the bold rocks thrust their black and naked heads above the
undulating outlines of the mountain ranges. In front, numerous
islands rested on the bosom of the lake, some low and sunken,
as if imbedded in the waters, others appearing to hover over it
in little hillocks of green velvet."

If Montcalm were responsible for the massacre by his Indians
which followed upon the surrender of Fort William Henry, it
would be a dark blot upon his reputation as a hero. There is
reason to believe, however, that the conduct of these savages was
beyond his control.

This was a subject upon which Bessie and Hubert could never
agree, Bessie defending her general because he was French, and
Hubert taking the view of Cooper, that the event left a stain upon
the reputation of Montcalm, not erased by his early and glorious
death.

Fort Edward, built in 1755, was a post of military importance
as the point on the Hudson where troops and stores were landed
to pass to Lake Champlain, a distance of only twenty-five miles,
which, however, in those early days, was a difficult passage, beset
with savages. It was built of logs and earth, and surrounded by a
deep ditch.

The whole neighborhood which the Horners were now visiting is
as interesting for scenes in the Revolutionary War as for the earlier
ones described ; but Hubert did not yet care so much for the
later events, having, as he said, not come to them yet.

"Well, Hubert," said Bessie, "when you have studied up the
Revolutionary War, we will come again, and see all the places we
have overlooked now, or neglected."

" I think Hubert will find it more interesting to read about
the struggle of independence, now that he knows who the men
were, and what material they were made of, that entered into it,
and carried it through to the end."

150

A FAMILY FLIGHT AROUND HOME.

"Yes, Hubert, you read all about it, and tell me anything you
think may really improve my mind," said Tom, as he stretched
himself out on the hard sofa of the hotel parlor, with a bundle
of shawls under his head.

They had come in from a long excursion on which there had
been too much talking of old battle-fields, too much standing round,
and too little straight-ahead, steady exercise to suit Tom, and he
professed himself entirely used up. Tom was a good sleeper, and
equally good for a ten-mile walk or a three hours' nap.

In about five minutes he was fast asleep. His mother carefully
threw something over him to protect him from an open window
near, and they all left him to his slumbers.

SCHROON LAKE. 151

CHAPTER XVII.

SCHROON LAKE.

AMONG the many pleasant excursions which the Horners made
about Lake George was one especially desired by Bessie,
on account of its name.

Schroon Lake lies at the foot of one of the mountain ranges of
the Adirondack region, and Schroon river w'nds through its deep
valleys. This name was given to the lake and river by the early
French settlers at Crown Point, in honor of Madame Scarron, wife
of the celebrated French dramatist, Paul Scarron, and afterwards
herself celebrated as Madame de Maintenon.

Bessie was delighted when she found that Schroon was a contraction
of Scarron. Doubtless some admirer of the poet, or of his young
and beautiful wife, who had frequented their beautiful salons in Paris,
named the stream and river in their honor, which he found in lonely
wanderings in the wilds of a new world. On the old maps, the
name is always written Scarron.

Fran^oise d' Aubigne was born in prison, where her father, a
worthless baron, passed many years. He died afterwards in pov-
erty, and Frangoise became a mere drudge in the service of a
countess, her godmother, minding poultry in the farmyard in a
peasant's dress and wooden shoes.

In the same street lived the poet Scarron, a paralytic and crip-
ple. Becoming interested in the poor girl, he fell in love with
her, and offered himself in marriage. She was seventeen, and he
more than twice her age, but she accepted him. The house of
Scarron became the resort of the best intellects of Paris.

152

' A FAMILY FLIGHT AROUND HOME.

After the death of her husband, Madame Scarron, as governess
of the children of Louis the Fourteenth, so captivated that king,

Ji«,.#';M*^^^^

that after the death of his queen,
Maria Theresa, he married her
in secret. Thus she became the
Queen of France, in fact, though
not in name. The king settled
upon her the large estate of Main-
tenon, and made her Marquise de
Maintenon. For thirty years she
cxercisea a remarkable influence
( vcr the destinies of France.

In many ways the advice she gave the

.mg was good and useful : she made him

think more about religion than he had

ever done before, but she encouraged his

j,j„^.^,, ^,. dislike to the Huguenots, and it was in

liarmony with her inclinations that he

revoked thi- Indict of Nantes, by which these French Protestants

had hitherto been protected.

SCHROON LAKE. I53

It was such severity towards the Protestants which made enemies
for Louis in all the countries of Europe, amongst them William
of Orange, who had become king of England.

"In short, Bessie," said her father, "we may consider that the
lady who gave her name to this lake was the cause of all the
bloodshed in its neighborhood for the last two hundred years."

"That is putting it rather strong, papa," she answered, "for the
French and English would have quarrelled about the land anyhow,
and the Indians would have taken different sides."

The war between England and France, known as King William's
War, which lasted from 1689 to 1697, involved the American col-
onies. It was during this war that some of the Indians became
the allies of the French, while the English were friendly with the
Iroquois — the Five Nations who inhabited Central New York.

"Queen Anne's War" was in Europe the War of the Spanish
Succession, beginning in 1702, ending with the Treaty of Utrecht,
in 1 71 3. This was
the last of Louis the
Fourteenth's wars, as
he died in 171 5. In
this war the colonies
were involved ; the

frontiers of New Eng- \ ^jizr-rkzz -'1 "'".r ^~ \~-=i>:i^

land were kept in con-

tinual aJarm. 1 he garrison house, in deerkielu, .viAab.

town of Deerfield, in

Massachusetts, was attacked and destroyed by a party of French
and Indians, and for several years the frontiers of Canada and
New England were the continued scene of massacre and devasta-
tion. This was a war of religions, for both on the Continent and
in America, Protestant English were arrayed against Roman Catholic
French.

" King George's War," called after George the Second, is the same

''----^-|!p^^!|^^i|5!fal**«*. -^.^^

154

A FAMILY FLIGHT AROUND HOME.

as the war about the Austrian Succession ; the Protestant coun-
tries of Europe, England and Holland, defending the claim of
Maria Theresa against Frederick the Great, and also France and
Spain, who took up the cause of her opponent, the Elector of

Bavaria. War was declared between
France and England in 1744; Louis
the Fifteenth had succeeded his grand-
father on the French throne; and
George the Third was reigning;
in England. Again the colonies
shared in the warfare. In 1748
'^'\ a treaty was concluded
at Aix-la-Chapelle, by
which all nations were
pacified, and peace
•. prevailed in Europe;
but in America the
encroachments of
France on the English
led to resistance, and the events of
which Lake George and Lake Champlain
'" HTCHKiM'LANi-. wcre the scene, preceded the outbreak of
the Seven Years' War in Europe.
The Horners had a whole day going to and coming from the
lake named after Madame Scarron. They found the way beautiful
with flowers, some of them new to all. Hubert wished for Pro-
fessor Bruce, who would have told them all about the botany.

Beautiful blue flags grew in a sort of bog, where there was kalmia
different from the common sheep's laurel, or the splendid kalmia
latifolia, not yet in blossom. They found, too, the curious side-
saddle-flower {Samccnia) with its pitcher-shaped leaves.

In 1749, when Indians, French and English were enjoying a
short peace, but all sharpening their weapons for renewed contest^

SCHROON LAKE. I55

Peter Kalm, a Swedish botanist, travelled over this region. He
made discoveries of many plants not known in Europe, and gave
his name to the kalmia.

The long sunny day on which they took this expedition was the
last day of their stay at Lake George. On the next they went to
Fort Edward, where the party separated, Hubert and Tom escort-
ing Mrs. Horner and Bessie to Utopia, by the way of Rutland
and Burlington, whence the way was the same as that by which
Hubert had joined them.

Miss Lejeune and Mr. Horner returned to New York, where
each had affairs to look after. A fortnight had slipped by among
the associations and legends of early warfare on the lakes, and it
was now the middle of June.

"Well, aunt Dut," said Bessie, as they stood on the platform,
" I am sorry to part from you. I wish you were coming with
us to Utopia."

"So do I," said Hubert. "I am sure you would enjoy it. Miss
Augusta. You would have immense fun with Professor Bruce.
He is a great talker, and there is nothing he does not know."

"Perhaps I will come later," said Miss Lejeune; "but having
once surrendered myself to a summer of visits, there is no end
to engagements. It really requires book-keeping by double entry to
keep the run of them. As soon as my trunks are ready, I am
off for Beverly, then Nahant, and so on. I am only afraid," she
added, in a low tone to Bessie, "that your mother will be fear-
fully bored at Utopia."

"I do not believe she will stay long," replied Bessie. "You
know papa also thought it would be too dull, but she was pos-
sessed with the idea she would enjoy some real country. You
know Philip's vacation begins soon, and I think he will invent
something for her."

"How about yourself, Bessie.'" asked Miss Lejeune; "it i.s-
rather tame for vou, settling down here in Vermont."

15t5 A FAIVJILY FLIGHT AROUND HUME.

"Tame with my old Hubert here to squabble with and in-
struct," exclaimed Bessie, "and Tom besides: I assure you, we
are going to have a wildly exciting summer, are we not, Tom?"

Tom and his father were walking up and down the platform,
while Mrs. Horner was resting in a rocking-chan- in the ladies'
waiting-room. They joined the conversation.

" It will be wildly exciting if my father sends us the Stuyve-
sant boys," said Tom; "we have just been talking about that."

"I shall go and see Stuyvesant directly," said Mr. Horner,
"and see what he thinks of the plan. Meanwhile you must lay it
before the Bruces. If it is decided the boys are to come, I can
bring them with me next week or so, whenever I find time to
come up.

"You see," he continued, speaking to Miss Lejeune, "this
troublesome affair of Brown's I was telling you about, will keep me
pretty close to New York all summer; but it will not be diffi-
cult to run up to Utopia occasionally to see how the family
agree."

"Of all of us," cried Bessie, "you, papa, have arranged the
vilest programme for yourself!"

" My dear, I feel quite light-hearted at the idea of a hard-
working summer. I want to prove to my own satisfaction that
several years' travelling has not unfitted me for it."

The scheme presented to Mr. Stuyvesant pleased him greatly,
and was carrictl out, as the Bruces did not object to receiving
the twins.

Mrs. Horner and Bessie, as the boys expected, were delighted
with the drive over the mountain from East Utopia. The road
tlirough llie woods was carpeted with mosses, ferns, and the bright
red partridge berry.

" It looked very different, you had better believe, when I was
here before," said Tom, remembering with a shiver the snow-cov-
<ived landscape. It was now the perfection of early midsummer.

SCHROON LAKE.

159

The woods were full of kalmia latifolia, mountain laurel, in dense
thickets sometimes twenty feet high. There was one place where
it grew upon a slope surrounding a little pond like an amphithea-
tre, and here the masses of its bright pink blossoms prevailed
over the green of the foliage.

"It is like a pink snow storm!" cried Hubert.

They drove slowly up the hill to the homestead towards the
«nd of the afternoon. Mr. and Mrs. Bruce were both awaiting
them on the doorstep, and Alice ran across from her house as
soon as she saw the wagon in the distance, for which she was
on the watch.

" Look, Mrs. Horner ! is not the view lovely ? " demanded
Hubert.

The broad river below swept away for several miles ; across it
were the hills of New Hampshire, now brilliant with the perfect
greens of June. Opposite, the sun was already giving golden
tones to the scene as he approached the west.

A BIT OF THE LAKE.

160

A FAMILY FLIGHT AROUND HOME.

CHAPTER XVIII.

A POND LILY PICNIC.

MR. HORNER went back to New York, the Stuyvesant boys-
came, and little Mrs. Bruce had a house full, and her
hands full of responsibilities, for which she was quite equal.
Reinforced by two friendly young ladies in the kitchen, " who did
not mind helpin' Mrs. Bruce for a spell, seein' she had so many
to do for," the housekeeping ran smoothly enough.

Bessie and her mother occupied the "best spare," a room con-
tammg the most stately furniture of the house; a huge mahogany
four-post bedstead, with a delightful " qmlt," occupied one side of
the room between the windows. The first night when tired Bes-
sie threw herself upon this bed, she found herself sinking down,
down, to unknown depths. She shrieked for help to her mother
and Mrs. Bruce, who having come up-stairs late, were chatting in
the doorway. They came and rescued her. The down was eider-
down. Mrs. Bruce sat down in the rocking chair and laughed a
quiet little laugh she had.

" That's Lavinia Mary's doing," she said. " She must have brought
the down-bed from the garret on purpose to make you comforta-
ble. In January it might have been hospitably imagined, but to-
night ! "

Bessie was afraid of making trouble, but she was so sure that
her mother would be smothered during the night if she tried sleep-
ing in a bed of eider-down, that she allowed Mrs. Bruce to pull
it off, and lent her help in re-making the bed, of which the basi5>
was an excellent hair-mattress.

A POND LILY PICNIC. Igl

The kingdom of the boys was up stairs. Two large rooms occu-
pied the whole front of the house, behind which, in an L, down
a few steps, and over the "Hall," was the garret where Molly
Stark's bonnet lived.

At first the Stuyvesants were very meek and well behaved, and
as Tom and Hubert did not wish to encourage over familiarity,
the door of communication between the rooms was kept closed!
Later on — but it is unwise to anticipate.

It was a very cheerful party; and the time it shone to best
advantage was at breakfast-time. Mrs. Bruce believed in feeding

young and growing persons. The things she had for breakfast

were likely to tempt the most

timid appetite, and delight the

most robust.

The table was adorned with a

bunch of wild roses. Mr. Bruce

sat at his end of it, and admin-
istered broiled chicken, and ham

and eggs. Mrs. Bruce, opposite

him, poured out steaming coffee

with boiled milk and real cream

in it; and Lavinia Mary came

in at intervals of five minutes,

with plates of steaming griddles

which she applied all round the

table with appropriate remarks.

"Now, Mrs. Horner, you'll have

another. What ! given out al-
ready.? Well, I declare! I told Belinda I thought you'd take once

more. Mr. Hubert will, I know. Land's sakes, he's just begun.
Well, there's plenty more batter; it ris well this time. Now, Mr.
Augustine ! "

The boys, Ernest and Augustine Stuyvesant, were pale, thin boys,

WILD ROSES.

162

A FAMILY FLIGHT AROUND HOME.

looking as if they had had too much between meals in the way
of candy and fruit. Even at Utopia, their leading idea of filling

up the time was to go over
and spend their
. f u 1 pocket
on certain
fofe balls of
sweetness,

asked
on all

which

one of which
entirel)'" filled
the mouth
and precluded
speech until
disappeared,
iruce hoped to
:t this practice
by feeding them heartily
at regular hours, and giv-
ing them plenty of more ra-
tional employment in the intervals of
regular meals.

"What are you going to do to-day?"

the professor, for lessons had not yet begun. It was agreed

hands that there should be an interval of real vacation,

was to close on this seventeenth of June with some occasion

rM)KK I 111. I I'll-

A POND LILY PICNIC. 1^3

^worthy to celebrate together the anniversary of the Battle or Bunker
Hill.

In plans of amusement, Hubert took the place of master of
•ceremonies, on account of his prior knowledge of the place. This
:seemed very funny to Tom, who was well accustomed to be the
leader, especially with Hubert, but he willingly accepted, though for
this occasion only, the part of second fiddler.

Therefore he remained silent, putting his hands in his pockets
and tipping back his chair, a custom which Mrs. Horner disap-
proved of, but which
gentle Mrs. Bruce al-
lowed, while Hubert
replied :

" Alice says, sir,
that there are pond
lilies out in the pond
beyond the upper
farm, and we thought
we might go up and
picnic there."

" Pond lilies so ear-
ly ! I can hardly be-
lieve it ! " replied the
professor.

" She saw two of
Burdick's boys with
some yesterday, and
they told her where
they got them."
The professor roamed off into the library, and find-
ing the right page in his Gm/s Manual, glanced at the pencil
annotations in the margin, giving the dates when he had found
lilies in previous years.

POND LILIES.

164 A FAMILY FLIGHT AROUND HOME.

"Well, yes, — 'June 17, 1865;' — yes, there may be some; at any
rate, it is a delightful place to go to."

" We thought, sir, we might go up the big river in the two
boats, and then push the little boat through the creek, so as to-
have it in the pond to get the lilies."

" It's flat and swampy there ; you cannot get the boat through,.
I'm afraid," objected the professor.

" We can try," said Hubert with a smile.

" We can try " was a form of expression beloved of Professor
Bruce in connection with mental problems.

"May I come in?" asked Alice, pushing wider open the front
door, which was already ajar, and close to the dining-room.

Alice was still terribly afraid of Bessie, stood in awe of Tom,
had her doubts about Ernest and Augustine, and even found her
relations with Hubert changed, now that he was no longer depen-
dent on her for society. She liked the fun of such a crowd, as
she called it, but looked back with some regret on the delight-
ful quarrelling days when she and Hubert had the whole of Utopia
to themselves.

"What's this, Alice, about pond lilies?" asked the professor.

" I have brought this one to show you, sir ; it is not a very
good one, but the Burdicks wouldn't let me have any other."

" It is three days old," he replied ; " that shows they are well for-
ward ; if that is so, we may find cardinals too."

"That ham, marm," said Lavinia Mary, "is just in the condi-
tion for sandwidches."

Mrs. Bruce, thus reminded of the material part of a picnic,
now asked who was going.

" I do not like these marine excursions," said Mrs. Horner,
who had heard the suggestion of boats, "and think I may be
counted out."

"My dear madam," said the Professor gallantly,. "I propose to
leave the young people to solve the boat problem. I will put.

A POND LILY PICNIC. 1^5

I^ucy in the carryall, and take you and my wife, and any one
€lse, indeed, who cares for dry feet."

"Then do start soon," cried Hubert, "for we want to get back
tbefore dark."

Lucy was not a very fast horse.

"The baskets can go with us, then," said Mrs. Bruce, and
she withdrew with her adviser-
in-chief to prepare the substan-
tial.

The young people darted off,
careless of preparations, to the
shore of the river. Only Bes-
sie paused to offer her services,
but Lavinia Mary called out.
"Now you go with them. Miss
Bessie, and we'll see all is right."

"Dear mama, Fm so glad you are going," cried Bessie; "do you
mind taking this book.? I may get a chance to read to Hubert."

166 A FAMILY FLIGHT AROUND HOME.

"O Bessie!" cried her mother, "don't try to improve his
mind to-day ! "

"But it is interesting, mama!" and she was off. The book-
was Parkman's Pontiac.

Bessie could not be missed from the rowing party, for she-
pulled the best oar, except Tom. She therefore manned one
boat, he the other. She took Hubert, Tom took Alice, and the.
twins were equally divided between the two boats.

They proceeded but slowly up the stream, but the current close
to the shore was not strong, and the distance not more than quarter
of a mile. The tug of war was at the entrance of a sluggish,
little creek through a swamp thickly grown with marsh grass.
The smaller boat was left below, where a good landing could be
made. Alice and the twins were sent round by a dry path to
the pond, while Hubert and Tom pulled off their shoes and
stockings, rolled up their trousers and became outside passengers.
Bessie stayed in the boat to pole with an oar and to guide the
flat-bottomed craft. She pushed, the boys tugged. They stuck in.
the mud, but got off again. The channel became narrower and
narrower. Bessie had to alight on a rock, while they lifted the
boat over the submerged part of it; getting back into the boat
required a long step, but Bessie was equal to it. Finally they
came out where they longed to come,— a deep, cool arm of the
pond, where great trees came down to the shore. Here all was-
changed. They shoved the boat to land, shouted to the other
children, and threw themselves down, panting and exhausted.

"Oh, I'm that hot!" cried Bessie.

Hubert dipped up some water in a cup he carried in his-

pocket,

"It is not very cool, but it is better than nothing," he said.

The picnic place was just round the corner in the same woods.
For a wonder, Lucy had arrived before the boating party.

The two boys brought the boat round to the spot where the

A rOND LILY PICNIC.

167

rest were assembled, and after a brief rest, Tom pushed across
to the part of the pond where the lilies were, taking the two
girls to pull them up.

They found them not very plenty as yet, but with promise of
a large crop later on. Alice showed Bessie how to put her hand
deep down and pull on the stem steadily in a perpendicular di-
rection, so as not to break it off short. For Bessie had never
gathered pond lilies before.

As they were eating their good lunch under the trees, the
professor told them that the true way to gather lilies is to come
before sunrise and to see them as the first light touches and
opens the buds. They resolved to do this, and with his permis-
sion, they left the smaller boat there for future excursions, per-
fectly safe in that unfrequented region. Coming home, the twins
were packed into the wagon, the other four drifting merrily down
the river in the other boat.

168 A FAMILY FLIGHT AROUND HOME.

CHAPTER XIX.

WORK IN EARNEST.

WORK began in earnest on the next Monday, with reserva-
tions in favor of the coming Fourth. The library was con-
verted into a real schoolroom. Two desks, joined together, hacked
and ink-stained with good service of years, were brought out from
retirement for Ernest and Augustine Stuyvesant. Hubert still kept
his table in one corner, by a window overlooking the Connecticut,
while Tom was allowed one end of Mr. Bruce's own writing-table,
in the middle of the room. But Tom was only an honorary mem-
ber of the class. He had been working hard all winter, and was
at liberty to please himself now in the matter of study. Never-
theless, as the theory of the Horners was in favor of doing some-
thing useful in the course of every day, Tom was reading German
by himself with a dictionary, and was generally to be found at
his end of the study-table while the others were at work.

Professor Bruce presided, "grinding" the little boys at Latin,
reading, writing, arithmetic, etc., and suppressing their occasional
tendency to kick each other's shins. Maps and slates pervaded the
library. Bessie did not mix herself with this studious retreat, but
established lierself and books in a corner of her own room, near
a window with a deep low window-seat, commanding the same wide
view of the river and distance that Hubert's did below. She had
free access to the books in Professor Bruce's library, and had pre-
pared for herself a course of American History; besides which
Bessie was always getting u{) a new language. At present, it was
Italian, with which she was less familiar than the other modern ones.

PROFESSOR BRUCE.

WORK IN EARNEST.

171

Meanwhile, Mrs. Horner accompanied Mrs. Bruce daily around the
garden, advised or agreed about the housekeeping, helped Lavinia
Mary make the beds, cut and disposed of flowers from the gar-
den, and gave that light
final touch to the dust-
ing and arrangement of
the parlors which makes
the difference in charm
between a room so cared
for and the one me-
chanically set to rights.

As Bessie sat day
after day at her books,
and heard her mother's
gentle voice conferring
with Lavinia Mary, it
often happened that she
sighed a little sigh, and
said to herself, " Poor
mamma, it is awfully
dull for her here ! "

"Take these towels, Lavinia," she heard her mother saying one
Monday morning, adding cheerfully, "you will have a nice day to
wash."

"Yes'm. The great things are all out now on the lines. I told
Belinda I did not know but the wind might be a little too high,
but it has gone down considerable since sunrise."

"It is much nicer to have the things all washed every week,**
remarked Mrs, Horner, as she smoothed down her side of the bed,
and paused for a simultaneous turnover, with her fellow bed-maker,
of the edge of the clean white sheet.

"I expect so," said Lavinia Mary, without in the least knowing
what was meant.

Hubert's corner.

172 A FAMILY FLIGHT AROUND HOME.

" In Germany, you know, they only wash once in six months,"
-continued Mrs. Horner.

"Land's sakes ! " cried Lavinia Mary. "Do the things keep clean
so long in them climates.?"

" Oh, dear, no ! but they have quantities and quantities of sheets,
pillow-cases, and all wash-things. They change as often as we do,
throwing all the soiled linen into a dark closet; and when the
time for the grand wash comes, these are taken out, sorted and
■counted, and then they wash and wash till all is clean again."

" Heathen customs," remarked Lavinia Mary as she left the room
and went back to her weekly tub.

It was that same morning that as Bessie came out of the li-
brary, which she had entered for a moment to look at a book of
reference, leaving the students busily and quietly employed, she
■came upon Alice Martin, who was not usually to be seen at the
house so early. She brought a tastefully grouped bunch of but-
tercups and dandelions which she shyly presented to Bessie, and
then said, "Is Tom in the library.!*"

"Tom.?" demanded Bessie without another word, but in a man-
ner which implied, "What in the world can be your business with

Tt "
om .

"I, — that is, he, — I mean, we are going to begin German to-
gether," explained Alice, embarrassed at Bessie's sternness.

Luckily for her, Tom, hearing the voices, came to the door, and
assuming a severe manner to cover his own slight shecpishness,
he said, "Oh, you have come, Alice! you are late. I supposed
you had changed your mind. The grammar is all ready for you.
Come in ! "

" So you have turned pedagogue, Tom ! It must be in the air ! "
cried Bessie. The door was quickly shut, almost in her face, and
she went up-stairs, laughing.

" Tom and Alice ! " she said to herself, " that is a new combi-
nation. I must write to aunt Dut about it. That Tom should

WORK IN EARNEST. I73

be teaching German ! It is a capital thing to fill up his time."

As it happened, the mail that day brought other combinations.

Mary Horner, the oldest of the family, had been married about
a year, during which time she had been travelling or resting in
the south of Europe, with her husband, Mr. Clarence Hervey. Let-
ters came every week from the young couple, describing the pleas-
ures of Pau and the Pyrenees, with favorable accounts of Mary's
health, which had never been so robust as that of the rest of the
family. The budget which now arrived was full of but one theme
and entreaty, that the mamma should come out and join her daugh-
ter, and her very great favorite, the new son-in-law. The Her-
veys had heard the scheme of a Vermont summer without greatly
approving of it, for their mother at least.

"For the young ones," wrote Mr. Hervey, "it is all very well;,
but, dear Mrs. Horner, you are buried alive in the wilds of your
native land. You have not even your own closets to keep in order,
any more than you did while travelling in Europe. Come and keep
us in order. We need you more than the rest of your family
does. Bessie can matronize the young crowd at Utopia, and Mrs.
Bruce can matronize her. You must come to us. We will spend
the summer wherever you like best ; but we think you will like
our little Chateau Henri Quatre. It is just far enough from Pau
to be quiet, and near enough to be amusing, and the view of the
mountains is superb."

Mrs. Horner was a good deal upset by these letters, among
which was a private one from her husband, which seemed to
much urge the same thing. His plan, to make everything simple,
was that Philip should cross with his mother, in that same Bor-
deaux steamer they were so fond of.

Philip, the second Horner, and eldest son, had finished his first
year at Harvard. Class day was just over, and he was lingering
in the neighborhood of Cambridge with a college friend. No sooner
did he hear the plan than he rejoiced greatly. Meeting, oddly

174

A FAMILY FLIGHT AROUND HOME.

enough, Miss Lejeune at the Country Club, one day, he had a
chance of briefly talking the matter over with her. The result of
this was a sheaf of letters rom these two, which hardly left Mrs.

THE FRENCH CHATEAU.

Horner an opportunity to protest. "But,
my dear," she said to Bessie, " how can I
cross that dreadfu". Atlantic again, and with-
out your father? and then, he is so forlorn
by himself in New York." She fell to cry-
ing, but Bessie held firm.

"Papa will do well enough, mamma. I
think he is really younger for having this
business on his shoulders. He can come
here, or I can go to him, by and by. He
x^ can go to Newport while aunt Augusta is

there. What trunk shall you take, mammr'"

" I thought the black one, Bessie, would be enough with the
Jittle state-room valise."

WORK IN EARNEST. 175

Bessie smiled to herself. The fact that her mother had already
suffered her mind to dwell on the matter of baggage showed that
she was not invincibly opposed to the scheme.

"The fact is," said Tom, talking it over with Hubert, "that
our family go to Europe as easily as turtles slip off a log. Just
you notice that one."

He neatly aimed a stone at a happy turtle who was sunning
himself a rod or two off. The boys were strolling along :he river-
side, just below the house. The stone struck the log; the turtle
vanished.

Without more ado the plan was settled. Philip went tc New
York ; Tom took his mother there. They met Mr. Horner and
passed a couple of days at the Fifth Avenue Hote! together be-
fore the two travellers sailed.

Bessie felt a little gloomy as she saw her mother drive from
the door, with trunks and shawl-straps, and the little state-room
valise which she had herself so many times packed and unpacked.
She had misgivings about her mother, alone and sick in her state-
room, but the very next one had been secured for Philip, who
was never sick himself, and who was as good a nurse as one of
the girls. But Bessie wished she were to be wath them; as she
turned from the door, the sunlight seemed dark within the house.
She felt that her ov/n fate was rather drear)', "poked off with a
lot of boys up in the countr)', while the rest of the family were
enjoying themselves." In fact, left to herself,— for the house was
^nipty, — Bessie retired to her room,— now all hers since her mother
had deserted it,— and indulged herself in the rare luxury of one of
what in her childhood had been called "Bessie's tantrums," an
access of crying, accompanied by the darkest view of her situation

in life.

It lasted perhaps ten minutes, during which her nature worked
off the excitement of the last week Then she became reasonable,
and thought of a great many things which made her position not

176

A FAMILY FLIGHT AROUND HOME.

only desirable, but delightful. Washing her face to remove the
tears, she set herself to the active hard work of changing all the
furniture in the room from one place to another, and putting finally
away the remains of her mother's packing.

By the time the early dinner hour had arrived, she was not only
cheerful, but in ridiculously good spirits, and Tom being absent, she
carried off the blank caused by the two vacant places in a manner
which surprised Mr. Bruce, and every one but Hubert, who had seen
her just like this before, in similar circumstances.

DANDELIONS AND BUTTERCUPS.

TWO HEROES. 177

CHAPTER XX.

TWO HEROES.

IT is evident that the stirring events of the early half of the
eighteenth century were raising a crop of heroes ready 10
stand forth fully equipped in the service of freedom when the time
came to resist the oppression of the mother-country. The boys
who were born at that period grew up familiar with the smell of
powder and smoke, and accustomed to the use of arms. To resist,
to defend, were a part of their natural lives, and to do and dare
great things. Thus the names of young men who took brave parts
in the contests on the Lakes, reappear again as patriots in the
cause of liberty.

The French War was a grand field for the military training of
men, officers and soldiers for the scenes to be enacted a few years
later. The young men of the country who displayed military genius
in that war were all the time rising from the ranks of the common
soldier to positions of command and responsibility. Israel Putnam
was among the young men who distinguished himself at Fort Ed-
ward, which he once saved by the example of his own immense
exertions from being utterly destroyed by fire.

In the winter of 1756 the barracks took fire. The magazine con-
taining three hundred barrels of gunpowder was only twelve feet
distant. Putnam took his station on the roof of the barracks, and
poured on water, handed him by a line of soldiers, until the fabric
began to totter. He succeeded in subduing the flames only when
the outside planks of the magazine had been consumed, so that
but a thin partition protected the powder.

178

A FAMILY FLIGHT AROUND HOME.

This Putnam is the hero of the well-known adventure with the
wolf, which happened in Pomfret, Con., when he was a young farmer
there, in 1743. Every boy knows how he descended into the wolfs
den, a rope round his body, and a blazing torch in his hand, and

descried at the farthest end of the
cave the glaring eyeballs of his
terrified foe. With a dexterous
shot he killed the wolf just as she
was preparing to spring ; and the
people above, with no small exul-
tation, dragged them out together.
Putnam's life was full of similar
liold deeds and hair-breadth escapes.
In the French War he was often
brought into the closest quarters,
where escape seemed impossible,
but by his Ciuick perceptions and
amazing energy could wrest a vic-
tory from what seemed defeat.
The Indians thought Putnam bore a charmed life, and no wonder,
for he was always coming out alive and unharmed from the most
dangerous encounters. P^rom the day that he entered the den at Pom-
fret till he rode down the steep stone steps at Greenwich, Con.,
to escape his pursuers, — when he was sixty years old and weighed
two hundred pounds, — he was going through a series of wonderful
adventures and escapes. He gained many a wound and scar, but
preserved through all his life, and died at home in a good old
age.

Another young hero, ripening for the Revolution, was Ethan Allen,
also famous at Ticonderoga. The school in which his bravery was
developed was the difficulty which arose in Vermont about the pos-
sessions of his fands.

No permanent settlement was effected in Vermont, on the west

ISRAEL PUTNAM.

TWO HEROES.

181

side of the Green Mountains, till after the conquest of Canada by
the English. In their expeditions against the French, English col-
onists had made themselves acquainted with the fertility and value
of the lands lying between the Connecticut River and Lake Cham-
plain, and the conquest of
Canada having now removed
the danger of settling there,
swarms of adventurers began
to arrive. Erom the year
1760, the population of Ver-
mont began to increase with
some rapidity. During the
war a road had been opened
from Charleston, N. H., to
Crown Point, which helped
to open the land of Vermont
to the attention of settlers.

Governor Wentworth, of
New Hampshire, laid out
townships on both sides of
the Connecticut River, and

by granting lands, with fees and emoluments, and by reserving
five hundred acres in each township for himself, was accumulating
a fortune. The government of New York, on the other side of
these lands, determined to check this, in order to possess them-
selves of the advantage. This was the beginning of great difficul-
ties, as the original grants made in the time of Charles the Sec-
•ond were absurd and conflicting.

Among the settlers in this disputed territory was the family of
Ethan Allen, who became first conspicuous in resisting the decrees
of New York law. Allen was made colonel of an armed force
organized to protect the New Hampshire granters and remove the
New York settlers.

182 A FAMILY FLIGHT AROUND HOME.

At the head of his Green Mountain boys, he resisted all the
proceedings of the New York authorities. Whenever a sheriff ap-
peared upon the grants for the purpose of arresting rioters or
ejecting settlers, he was sure to be met by a party larger than
his own, ready and able to frustrate his object. Repeated aggres-
sions took place, until the indignation of the settlers throughout
the New Hampshire grants was raised to the highest pitch ; open
hostilities were prevented only by the commencement of the American
War, at Lexington (nineteenth of April, 1775), an event which pro-
duced a shock felt throughout the colonies. Local and provincial
contests were at once swallowed up by the importance of the
struggle thus began between Great Britian and her colonies.

Here was another hero ready for the emergency. As soon as
war with the mother-country had become inevitable, the occupation,
of Ticonderoga Was determined on, and the task confided to Allen,
who repaired thither at once, at the head of his well-tried Green
Mountain boys.

Ethan Allen was born in Connecticut, in 1737. It was in 1766-
that he moved to Vermont, and became outlawed by New York
for his bold and defiant action. In 1775 he took Fort Ticonderoga.
Later in the year, attacking Montreal with one hundred and ten
men, he was captured, with his whole command. He was carried'
to England and kept a prisoner in Pendennis Castle for a short
time, but was exchanged in 1778. His life was always eventful,
sharing the later troubles of his adopted State. He died at Bur-
lington in 1789.

At Montpelicr, the capital of the State, is a fine statue, in Ver-
mont marble, of Vermont's hero, made by Larkin Mead. The State
House is a handsome building of light-colored granite, with a portico
supported by Doric columns, and under it the statue stands with a
fine imposing effect.

"I might have .stopped at Montpelier," said Hubert, "when I
went to Burlington to meet you, but I never thought of such a

PUTNAM RIDING DOWN THE STEPS.

TWO HEEOES.

ISo

thing. If they had shown me Ethan Allen, I should not have known
whom they meant."

"I'll tell you what, Hubert," said Bessie, "you and I will
quietly go there some day, and have an ' excursion of historic in-

ISRAEL PUTNAM S BIRTHI'LACK.

terest.' There are friends of the family who will be pleasant to
us, without any doubt."

Hubert and Bessie did accomplish this little trip later on in the
summer, and it may as well be here described.

Montpelier is a pretty town, with broad streets well laid out, and
surrounded by hills highly cultivated. There are several handsome
churches, each denomination vying with the rest, it would seem,
to erect the finest.

The old State House was burned in 1857, and the new one
has since taken its place. It stands on a slight elevation approached

186

A FAMILY FLIGHT AROUND HOME.

from a green common, by granite steps in terraces. Under the
portico are kept two cannon taken from the Hessians at the bat-
tle of Bennington (1777), after a desperate struggle. The British
got them back at the surrender of Detroit, in the War of 181 2,
but they were retaken by the Americans during the Canada Cam-
paign. They were
sent to Washington,
and Congress pre-
sented them to the
State of Vermont.

" Probably Molly
Stark wore her bon-
net when she was
congratulating the
General for taking
these cannons," re-
marked Hubert.

" What ? " asked
Bessie.

"Oh, I forgot! it
was Alice," said Hu-
bert, and then told
her about the gar-
ret and the bonnets,
which had never been
again thought of, in
the open air summer
life they were lead-

)M. Ill MiUl.U \l,ARo AGO.

mg.

the

" That was
first I knew about the battle of Bennington," said Hubert.

Carefully kept behind glass, in the State House at Montpelier,
are preserved all the battle flags and pennons of the Vermont

TWO HEROES. 187

regiments in the War of Secession. They are tattered and weather-
stained, with the names of the battles in which they were borne
inscribed upon them in gold letters.

The State House contains portraits of different Governors of
Vermont.

Bessie and Hubert dined and spent the night at a large hotel
.called the Pavilion, the side windows of which overlook the
grounds of the State House.

Some old friend of the family very kindly showed them the lions,
and they returned to Utopia highly pleased with their visit to the
Metropolis.

" I feel exactly," said Bessie, " as if I had been to Paris, or Lon-
don. There is so much going on in the streets, which have real
sidewalks, shops with lace and ribbons, and all like a large town.
It is long since I have seen any sort of a street!"

This was after Bessie had been at Utopia more than a month,
where there was but one store, and that not on the scale of the
Bon Marche, or Arnold and Constable's. One counter occupied
the side of a large room, on the end of which was erected the
set of pigeon-holes which proclaimed the post-office. Shelves be-
hind the counter contained red and 5''ellow flannel, and a few
pieces of dark calico, and unbleached cotton cloth. Salt fish con-
tended for the prevailing odor with molasses and tobacco, for
the wall opposite the counter was left to accommodate a row of
chairs, tipped up against it, where the worthies of the neighbor-
hood installed themselves in their leisure moments, and might be
found any day awaiting the arrival of the mail, chewing tobacco,
reading the newspaper, and talking a little, but not much. Few
and short were the sentences which fell habitually from their lips ;
the pleasure of these occasions was apparently a kind of dumb
companionship.

"The store is such as it was when I used to go there, a little
mite of a thing, in my cape bonnet, forty years ago," said

188

A FAMILY FLIGHT AROUND HOME.

Mrs. Bruce. " It has fallen off, however, since the war, like
•everything else in Utopia."

" I am inclined to think," said the professor, " that it has looked
.pretty much the same these hundred years."

READINC TIIK NEWS.

MOVING TABLEAUX. 189>

CHAPTER XXI.

MOVING TABLEAUX.

A WEEK now remained before the Fourth of July, and great
preparations began in honor of the occasion. These prepa-
rations were a secret from the grown people, and what was more,
they were a secret from Bessie. It made her feel very old to
find herself thus put on the side of dignity, — among the spectators
instead of being a prominent performer in whatever was going
forward.

"We had just as lief have you, Bessie," explained Hubert, "in
fact, we want to consult you all the time ; but, you see, if you
are with us there will not be anybody to look on, except the
professor and Mrs. Bruce, and they may not laugh in the right
place ! ''

They drew the line at Bessie, for Tom was required as chief
counsellor ; but the scheme was Hubert's and Alice's. The twins
worked with a will.

As soon as lessons were over, all the party disappeared in the
direction of the large barn over at the Martin's. They came back
breathless, heated and late, and returned after a hasty meal to
their labors. In the evening the conspirators all sat grouped to-
gether about Tom, on the doorstep, and discussed their plans.
Bursts of laughter came from the boys, followed by " Sh ! sh ! "
from Tom. "You must not let them hear beforehand."

In these days, Bessie felt melancholy. She leaned on the bar
of the side-piazza and looked at the moon over the Connecticut
valley. She seemed to herself suddenly to be grown up, without

190

A FAMILY FLIGHT AKOUND HOME.

having noticed it coming on; she thought of her mother and

Philip, of their steamer plunging along through the waves,

and of Mary and Clarence Hervey awaiting them at Bordeaux ;

then with a sigh, she would turn away to the library, and rouse

the professor to a vigorous
discussion of some literary or
historic point.

Meantime, Alice as head-man-
ager of that part of the busi-
ness, sought the barn every day,
and with a broom in her
hand, and her head tied up
in a blue spotted handkerchief,
directed the work of renova-
tion. The rubbish which the
children had no authority to
destroy, was gathered together
in one corner, and concealed
behind some small young spruce-
trees which the boys cut down
and dragged in from the woods;
fortunately there were plenty
to be had not very far off.
" It will be very useful," said Tom, " to resemble a forest," as

the business began of disposing of the trees after he had decreed

that enough had been brought.

He was sitting on top of a barrel giving out his orders,
"Don't throw them down like that, Ernest!" he called out.

"Cannot you make it look like a primex-al forest.'"

Hubert scrambled up to the top of the pWc of barrels and

boxes, and succeeded in sticking the stem of a little tree into a

knot-hole in one of them.

"Good," said Tom, "now work up to that;" and taking com-

MOVING TABLEAUX. 191

passion on the little boys who were tugging at the pile of trees,
he fell to himself with such vigor that a very respectable forest
soon concealed the rubbish.

Festoons of ground pine were pulled up in the woods to deco-
rate the long sides of the great chamber. The children were
anxious about the darkness of the place, as there were but two
windows, one at each end, and these were small; but when Alice,
with her dusting-brush and much soap and water, had removed
the cobwebs and scrubbed the panes, the quantity of light was
greatly increased.

As the plan progressed and improved in importance, it was de-
cided to invite all the people of Utopia with whom the Bruces
were on visiting terms ; this included about everybody, and the
children were surprised to find that they had sent out seventeen
invitations. These were given by word of mouth, through Alice,
and they were all accepted. It now became necessary to borrow
settees from the vestry of the meeting-house; their first plan had
been to provide only old boxes and barrel-tops for the audience.

The day came, and two o'clock p. m. came, the hour fixed for the
entertainment. This was chosen because all Utopia dined at noon,
or half-past twelve at latest. No tickets were sold or issued, as
the occasion was wholly complimentary, so there was no need of
any ticket.

Mr. and Mrs. Bruce came early, and received the guests. The
steep flight of narrow stairs was a little awkward, but the door
at the top was fastened open. Punctual to the hour, they began
to arriv^e, in best bonnets and Sunday coats.

" Well, I declare ! " was tke general sentiment from one and all
as they entered the room. The farthest end, which contained the
primeval forest in one corner, was left clear for the performances. '
A sort of trophy had been arranged high up over the windows,
of American flags, and a stuffed eagle, which, rather the worse for
wear, had long ornamented the top of a bookcase in the professor's

192

A FAMILY FLIGHT AROUND HUME.

library. Two screens, which were in reality clothes-horses of the
large old-fashioned type, stood on either side, to make retiring places
for the performers. These were hung with patch-quilts, one of which

very appropriately contained for its
centre square a portrait of George
Washington printed on calico, and the
other that of Martha his wife. They
had been borrowed by Alice from an
old lady of the town, for Alice knew
well the ins and outs of Utopia, and
every piece of furniture possessed by
every inhabitant.

The sides of the
chamber were fes-
tooned with green,,
and bunches of lau-
rel, which still lin-
gered in blossom,
were stuck up at
intervals. The set-
tees occupied the
nearer end of the
room, rocking-chairs
being placed for
guests of advanced'
age and distinction.
Bessie modestly
seated herself at the
back of the hall, to
leave the best places
for the guests. Just
as all seemed ready
to begin, Tom, looking hot and flurried, came to her and said:

I'ULUNG Ul' GROUND-l'INK.

MOVING TABLEAUX. 195

" Look here, Bessie, I wish you would come behind the scenes
and help. We don't know how to put on the things very well."

It was a moment of triumph for Bessie, revealing that they could
not get on without her, after all. Wasting no time in exultation,
she quietly followed him. Behind each screen was a pile of cos-
tumes, or rather the materials for them. A couple of cocked hats,
two swords, with belts, a pair of top-boots, lay on the floor on
■one side of the stage. Crossing to the other without any regard
to the audience, although there was no curtain, Bessie found the
twins, trembling, in the costumes of wild Indians ; that is, two very
good feather dusters had been sacrificed for their head-dresses,
bright scarfs were bound about their waists, and their feet were
bound in something like leggings. Alice was engaged at that late
moment in putting a spot of the water-color called "Indian Red,"
upon each of their four cheeks.

"It does not stick very well," said Alice, "but that's no matter.
Do not they look splendid, Bessie.-' I am thankful you have
come ! "

" They are to be Indians throughout," explained Tom, " and come
on for either side, just as it happens."

The programme consisted of a number of moving tableaux, with-
out speaking, representing stirring scenes in the French and Indian
wars. The first series represented the surrender of Fort William
Henry. Tom retired and put on the cocked hat, sword and cloak,
to appear as Colonel Munro ; when he was ready, Hubert advanced,
in a uniform shown to be French by its tri-colored sash, as Gen-
eral Montcalm. The interview between these two worthies was a
little embarrassed, consisting chiefly of stiff bows up and down on
both sides. Alice entered as the daughter of Colonel Munro and
wept upon the shoulder of her father.

This was the first scene ; the second was more exciting when
the departure from the fortress began, Hubert having changed rapidly
to Duncan, an officer on the American side. The Indians rushed

196 A FAMILY FLIGHT AKOUND HOME.

in with tomahawks. They had been instructed to keep moving;
round the screen from the stage and coming out again as more
Indians. This must have confused the audience, but confusion was
a part of the occasion. There was much stamping, and flashing of

STUAUT'S PORTIJAIT of AVASIIIXOTON.

swords and tomahawks. It ended in a tableau of everybody lying
wounded on the ground except the Indians, one of whom supported
the swooning form of Alice, while the other vindictively waved a
murderous weapon, — a rusty hatchet. Then the stage was cleared.
The Utopians sat pleased, but silent, and such silence is always
depressing to dramatic performers. But Bessie came forward, and
resuming her scat among the audience, began to clap her hands

MOVIXG TABLEAUX. 197

and applaud vigorously. Professor Bruce followed her example. The
spirits of the company revived, and they went on. It would be
difficult to describe all the scenes which followed ; indeed it is to
be feared the audience failed to keep the run of them. There was
a great deal of bravery, courage and bloodshed. Major Putnam
descended from the top of the forest, riding a savage saw-horse,
with an old broom for a head. This was a really daring feat, in
which Tom might have broken his neck or a leg. for in spite of
due previous precautions, the whole forest, and indeed the heap of
boxes of which it was made, came down with him.

Scene after scene followed each other in rapid succession. The
Americans dared, the English resisted, the Indians scalped, the
maiden swooned continuously. The air of the old barn-chamber
became thick with dust, and the floor shook with the violence of
the combatants.

" I guess that's enough, boys," said Tom finally, and they all
dropped their arms and advanced in a row towards imaginary foot-
lights.

" Ladies and gentlemen, I have the honor to tell you that the
performance is concluded," said Tom. The audience retired, assert-
ing: that it was a beautiful show.

198 A FAMILY FLIGHT AROUND HOME.

CHAPTER XXII.

THE REVOLUTION BEGUN.

I TELL you, Tom, those boys are just as stupid and ignorant
as can be," said Hubert.

" You wanted them up here," retorted Tom.

"Oh," said Hubert, "they do very well for Indians, but, you
know, I believe they had not the faintest idea what we were cel-
ebrating yesterday. I heard one of them asking Mrs. Bruce if
Independence Day came more than once a year!"

Tom threw himself back in the bushes and laughed joyfully.

" I'm glad it does not," said he, " for my back is stiff with that
ride of Major Putnam's."

The two older boys had strolled off for a walk by themselves
the afternoon following the great performance in honor of the
national holiday. They had reached a high opening in the woods
overlooking the broad valley of the Connecticut, and Tom was re-
posing hidden in a nest of moss and bushes, while Hubert lay flat
on the ground near him.

" They read, when they are reading aloud, like parrots," con-
tinued Hubert, " without taking the sense of the sentences they
repeat. They have been reading in " Oilman's American People "
about the Revolution ever since they came."

"I do not call them really dull boys," said Tom; "simply, they
are not used to books. I suppose Mrs. Stuyvesant never reads
any thing but the Duchess's novels. In fact, I think one of
the twins is very intelligent, only I am never quite sure
which one it is. I should have been that kind of a boy, only

THE REVOLUTION BEGUN.

199

that Bessie and the rest are continually driving in information."

The StLiyvesant boys, it was true, diligently read without receiv-
ing ideas from their books. Professor Bruce, perceiving this, — not
for the first time in his long experience of teaching all sorts of
boys, — saw that it was
necessary to rouse their
minds by talking with
them much on the
subjects they were
busy on. In this way
he hoped to awaken
enough curiosity to
give them power to
fasten some meaning
upon printed words.

The history of our
country down to the
Revolution is the his-
tory of thirteen colo-
nies. Besides the Mas-
sachusetts colony, and
New Hampshire,
which included a part
of Vermont until some
years later, there were
eleven others making
the list :

New Hamoshire,
Massachusetts, Rhode
Island, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware,
Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia.

These were not all established at the same time, nor all by Eng-
lishmen, but however differently founded or governed, they were all

TALKiNc; IT ov?:k

200 A FAMILY FLIGHT AKOUND HOMK.

alike in some things. They all made their own laws, to a certain ex-
lent, while they all had become, at last, subject to Great Britain ; and
they all thought themselves ill-treated by the British Government.
This common discontent made them finally separate themselves from
England, and unite with one another, but it was a long time be-
fore this union was complete.

The colonies would have been satisfied to go on as colonies if
Great Britain had either not taxed them, or had let them send
representatives to Parliament in return for being taxed. The wisest
English statesmen would have consented to either of these meas-
ures ; but King George the Third and his advisers would not
agree to either ; and so they not only lost the power of taxing
the American colonies, but in the end lost the colonies themselves.

The excitement about the "Stamp Act" was the real beginning
of the war. This famous act only required that all deeds, and
such legal documents, should be written or printed on paper with
a stamp on it, only to be bought of tax-collectors, the money re-
ceived for it going to the Government. This is a common way
of raising money for government purposes in small sums, but the
colonists were in the mood to object to any tax. In one colony
after another opposition was made to such an extent that nobody
dared to act as stamp officer, and the law was never enforced.

The Stamp Act was repealed just a year after its passage.
There was great rejoicing throughout the colonies. In Boston, bells
were rung, flags displayed, and houses illuminated. British troops
were stationed in Boston and New York to keep people quiet,
but the effect was just the other way. The boys used to insult
the soldiers, and they in return taunted the people. Such events
as the Boston Massacre, the throwing the tea into the harbor to
prevent any tax being paid upon it, and similar instances of re-
sistance, only made King George and his ministers increase the
strictness of the laws, hoping to frighten the colonies. The sever-
est of these measures was the Boston Port l^ill. closing the y:)ort

THE REVOLUTION BEGUN.

201

of Boston, cutting off all water communication between it and
neighboring towns, except by the way of Marblehead, where every-
thing must be entered at the custom house, and brought to Boston
in the care of an officer.

The Boston Port Bill helped to make the scattered colonies a
nation, for it united them in a common cause of resistance.

There were now
two million Ameri- .aiBiilifeife.".,;x

cans, perhaps three
millions, of whom a
fifth were fighting
men trained in In-
dian warfare. In
Braddock's expedi-
tion, some of them
had seen the red
coats run for their
lives before the
French and Indians,
while the Virginia
riflemen stood their
ground. Such men
as General Putnam,
who had been tied
to a tree by Indians,
and had seen the fire
blaze up around him, without flinching, was not likely to flinch before
English muskets. Such was the way the patriots regarded the
chances of success, although there were many colonists who thought
it not only wrong, but dangerous, to resist the British Govern-
ment.

In the midst of this excitement, General Gage, the royal Gov-
ernor of Massachusetts, called the legislature together, and then,

OKNERAT- GAGia;.

202

A FAMILY FLIGHT AROUND HOME.

changing his mind, dissolved it before it met, by a proclamationi

dated September 28, 1774.
Upon this all the mem-
bers elected to the leg-
islature came together b)-
agreement, without ask-
ing his leave, and formed
themselves into a Provin-
cial Congress. They at
once began to get the
militia into good order.
A quarter of the militia-
men were called " minute-
men," and were bound to
assemble at the very
shortest notice. Then the
Provincial Congress set
about the collecting of
arms and ammunition, and
had them stored at Con-
cord and Worcester.
Meanwhile British troops
kept arriving in Boston,
and General Gage kept
sending out spies to find
out where these military
stores were, and the pa-
triots had their own spies
to watch his movements
in case he should send out
to capture these stores.
It was one of these watchers on the Charlestown side of Charles

River, wlio learned one night, by seeing the signal of a lantera

.MrNUTE-MAN.

THE REVOLUTION BEGUN". 203

gleaming in the steeple of the North Church in Boston, across the
water, that a large force of Eritish troops was preparing to leave
Boston. Instantly all was in motion, and messengers went riding
in all directions to spread the alarm that the stores were in danger.
It was then that Paul Revere mounted his horse and galloped out
through Medford to a house where the patriotic leaders, John Han-
cock and Samuel Adams, were, awaking the principal farmers as
he passed from house to house.

So as the eight hundred British soldiers, having crossed the
water in boats, marched silently along the marshes, they knew by
the sudden ringing of all the bells in the towns around, that their
plan had been found out. Paul Revere, and the other scouts, had
done their work well. The commanding ofificer of the British then
sent back for more troops, and Major Pitcairn went forward with
two or three hundred infantry, having orders to secure the two
bridges at Concord. But when on his way Pitcairn passed through
Lexington, at four in the morning, April 19, 1775, he found sixty
or seventy militia collected on the Green to resist him. The
British soldiers fired upon them. The Americans fired in return,
but did little damage. Eight of the Americans were killed and
ten wounded, while the British marched on towards Concord.

Although the British troops succeeded in destroying all the mili-
tary stores they could find in Concord, they did not return to
Boston so easily as they came. It was sixteen miles, and the whole
country round was now roused by the guns and bells. Men came
hurrying from all directions ; it seemed to the British as if they
dropped from the clouds, and with every mile the number of their
opponents increased. Before they reached Lexington they fairly ran,
and they would have had to surrender, but for the protection of
Lord Percy, who had marched out to meet them with re-enforce-
ments.

The British now retreated more slowly, but they were glad, at
sunset, to find themselves under cover of the guns of their men-

204

A FAMILY FLIGHT AROUND HOME.

of-vvar, having suffered, in killed, wounded and missing, nearly three
times as much as their opponents.

This day was the real beginning of the Revolution. It was

THE NOKTli UKIDGE A i' CONCUKD.

soon after, on the tenth of May, 1775. that Ethan Allen captured
Fort Ticonderoga. An army of fifteen thousand men was collected.
Among the list of generals were to be found the names of Put-
nam and Stark, whose bravery was well known already.

The Battle of Bunker Hill, June 17, 1775, came next; the
Americans were then obliged to retreat, but the inexperienced sol-
diers showed that they could resist regular fire, and although they
claimed no victory, the colonists felt greatly encouraged. The
ranks of the Continental Army were filled up, and the troops were
full of enthusiasm.

The army was now adopted as a national army, and George Wash-
ington was chosen General-in-chief, for there was no man in Amer-
ica who could claim to equal him in military reputation.

Under the great elm in Cambridge, still known as the Washing-
ton Elm, he took command of the Continental Army.

THE REVOLUTION BEGUN.

205

When the British government heard of the Battle of Bunker Hill,
it was resolved to subdue the American colonies, no matter at what
cost. Some fifty thousand men were employed against not more
than twelve thousand. But the Americans felt they had gone too
far to retreat, and resolved to persevere.

THE OLD ELM AT CAMBRIDGE.

206 A FAMILY FLIGHT AEOUXD HOME.

CHAPTER XXIII.

THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE.

THE Massachusetts Legislature had issued a circular inviting
all the colonies to send delegates to a Congress at New York.
This Congress met, drew up a declaration of rights, a memo-
rial to Parliament, and a petition to the King, in which they claimed
the right of being taxed only by their own representatives. The
colonial assemblies approved the proceedings of the Congress, and
thus for the first time in their history, a bond of union was formed
among the American colonies.

This Continental Congress was composed of the best thinkers,
the most patriotic and the bravest men of the colonies, and it was
upon these that the responsibility of the situation rested, more
than on the farmers who fought at Lexington and Bunker Hill.
Even after one or two fights, the Americans might have drawn
back, and made peace again ; but after Congress had declared that
" these United Colonies are, and of right ought to be, free and inde-
pendent States," they were obliged to support the assertion, and
take the consequences. The Congress had the difficult work of rais-
ing soldiers, choosing efficient officers, and worst of all, collecting money
to pay the expenses of a war. Some of these men, even Wash-
ington himself, were at first not prepared for an absolute separation
from the mother-country ; but they became convinced that nothing
else would do. Doctor Franklin, who was one of the wisest of
the patriots, was always ciieerful and hopeful, and when the time
came, the delegates from all the colonics voted to declare independ-
•ence, except New York, and New York didn't vote against it.

THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE.

207

Thomas Jefferson wrote the Declaration of Independence, It was
discussed in Congress and severely attacked, but it was finally
adopted without much alteration, on the Fourth of July, 1776, and
signed some weeks later. There were rejoicings everywhere, and on
the tenth of July the document was read at the head of each
brigade of the Continental Army posted at and in the vicinity of

SMim BBOR

HOUSE WHERE THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE WAS DRAWN UP.

New York. " It was received everywhere with the utmost demon-
strations of joy."

" So, boys," said Mr. Bruce as Ernest finished reading the last
sentence, stumbling a good deal over the word demonstrations,
*' now you see why we celebrate the Fourth of July every year."

"And why," said Tom, looking up from his German, "all good
little American boys fire crackers all day long."

" And why," said Bessie who happened to be in the library,
*' cannons resound, and bells ring, all over the United States, and
fireworks are sent ofT in the evening."

208

A FAMILY FLIGHT AROUND HOME.

" Like the destruction of the Bastile," said Augustine, with a
gleam of intelligence.

Alice stared, and did not cease when Tom and Bessie readily-
agreed, saying both together, " yes, exactly."

Ernest and Augustine, little absentees as they were, had never
seen a popular celebration of any sort in their own country, but

^m^ty^^'^J^^

^a^^.

'tr*7^

'a/m^<j

j^^

tr^

rur

AUTOGRAPHS OK SIONKRS OF THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE.

they were perfectly familiar with similar demonstrations in France,
where the fourteenth of July is recognized much in the same
manner.

The Bastile was a prison in Paris, where for centuries state pris-

MEADOW INTKKVALK.

THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE. 211

©ners were immured, and tortured with great cruelty. It continued
to be used for much the same purposes down to the fourteenth
of July, 1789, when the people rose in their fury and utterly
destroyed it. This is one of the acts of the French Revolution, to
be balanced against its numerous crimes. The day is celebrated
in France as we celebrate the Fourth of July, because of its im-
portance in the annals of liberty.

" We ought to have read the Declaration on the Fourth," said
Bessie, " and Tom, you ought to be able to repeat it."

" When, in the course of human events," began Tom, in an
oratorical manner, then changing to his usual voice, he continued,
"that is as far as I know."

" I have it here, in a dozen books," said the professor, as he
looked along the shelves.

Bessie said to him in a low tone, " Do not find it for a few
minutes, — not till I come back."

"Here it is," cried Hubert, "in the end of Mr. Oilman's
history."

Just then Bessie reappeared, having hastily draped herself in an
American flag which she had found, still lying in a heap in the
best parlor, with the rest of the decorations used on the recent
occasion. Her white handkerchief was tied over her head after the
manner of a Liberty cap. Thus converted, for the moment, into the
Goddess of Freedom, she stepped lightly upon a chair, thence to
the middle of the large study-table, and taking the book from the
astonished professor, who, a little nervously, moved the inkstand
away from her feet, she declaimed, in as theatrical manner, the
famous document upon which rests the liberty of America.

Tom set the example of applause at the appropriate pauses.
This was an idea readily received by the twins, who found that
banging their desk-lids was so effective that they introduced this
form of approval oftener than was absolutely necessary.

When it was over, and something like quiet was restored, Tom

212 A FAMILY FLKfHT AROUND HOME.

turned to Hubert, and shaking hands with him, said in an exag-
gerated manner :

"Sir! — you have behaved like a gentleman. You have suppressed
your feelings as an Englishman, and applauded those sentiments of
patriotism and freedom which fill every American breast. And now,"
he continued, " let us go and have a swim, for it is warm, —
with your leave, sir," he added, turning to the professor.

"The school is dismissed for the day," said the professor, with
alacrity, using a formula which had been familiar to him through
many a long year.

The days, as is their custom in the beginning of July, had
become very warm, and the boys took advantage of this for de-
lightful aquatic excursions, of which there was every variety.
There was the cold brook on the mountain road, where water fell
babbling and bubbling over great stones, where they could sit on
submerged sofas of rock and let the ice-cold stream fall over their
shoulders. There was the dark pool below the mill at the
foot of Stevens' Fall, good for diving, where those who were bold
and skilful enough could get long headers in the wine-gold depths.

There was the west end of the lily pond where they had the
picnic ; under the trees the shore sloped down rapidly, so that two
strokes away the water was many feet deep, — cool, still, delicious
for floating, or treading water.

But to-day the boys were going to a place in the meadow inter-
vale, where the Connecticut made a bend, among tall American
elms ; the hay had just been cut there, and was now to be brought
home to Farmer Martin's great barns. The plan was to take their
bath under the elms, in a spot with a pebbly bottom, and per-
haps " loaf round " through the afternoon, and come home on top
of the hay.

Tom was a fairly good swimmer, and Hubert an excellent one.
At Gibraltar he had been taught many an aquatic feat by an old
soldier in garrison there. The twins were helpless, as yet, in

THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE.

213

deep water. It was for their benefit that the shallow place had
been chosen for that day's bath. Bullied, scolded, encouraged and
instructed by the older boys, they were beginning to make some
progress. Ernest could already float, and Augustine make several
strokes, if somebody would stand by to' catch him by the chin.
When Tom and Hubert were amiable, they performed these offices ;
when the reverse, they went off to their favorite diving pool, when

WASHINGTON CROSSING THE DELAWARE.

the twins had to give up their bath altogether, or take their bath-
ing-clothes and accompany the girls.

For Bessie was an admirable swimmer, and never missed any
day a dip in the river, if she could help it. Her usual resort was
under the pines by the lily pond, and she and Ahce either went
there by boat, walked, or drove.

"Let us take up some lunch, Alice," she said on this occasion,
"and not come home until it is cool."

214 A FAMILY FLIGHT AROUND HOME.

"Why do not you?" said Tom, "and perhaps we will come along
in time to bring you back."

"All right," said Alice, "then we will walk up, and you can
come for us in the boat if you like."

"Very well," replied Tom, "only mind, we do not promise!"

Then there was a rush for towels, bathing-dresses and luncheon.

"Land's sakes ! " exclaimed Lavinia Mary. "It is on the line.
Miss Bessie. So you won't none of you be here to dinner ! Well,
it's a mercy, for there is nothing but boiled dish ; for Jacob, he
did not kill, after all, yesterday."

This strange remark had reference to lamb, which would have
been roasted to-day, but that it was still gambolling in the fields,
or more likely sheltering its broad proportions from the sun under
a stone wall.

"Land's sakes!" cried Tom, "is it boiled dish! I have a great
mind to come home to dinner ! "

"Tom," said Bessie, "you must not say 'land's sakes!' INIother
dislikes it very much, and if you get the habit, you will never
give it up, — like Ach dii ! in Germany."

" Well, give me my towel, Libert}', and do not boss, it becomes
you ill!"

Bessie had not yet taken off her Liberty cap, and the Stars and
Stripes were still wound about her, impeding her progress. So she
did not pursue her brother, but let him go off, and went to make
her own preparations. Alice was seen flying home across the fields
to inform her mother of the programme. The boys scrambled
down the steep hill to the boat-landing, and were soon pulling
across the river in the hot sun, in the direction of the meadow-
intervale.

"Well," said Lavinia Mary, "I do not say but it's a comfort
to see the last of them. I guess I'll shut the blinds and give
one drive to them flies. It is about time to put on the cabbage,
unless Belinda, she may have seen to it."

THE DECLAEATION OF INDEPENDENCE.

215

The professor settled himself to his books, and Mrs. Bruce com-
ing down from her room, looked in upon him and said :

"Was not there rather more noise than usual, my dear, about
the lessons .'' "

"Yes, dear, it was the Declaration of Independence," said the
^ood professor.

..=*=l

JBKLOW THE MILL.

216 A FAMILY FLIGHT AROUND HOME.

CHAPTER XXIV.

THE WAR.

AT first, the American troop.s were defeated. They lost several
battles, and Washington, with his main army, had to leave
New York to the British troops, and retreat, much to the encou-
ragement of the British.

Washington felt that the courage of his army must be kept up
by some great success. There was a body of about a thousand
British troops at Trenton. These soldiers, although they belonged
to the British army, were Germans, hired and paid for by the
British Government, to which they were furnished by their respec-
tive sovereigns, one of whom was the Prince of Hesse-Cassel, and
therefore they went, in this country, under the name of Hessians.

On Christmas Day (1776), which is a great holiday with all
Germans, Washington crossed the Delaware from his camp, and
took them by surprise. The German commander was killed, and
all his soldiers were taken prisoners.

In spite of this and other successes, Washington's army spent
a gloomy and suffering winter at Valley Forge where they were
encamped. The soldiers slept without blankets, went without shoes,
and food was scarce. For there was scarcely any money to furnish
supplies, and still less to pay the troops.

Lafayette and other brave men who had come from Europe ta
fight on the American side, for the sake of the cause of liberty,
suffered alike with Washington and his army. Meanwhile the
British were living comfortably in Philadelphia, and their ofificers
enjoyed every luxury.

WASHINGTON AT VALLEY FURCIE.

THE WAR. 210

Early in 1777, General Burgoyne, with a part of the British
army, came up Lake Champlain from Canada, took Ticonderoga, and
sent a detachment to destroy military stores at Bennington. This
was the time when General Stark carried the day. A still greater
eve^nt followed. Burgoyne, with his whole army, encamped at Sara-
toga, and after two battles at Stillwater were hemmed in by Gen-
eral Gates and his troops, and forced to surrender October 17,
1777.

This was a great advantage to the Americans. It made the
French Government think there was a chance of success for the
colonies, and Doctor Franklin, who was in Paris, obtained a treaty
and promises of aid from France.

Yet the war dragged on slowly for three years more, with
varying success. Sometimes the Americans won the day, sometimes
they were beaten. There was fighting at sea as well as on land,
with the same results.

The struggle closed with one great victory, in which the French
troops sent to aid the colonists played an important part. It was
at Yorktown, Va., where the British General Cornwallis had made
his headquarters. General Washington was there with American
troops, and Count Rochambeau with French soldiers, while York
River was blockaded by French ships. After a siege of ten days,
Lord Cornwallis, who had planned to retreat across York River,
one night, was prevented by a storm, and he surrendered to
Washington.

This was October 19, 1781. There was great rejoicing every-
where, and well might the Americans rejoice, for it was acknowl-
edged by both sides that the surrender of Cornwallis decided the
result of the war.

It had lasted nearly seven years, had cost Great Britain a great
deal of money, and the lives of many brave men, besides which
the colonies were lost. There was more fighting, here and there,
after the surrender of Cornwallis, and the British kept the city

220

A FAMILY FLIGHT AROTTXI) HOME.

of New York, and also Charleston and Savannah, for nearly two
years more. At last, on September 3, 1783, a treaty was made
at Paris, between English and American Commissioners, by which.

I.ORl) CORWV ' IMS.

all that the Declaration of Independence had claimed was conceded,
and the United States of America took its place as a nation.

There was one ^reat act of treason committed during the war,
by one of the most distinguished of the American officers, General
Benedict Arnold. He had taken part from the beginning ; was at
the side of Ethan Allen at the time he marched into the fort

THE WAR,

221

at Ticonderoga ; and had distinguished himself in other ways. But
he was carrying on all along a secret correspondence with the
British commander-in-chief; and letters from him were found con-
cealed upon the person of Major Andre, a British officer who
was carrying them to his general. These papers contained full in-
formation in regard to the defences of West Point, and a plan for
its surrender.

Major Andre was detected on the twenty-third of September,
1780. He was tried by court-martial and hanged as a spy. Much
sympathy was felt for him, as he was but obeying the orders of
his superior in transmitting the papers of
Arnold ; but it was remembered that a
brave young American officer, Captain Na-
than Hale, had been hanged as a spy by
the British, four years before. Arnold him-
self escaped to the British lines, and joined
the British army. He fought against his
own countrymen and was made a briga-
dier-general by the English. The thought
of Andre, sacrificed to his disloyal in-
tentions, must have been ever after a
dark thread in whatever bright schemes he
might weave for his ambition.

In all the course of reading and talk which Professor Bruce en-
couraged on the subject of the Revolutionary War, Hubert was
staunch in maintaining the bravery of his countrymen. At this dis-
tance of time from the conflict, all Americans are not always ready
to concede this. The account of Burgoyne's surrender at Saratoga
cannot fail to enlist the sympathies of those who read it.

He was completely surrounded. The main body of the American
army, under General Gates, was close at hand ; every part of his
camp was exposed to fire. There was not a place of safety for
the sick and wounded ; no one dared to go to the river for water.

MAJOR ANDR^:.

222 A FAMILY FLIGHT AROUND HOME.

Desertions of Indians and Canadians, and losses in killed and
wounded, had reduced Burgoyne's army one half, and a large pro-
portion of those who remained were not Englishmen.

When General Burgoyne was holding a council of ofBcers, in a
large tent, it was several times perforated by musket balls from
the Americans, Grape-shot struck near the tent, and an eighteen-
pound cannon ball swept across the table where the generals were
sitting. «.

Their deliberations were short, as might be expected under these
circumstances, and it was unanimously resolved to open a treaty
with the American general for an honorable surrender. It was
bitter, but there was no alternative.

A flag was sent to General Gates, who ordered a cessation of
hostilities till sunset. After long negotiations, everything was agreed
upon.

Just before signing the articles, Burgoyne heard news of Eng-
lish successes on the Hudson, and this ray of hope disposed him
to withhold his signature from the " convention," as the agreement
of surrender was called. General Gates, who also heard the news,
drew up his army in order of battle, and sent a peremptory mes-
sage to Burgoyne that if he did not sign the articles immediately,
fire would be opened upon him. With reluctance, Burgoyne sub-
scribed his name.

The British army left their camp upon the hills, and marched
sorrowfully down upon the Green, where the different companies
were drawn up in parallel lines, and grounded their arms, and
emptied their cartridge boxes. General Gates, with generous deli-
cacy, ordered all his army into their camp, out of sight of their
conquered enemy.

General Burgoyne now rode forward to be introduced to General
Gates. He met him with his staff at the head of his camp. Bur-
goyne was in a rich uniform of scarlet and gold. Gates in a plain
blue frock-coat.

THE WAR. 225

When within about a sword's length, they reined up and halted.
The names of the two generals were mentioned to each other, as
in any ordinary introduction, and General Burgoyne, raising his
hat, said :

" The fortune of war, General Gates, has made me your
prisoner."

The victor promptly replied :

'* I shall always be ready to bear testimony that it has not been
through any fault of Your Excellency."

The other officers were introduced in turn, and the whole com-
pany repaired to Gates's headquarters, where a sumptuous dinner
was served.

After dinner, the American army was drawn up in parallel lines
on each side of the road, extending nearly a mile. Between these
troops the British army, preceded by two mounted officers, bearing
the American flag, had to march to the lively tune of Yankee
Doodle. As they passed, the two commanding generals came out
together from Gates's tent, and gazed upon the procession.

Burgoyne had a large and commanding person, and was in all
the splendor of scarlet and gold. Gates was less dignified in ap-
pearance, and plainly dressed, but he was flushed with a great
victory, while his opponent was foiled and disappointed.

Without exchanging a word, Burgoyne stepped back, drew his
sword, and in the presence of the two armies, presented it to
General Gates. He received it with a courteous inclination of the
head, and instantly returned it to the vanquished general. They
then retired to the marquee, while the British army filed off on
the march for Boston.

"Oh, dear me!" said Hubert, with a long-drawn sigh, "it re-
minds me of that picture by Velasquez, in the Madrid gallery,
where Spinola is receiving the key to Breda."

"Or Boabdil," added Bessie, "giving up his keys to the Chris-
tian conquerors at Grenada. All such occasions are picturesque.''

226

A FAMILY FLIGHT AROUND HOME.

"The Alhambra," remarked Tom, "is a more picturesque setting
for such a scene than the heights of Saratoga."

"I do not know," said Professor Bruce, reflecting, "it was Oc-
tober, you see. The woods were all brilliant with scarlet and gold,
to make up for Gates's plain uniform. The scenery all about
Saratoga is very fine, especially in autumn."

"Is it.?" said Bessie. "I thought Saratoga was a sand plain,
full of springs and fashionable people."

" Ah, but the battle field is at some distance from the Springs,
and the whole region is very pretty," replied the professor.

NKAR SARATOr.A

PAINTING LESbONS. 227

CHAPTER XXV.

PAINTING LESSONS.

ABOUT this time Bessie and Alice found themselves most
unexpectedly left much alone. The boys were building a
House in the woods, on the steep bank at the upper end of the
pond, and although the girls were permitted, and even invited, to
give their opinion, in choosing the site of the House, their pres-
ence was neither desirable nor helpful through the hard-working
process of building. Soon after the project was started, too, they
all agreed that it would be well to have the finished house a sur-
prise for all except the workmen.

Every day the boys disappeared as soon as lessons were over,
and this brought about a little change in the household arrange-
ments, which greatly pleased Bessie, who detested a hearty dinner
in the middle of the day.

Lavinia Mary, Belinda, and even Mrs. Bruce herself, would have
been outraged by the idea of a late dinner. "Them Frenchified
notions" did not suit the atmosphere of Utopia; but it suited
their practical minds still less to prepare "a square meal of vict-
uals," when there was nobody but women-folks to eat it.

So the boys took with them daily a substantial lunch ; and the
professor, his wife, and Bessie had a light noon meal, which the
latter secretly considered her second breakfast. When all the fam-
ily had assembled, about sunset, there was a copious meal of hot
beefsteak, or a broiled chicken, with plenty of cream, and all kinds
of good things.

"Alice!" called Bessie from her window one day. Lessons were

228 A FAMILY FLIGHT AROUND HOME.

just over ; the boys were preparing to start off for the woods, in
flannel shirts, armed with axes, hammers, and carpenter's tools^
" What are you going to do now ? "

" I'm going home," said AUce disconsolately.

" I know ; but I mean, what do you do every day now, when
you go home ? "

" Mother wants me to sew," replied Alice. " I was hemming,
towels yesterday, but they might just as well be done on the
machine."

" Suppose you stay over here till your dinner time," said Bessie..
" I have got an idea. Come up in my room, and I'll explain."

When Alice appeared in the doorway, Bessie drew in her head
from the window, and went on :

" You see I am left by myself, now the boys are off all the
time, and I thought you might like to come and work at some-
thing with me."

Alice's face looked very bright. Bessie had not as yet taken
much notice of her, and the younger girl felt that any attention
was flattering and pleasant from so important and grown-up a
person as Tom's sister.

"What kind of work do you mean, Bessie.'"

"You'll laugh," said Bessie, "but I was thinking of giving you
painting lessons."

"Painting lessons!" repeated Alice, "but you" — don't paint
yourself, she was about to add, when it occurred to her that it
might be rude.

" Don't paint myself," said Bessie, quietly finishing the sentence
just as Alice had thought it. "That is true, but that does not
make any difference. I mean, I have been taught water-colors,
only I have no vocation for it myself. I have paints and things,
and I could tell you how to do it."

" O, Bessie ! what put such a nice idea into your head .'' "

"I'll tell you, Alice, it was seeing how gracefully you put flowers

%4 M '.-%- -^/^^

PAINTING LESSONS.

231

together. I have a theory that peo-
ple that arrange flowers well, are nat-
ural artists."

Alice colored all over. " I did not
think you were watching me," she said;
" oh, thank you, thank you, ever so
much ! "

"Well, let's begin,"
said Bessie abruptly,
in order to cut off
too much gratitude.

/iA

" What flowers '
have we in the house } of
course I mean to teach you
flowers, — at any rate, at first.
I do not know what capacity
you may have besides."

" I will run down and fetch them," said Alice, and in a moment
she returned from the sitting-room with a jug full of pretty wild
flowers they had brought in from the woods.

ALICE'S FIRST SUBJECTS.

232 A FAMILY FLIGHT AKUUND HOME.

Bessie was fitting out a table for her, when she came back in
her dressing-room, a sort of large closet off her chamber where
there was but one window with a steady north light.

"Let us take this Prince's pine, to begin with," said she. "This
medeola will do very well too," and fastening one of them up
with a pin upon the white shutter, so that the light fell sideways
upon it, she showed Alice how to draw the outline lightly with
a pencil, copying the forms carefully.

"There, while you are drawing it, I will hunt up the paints,"
said Bessie.

" What, paint already ! paint to-day ! "

"Certainly," replied Bessie, "why not.-'"

The delighted Alice set to work, and in the course of the les-
son, which was to last two hours, had produced not unsatisfactory
likenesses of two or three flowers.

The reasons why Bessie took this task upon herself were mixed.
She had a great feeling of loneliness, off in the country, of which
neither Tom nor Hubert took any account. Finding it was gain-
ing upon her, she set about to invent some way of giving pleas-
ure to somebody, after a receipt of Miss Lejeune's for dull spirits.

She hit upon Alice through a sort of fellow feeling for the girl,
who had led a lonely life almost always. These were her highest
motives ; Tom accounted for the proceeding otherwise, in a way
which contained some truth.

" Bessie loves to boss ! " he remarked to Hubert, after the ar-
rangement had been announced. " She cannot get along without
expounding something to somebody."

The very next day Bessie had a new recruit, little expected.
Alice had been settled scarcely more than an hour at her work,
after the boys' departure, when they heard footsteps coming towards
the house. Bessie, as usual, put her head out of the window to
reconnoitre.

"What! Augustine, have you come back?"

PAINTING LESSONS.

233

V Y

^1M'

"Yes; my head aches," he replied pitifully. "I could not do
anything, so they sent me home."

"Well, come up here, and I will look at your tongue," said
Doctor Bessie jocosely.

"That will spoil everything!" cried Alice, "how provoking!"

" You see," explained Augustine, " they are carrying planks up
from the boat to .

the house, and I ■• '^^ ■

kept resting, and
went to lie down
by the water to cool
off, and Ernest and
Hubert scolded me ;
but when I stood up
I was so dizzy Tom
told me to come
home."

"You poor thing,"
said Bessie, " it is
the heat. Go up
and change your
flannel shirt for
something cool, and
then you can come
back here."

"The lazy lump!"
cried Alice, stopping
from her work; "all the boys say he is not half so plucky as Ernest."

"Those boys are remarkably different," replied Bessie. "I dare
say he is not strong enough for such violent exercise. I only hope
they won't all overwork themselves. I must speak to Tom about
it."

' He has spoiled our fun," grumbled Alice.

augustinp: cooling off.

2S4 A FAMILY FLIGHT AKOUXU HOME.

"Oh, no," said Bessie a little sharply; 'do not consider your-
self the only person of importance in the world."

Augustine returned, having washed his face, looking fresh and
cool, and began to take a deep interest in Alice's work, who,
silenced by Bessie's remark, made no objection, but it was evident
she could not be watched and go on to any advantage.

"Augustine, you used to paint," said Bessie.

"Yes," he answered; "and I have a box of paints here."

"Get it," said Bessie, *'and I will set you up in this corner of
my table."

She made no effort to give him instructions, but furnished him
with a large block of paper, not first-class, but good enough.

The boy was well satisfied, and worked diligently until luncheon
time, when he exhibited his great work. It proved to be " The
Surrender at Saratoga," and represented, in a crude way, the two-
armies drawn up, while Burgoyne was delivering his sword to the
victorious Gates. A blotch of indigo represented the sky, which
had run down into the autumn tints of the foliage somewhat pain-
fully, and these in their turn interfered with the splendor of
General Burgoyne's scarlet coat ; but there was plenty of action
in the scene, sharply delineated with a very black pencil before
the colors were put on.

This masterpiece received due praise from Mr. and Mrs. Bruce
when it was exhibited to them at lunch. The good professor
was pleased to find that any impression was left on the boy'.s
mind by his reading, and Bessie was pleased v*rith herself for being
patient with him.

But when the other boys came home, hot, tired and hungry,,
they treated the performance with contempt, and Ernest especially
accused his brother of all the sins of slothfulness.

"Anybody that chose to tie an apron round his neck," he said,
"and sit up at a table, to paint like a baby, could do as well
as that."

PAINTING LESSONS. 235-

Augustine was crestfallen.

"But my head ached," he whined, falling back upon a suffering
tone, unused throughout the whole day.

" Fiddlesticks ! " shouted Ernest.

To change the conversation, Bessie called upon the others to
tell about the House, and they were soon describing their labors
with animation. There was a saw-mill on a stream not very far
from their chosen spot, where they had bought boards, and brought
them down in a flat-bottomed craft belonging to the mill.

"I tell you, it is hard work." said Hubert, "and here is a
splinter I cannot get out."

Mrs. Bruce, with spectacles on her nose, and a fine needle, ex-
tracted the uncomfortable splinter. The boys were too tired for
anything but bed, and the evening broke up early.

"Tom," said Bessie, "Augustine looked really very pale when
he came home. I think it is too much for him to work so

hard."

"I know it," said Tom, "I sent him home. I ought to have
praised his picture. But you will make him too soft."

Vir.NFTTE.

iJ36 A FAMILY FLIGHT AROUND HOME.

CHAPIKR XXVI.

AFTER THL WAR.

DOCTOR GOODKIN, being consulted about Augustine, readily
pronounced sentence upon his working in the hot part of
the day. The other boys were afraid of a similar verdict in their
own cases, and carefully kept out of his way.

Thus there came about a marked difference in the habits of the
twins. Ernest kept at work with the others, and became brown,
stout and strong, while his brother remained pale and slender,
though his health visibly improved. The girls found him a valuable
•cavalier and companion on their afternoon excursions after flowers.

Alice's interest in flowers increased rapidly in consequence of
Bessie's praise of her taste in arranging them, and her growing
skill in drawing. The beautiful nodding yellow lilies, which filled
the meadows at that time, were too much for her brush and pen-
cil, but she grouped together masses of the real flowers on tall
stems, to decorate the parlor.

White-weed was everywhere, — blanching the green of the fields,
and imbittering the browsing of cows. Alice had to be taught to
love this ; it was too common, she thought, and could scarcely
believe that it is raised in greenhouses in winter, and sold in cities
at ten cents a head.

"Alice, you can make about two dollars with that bunch, if you
•can keep it fresh till next January," said Tom.

Thus hot July went by, a succession of long sunny days. While
the interest in the boys' house increased, they allowed themselves
no holidays on account of it ; on the contrary, the two hours of

AFTER THE WAR.

237

reading and study in the morning were a healthful balance to the
steady hard work outdoors of the rest of the day.

After the signing of
the treaty at Paris, on
the third of Septeni
ber, 1783, the return
of peace was celebra
ted throughout Amer-
ica with bonfires, rock-
ets, and speeches, and
with thanksgiving, on
the nineteenth of the
next April, the eighth
anniversary of the
fight at Lexington.
The last remnant of
the British army in
the east had sailed
down the Narrows on
the twent y-fifth of
November, a day
called in consequence
Evacuation Day, and
celebrated with fire-
works and military
processions.

His great work of
deliverance over,
Washington resigned
his commission and
made ready to go
back to his estate on the banks of the Potomac, to the habits of
a private gentleman.

Alice's i.ilik:

:238 A FAMILY FLIGHT AROUND HOME.

About noon on Tuesday, the fourth of December, Washington
bade adieu to his officers. The chiefs of the army were assem-
bled, and he joined them, deeply moved as he beheld drawn up
before him the men who for eight long years had shared with him
the perils and hardships of the war. He said :

"With a heart full of love and gratitude, I now take leave of
you, and most devoutly wish your latter days may be as pros-
perous and happy as your former ones have been glorious and
honorable."

The officers then approached one by one and took leave of him,
and then they walked, through a line of infantry drawn up all the
way, to the water, where a barge awaited the hero to carry him
across the Hudson. The streets, balconies and windows were crowded
with gazers ; the church bells were all ringing. Arrived at the ferry,
he entered the barge in silence, stood up, took off his hat, and
waved farewell. Then as the boat moved slowly out into the stream,
amid the shouts of the citizens, his companions in arms stood bare-
headed on the shore till the form of their illustrious commander
was lost to view.

After this, he publicly resigned his commission at an audience
of Congress, when the Hall was crowded, in a short and solemn
address.

The outburst of love and gratitude soon subsided. The Revolu-
tion, it was true, was accomplished, and it might be thought that
the path of the young country was now made plain before it, and
easy to follow. But the war had brought many evils, which were
now pressing heavily upon the people, so that they forgot those
which had been removed.

The different States had been for a few years united by a com-
mon danger ; but now that danger was gone, old quarrels broke
forth again, and the union so lately formed seemed likely to be
dissolved.

The condition of the country was indeed critical. The people

AFTER THE WAK.

239

had just emerged from a long and exhausting war. After their
struggles, their suffering, their narrow escape, they were irritable
and wavering. Everything about them was new. Old parties, old
leaders, old forms of government had gone down in the storm of

WASHINGTON ON THE BATTLE-FIELD.

revolution, and no new ones had as yet arisen to take their places.
They had yet to frame some foreign policy fit for the high place
they were soon to take among the nations, and a home policy
which would unite the conflicting interests of thirteen jealous re-

240 A FAMILY FLIGHT AROTTNn HOME.

publics. They had to pay i)ff an enormous debt, to restore a depre-
ciated currency, and to replace it by a national one ; to establish
public credit, and create a national commerce. Towards furthering
all these things, Congress could do next to nothing but advise,
recommend, and suggest.

In these early days it had no fundamental power. It was held
in but little esteem by the people, and its recommendations were
often treated with open contempt. Each of the thirteen States re-
served to itself all the rights of control, and treated the Conti-
nental Government as if they were dealing with a foreign power.
It was difficult even to assemble the delegates. The House was^
frequently forced to adjourn day after day for want of a quorum ;
for as the journey to the capital, — then New York, — was for many
of the members long and expensive, and as they were by no means
sure of being paid for their trouble, many preferred to stay at home.

Only the strong patriotism of such men as Alexander Hamilton,
Benjamin Franklin and others, could have brought order out of
such a condition of things. It was the custom then to influence
the people by papers, written on all public questions. Squibs,
broadsides and handbills were issued by every one who had a fancy
to express an opinion. Hamilton's papers had great influence in a
right direction.

A convention of delegates was called to meet in Philadelphia, to
make, if .possible, the government stronger, without doing harm to
the liberties of the people. This convention lasted many weeks,
and so did the discussion ; but at last the present Constitution of
the United States was adopted on September 17, 1787. Only ten
of the thirteen States accepted it at first, but these were more than
enough for a majority, and it went into effect in 1788. New York,
North Carolina, and Rhode Island were the three who refused at
first to accept the conditions of the Constitution, but they had all
come into it by 1790,

The nation has been governed by this Constitution ever since

AFTER THE WAR.

241

with a few amendments which have been since made by act of
Congress.

During all this time, Vermont, which was not one of the orig-
inal thirteen States, remained " out in the cold." New York and
New Hampshire as we have seen, and also Massachusetts, laid
claim each to a part of her territory ; while Ethan Allen and
other patriotic Vermonters demanded a separate and individual
State government for themselves This occasioned much trouble to
the old Continental Congress. As Vermont would not agree to
the demands of the neighboring States, it was refused admission to

srs:DOLi.ARs

Six 3^0££m.§.

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SIX SPANISH MILLKD
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a. Resolution of cC)N=
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CONTINENTAL CURRENCY.

the Union. The British generals in America, in 1780, before the
signing of peace, entertained hopes of turning these disputes to
the account of their cause, by detaching the district from the
American cause and making it a British province. But this suited
Ethan Allen as little as being swallowed up in New York or New
Hampshire. He informed Congress, however, of the overtures the
British were making to him, saying in addition :

" I am as absolutely determined to defend the independence of
Vermont as Congress is that of the United States, and rather
than fail, I will retire with the hardy Green Mountain boys into

242

A FAMILY FLIGHT AROUND HOME.

the desolate caverns of the mountains, and wage war with human
nature at large."

During this time, the condition of Vermont was better in some

'MTERS=TIL7aN.0"\

STATUK OF HKNJAMIN FRANKLIN AT rHII.ADEI.PHIA.

respects than that of the Confederated States. She had managed
to pay her own troops during the war, and as she had no con-

AFTER THE WAR. 243

nection with Congress, no part of the burden of the public debt
of the United States rested on her. The people, observing that
their own condition was improving, while that of their neio-hbors
was constantly growing worse, ceased to regard their admission to
the Union as an event to be desired, especially when by the re-
moval of British troops, on the treaty of peace, she was relieved
from danger of foreign attack.

But after the adoption of the Federal Constitution, all parties
became anxious to admit the independence of Vermont. The diffi-
culties with New York were adjusted, and a controversy was ended
which had been carried on with great spirit for more than twenty
years, calling into exercise the native courage and talents of the
Vermont leaders. The State of Vermont was admitted into the
Union on the fourth day of March, 1791.

Vermont was unlike any other State, in having no provincial
government of her own, previous to the Revolution, while the orig-
inal thirteen were all provinces under the Crown of England. Ver-
mont had never been separately recognized by the Crown, nor, al-
though placed under New York, had she recognized the author-
ity of that province, or of any other external power. Her citizens
had formed themselves, in fact, into a little independent republic,
like the sturdy mountaineers of Switzerland, and by the boldness,
wisdom and prudence of her statesmen, she had succeeded in regu-
lating her internal affairs to the great advantage of her people.
So that Vermont may be called the most independent of all the
independent States of America-
Governor Chittenden, the first Governor of Vermont, was well
fitted to be the leader of such independent, dauntless, uncultivated
settlers. He was born in Guilford, Conn., in 1729. Early in the
spring of 1774, he removed with his family to the New Hamp-
shire grants, and from that time shared the fortunes of the grow-
ing State. He was elected Governor in 1778, and held that office,
with the exception of one year, until his death in 1797.

244 A FAMILY FLIGHT AROUND HOME.

CHAPTER XXVII.

THE HOUSE IN THE WOODS.

BY the end of July the House was done, and as August was
to come in on Friday, Saturday, the second, was chosen as
the great day of its dedication and introduction to the friends.

No lessons therefore were to be thought of that day. After early
breakfast, the workmen departed to the scene of festivities. The
girls were invited to arrive about eleven, in order to do their share
in the preparations for the great feast which was to take place at
one o'clock, in honor of the chief guests, Mr. and Mrs. Bruce.
Alice's mother, and her father, Mr. Martin, were also invited in
great form, but they declined the dinner part of it ; the farmer
saying that if he could manage to get round, he would bring Mrs.
Martin up in the carriage in the course of the afternoon. Mrs.
Martin was a little of an invalid, and seldom left the house, ex-
cept for meeting on Sundays, — never on foot.

Accordingly, a little before eleven, Lucy and the carryall stood
before the door, while Lavinia Mary and Belinda packed the latter
with baskets containing the dinner. Augustine stood by the head
of the horse, lest she should start, for form's sake, though Tucy
had never been known to start, within the memory of the oldest
inhabitant, before she had received many duckings and jerks of
the reins. Alice ran down from up-stairs with a huge mysterious
paper ])ackage, which she jnit carefully on the front seat, — for the
girls too had their secret, — and Bessie appeared last, drawing on
her gloves, and h)()king about her to see if she had forgotten
anything.

THE HOUSE IN THE WOODS.

245

" Guess you'll have a good day," said Lavinia Mary, shading her
eyes with her hand to inspect the sky. "Mighty hot, though, — hot
as mustard. Land's sakes ! " Ending her
sentence thus abruptly, she vanished
into the kitchen by the back door,
but returned in a min-
ute with the mustard-

BARS AT THE END OF THE ROAD

pot, which
she was hastily
doing up in a
newspaper. "I'd
as liked to as not for-
got it, Miss Bessie,"
she said. " Some
likes mor'n some, so
"^ I didn't put none on."

And Augustine climbed up

" Come on, Augustine," said Bessie,
on the front seat.

"Do not sit on the — " cried Alice, checking herself.

" What is it .-* " he asked, squeezing the bundle.

" You'll see ! " replied Alice, smiling joyfully.

It was less than half a mile that they could go with the wagon,
for the charm of the House was to be totally inaccessible to the
world. The first part was along the village road, past the weather-

246

A FAMILY FLIGHT AROUND HOME.

worn homestead where an old lady, the last of her race, lived all
by herself, and then turning off to a cart path through pastures
to the entrance of the woods, where a pair of bars stopped their
progress.

'' Now, do you think it is safe to leave the horse here," asked
Bessie, "till Augustine goes back for the Bruces .? "

"Yes, indeed," replied Alice, "what could happen.? My! what
lots and lots of raspberries there are."

"Don't say 'my'! and take this basket, please," said Bessie.

THE WEATHER-WORN HOMESTEAD,

" What a pity not to have some at the feast. Look here, Augus-
tine, suppose you stay here and pick all you can, instead of com-
ing on with us, and then you can go back for the others."

Relentless Bessie ! It was not a pleasing scheme for Augustine,
who was wild to sec the House, as it was now a fortnight since
he had been near it.

"I have no basket," he urged, "and, besides, how should I
know when it was time.''"

" See, I will lend }'()U my watch, onl\' do not smash it ; and
you can have this basket tliat the bottles of milk and coffee arc in.
Now jump out, Augustine, that's a good boy. It's just eleven

FESTOONS OF CLEMATIS.

THE HOUSE IN THE WOODS. 249

now, and you can start back by half-past twelve, or sooner if you
have filled that basket."

Alice had taken down the bars, politely, for Bessie to get over.

"Just put them up, will you, Augustine.-*" she called out, and
she and Bessie ran off, laughing, their hands full of parcels and
baskets.

"The boys will be soon here to get the big things!" cried
Bessie, and then they turned into the woods and Augustine was out
of sight.

"Bessie, you were tyrannical to make him stay!" exxlaimed Alice.

"Poor boy," said Bessie, "but, you see, I thought the boys would
be gruff with him ; they consider him so lazy about the House.
If he brings a pail of berries it will serve as a propitiatory offer-
ing. Anyhow, I shall put it in that light. Where are they }
Halloo ! "

Answering voices told them to turn in at the blazed birch on
their right, and a few moments brouglit them to the site of the
House. The spot was chosen chiefly on account of the depth of
the water there, affording good advantages for diving. The shores
rose high above the pond, and a steep bank sloped down to its
edge, so that from the top of the ridge a lovely view of the oppo-
site shore and the sparkling blue surface of the water were to be
seen through the thickly growing birch and oak-trees.

" How pretty ! " cried both girls ; " but where is the House .-• "

Tom and Ernest had come to meet them, hot, and with blazing-
faces, their hats pushed off their brows. They led their visitors
two or three steps, and then they beheld the House, on a little
natural opening in the thick woods, yet quite embowered with
branches, which had been cut away sufficiently to admit the view
of the pond.

The House was but a rude affair, but of course it was regarded
by all as nothing less than a castle. Four trees, at convenient
distances of about ten feet, had been chosen for the corners, and

250 A FAMILY FLIGHT AROUND HOME.

tu these planks were nailed. The back was higher than the front,
to allow a sloping roof; there was a "practicable" door of en-
trance, and opposite, a large opening by way of a window, admit-
ting a draught and a pretty vista through the House.

"Where did you get this door?" demanded Bessie; "it seems
more ancient than the rest of the architecture."

" Why ! it's that door that was in the barn chamber at Alice's.
Don't you know .'' we had it in the performance," said Tom.

" Come in," cried Hubert. He was inside the House, still occu-
pied in putting up festoons of clematis brought from the woods.

There was a plank floor laid, and the interior decorations gave
the charm to the House, which on the outside had but a bare, new
look, that did not recommend it. However, every chip and shav-
ing had been cleared away, so that it had already a settled look,
and the battered paint on the old door lent respectability to the
glare of the new bright boards of which the walls were made.

Inside there were tables and chairs, some of recent construction,
others brought from garret and barn ; and everywhere flowers, — in
ginger pots, flower pots, and knotholes in the boards. Colored
prints from the Graphic adorned the walls.

" How nice you have made it look ! " said Bessie, after some
time had been occupied in admiring details. " Now, Alice, show
them your surprise."

" Perhaps you will not like them," said Alice shyly, " but I
wanted to make something for the House."

She was opening her paper parcel as she spoke, and now drew
out of it a set of curtains for the window, made of delightful gay
chintz with great roses spreading over it.

Strange to say, the curtains exactly fitted the window. They
were all ready to put up, and just the size to stretch in gathered
folds across the top, and parting in the middle, to fall to the
ground. There were bright ribbons with which to loop up either
side.

[I'fi p'lvi'i'fj 'I'li

iiii,:Mi|yi%j|,\,'. iir

FINISHING TOUCHES.

THE HOUSE IN THE WOODS. 253

" How did you know how to make them fit ? " said Tom.

"How did you know there was a window.?" asked Hubert.

"We made Augustine tell, and was it not clever of him, he
knew the exact dimensions of the window."

"Where is Augustine.?" then they asked, all of them.

The girls related how they left him gathering berries in the hot
sun, and in compassion for such labors, the boys agreed to con-
done for good and all his abandoning work at the House.

"But all this time," exclaimed Bessie, "we ought to be setting
the table, and somebody must get the baskets."

So the boys led the way to a short distance from the House,
where, with planks left over from its construction, they had erected
a table on legs driven down into the ground, a foot high, "suited,"
as they explained, " to the height of the seats," which were noth-
ing else than the ground.

The tablecloth was in the parcel with the curtains, so that
could be spread at once; and soon Ernest came panting back
from the bars with two heavy baskets, one containing plates, and
the other solid provisions.

He reported Augustine as making good progress with the rasp-
berries, adding, " He wanted, though, to come on and leave me to
cro back for the others. I told him 'not much'!"
" The feast was set, the guests arrived. They were as indulgent
in praise as the girls had been, and indeed the place was very
pretty. Augustine was honorably escorted to all points of interest,,
and made to feel that his raspberries were a valuable contribution

to the occasion.

Bessie had been promised a chance to boil the kettle, if she
would bring it, to make coffee, an accomplishment learned from
Belinda; she was delighted with the preparations made for her,-
three crossed sticks on which to suspend the kettle, gypsy fash-
ion, and a little pile of dried branches all ready to light.

The repast was excellent, and a soft breeze from the water

'^^'^ A FAMILY FLIGHT AKOUNl) HOMK.

tempered the heat. As soon as it was finished, they repaired to the
House. One old rocking-chair was comfortable enough for Mrs.
Bruce, who sat in it by the window, looking into the thick folia^'-e.
The professor put himself upon two chairs, and smoked his pipe,
the others grouped themselves on the threshold ov on the floor,
reposing after arduous labor. They recited all their adventures and
difficulties in building the House ; and Tom explained how trifling
had been the cost.

" I mean to have a cupboard, Bessie, up over your head there,
where we can keep some cups and saucers, for we mean to live
here a good deal." And they went on to plan other improve-
ments.

Alice told how she put the finishmg touches to the curtains the
night before, after she went up to bed, with only one candle.
" For," she said, " we wrote to New York for patterns, and they
did not send the stuff till day before yesterday."

Mr. and Mrs. Martm did not come. The day ended in a swim
for the boys in the cool water below their House.

FRANKLIN AND LAFAYETTE. 255

CHAPTER XXVIII.

FRANKLIN AND LAFAYETTE.

THE boys now rested upon their laurels. They felt well satis-
fied with the happy end of their labors in housebuilding,
and slept with the sense of being proprietors in real estate. The
land, by the way, was supposed to be a part of the old wood-
land farm which had once been included in the original property
of Mr. Horner's grandfather Titles and boundaries were but vague
in the outskirts of Utopia, and no one was likely to lay claim to
the place ; but Tom and Hubert scorned the imputation of being
squatters.

The whole family rejoiced and sympathized with them in the
well-earned possession of their country-seat. The next day, Sun-
day, which was truly a day of rest for them, the conversation
chiefly turned upon the favorite subject. Plans were made for
additional decoration, and internal improvement ; and no other ex-
peditions were thought of than those which should centre on the
House. Many a fine name was proposed for the new acquisition:
"Horner's Corner," "The Alhambra of the West," "Hole in the
Woods," " Divers' Places," and many others, but all were rejected
as unsuitable, and it never was called anything but The House.

They expected to enter at once upon a series of daily visits to
the House, where they meant to pass all their leisure time ; but
alas! on Monday it began to rain in the course of the morning,
and rained steadily for several days, as it sometimes does in
August, though not often so early in the month. In the afternoon
the storm was violent, so that not even Tom and Hubert cared to

256

A FAMILY FLIGHT AROUND HOME.

venture out so far. There was thunder and lightning; great
crashes rattled round the sky, and it was almost dark in the mid-
dle of the afternoon. Every one thought it was going to clear up,
but instead of that, the weather went from one disagreeable phase
to another, — cold and chilly, or hot and muggy, but always wet.

These were trying times for Bessie and Alice. The boys, of
course, did not stay in the house all day, but sallied forth in

spite of the weather ; but there
were hours when time hung
heavy on their hands, and they
invaded the quiet of the room
whiere Alice was trying to paint,
and Augustine composing his-
torical pictures.

" Do, Hubert, go away ! " cried
Alice. " If you sit on the edge
of the table it shakes my draw-
ing-block."

"Let me mix your colors for
you," said he, taking a brush ;
" you ought to do the middle of that daisy with gamboge."

Alice leaned hastily forward to rescue her favorite brush. The
water-bottle was upset and ran all over her careful drawing. An
outcry was the consequence. Bessie came to the rescue with
towels, but said impatiently :

"Tom, I think you might take the boys away from here!"
Tom was engaged in drawing a cannon for Augustine in the
foreground of the battle of l^ennington, in a realistic manner, using
spools plucked from Bessie's work-box, to mark round the wheels.
He looked up at the rain which was pouring in torrents.

"Where shall we go } Do you want us to be wet through .-*
Come, fellows, let . us go upstairs and rummage round in the
irarrct."

OLD l.ll'.KRTY P.EI.L.

Wi\v»mMmii}v

FEANKLIN AND LAFAYETTE. 259

Hubert, meanwhile, apologized humbly to Alice, and tried to dry
her block with his handkerchief.

"No matter," she said, "I was going to wet it all over in a
minute."

It might be supposed that this enforced suspension of out-door
amusements would have made the boys turn willingly to their
studying for occupation. But it did not work exactly in that way.
They were restless and irritable, and less able to fix their atten-
tion to abstract subjects than when their daily toil in the woods
had worked off their superfluous energy and animal spirits.

Still, however, the reading went on. Mr. Bruce employed differ-
ent boys to look up different points of history concerning the
men and times they were engaged upon.

The Federal Convention which brought about the new constitu-
tion was a remarkable body of men. Every State sent up in her
delegation some one renowned as a statesman or a soldier of whose
services she was justly proud, in the cause of freedom. A few of
them, when the Revolution broke out, had raised regiments, has-
tened off to the army, fought through the war, and come home
as distinguished and skilful officers. Some had been Governors of
States, some were renowned as jurists and scholars, and others had
year after year represented their States in Congress.

But the fame of no man was so splendid, or went back to so
early a time, as that of Benjamin Franklin. His name was known
to every learned society in Europe, when half the delegates to the
convention were in the nursery, for he was born in 1706.

He was, in truth, the greatest American then living. His mind
was one of the finest in an age not born of great minds, and
among its diverse qualities was prominent that homely wisdom
which had been well named " common sense."

The son of an English tallow-chandler, his early years were
spent among the children of laborers and mechanics. When a boy,
he stole away from his father's house, with a few pence in his

2dO

A FAMILY FLIGHT AROUND HOME.

pockets, and went forth to seek his fortunes. He slept in cock-
lofts and garrets, and had to endure poverty and want. Before he
was fifty, this low-born, friendless, self-taught Yankee had overcome
every obstacle in his path, and raised himself to great reputation
and position. In his old age he stood before kings and Parlia-

liENJAMlN IKANKLIN,

ments, was the friend of powerful statesmen, and honored by men
renowned in every walk of science and art. From such training,
which might have spoiled an inferior nature, he came forth a

FRANKLIN AND LAFAYETTE.

2()1

rounded and perfected man, the most kind-hearted, the most genial,
the most unassuming of mortals, — a deHghtful companion and friend.
His popularity in France was great. When he walked the streets
of Paris the people followed him in crowds. His portrait hung in
the window of every print shop and over the fireplaces of men of
fashion. Men of science did him honor, women of the world wrote
him sonnets. Snuff-boxes and walking-sticks were ci la Fraiikliii.
His maxims and sayings were printed in
the newspapers and quoted everywhere.

The popularity of Franklin in France was
matched by that of Lafayette on this side
of the Atlantic. In 1776, he was a captain
of dragoons in a French regiment. Hear-
ing, one day, at a dinner, that the Amer-
ican colonies had declared their independ-
ence, he resolved at once to draw his sword
in the cause of American liberty. He made
the acquaintance in Paris of Franklin, and
the other American agents there, and told
them his intention. Even they themselves,
as well as all his friends, endeavored to
dissuade him, for this was at the darkest
period of the Revolutionary War. But no
persuasion turned him from his purpose.

He arrived in America with eleven offi-
cers, on the twenty-fifth of April, 1777;
he was then about twenty years old.

The sensation produced by his appear-
ance in this country was of course great,
for it gave timely impulse to the disheartened Americans to find
that there were men in the first rank of nobility in Europe who
not only took an interest in the cause of liberty, but were willing
to share its sufferings.

FRANKLIN GARDENING.

262

A FAMILY FLIGHT AKOUXD HOME.

Lafayette landed in Charleston, S. C, and went to Philadelphia,
where Congress was then in session.

He received a commission from Congress, which, however, was
considered merely honorary, but it soon became evident that he

meant to fight in earnest.
From this time he served
regularly in the army, be-
came a warm friend to
Washington, and received
the command of important
positions, in which he dis-
tinguished himself for his
bravery.

After two years, his own
country being at war, La-
fayette considered it his
duty to place himself at
the disposal of his own
government, and he returned
home, to be received there
with demonstrations of pop-
ular enthusiasm. He was
untiring in his efforts for
the cause of liberty with
the French government, and
it was mainly his efforts
that caused French troops
to be sent to America.

Fifteen months after leav-
ing America, he re-crossed
the Atlantic, and rejoined Washington at headquarters, inspiring
the army whenever he came, with fresh hopes. For his services at
the siege of Yorktown, he was publicly thanked by Washington on

hi A I I I'. i)l' LAI- A\ 1.1 1 K.

FRANKLIN AND LAFAYETTE. 2G3

the day after the surrender of Cornwallis. The campaign being over,
he returned to France, but in 1784 he revisited the United States.

Everywhere he was heartily welcomed and entertained. He landed
on the fourth of August, and went directly to Mount Vernon, the
home of Washington ; on the fifteenth of October he reached Bos-
ton, where the presence of the distinguished Frenchman created
no little excitement. Three hundred of the most respectable of
the citizens assembled in Faneuil Hall, where thirteen arches were
put up, adorned with flowers, and made gay with bunting. These
arches grew smaller from the centre towards the ends of the room,
and in the one immediately over the head of the Marquis was a
ficitr-de-lys. Music was played during the dinner, and when the
cloth had been removed, thirteen toasts were proposed ; as each
toast was drunk, thirteen cannon were discharged in the market-
place, and three rounds of clapping were given, a new fashion of
applause but lately come in.

No toast brought out such shouting as the toast of General
Washington. No sooner had the name of that well-beloved gen-
eral been announced, than a curtain, which hung behind the Mar-
quis, was rent asunder, displaying the picture of Washington, cov-
ered with flowers and laurels, and supported by the ensigns of
America and France. Lafayette quickly arose from his seat, his
face beaming with pleasure and surprise. He began to applaud,
and was instantly joined by the assembled company.

Everywhere throughout the country he was received with enthu-
siasm. On Christmas day he quitted New York for France.

Marie Jean Paul Roch Yves Gilbert Motier, Marquis de Lafayette,
was born September 6, r/S/, and died (in Paris) May 19, 1834.

"I begin to see," remarked Hubert, "what makes Faneuil Hall
so important. I wish I had looked at it more attentively. You
see, I took no interest, that first day, in the Cradle of Liberty."

"I wish we could go to Boston again," said Tom. "I believe
I never thought much about its historical interest before, myself."

264 A FAMILY FLIGHT AROUND HOME.

CHAPTER XXIX.

PIRATES.

SOON after the Revolution, the growing commerce of the United
States began to extend itself as far as the Mediterranean,
and there, being entirely unprotected, it became an easy prey for
the Barbary powers. Without any previous notice, and without
any pretext other than that Congress had not purchased their
friendship with a tribute, the Algerine corsairs, between the years
1785 and 1793, captured fifteen American vessels. The ships and
cargoes were made prizes, and their officers and crews condemned
to slavery in its worst forms.

There is scarcely anything in modern history so extraordinary as
the existence for nearly three centuries of the private princedom
of Algiers. A State which lived by robbery, and that of the
worst and most cruel description ; a stealer of souls, trafficking in
human blood, it was a perpetual danger to every traveller whose
duty or business led him across the Mediterranean.

The State was founded by the Moors on their expulsion from
Spain by Ferdinand and Isabella, in 1492, and the Spanish au-
thority was never established there. Charles the Fifth made an
attempt to subjugate the Barbary powers, but it was a failure, and
from that time forward there were unceasing hostilities between
them and the Christians ; thence sprang the system of piracy which
made the corsairs so terrible in the Mediterranean, and which was
so long submitted to by the Christian powers.

These Algcrines lived upon exactions and plunder, — a nest of rob-
bers, with few redeeming traits save those of courage and nautical

PIRATES. 267

skill. Though their avowed religion was that of Mahomet, many
of their leaders were renegades, — Greeks and Italians, fiercer and
more bitter with their captives than any native Turk. With such
a population, almost altogether dependent upon the robbery of the
seas, the Algiers of that period presents a singular spectacle of
the moral effect of the fear produced by the tortures of slavery,
which made the sight of a corsair at sea appalling. One of the
•early authorities from which knowledge is gained of this strange
community is Cervantes, the author of Don Quixote, who was a
captive for five years in Algiers.

When a young man, he served with the Spanish army in the
famous battle of Lepanto, one of the most important naval battles
ever fought (October 7, 167 1 ), as the first effective blow given
to the power of the Turks who had hitherto been thought invin-
cible at sea. Cervantes received two wounds, and lost the use of
his left hand for life. Returning from Naples to Spain, the galley
in which he was was taken by the pirates. It is hard to imagine,
in this country, how a shipload of weary veterans coming home
after an exhausting war, could be thus suddenly arrested upon
their way and carried off to the most galling slavery.

" When the ship," says the early account, " arrived in the harbor
of Algiers, all the oars were taken out and carried away, and
not a single Turk was allowed to leave the ship until it was thus
stripped bare, like a bird without wings; for a moment of forget-
fulness would have given the captives time to seize the oars
and escape. Having taken these precautions, the goods, slaves, and
all the booty was landed, to the great joy of all the merchants
and of the king. The captives were examined, and arranged in
classes. The rich and noble represented money; they would pay
a good ransom. The others were cruelly treated, and set to work
at once, while the nobles were kept apart.

The masters were arbitrary and cruel; the captivej were com-
pelled to row the galleys, and do all sorts of menial work. When

268 A FAMILY FLIGHT AROUND HOME.

a new captive ship arrived, it was greeted with shouts of furious
joy from the native population."

Such was the condition of the victims of the corsair in the
sixteenth century. The strangest part of the story is, that such a
state of things should have been allowed by Christian nations to
last so long.

It was reserved for the United States to point the way to an
abolition of this monstrous tyranny. As the young republic had
no money, tribute to the Barbary States was especially galling.
Negotiations were set on foot, and treaties at last made.

In the course of these negotiations, ambassadors were sent from
America to the several Barbary States. Thomas Barclay, who was-
charged with the mission to Morocco, wrote home letters about
what he saw, which were most eagerly read at that time (1786),
when scarcely anything was known of the country. The emperor
he declared to be a man possessed of many amiable qualities, but
his private life was "disgusting and loathsome."

As for his subjects, they were fierce and lazy, delighting in
cruelty, and avaricious to the last degree. Fear of God had made
them put up some costly and beautiful mosques, but they had
done nothing more. Their streets were despicable, and their houses
a sight to behold.

His first audience with the emperor took place in the garden
of the palace. His Majesty was on horseback ; about him were a
thousand attendants. He asked numberless questions about America,
and the voyage from it ; whether they grew in its forests timber
fit for ships. When these questions were answered to his satis-
faction, he said,

" Send your ships and trade with us. I will do anything you
desire." Whereupon his people all cried out in a loud voice,

" Allah preserve the life of our master ! "

Among the gifts brought to him by the Americans were an
atlas and a watch. With the atlas he seemed familiar ; the watch

PIKATES.

271

he examined with much care, for it was an alarm watch, the
first he had ever seen.

The result of Mr. Barclay's visit was a promise from the em-
peror, "on the first day of the blessed month Ramadan, 1200," of a
lasting treaty with the United States. But it was not until 18 17
that he prohibited piracy throughout his dominions.

The regency of Algiers was by far the most formidable of the

THE HOUSE FARED ILL DURING THE WET WEATHER.

Barbary powers. In 181 5, Commodore Decatur, encountering an
Algerine squadron, took a frigate and a brig, and sailed into the
bay of Algiers, where he forced the dey to surrender all Ameri-
can prisoners, and to abandon all future claims for tribute. This
bold example was followed by the English, but piracy was not
suppressed. A long struggle between France and Algiers ended
in the occupation of the country by the French, which has lasted
to the present time. Since 1830, nothing has been heard of the

272

A FAMILY FLIGHT AROUND HOMPl

system of Algerine piracy, a system which had been the terror of
civilization since the days of the Conquest of Granada.

" So this was the career of your beloved Moors, Bessie, after

they left Granada,"
said Hubert.

" It only shows,"
replied Bessie, "what
a mistake it was to
turn them out of
Spain. If they had
^./^ remained there, im-
proving the land and
developing their in-
dustries, the Alham-
bra would not now
be a ruin, and the
terrible system of pi-
racy would not have
been established.

Satan finds some mischief
still
For idle hands to do,

you know," she ad-
ded.

" That view should
be taken with qual-
ifications," remarked
the professor, who was
apt to take Bessie's
bold generalizations
more seriously than she herself even cared to do.

"Many other elements entered into the traffic of the corsairs.

OLD SWORDS.

PIRATES. 273

The Turk had as much to do with that warfare as the Moor."

"The Moors," remarked Bessie sententiously, "surrounded by
Christians, were intelligent, peaceable and refined. Under tiie in-
fluence of the Turk, they became barbarous and cruel."

The boys, who cared nothing for such speculations, were willing
to fill up a rainy day by imagining themselves Algerines and
captives at the top of the house, making use of a collection of
rusty swords and other weapons they found there. From the noise
which shook the ceilings of the story below, it was imagined that
the conflicts were of the most alarming nature. None complained,
however. The girls were glad to be left alone ; even Augustine
deserted them for these contests, which proved to be not so se-
vere a tax on his energies as carryirs neavy planks up a hill in
the hot sun.

The hearts of all were still with the House, and on the second
day of the bad weather Tom and Hubert walked up over the road
and through the woods, dripping with wet, to inspect it. On their
return, the report was disheartening. "Everything is spoilt!" cried
Hubert as he entered the house.

"There are your curtains," said Tom, throwing down on the hall
floor a wet and shapeless mass.

" What a pity," said Bessie, who, with Alice, had come down
to hear the tale. " I have thought of the curtains often since it
began to rain. If it had only held up till you had the shutter
made for the window."

" Shutter ! held up ! " exclaimed the boys together. " If you
could see the House. It is a sort of swimming-bath inside. The
water has streamed through the cracks, and run down the hill over
the floor, and there is not a dry inch in the place."

" The pictures are all washed off the walls, and most of them
are a kind of pulp. It is lucky we had nothing precious there. "

" The box of crackers ! " exclaimed Bessie.

"The box of crackers," said the boys, laughing, "was washed off

274 A FAMILY FLIGHT AROUND HOME.

the shelf, and fell open on the floor, and the crackers were all
over the room, in different degrees of soak."

" Look here, Lavinia Mary," called Alice to that person, who
was passing through the hall, " see my pretty curtains, all
spoiled ! "

"Land's sakes," she said, as she lifted them up, being the first
one who had ventured to touch the wet heap. " Them will wash ;
don't you worry."

"Wash!" shouted Tom. "I should think they had been washed
enough already ; the question is, whether they will iron."

" Look, Miss Bessie," continued Lavinia Mary, not regarding his
words. "It doesn't run one bit. Them colors is as sot as sot.
I'll just rence them out and hang them up in the kitchen, and
they will come out beautiful."

So saying, she dropped the curtains into an empty pail she had
in her hand, and retired to the kitchen.

"Do you think you can make the House water-tight.''" asked
Alice.

" The thing is to tar and feather the roof," said Tom.

TWO PAPAS. 275

CHAPTER XXX.

TWO PAPAS.

SUMMER rains have an end sooner or later, and after the spell
of bad weather the sun came out and dried up the roads,
making every leaf and spray sparkle with light. Hot, " muggy "
days succeeded, the flowers pressed forward with redoubled vigor,
freshened by so much wet. Little humming-birds whirred about
the bright blossoms of the honeysuckle that grew over the door,
and darted in and out of its festoons. In the fields, golden-rod
was gorgeous, its thirty-seven varieties being fairly represented at
Utopia in quantities of each species. Bessie persuaded Augustine
to take an interest in collecting as many different kinds as pos-
sible, and though he would not take the trouble to study the
minute variations with the botany, through the aid of a microscope,
he was quick to learn the various forms the plant assumes, and
the soil they each effect. He knew where to find the slender one-
sided plume of iiemoralis growing thick by sandy roadsides, and in
dry fields, while tall canadensis, sometimes six feet high, was only
to be seen in the borders of the woods.

He and Bessie were very learned about the names, and joyously
•called to each other when they were walking to announce a
Virga-anrca or an altissinia. They were much delighted when
Bessie's search in Grey's Botany was awarded by finding their
very specimen attributed to " Rocky Banks in West Vermont."

This pursuit they had to themselves, getting no sympathy from
their companions.

" It is all the same thing ! " said Ernest one day pettishly.

276

A FAMILY FLIGHT AR0U:N'D HOME.

" I do not see why
you go grubbing after
the ugly common stuff.
It is all nothing but
golden-rod."

" Let them amuse
themselves," said Tom
indulgently. "It
makes them feel su-
perior to have so many
such learned names.
for the same thing.
They will forget them
all before next year,
and then it will be
all to do over again."
Botany contains a
fund of enjoyment for
those who attack it in
earnest; it is, on the
other hand, a source
of irritation to outsid-
ers, who are bored by
the long names at-
tached to their simple favorites, and who profess to regard it as a
wanton destruction to pull the pretty flowers to pieces for the
sake of classifying them.

The professor was delighted with the kindred soul of Bessie,
and surprised at the skill with which she had drawn out of Au-
gustine, whom he had been inclined to consider a dull and listless
boy, tastes and sympathies of a refined character.

Every one was willing to bring home great bunches of the
brilliant weed ; and Alice had her hands full in arranging this

SIDE DOORWAY.

TWO PAPAS.

277

•>^"

and the other splendors which came every day from the woods.
Each old jug, pail, plate that could be found, everything and
anything that would hold water, was put to service, and every
part of the large house was decorated, even to the side doorway
leading to the yard.

Meanwhile work was resumed upon the House. Not that Tom
ever hoped, or had hoped, to make it water-tight, but he had not
expected such a deluge as that it received on the very day after
its inauguration. Tar-
red paper was spread
upon the roof, and *

that overlaid with ad- ^

ditional boards. An
ample cupboard. a
masterpiece of ama-
teur carpenter's work
which was really wa-
ter-tight, was made
and fastened up on
one side of the walls ;
in this it was the
plan to keep whatever pro-
visions were to stay there.
It had a lock and key, and
the key was kept by Tom.

After all, the enjoyment of
the House was in the building
of it. When it was done, the importance
of it subsided in the minds of the chil-
dren. Alice's curtains were re-hung, and
the walls were ornamented again with
a fresh set of illustrations from the GrapJiic and the like. Bessie
suggested that statuary and plaster ornaments, as capable of standing

IN THE HONEYSUCKLE.

278 A FAMILY FLIGHT AROUND HOME.

wet, were the proper ornaments for a house of this description, and
she presented the establishment with a plaster cat which was in
the collection of a wandering pedler who came round one day,,
even to that remote spot. Bessie talked Italian with him, and
bought the cat. It was very ugly, with green and red spots-
splashed over it at irregular intervals. It was given a place of
honor in the House, on a corner bracket made for it especially,.
and every one hoped that the first rain would wash it white.

As it happened, there was no more rain during the month of
August. All the precautions taken too late for past mishaps,,
were unnecessary for the future. The cat remained the presiding
genius of the House, and became a hero in consequence, often-
quoted as a living creature, and credited with strange experiences.

The boys dived and swam from their rock in the pond below
their house. Alice often walked up there in the end of the after-
noon, and stayed chatting with them till it was time to come
home to tea. Bessie did not join them so often. Her favorite
haunt was the brook, which babbled over the stones deliciously.
It was always cool along its edge, and stepping from rock to rock,.
she discovered many treasures — flowers which delight in shade and
dampness grew there, and there were ferns, even maiden-hair, to
be found dipping their tips in thg stream. ^^s^,^^

As she wandered along by herself, Bessie frequently thought how
strange it was that the Homers, who so loved to be together,
should be thus scattered about the world. Letters had come an-
nouncing the safe arrival of Philip and his mother at Bordeau.x.

They had joined the Herveys, and now were all enjoying together
the lovely scenery of Pau and its neighborhood. Summer is the
saisoii inoj'te there, but they did not find it very hot, and
enjoyed the profound solitude of the town and the roadways.
Mary was full of pleasure at having the society of her mother.
Mr. Hervey was as cordial and energetic as ever ; he and Philip
were planning a little tour among the Lower Pyrenees on horse-

TWO PAPAS.

279

back. Nearer home, Mr. Horner wrote of long hot days in New
York, varied by little trips to Newport, where Miss Lejeune had
now established herself. She was very good in writing long letters

DASHING EQUIPAGES.

to Bessie, describing the gayeties of the place, the fine clothes
and the dashing equipages of the summer guests.

"It is pretty good fun to be here," wrote Miss Lejeune. "The
Stuyvesants are here, and (you need not read this to the twins)

280

A FAMILY FLIGHT AROUND HOME.

are very splendid in their Paris costumes. Miss S. is decidedly
popular; I think she has just about little enough to say to suit
a place of this sort. I meet them at the Casino, and we exchange
a few words about the twins. It is evident that I know more
what they are doing than their relatives do, but it is not
worth while to spend much time in telling them about your
Utopian pursuits, for the mother's eyes are wandering in search
of new toilets, and the daughter's for fresh admirers. For my

part, I wish I were
out of it all, and
gathering orchis
with you, dear Bes-
sie, but Mrs. Wise
will not hear of my
cutting short my
visit."

"So it would
seem," mused Bes-
sie, " that all of the
rasiiily are greatly
enjoying themselves
except poor old Tom
and me, while we
are engaged in as-
sisting Professor
Bruce to instruct
three cubs who have
no sort of claim
upon us." This
strong way of put-
ting the case made her laugh aloud, and the sight of a stately
specimen of fringed orchis which she spied just before her, restored
her '"ciuanimity at once.

BESSIE'S FAVORITK Sl'OT.

TWO PAPAS.

281

While she regained her equanimity she lost her equilibrium. A
too hasty grasp at the orchis made her foot slip, and she found
herself sitting on a flat stone, which was
•dry, luckily, while her feet were both in
the water. She persevered in gathering
her orchis, and made the best of her way
home with boots full of water.

What a surprise ! Sitting on the door-
steps, in comfortable chairs, and puffing-
clouds of smoke before them, were her
father and Mr. Stuyvesant, — good, jolly Mr.
Stuyvesant, a little stouter and a shade
grayer than when she saw him last.
^' Dear papa! what a surprise!" she ex-
claimed, springing forward.

" Mr, Stuyvesant thought it was time to
be looking after his boys," said her father,
" and we took the train for Burlington
yesterday. We telegraphed, and here is
the message," he added, drawing a yellow
envelope from his pocket. " Mr. Brick
received it at the telegraph office at East
Utopia just before our train came in."

" That is the way we do things in the
country, papa," said Bessie, smiling, as she
took the telegram now more than twenty-
four hours old, "but have you seen nobody ?"

"We have seen that vivacious, hospitable and voluble being you
call Lavinia Mary," replied her father, " and she informs us that
every living soul is out, just as sure as you are born."

"And I only came home early because I wet my feet, I am
glad now I slipped into the brook ! "

The joy of all the rest, as they arrived in groups, was great.

THE FRINGED ORCHIS.

282

A FAMILY FLIGHT AROUND HOWE.

The professor and Mrs. Bruce appeared first, behind the- staid'
Lucy whose jogging pace could not be hastened by the attractions-
on the doorstep. Soon after AHce and Augustine appeared, with
their arms full of plunder from the woods, and latest came the
other three boys, with hair sleek and wet from a recent bath,
and their towels stringing over their shoulders. Then all talked at
once, and exclaimed and asked questions.

When tea-time came, it appeared that Lavinia Mary and
Belinda had outdone themselves in preparation.

Mr. Stuyvesant was well pleased.

" Madam," he said, " I hope you have another spare room, for
I should like to engage board here for the rest of my life, and
tuition as well from Dame Bessie," with a bow to the latter.

But this was only a joke, for the gentlemen returned to New
York the next day but one.

Till, kill Ml roWKK AT .NiKWl'ORT.

CONGRESS. 2^

CHAPTER XXXI.

CONGRESS.

THE first Wednesday in January, 1789, was named as the day
for choosing the Presidential electors, the first Wednesday
in February for the meeting of the electors, and the first Wednesday
in March for the assembling of the Senate and House of Repre-
sentatives. This latter day happened, in the year 1798, to fall on
the fourth of the month, and hence it was that three years later
Congress decreed that each Presidential term should begin on the
fourt'h of March next following the day on which the votes of
the electors were cast. In obedience to this, the Presidents have
ever since been sworn into office at noon, on the fourth of March,
with the few exceptions when that day has fallen upon Sunday,
and the times when, on account of the death of the President, the
Vice-President has succeeded to the office out of the usual order

of time.

' To fix upon a date when the Constitution should become the
law of the land was easier than to determine the place for the
meeting of the officers of the Federal Government. Everybody
agreed" that it should be central, and that "central" should be
understood to mean the Middle States ; but these contained many
large cities, and it was hard to say which had the best claim.

Great advantages would come to the city where the national
government was seated and the national treasures kept. New York,
on many accounts, was the most suitable place, but there was
great opposition to giving it these privileges, for the State of
New York had been reticent and disloyal in all the difficulties of

:284

A FAMILY FLIGHT AliOUND HOME.

the earlier Congress. Whenever the question came up, it was
steadily resisted, but after a long time it was finally ordered that
the new Congress should meet in New York, in the last session
of the old, or Continental Congress, which held over till the new
one was established.

Great preparations were made in New York to receive the
distinguished body. The previous Congress had occupied rooms in

KECEIVINU UlbTlNtiUlSllKD GUESTS.

the City Hall, but the buildinj;- was old and out of repair, and
the rooms were thought to be too mean and shabby for the new
one. The city was appealed to, but could do nothing, for its
treasury was out of funds. Congress could do nothing, for the
national coffers were empty. Some rich merchants took up the

CONGRESS. 285

matter, and soon over thirty thousand dollars were collected by
subscription. An army of carpenters, masons, and plasterers were
employed to re-model the City Hall completely. So extensive were
the changes, that when the fourth of March came, the place was
still in the hands of the workmen. It was re-named Federal
Hall. The day was ushered in with solemn ceremonies. As the
sun went down on the third, some guns at the battery fired a
farewell salute to the old Confederation. When the first gray
streaks of dawn appeared, on the morning of the fourth, and again
at noon, and at six in the evening, salutes were fired, and the
bells of all the churches in the city rang out a welcome to the
Constitution under which the United States has, in the course of
a hundred years, become one of the rich and prosperous nations
of the world.

However, on the morning of that day there were but eight
Senators and thirteen Representatives in the city, and the New
Government, from which so much was expected, could not go into
operation. The distances were long, and, in those days, the roads
were few and bad. Some of the delegates had pressing business
to arrange, and could not leave home until it was settled. March
was nearly over before the thirtieth representative arrived. There
was now a quorum, and the House organized on the thirteenth of
March ( 1789). But now a new delay arose. Nothing could be
done till the Senate also had a quorum, and another week was
impatiently passed in watching every stage-wagon that came to the
city, and asking the name of every traveller. At last, on the
morning of the sixth of April, a messenger knocked at the door
of the House and informed the Speaker that the Senate was
ready to count the electoral vote. The members hastened to the
Senate Chamber, and the ballots were opened, read off, and
recorded. The Houses then separated. When the Representatives
were once more in their seats, the Speaker announced the result.
George Washington had received sixty-nine, John Adams thirty-

286

A FAMILY FLIGHT ABOUND HOME.

four votes. Thus were elected the first President and Vice-Presi-
dent of the United States.

MKST I'KAVKK IN CUNUKKSb.

The two Houses of Congress had their hands full of other busi-
ness at once, and advice of all kinds was showered upon them,

CONGRESS.

287

especially upon the subject of the importation of British goods.
It was said that if the country was to prosper, it must spend less
•on foreign goods, and learn to manufacture its own. It was
plainly the duty of Congress to spare no pains to restrain impor-
tation and encourage home manufacture.

The advice was sound, and had begun already to be acted on by the
people. In every great city so- s- . ^ -^

cieties for the encouragement of
manufactures were flourishing.
The members of the society in
Delaware took a solemn pledge
to appear on the first day of
January, in each year, clothed
in goods of American make.

The result of such resolves
was a speedy return to old
habits of simplicity and frugality.
Young women wore plain clothes,
and made haste to surpass their
mothers in skill at the spinning-
wheel. Young men were not
ashamed to be seen in homespun
stockings and home-made jeans.
Politicians found the surest way
to win the hearts of their con-
stituents was to appear dressed
in American broadcloth. The
town of Hartford presented Vice-
President Adams, when he passed

through on his way to be inaugurated, with a roll of cloth from its
own looms, and Washington himself stood forth to take the oath
-of office clad from head to foot in garments whose material was
the product of American soil.

WOOL SPINNMNC.

288 A FAMILY FLIGHT AROUND HOME.

The selection of New York as a place of meeting for the new
Congress was considered only a temporary one, and the end of the
first session was occupied with a long and sharp debate on the
question of a prominent place for the general Government. Every
one of the fifty-nine members of the House had something to say.
It seemed impossible to agree in defining the force of the word
" central," the members from each part of the country finding good
reasons for proving their own largest city the nearest to the cen-
tral point. It is now curious and interesting to observe how the
wisdom of the best statesmen of that day has been turned to fool-
ishness by a long series of events of which they did not dream.
Vast stretches of territory have since been added to the States,
thickly settled by millions of inhabitants. The centre of popula-
lation near which their Federal city was to stand, has been
steadily moving westward ever since the beginning of this century ;
in ninety years, that centre, then thought so fixed that the per-
manent seat of Government was to be placed near it, had moved
westward nearly five hundred miles.

This difficult matter was not settled until 1790, when an act
was passed that certain territory on the River Potomac should be
accepted for the permanent seat of Government. The same act
provided that Congress should hold its sessions at Philadelphia until
1800, when the Government should remove to the new district.
This district was named in honor of Christopher Columbus, and
also with reference to the name Columbia as a poetical designation
for the country. There the city of Washington has grown up.

" I think," said Hubert, " I do not clearly understand why they
called everything ' Federal ' in those days."

" It was a word which belonged naturally with the idea of a
Confederation," explained Mr. Bruce; "in the dictionary I think
you will find it defined ' belonging to a league or contract.' The
patriots were leagued together to form the Constitution of the
United States, and their success gave such glory to the word that

CONGRESS. 291

they liked to give it to patriotic things. As different political
parties begun to arise in the new State, one of them claiming to
be peculiarly friendly to the Constitution, and to the Federal govern-
ment, that is, the Government formed by a league or agreement,
called themselves Federalists, and they called their opponents the
Republicans, anti-Federalists, charging them with a sort of hostility
to the Constitution and the course taken by Government. The Re-
publicans, however, denied the truth of these charges. But in the
early times of the Republic, the word Federal meant much the
same as National does now, as a term of patriotic praise."

The word Federal \vas largely used. A dancing master advertised
to teach the Federal minuet ; horses were put up at Federal stables ;
a certain style of bonnet was named the Federal hat, and so on.

One of the difficult matters for the first Congress to settle was
the question of what the officers of Government, and members, should
be paid. There was little discussion over what the President's
salary should be. Washington, indeed plainly said, in his Inaugural
Address, that he would take none. But the Constitution had de-
clared that the President should have a salary, and it was not to
be supposed that all Presidents would show the same patriotism
as the first. Twenty-five thousand dollars a year was agreed upon ;
the Vice-President was to receive five thousand a year ; it was
then declared that the members of the Senate and House should
receive six dollars a day, and the speaker twelve, for every day
of the session.

For such expenses, and many others, a full treasury was needed ;
revenue must be had. The whole subject of raising money had
to be dealt with, and all the complicated questions relating to
taxation. It is wonderful how, from such small beginnings, the
prosperity of the country, and the general wisdom of its rulers, has
brought the poor little empty treasury of one hundred years ago
to be overflowing, so that the difficulty now pressing upon Congress
is to decide what to do with the surplus revenue.

292 A FAMILY FLIGHT AROUND HOME.

CHAPTER XXXII.

WASHINGTON S INAUGURATION.

MANY of these things were not brought up in Congress until
towards the end of the session of 1789. Meanwhile the
inauguration of the President fell on the last day of April.

Washington left his home at Mount Vernon on the sixteenth
of the month, and came by the most direct road through Balti-
more and Philadelphia to New York. The journey, in spite of the
bad state of the roads at that time of the year, might have been
made in five days, but he was much delayed by the hearty recep-
tions given him along the entire route. He was feasted and enter-
tained everywhere. When he reached Philadelphia a grand reception
was prepared.

The bridge over which he must cross the Schuylkill was hidden
under cedars and laurel, flags and liberty-caps. Two triumphal
arches were put up, and signals arranged to give warning of his
coming.

About noon on the twentieth, the President was seen riding
.slowly down the hill, and under the first arch, where a laurel
crown was let fall upon his head. The moment he entered the
city limits the bells of all the churches were rung ; as he moved
down Market street, every face seemed to say : " Long, long live
George Washington ! "

At Trenton a still more pleasing reception awaited him. On the
bridge over which twelve years before he had led his little army
on the night before the battle of Princeton, the women of Trenton
had put up a triumphal arch. Thirteen columns supported it,

WASHINGTON'S INAUGURATION. 295

surmounted by a great dome adorned with a sunflower, and the
inscription,— " To thee alone."

"Then it was not Oscar Wilde who invented the sunflower," re-
marked Tom, interrupting the reading.

«Do not be frivolous," said Bessie. "Go on, Ernest." Beyond
the bridge was gathered a bevy of women and girls, who as the
President passed under the dome, came forward to greet him, sing-
ing, and strewing the way with flowers.

Thus amid honors and salutes everywhere, Washington reached
New York. He was received at the wharf by the Governor of
New York, and by the Senators and Representatives, and escorted
through lines of cheering citizens to the house made ready for his
use. ''At night the sky was red with bonfires, and the streets full
of an excited and joyous population.

This was the twenty-third of the month. But as a few finishing
touches were yet to be given to Federal Hall, the inauguration
was put off till the thirtieth. On the morning of that day, the
people went in crowds to the churches to offer up prayers for the
welfare of the new Government and the safety of the President.
At noon, a procession which had been forming almost since sun-
rise moved from Washington's house to Federal Hall. As the
head of the line reached the building, the troops divided, and
Washington was led through them to the Senate Chamber, where
both Houses were formally introduced to him. When the mem-
bers were seated, and the noise had subsided, Adams, who had
already been inaugurated as Vice-President, informed the President
that the time had come for the administration of the oath of office.
Washington rose, and followed by the members of the two Houses
went out upon the balcony of Federal Hall, from which he could
be seen far up and down the streets by the multitude that filled
them The Chancellor of New York tendered the oath, and when
the ceremony was over, turning toward the people cried out:
"Long live George Washington, President of the United States!

296

A FAMILY FLIGHT AROUND HOME.

The Crowd took up the cry, and amid the joyous shouts of
the citizens, and the roai of the cannon on the battery, Washington
went back to the Senate Chamber and delivered his inaugural.

In framing an answer to the President's speech, the difficulty
arose how to address him. Committees were appointed, conferences

EARLY NEW YORK.

held, and complete disagreement resulted. Should he be called His
Highness, or his High Mightiness? The question has been settled
in favor of the term, " His Excellency," as suited to the simplicity
belonging to a republic.

While Congress was thus debating by what nam- the President
should be called, Washington was troubled to know in what way
he should behave. As he was the first of the long line of Presidents,
he therefore had no precedents to guide him in matters of private
and public etiquette. The place was one of great dignity, but
just how much dignity was consistent with republican simplicity he
did not know. It must be remembered that the stately etiquette
of courts was then well understood to be a part of the dignity
of Governments. Many of the people looked back with regret on
the fine clothes, hosts of servants, the equipage and ceremonial of

WASHINGTON'S INAUGUKA.TION. 297

the royal Governors. These would gladly have seen the man whom
they had raised to the chief place in the land, with a guard at
his door, riding out followed by a train of menials, and would
have gone on reception-days, with pride, through lines of liveried
servants, to bow at the foot of some form of throne. But the
anti-Federalists were bitterly opposed to all this, and begrudged
him the fine house and furniture already given him by Congress.
Washington therefore drew up a set of questions as to his offi-
cial conduct, which he submitted to Hamilton and Adams. Should
he keep open house for all guests.^ Would one day in the week
be sufficient to receive visits of compliment ? What would be said
if he were sometimes to be seen at quiet tea-parties.' When
Congress adjourned, should he make a bow.?

These matters were all settled, and it was announced in the
newspapers that the President would receive on Tuesdays and
Fridays. On Saturdays the President might sometimes be seen
driving through the outskirts of the city, or mounted on a fine
Virginia horse, or seated in his box at the theatre.

On these occasions the "President's March" was always played.
The air had a martial ring that caught the ear of the multitude.
Later, Joseph Hopkinson wrote and adapted to it the well-known
lines beginning "Hail Columbia," under which name, and not as
the "President's March," it has become one of the most stirring
of the national airs.

Shortly after the Houses rose, the President set forth to show
himself to the people of the Eastern States. He went through
Connecticut, passed a few days at Boston, rode thence to New
Hampshire, and came back by another route from that by which
he went. Everywhere he was received with a great show of Fed-
eral spirit. Bonfires were lighted, triumphal arches put up, feasts
made ready, and odes written in his honor. The President re-
turned to New York later in the fall, most favorably impressed
with the state of feeling in New England.

2!t8

A FAMILY FLIGHT AROUND HOME.

At the time of Washington's tour, two stages and twelve horses-
sufficed to carry all the travellers and goods passing between New
York and Boston. These conveyances were old and shaky, the
beasts were ill-fed and worn to skeletons. On summer-days the
stages usually made forty miles, but in winter, when the snow
was deep, and the darkness came on early in the afternoon, rarely
more than twenty-five. In the hot months the traveller was op-
pressed by heat and half choked with dust, while in cold weather

is.

'•<W

vva.siiin(;ton on his tour.

he could scarcely keep from freezing. One pair of horses usually
dragged the stage some eighteen miles, when fresh ones were put
in, and if no accident occurred, the traveller was put down at the
inn about ten at night. Cramped and weary, he ate a frugal
supper and betook himself to bed, to be called at three the next

WASHINGTON'S INAUGURATION. 299

morning, then to rise, and make ready, by the light of a horn-
lantern^ or a farthing candle for another ride of eighteen hours.

John Adams, the first Vice-President, had been one of the fore-
most of the patriots from the outbreak of the Revolution. He assisted
in the framing of the Declaration of Independence, and was one
of the ambassadors to make the treaty with France at the close
of the Revolution; and in 1785 was sent as American minister to
England, a difficult position for which he was well-fitted by nature

and experience.

He became the second President of the United States after
Washington, who served two terms, or eight years, and declined
a re-election for a third term.

As they left the library one morning, the boys found Bessie in
the hall, with the letters in her hand. She gave them to the
several persons to whom they were addressed, and when she came
to Tom, she said in a low tone:

"I want to consult you about something. I have a letter from

papa."

- Come along, then, up the river," he replied. " There is a place
where you have never been, Bess,- where the old road crosses the

west branch."

Alice looked as if she would like to be invited, but instead,
Bessie turned to her, saying, " Then I think, Ahce, we will not
have a painting lesson to-day. I want to talk to Tom."

When they had pulled up a mile or more, and turned ofif into
the smaller stream, Bessie rested her oars, while Tom merely kept
the boat up against the slow current.

"Papa." she began, "has to go to Boston about that business
of Brown's; and he wants us to come to him there."
"When?" asked Tom.

-About the first of October," he says. "He suggests that we
should make a little party of it, and 'do' Boston thoroughly.
He thinks the Stuyvesants would like to have us keep the twins

300

A FAMILY FLIGHT AROUND HOME.

through October, as they will not leave Newport until late ; and
he says we may bring Alice if we like."

" How exactly like papa ! " exclaimed Tom. " Does he mention
the professor and Mrs. Bruce ? Why not invite Billy Brick to

; I

join us

Billy Brick was the black sheep of Utopia, one of those boys
always out of employment and in some scrape.

" Well, but, Tom, it is a good plan, and I am ready to leave
here, are not you .■* "

"Well, yes," said he, "though we have had a jolly summer."

" It occurred to me," said Bessie, " that we might take one of the
twins, only we should not agree which one it should be."

"No; you would want your beloved Augustine," said Tom.

"And you your henchman Ernest. But how about Alice.-'"

"If you take anybody, take Lavinia Mary!" replied Tom jestingly.

" O, Tom, do be serious ! "

SOUR GRAPES. 301

CHAPTER XXXIII.

SOUR GRAPES.

IN diligent reading, hard study for tlie little boys, and hard
work and play outdoors for all, the summer was going fast
with the Utopians,— so fast that September was on the wane
before they knew it. Days were growing short, and evenings
long. Grasshoppers made their zzz-ing noise in the fields, and
crickets chirped louder through the evening.

The character of the flowers was wholly changed from that of
the spring. Asters and golden-rod are made of stiffer material
than the fragile anemone and columbine; more capable of existing
through short days and cool nights. Bessie and Augustine had
their hands full when they undertook to analyze and classify the
great number of varieties they found of the aster tribe, the dis-
dnctions of which are very slight and hard to detect. In fact, it
was so puzzling that Augustine lost his interest, and Bessie could
not persuade him to care whether a specimen was a ptarmicoidcs
or an acuminaUcs. But he gathered them all the same, and
Alice arranged them.

"If you bring them with stems as long as their names, it is

all I shall ask," she said.

-Come over to the orchard," said Hubert one day; "I met
Billy Brick's brother at the well just now, and he says the ground
is covered with apples that blew off last night."

Hubert was bringing a pail of water from the well to fill up
Alice's flower-vases. Lessons were over for the day, and there
was no especial plan laid out for the interval before dinner.

302

A FAMILY FLIGHT AROUND HOME.

" All right," said Tom, who was sunning himself in the doorway,
with his hands in his pockets. It was really cold. The night
had been rainy, and the weather had cleared off in the morning,

sharp and bright,
with a piercing wind
that blew the leaves
off the trees and
hustled them over the
ground, while the
sky was intensely
blue, and the sun-
light sparkling.

" Let us make the
girls go too," he
continued. " Bessie ! "
This was shouted up
to her window from
the outside of the
house. The window,
for a wonder, was shut. Tom threw a well-aimed pebble against
the pane, and this caused it to be opened, when Bessie's head
-appeared.

" Come out for a walk," said Tom, " it is splendid out-doors,
and too cold to stay in the house."

" It is cold as Greenland," replied Bessie, " so I had to shut
the window. I will ask Alice."

Alice had just begun to draw her ginger pot full of asters, but
she willingly put up her things, saying her hands were too stiff
with cold for good work ; and the two girls soon came down, Bes-
sie buttoning herself into a thick jacket as she ran quickly down
the stairs.

"Don't wear that!" cried Tom, "you will roast if you do, as soon
.as you begin to walk."

lilLLV URICKS liROTHKK

SOUR GRArES.

303

.<My dress is too thm for this weather," she rephed. «' I can
take it off if it is too warm. Where are the twins."

.'Yes, where are they .^ " asked Tom. "No matter, though., we

can go without them."

"They darted off," said Hubert, "the minute school was over.
Do not you know they did yesterday too, and we saw nothmg of

them all day.'" .

..Where can they be?" said Bessie; "Ernest, Augustme !
«Oh, let them alone!" said Tom; "they are old enough to take

cave of themselves."

.'Well, but it is so mysterious," persisted Bessie. "I am afraid

that 'Satan' has found
' some mischief ' for them

to do."

" ERNEST ! " shouted
Tom at the top of his
lungs, and Hubert imitated
him with an appeal for
" Augustine ! "

These yells brought La-
vinia Mary round the cor-
ner of the house, who
said, "You needn't be
hollering and bellering
for them twins, Mr. Tom,
for Belinda see them
p-oing up the wood-road
the minute you was done
school. They came and grabbed hot gingerbread, and was out

through the back door." tj u <.

.<Hot gingerbread! We will have some too," said Huber
This favorite luncheon-cake put the thought of the boys out of all
their heads, and they started along without them towards the orchard.

AN ARKANGEMFN-r HY ALICK.

304

A FAMILY FLIGHT AEOUND HOME.

This was an old overgrown place, which had once been a flour-
ishing orchard, connected with a house long ago deserted and
fallen into ruin ; nothing but the cellar, dug into the ground and
built of rough stones, remained. Weeds and nettles had sprung
up within, and brambles and blackberry vines nearly hid the old
wall. The neglected apple-trees were all run out, and bore no

fruit that was worth

--'-'- -'""-"I much ; long untrimmed

shoots had pushed up-
ward from the branches,
wasting the vigor of
the trees. As the place
belonged to nobody in
particular, it was no-
body's business to care
for the fruit, and all
the boys in the neigh-
borhood felt at liberty
to help themselves. On
a plentiful year, like
the present, the old
trees blossomed full)- in
spite of old age and
want of care, and the
apples they bore, al-
though not handsome
nor large, had a wild,
Bohemian sort of flavor,
attractive, like all undisciplined things. Moreover, the trees stood
on a southern slope, warm and sunny on an autumn day, with a
pretty view off towards the winding river.

"Mushrooms!" cried Alice. "Just the day for them!" and she
picked a shiny wliite ball, with pink folds on the under side.

IIIK OKUIAKD.

SOUR GRAPES. 305

*'Ho\v do you know the good ones from toad-stools?" asked
Bessie, who had never gathered mushrooms before. Alice explained
to her the difference in shape and smell and color.

"Besides," she said, "they always grow in a pasture like this,
and other kinds do not, except," she added, '*that hateful puff,"
illustrating her words by kicking contemptuously a brownish puff-
ball whose fault was not being a mushroom.

Soon they were all searching for mushrooms. They are likely
to be found almost anywhere in New England in fields and pas-
tures after a rain ; and freshly gathered, and skilfully cooked with
salt, pepper, and a little cream, are delicious.

Bessie's jacket had to come off, for it was warm enough, and too
warm in the sun ; so that by the time they reached the orchard,
the shade was welcome of the old trees. They were by no means
the first to enjoy the harvest. Two boys came towards them with a
bushel basket well heaped with apples they had picked up or
knocked down from the trees. A smaller boy followed.

"Hallo, Billy Brick!" cried Hubert. "Have you left any for us ?"

" Plenty," replied these boys. " But you had better look out for
the bull up there ! "

"The bull!" exclaimed the two girls, coming to a full stop.

"He ain't there now, but he is sometimes," said the boys. "He
comes over the fence from Jones' pasture when he feels like it."

" Let us go back ! " said Alice.

"Oh, come along," cried Tom, "these boys only said it to
frighten you." The boys were running off as fast as their legs,
and the weight of their heavy baskets, would allow.

The Horners had no basket with them, as their intention was
simply to try the apples, and refresh themselves while they rested
under the trees. While they were thus reposing, and taking a
bite here and there from the sunny sides of different apples,
Alice showed them how to peel the mushrooms, and persuaded
Bessie to taste one, just as it was, uncooked.

306

A FAMILY FLIGHT AROUND HOME.

" What an odd taste," said Bessie. '• It is good, though ; it seems
like a pure essence of earth."

" Now, Alice, if you have given us the wrong things to eat, we
shall all be poisoned," said Tom.

" Never fear," she replied, " I have known mushrooms all my
life."

As they sat, apparently tranquil, leaning against the crooked
trunks of the old trees, after the two boys had gathered a little

-r^ti';¥''l^f'^fXc^^

EARLY APPLES.

heap of apples, which lay between them, each of the girls was
secretly a little anxious about the bull, though neither would men-
tion it for fear of being laughed at by their braver companions.
They had all been silent a little while, looking off on the sunny
fields in the distance through which the river wound its way.
Suddenly, from behind the tumble-down stone wall near them, there
was heard a crackling of dried sticks, and then the unmistakable
bellow of an animal of the bull species. Without stopping to look
behind them, the girls started and ran, dropping mushrooms, apples,

SOUR GRAPES.

307

and Bessie's jacket. They never paused till they reached the bot-
tom of the hill, in spite of shouts from the boys telling them to
come back.

Perhaps the boys would have liked to run too, but as this was
not the manly part, they paused, though starting to their feet, to
await some renewal
of the noise. As
none came, they cau-
tiously approached
the stone wall and
looked over.

The only live thing
to be seen was a red
cow standing in a
sort of tangle of
bushes and briars.
She had apparently
squeezed herself into
a place she did not
like, for when she
perceived the two
boys she opened her
mouth and produced
a precise repetition
of the fearful sound
which had so alarmed
them just before.

The boys burst out
laughing,

" See those wild
grapes ! " exclaimed Hubert, in almost the same minute. " I won-
der if they are ripe ! "

He began to climb the wall after them, while Tom went back

SOUR GRAPES.

808

A FAMILY FLIGHT AROUND HOME.

to reassure the girls, if possible. They were far down the hill,
and still running. In vain he shouted after them, " Bessie ! Alice !
It was nothing but an old cow ! " They did not turn round ; prob-
ably they did not hear him. There was nothing for him to do but
to pick up jacket, mushrooms and apples, and follow them, which he
did in a frame of mind not altogether amiable.

He overtook the girls at the foot of the hill, for they had
slackened their pace as soon as they thought themselves out of danger.
Tom's wrath ceased after he had scolded them for their cowardice,
and they all walked home together.

Hubert, meantime, scrambled through the tangled bushes on the
cow's side of the wall, and reached home by a different route,
about the same time the others did. He reported, however, that
the grapes were sour.

VIGNETTE.

A CATASTROPHE. 309

CHAPTER XXXIV.

A CATASTROPHE.

THE summer was really over, and October was drawing near,
when the children arrived in their reading and talks at the
point of American history where Washington was inaugurated as
first President of the United States, on the thirtieth of April, 1789.

Here Professor Bruce decided it was best to stop, after consult-
ing Bessie, whose interest in the subject was as great, and whose
judgment he kindly considered as good as his own.

" We have gone over a good deal of ground, you see," he said,
as he walked up and down the library, " and as much as young-
heads can well receive. Another time it would be satisfactory to
take up the story of the youngest nation, and follow the first
Presidents through the difficulties of their administrations, examine
the causes of the War of 18 12, watch the growing extent and
prosperity of the country, and rising differences between North and
South which led to the Civil War. But let that be," he continued,
"for another year, when I hope I may see you all here again, my
dear Miss Bessie, for, indeed, I shall be sorry to part with my
charming group of young friends."

Bessie smiled, and said, " You have made us all so happy, dear
professor, that it will seem very strange to go away and lose the
associations of this ' place. How well the summer has turned out
for all of us ! "

Accordingly McMasters, and Oilman, and the other books of
American authority, were put back upon their shelves, and the
reading for the rest of the time was devoted to learning something
•of the condition of Continental Europe at the time that the new

310

A FAMILY FLIGHT AKOUND HOME.

government brought repose to the American nation, — enjoyable to alL
In England, in 1789, George the Third was still on the throne».
and consoling himself as best he might for the loss of his Ameri-
can colonies. The London public were not yet tired of amusing
themselves with two new plays, TJie Rivals, and The School for
Scandal, by a young man named Sheridan, which held the stage
at the two theatres of London, Covent Garden and Drury Lane.

In France, in 1789, the first murmurs of the Revolution were
making themselves heard. It was in this year, on the fourteenth-

's^

SUMMER WAS OVER,

of July, that a wild army of the populace attacked and destroyed
the Bastille.

In Austria, Maria Theresa the Empress, was dead since 1780.
Her son, Joseph the Second, was on the throne, full of good wishes
meditating schemes of reform. The great enemy of his house,
Frederick the Great, had died in 1786, an old man who survived
most of those who had shared his triumphs and defeats. His mind

A CATASTROPHE. 311

remained active to the last, and he never lost his interest
affairs of State. He was succeeded by his nephew, Frederick
William the Second, who was reigning in Prussia in 1789.

In Spain, in 1789, Charles the Fourth was on the throne, the
weak and pitiful grandson of Philip the Fifth, who
afterward played so mean a part toward his coun-
try at the dictates of Napoleon.

The frightful convulsions were still to come of
the French Reign of Terror; and Napoleon, in
1789, was, as yet, unheard of in the annals of ^^^^^^^ ^^ ^^^^^^^

Europe.

The end of September was wet, with frequent rains, clearing off
at intervals with cold, windy weather, which settled back again
into a chilly drizzle.

"Summer is over, I think," said Bessie, as she shivered over the

stove one morning.

" It is very often like this in the end of September," said Mrs.
Bruce, "and then we have mild, soft weather again. October is a
lovely month here. I know you will enjoy it."

" I am sure we shall," replied Bessie, but in her secret heart
she was thinking that they had had about enough of the country,
and that it was time to be making some decision about the Bos-
ton visit and their return to New York. She longed to see her
father and Miss Lejeune, also to see shops and pretty autumn
clothes, and even to visit Huylers and refresh herself with a pound

of candy.

"Come, Alice, let us go for a walk, instead of baking before
the stove," she said, and they started off, returning in an hour
much blown and draggled, but with their arms full of long trails
of clematis gone to seed, covered with bunches of the pretty
feathery seed-vessels, besides bright streamers of Virginia creeper
which had already turned scarlet.

"Here is autumn for you!" they called out as they entered

312 A FAMILY FLIGHT AKOUND HOME.

the house. " Now we are going to decorate the sitting-room."
"Where is Augustine.?" asked Alice; "he will get the steps for
us to fasten this round the cornice."

"Where is Augustine.?" repeated Bessie. "I am worried about
the twins ; they are always off by themselves now."

" I think they have taken to playing with Billy Brick," replied
Alice; "I see them together a good deal."

"The fact is, Tom and Hubert are tired of them," said Bessie.
"I must speak to Tom about it; if the twins are left to themselves
they are sure to get into some scrape."

This remark was thought of afterwards as prophetic, for the
words were hardly out of her mouth, than Bessie, who was near
the open door, saw Augustine alone, running with all his might
towards the house.

"Where's Tom?" he called out, panting. "Oh, come, every-
body! "

"Land's sakes! what is the matter.?" exclaimed Lavinia Mary,
appearing at that moment.

"O, Bessie!" he continued, seizing her by both hands, "the
House is burnt up ! "

"The House! our House! what do you mean!" exclaimed
Bessie, giving him a shake in her amazement.

"I don't know, — we don't know how it happened," and here he
began to cry. "We went there and went in, and it is all
black and dreadful."

"How could you go in if it is burnt down.?" said Bessie sternly.

"I said burnt up! Boo-hoo ! " sobbed Augustine, and delivered
himself up to loud grief.

Bessie was wild with impatience. " Do tell us what you mean.
Is Tom there? Where's Hubert?"

"No-oo! I don't know," bellowed Augustine. "Billy Brick and
Ernest are there. They made mc come and tell you!"

" I see Master Tom and Hubert, Miss, a-going down in the other

CLEMATIS AND CREEPER.

A CATASTKOPHE.

315.-

direction. I think they were going over the mountain to meet the
mail," interposed Lavinia Mary.

"Come, Alice, we must go up to the House," said Bessie, " and
see what this is all about. Come, Augustine."

" I don't mind if I step and meet the young gents," said La-
vinia Mary, whose curiosity was aroused. "But I'll lock up front
and rear, as there's
no soul in the house,
except the cat," she
added as she walked
off to her seat, " and
she don't count."

The professor and
his wife were away
for the day.

As they hurried
along the way to
the upper end of
the pond, Bessie suc-
ceeded in extracting
more light from Au-
gustine. It appeared
that the twins, in

company with their new acquaintance. Billy Brick, had taken up
the habit of going by themselves to the House for amusement.
Nobody thought of forbidding them, for the key of the House
was in Tom's pocket ; and it was taken for granted that he had
the control of the premises. Something clandestine about climbing
in by the window, a perfectly easy feat, made the whole charm of
the practice, apparently, for there was nothing particular to do inside.
"Only," said Augustine, whose compassion came out in jerks,
"the last time, we thought it would be good fun to roast some
corn."

THE POND.

516

A FAMILY FLIGHT AROUND HOME.

"In the House!" ejaculated Bessie.

"No; in your kitchen." This was the place where a sort of
fireplace had been arranged to boil the kettle.

"We roasted it, and then we went back inside to eat it, and we
played we were pirates."

"Where did you get the corn.?" demanded Bessie sternly.

" In Farmer Mar-
tin's second field. It's
ripe there."

"Did you ask his
leave .'' "

"No. Billy Brick
said we had better
not."

Bessie groaned.
"Well, go on."

They reached the
premises, however, be-
fore his story was fin-
ished, where they
found Ernest sitting
on the ledge of the
window with his legs
hanging out, alone,
Billy Brick having
fled.

The House indeed
was standing, but on
looking iu; the girls
perceived that the interior was all charred and blackened, a large
hole burned through the floor, pictures and everything of a slight-
nature destroyed, while Alice's curtains, scorched to tinder, hung in
shreds and tatters.

I.AVrNTA MARV.

A CATASTROPHE. 317

The boys explained that this feast of stolen corn had taken
place two days before. The afternoon had been chill and cloudy^
and they recollected that as they were coming home it had be^-un
to rain. It poured sheets during the night, and rained steadily all
the next day, to which circumstance was owing the preservation
of the House, and also of the woods around it.

" You naughty little boys ! " said Bessie. '* You might have de-
stroyed the whole of these woods."

Meanwhile, Tom and Hubert, on their way back from East
Utopia, were amazed to see Lavinia Mary blowing along the
road, against the sunset light, toward them.

She announced the disaster, and they started on the run for
the scene of it, so that while Bessie was still holding her inquisition,
they arrived. The door was unlocked, a careful search made, and
sure enough, the round top of a wooden box of matches was
found, which, having rolled off under the flooring, was not burned
up, and remained to tell the tale.

"So you had a box of matches.''" remarked Tom dryly.

Ernest started, and felt in his pocket. " Yes ; they are gone.
I must have left them here."

"And stepped on them, probably, just before leaving," said Tom,
still more severely. "Well, come on, it is done now."

He shoved the boys out of the House, and with a bitter laugh,
turned the key once more in the door. Tom was so angry he
did not trust himself to speak. Hubert, bursting with wrath, fol-
lowed his chief's example. Silently, they all turned homeward.
The little boys, on arriving at the bars where the road began,
started to run on ahead.

"None of that!" commanded Tom. "Walk behind us." And
so they did. Not a word was spoken by any of the party.

318 A FAMILY FLIGHT AROUND HOME.

CHAPTER XXXV.

LAST DAYS AT UTOPIA.

IT was well that the catastrophe of the burning of the House
took place so late in the summer, for the breaking up of the
Utopia party gave a ready solution to the question, What to do
about it .''

Tom expended his displeasure by a full account of the matter
contained in a long letter to his father. He was not, perhaps,
wholly surprised to receive in the answer strong reproof to him-
self for his want of attention to the boys who had been in a
tneasure placed in his charge. Tom was half inclined to resent,
half inclined to acknowledge its justice.

This letter of Mr. Horner's was immediately followed by another
to Bessie, further unfolding plans for a fortnight in Boston, and
the discussion of these plans occupied all minds.

Professor Bruce was obliged to go to New York on business,
and offered to t' e with him the Stuyvesant boys. Tom, who
was tired of the ight, and longed to see the last of them, re-
joiced at the proj osal, but Bessie thought kindness and politeness
required that they should be asked to join the Boston trip, as it
came within the time which they had been expected to spend in
Vermont. Their mother and sister were to stay at Newport till
the fifteenth of October or later, and there was no place for the
boys to go. Tom yielded with reluctance to Bessie's view, but
he and Hubert were relieved when Ernest promptly declined the
invitation.

"I'm tired of improving my mind!" he exclaimed sullenly when

LAST DAYS AT UTOPIA.

319

\^us^-^^^

LAST DAYS.

the project was explained. " I want to go home. I don't want
to know any more about the Revolution. I have not had any
soda water all summer."

This was true, although the statement appeared to have but little
connection with the subject in hand.

There was complete silence after he said this. Tom went on
whittling a stick ; Hubert pulled the cat's tail, and Bessie even
did not dare to ex-
press common place
regrets at E r n e s t's
dec ision. Augustine
made no remark on
either side of the
question. He looked
out of the window,
and fidgeted with the
curtain tassel. The
position of the twins had been uncomfortable for the last days ;
they felt themselves to be tolerated, but not desired by the others.

The situation was relieved by the entrance of Alice, who came
in breathless at the front door, saying :

" Mamma says I may go to Boston ! She says it is very kind
in you to ask me, only I have not a prop;f/5 dress for autumn,
but she says perhaps we can buy it there." a

While Bessie assured her that this could r be easily affected,
Ernest slipped out of the room.

"Then I suppose it is all settled," said Tom. " Come, Hubert,
let us go off up the river."

Thus Augustine was left with the two girls, and Bessie, with a
significant glance at Alice, went over and sat by the window where
he was standing. Alice picked up the cat and ran out of the
room.

"Augustine," said Bessie, "I think you had better go with us

320

A FAMILY FLIGHT AKOUND HOME.

to Boston. I hope you will. Papa says there need be no limit

to the party, and you know you are not 'sick of the Revolution'!"

"No, I am not," said Augustine in a low tone, "but — but" —

"Well," said Bessie kindly, and with a smile, "but what?"

" You all hate us," he broke out, " and you want to get rid

of us ; and it was not my fault, but you never give me a chance

to tell about Billy Brick ! "

He spoke violently now, his face grew red, and he was on the
point of crying.

" We do not hate you, and we do not think it was all your
fault, and we do not want to hear about Billy Brick," said Bessie

firmly and quietly. " We
all feel sorry about the
burning of the House,
but Tom and I think it
was partly our fault too.
It does no good discuss-
ing it, and laying the
blame about on different
people, and so we do not
like to talk about it. I
think the best thing for
you to do, Augu.stine, is
to go with us, and show
how nice and pleasant
uiE iiuubi. cvi. and intelligent you really

are, and so make everybody forget about the House."

Augustine had pulled out a not very creditable pocket handker-
chief and had begun to bite the corner of it.
"Ernest won't go," he said gloomily.

"Well," said Bessie, "that makes it all the easier; if he really
does not wish to go, and prefers to return to New York with
Mr. Bruce, there is nothing to prevent your going with us."

LAST DAYS AT UTOPIA.

321

"But we are twins!" said Augustine, with a kind of stare. The
two boys had never been separated.

" You are not Siamese ! " said Bessie, laughing gayly ; " there
is no law, either, to compel you to stay together."

"But you do not want me, you only" — said Augustine, begin-
ning to whine again.

Bessie looked annoyed. " Come, Augustine, I should not invite
you if I did not wish
you to come with us.
As for Tom, he told
me I had better ask
you ; and it is for you
to win his friendship
and Hubert's by being-
nice. Do not you
think that is more
manly than running
away from us.-*"

Thus it was settled. ^^,^ ,, , .,.,
Bessie's greater work ^'$M/;, if// .C
was persuading Tom
and Hubert to relax
from their sternness
toward Augustine. Er-
nest departed for New
York with Mr. Bruce,
rejoicing, with some bravado, in the prospect of staying at the
Fifth Avenue Hotel with his father till the ladies of his family
came to town. It was inferred, however, by his letters to Augus-
tine, that his reception by Mr. Stuyvesant was not altogether sat-
isfactory, since Mr. Horner had felt obliged to communicate to
that gentleman the escapade of the House-burning.

As time passed on, all the children felt they had attached too

MISS LEIEUNE AGAIN.

322 A FAMILY FLIGHT AROUND HOME.

much importance to what, after all, was an accident, and one
which might have been much worse. In looking back upon the
summer at Utopia, all unpleasant features were forgotten, and each
individual of the party will regard it as one of the pleasantest
periods of his life. The good professor and Mrs. Bruce keep up
a lively interest in the children, and are always hoping for an-
other summer just like this one.

Meanwhile, Miss Lejeune devoted herself to working up the Bos-
ton plan. She wrote to Bessie :

Everything is arranged. I have invented a new cousin for you, who is the one in-
gredient wanting in our combination, as Mrs. Sherwood says about pepper and salt, on
cantelope melons. Do you remember your aunt Turner ? Dear me, of course you do
not; she died before you were born. Besides, she was not your aunt, any more than
I am, nor half so much, because she was not so agreeable. Her son is in a baniiing
house in Boston ; he inherits his father's passion for genealogy and numismatics, history,
ancient and modern. The children here think him a prig and a bore; he does turn
out his feet rather too much, and I wish he would not say "marm" to me quite so
often. Still, he would be invaluable as a guide and escort, and was immensely pleased
when I invited him, as I made bold to do, to join us all at the Vendome, and help
you to do Boston. He is all ready to "call cousins" with you Homers, and will e.xplain
to you, root and branch, where he comes in on the Horner tree. It seems there was
a Plorner who married a Turner, — but I will spare you till you meet him.

Tom and Hubert groaned at the picture. " Oh, why did she
thrust him upon us!" cried Tom; "that is exactly like aunt Dut,
— she always wants to have an extra man around."

"Oh, well," replied Bessie cheerfully, "in that case, she will take
care of him herself; and we need not trouble ourselves about him
except to tap him for information whenever we need it."

The work of packing went on. Mr. Brick and his wagons were
summoned from East Utopia. Poor Mrs. Bruce was to be left all
alone, for Belinda and Lavinia Mary were to retire like bears
and turtles to hibernate, after the summer work was ended.

" Land sakes ! " exclaimed the latter, as she ran backward and
forward, with her apron tied round her head. "Just to think, the

LAST DAYS AT UTOriA.

32J

summer is over so quick, vvhien it ain't mor'n half begun. Them
chickens shows it, though ; sh ! sh ! They was eggs when you
come, Miss Bessie. Sh ! sh ! " she continued, addressing this part
of the sentence to a number of well-grown fowls.

The travellers climbed into the great wagon, the packages were
put under the seats. Alice leaned forward and waved her hand-
kerchief to her mother, who could be discerned at the window of
her sitting-room, in the distant house.

The four young people made a merry journey through Vermont,
passing Rutland, Bellows Falls and Keene, and crossing Massachu-
setts, reached Boston, after dark, of the short October day. The
foliage all along the route was superb, the brilliant reds and yel-
lows of maple and birch contrasting with the still unchanged
dark green of the oaks.

Mr. Horner met them at the station, and at the Vendome
they found, just arrived and awaiting them. Miss Lejeune. After
dinner, for he could not come sooner, they were joined by Mr.
Turner, who was now presented to his new cousins, and as they
sat over their coffee and dessert, enhanced by the addition of
bright red apples from Utopia, they allowed their guest to mount
his hobby, by turning the subject to the landmarks of Boston.

It was wet and drizzling, but not unpromising for the morrow.

APPLES FROM UTOPIA.

324 A FAMILY FLIGHT AROUND HOME.

CHAPTER XXXVI.

THE FIRST DAY IN BOSTON.

YOU see," said Mr. Turner, who was a little conceited as to
the merits of his " poking about " in one and another cor-
ner, "you see, the absolute original landmarks of Boston are gone,
or as much altered as they could be. When the first people came
here, old John Blackstone, and even Winthrop and Dudley, of
course it was not called Boston. It was called Trimountain, or
Tremont, I suppose by the people in the fishing ships, because at
the top of Beacon Hill there were three hummocks, like this," — and
the speaker cut a bit of bread into the shape he meant, — " two
protuberances in the side of a hill a little higher."

" Oh, yes ! Fort Hill, and Copp's Hill, and Beacon Hill," said
Bessie, not unwilling to show that she also knew something.

" Not quite yet. Miss Bessie," said Mr. Turner, modestly enough.
" Most people think so. And I think most Boston people would
tell you so, but they would be wrong. The three hummocks were
all on Beacon Hill, — that's where the State House is now. Oddly
enough, they are all gone. They dug down the highest, where the
beacon was, part of it when they built the State House, and the
rest afterward, to fill up the old mill pond. And the others were
so steep that they had to be dug down for streets. But when I
take you to the State House, and over Mount Vernon and Som-
erset streets, you will have tramped over them all.

" I really think, Miss Lejeune," he added, " that at least the
boys had better go to the top of the State House with me, first
of all. You know Dean Stanley did."

THE FIRST DAY IN BOSTON.

325

It is true that when Doctor Stanley came to Boston, true to
the principles of Arnold's school of history, he wished, first of all,
to understand the precise topography of all he was to see. His
first visit, therefore, was to the
top of the State House, and his
last, after his short stay, was to
the same observatory, that he
might be sure he had rightly
placed all that he had seen.

In our case it need not be
said that all the children shouted
at the idea of Miss Lejeune's
consenting to climb two hundred
and twenty stairs, more or less,
for the sake of instruction or
amusement ; but while she took
Alice with her for some shopping,
at the request of Alice's mother,
while Mr. Horner went down
town upon business, Mr. Turner
was permitted, to his solid satis-
faction, to take the young people
to the top of the State House,
to the Common, and anywhere
else he chose. " And we will
get our lunch where we do our
Avork," he said.

"Cousin Nathan," said his new
friend Bessie, — who was no more his cousin than you are, as
you already know, but after learning the genealogy of the families
Bessie concluded to call him such, — " be sure that I see a ship,
a real three-master, before we go away. Steamships I don't care
ior." And he promised.

BOSTON COMMON.

326 A FAMILY FLIGHT AROUND HOME.

Bessie had crossed the ocean in a steamer, ascended the Nile
in a dahabieh, and passed over a part of the Gulf of Lyons in
a clumsy boat with a lateen-sail, but she had never seen, except
afar off from the deck of a Cunarder, any of the three-masted
schooners which ply between Boston and the coast of Maine.

A street car brought the party to the head of Winter street,.
and here Nathan brought them out of it upon what he called the
Lower Mall, on the eastern side of Boston Common. Here he put
the girls upon a seat, while the boys grouped around him, and
with his stick, he drew a rough map on the ground.

" We may get parted from each other. But if any one is lost
while you are in Boston, the streets are just as easy to under-
stand as those of Philadelphia or Chicago, after you once know
the law of the instrument.

" This hill we are on is the east slope of Beacon Hill. If we
had followed in the car we could have ridden it to Cambridge, in
this open horseshoe which I draw.

" North of us, quite at the north of the town, is Copp's Hill.
We will see that another day. The streets around that are in
curves also.

" Off here on the southeast was Fort Hill. The streets there
bent to follow the curve. But that is all dug down.

" Then, of course, in a seaboard town, from every wharf or pier,
there ran up streets into the town. If you took a fan, and put
the centre at the Post Office Square, the sticks would be Water
street, Milk street, Pearl street, Federal street, and so on. Now
all this is just as much according to rule as if you made a
checker-board. Only you must know what the rule is."

"I think it is a great deal nicer," said Bessie.

"The rule in practice is said to be, Find out where the place
is to which you go, and take a horse car running the other way."

" Is it, really ? " asked Hubert, still literal, although he had been
so lone: with Americans.

THE FIRST DAY IN BOSTON.

327

" No. That is a joke," said Bessie.

"Now we will go up to the State House." So they slowly
pulled up the Park Street walk, up the high steps between the
two bronze statues, stopped in the Doric Hall to see the statues
and the battle flags, and then slowly mounted the long stairways

THE ST.A.TE HOUSE, BEACON STREET.

which led to the "lantern" above the dome. Fortunately the
Legislature was not sitting. When the House is in session visits
to the lantern are not permitted, lest the trampling on the stairs
above the Representatives' Hall might disturb the hearers.

When they had regained their breath, they looked round on the mag-
nificent panorama which sweeps a circle of forty miles in diam-

828 A FAMILY FLIGHT AROUND HOME.

eter, and Nathan lectured. His lecture must not be reported here
in detail. But the main points of it shall be stated, because they
give the clew to the expeditions which the party made after-
wards.

They were so high that all the rest of the city was quite be-
low them. Nathan was able to point out almost in a group,
Faneuil Hall, the Old State House, and the Old South Meeting
House of Revolutionary times.

"We will do those," he said, "to-morrow, and then you can see
where the tea was thrown over, and the scene of the Boston
Massacre. That will be a good Revolutionary day."

To the north, with a strip of water between, so narrow, and
bridged so often that it hardly seemed a deep river, half a mile
wide, was the monument on Bunker Hill. The summit was the
only point near them as high as they were. We will go there,
perhaps," said Nathan, "day after to-morrow. And that same day
we can see Copp's Hill, which is the north headland of Old Bos-
ton, and we can go to the Navy Yard, and Bessie shall see her
ship with three masts. ,

" Saturday, — I don't know what Mr. Horner will say, — but I
vote that we go down the harbor. We will see Nahant, which is
a rocky peninsula ten miles northeast, or Hull, which is about as
far southeast; they make the headlands of Boston Bay." And he
tried to make out both these points. He did show them the outer
light-house and the great forts between. Bessie, Tom and Hu-
bert were delighted with their first view of Boston Harbor.

" Then Sunday," continued Nathan, calculating his scheme pru-
dently, " some of us can go to Christ Church, where the sexton
showed the lantern."

"And can not we see the churcli with the cannon ball? "asked
Hubert.

Which bears on her bosom as a bride might do,
The iron breastpin that the rebels threw.

THE FIRST DAY IN BOSTON. 329

"No," said Mr. Turner sadly. "We were barbarians, and pulled
that church down." And he added savagely, "And no good came
to the society that did it.

" That will leave next week for a good tramp over Dorchester
Heights, and another day, if you are not tired, we will go to Cam-
bridge, and see Harvard College."

" Hubert," said Bessie, aside, " how did you come to be quoting
poetry, — or is it original.''"

" No," replied Hubert, " it is Doctor Holmes'. Miss Augusta
showed it to me, in a book, this morning."

Meantime, Nathan Turner was showing how high the Dorches-
ter Heights, now in South Boston, rose, and how completely they
commanded the harbor ; so that when Washington seized them
the English army and navy had to go. He also showed them
Cambridge and the college buildings, lying quite near them, west-
ward, but on the other side of the Charles River.

The party spent a long time in the cupola of the State House,
going from window to window, and asking all sorts of questions
of their guide, who showed himself steady on all points. Bessie
took a sincere liking to the young man, or rather boy, who, in
spite of a preciseness of manner which made him appear absurd,
at first, knew so thoroughly well what he was talking about.

As Nathan took them home from the State House he led them
down Beacon street. This is a beautiful street, making the north
side of Boston Common. Where the Common ends, Charles street
crosses Beacon street nearly at right angles. Near this corner, on
land nOw built upon, or perhaps crossed by some street, was the
cottage of Blackstone, who lived in Boston for six or seven years
before Governor Winthrop and the settlers of 1630 arrived.

They made their first settlement at Charlestown, on the other
side of the river. The records of Charlestown say : " Mr. Black-
stone, dwelling on the other side of Charles River, alone, at a
place called by the Indians, Shawmut, where he had a cottage at,

330

A FAMILY FLIGHT AROUND HOME.

or not far from, the place called Blackstone Point, came and ac-
quainted the Governor of an excellent spring, inviting and soliciting
him thither."

Blackstone's house, or cottage, in which he lived, together with
the nature of his improvements, was such as to authorize the
belief that he had resided there some seven or eight years. How
he became possessed of his lands here is not known ; but it is
certain he held a good title to them, which was acknowledged by
the settlers under Winthrop, who, in course of time, bought his

DORCHESTER HEIGHTS AND THE HARBOR.

lands of him, and he removed out of the jurisdiction of Massa-
chusetts, to the valley of the Blackstone River.

Of Blackstone's personal history, Mr. Charles F. Adam.s makes
this note :

" He was in no respect an ordinary man. His presence in the
peninsula of Shawmut, in 1630, was made additionally inexplicable
from the fact that he was about the last person one would ever
have expected to find there. He was not a fisherman, nor a trader^

THE FIRST DAY IN BOSTON.

331

nor a refugee: he was a student, an observer, and a recluse. A
graduate of Emmanuel College, Cambridge, he had received Epis-
copal ordination in England. In 163 1 he was in his thirty-fifth
year. Probability would strongly point to him as Winthrop's-
authority where Winthrop, in 1631, speaks of a species of weather
record going back seven years since this bay was planted by Eng-
lishmen."

THE RECLUSE IN THE NEW TOWN OF PROVIDENCE.

332 A FAMILY FLIGHT AROUND HOME.

CHAPTER XXXVli.

THE SECOND DAY.

MEANWHILE Alice and Miss Lejeune passed the day very
pleasantly going from one large shop to another, the re-
sults of which were visible in a pretty walking suit of dark flan-
nel bought ready-made and fitting admirably. Alice was impatient
to put it on as soon as it came home, and as it arrived before
six o'clock, and as the sight-seers came in late, she was already
■dressed in it, and waiting for Bessie's approval. A new hat, gloves,
boots and umbrella were added also.

That evening a certain plan was laid out for the next day, in
which every one agreed to join. It was settled that they should
lunch down town with the gentlemen, and should take the elevator
at the "Equitable " Insurance Company, so that Alice and Miss Le-
jeune might have something to substitute for the view the chil-
dren had had from the State House. This view is not as sweep-
inof on the west as that from the State House. But on other sides
it is equally satisfactory. And you can go up by steam, — a great
matter if you happen to have passed forty years.

" It is a pity," said Miss Lejeune, " that they have given up
the restaurant at the top of the Equitable. I remember lunching
there on a warm day one summer, and it was delicious to sit in
a cool breeze, looking off upon the lovely harbor, and the little
sails coming and going far below, while we ate our soft-shell crabs
and ice-cream."

They went instead to Young's, where, in the pretty and quietly
ordered dining-room, their large party had a merry lunch. " Do,

THE SECOND DAY.

333

papa," said Tom, "order
oysters on the shell ; thei e
is an R in the month, and
Hubert has not seen any."

"Is it possible?" said Mr.
Horner. "To be sure, there
has been no R in the month
since he came."

" What do you mean ? "
asked the English boy.

" Oysters are supposed not
to be good in summer, and
as all the summer months
are spelled without an R.
that makes a rule for not
eating them." Large New-
York oysters on the half-
shell were brought, surpris-
ing Hubert greatly by their
size.

After lunch Nathan took
them to the head of State
street, to the "Old State
House."

"This," said he, "is what
the Philadelphia girl called
the State street Meeting-
house."

He had brought them in
a horse car, so that they
saw the building from the
southern side. The lion on
one side and the unicorn

ALICE MARTIN IN HUSTON.

334 A FAMILY FLIGHT AROUND HOME.

on the other, dance on their hind legs at the top, with the roof
to part them. Nathan was careful to show Tom and the rest that
as they looked up on the beasts they stood themselves on the very
ground of the "Boston Massacre" of March 5, 1770. The Eng-
lish troops were in a little semicircle on the north side of the
street. Attucks, the mulatto, and the rest of the mob who stoned
the troops and snowballed them, were in the street, or on the
southern side. There were, then, no sidewalks.

The lower part of the "Old State House" is now used for
public offices. But the upper chambers are restored to much the
condition in which they were when Sam Adams defied the Gover-
nor there, and when Otis made his plea in the " Writs of Assist-
ance cases."

"Then and there," said John Adams, afterwards, " American in-
dependence was born."

"The Bostonian Society" occupies these halls, simply that they
may be open to all visitors, and here the party found many curi-
ous mementoes of Revolutionary and of older days, and were able
to prepare themselves for their later excursions.

Before the " Town House " was built, this spot was occupied as
the market place, being the earliest in the town. The first town
house was erected between 1657 and 1659, of wood. It was de-
stroyed in the great fire of 171 1. In the following year, 1712, a
brick edifice was erected on the same spot. This the fire of 1747
consumed, and with it many valuable records were lost. The pres-
ent Old State House was erected the following year, 1748, but it
has undergone many interior changes, the exterior, however, pre-
senting nearly the same appearance as when first erected. From
1750 to 1830 Faneuil Hall was used as a town house, and the
first city government was organized there. In 1830 the city gov-
ernment removed to the Old State House, which was, on Septem-
ber 17, dedicated as City Hall. But the City Hall has since been
removed to School street.

THE SECOND DAY.

335

Leaving the Old State House they passed down State street,
where they had a chance to see the merchants who were " on
'change," and to look in at the Merchants' Exchange, and by a
short street leading north, came into the square between Faneuil
Hall, •' the cradle of __ .

liberty," as Boston
people liked to call it,
and Faneuil Hall
Market.

Peter Faneuil, a
rich merchant of Hu-
:guenot origin, told the
town that he would
l)uild a market house
•on this spot if they
would accept the gift
for that purpose, and
maintain it forever.
"The town," by which
is meant the town
meeting, looked a gift-
liorse in the mouth,
and made some diffi-
culty. At the end of
3. stormy meeting, his
proposal was accepted by a majority of only seven votes in a vote
of seven hundred and twenty-seven.

Mr. Faneuil set to work at once on the building, which, by
the original plan, was to be but one-story high. But he added an-
other story for the town hall, which has made his name famous
to all New Englanders. The original hall accommodated only one
thousand persons, being but half the size of that now standing.
He died, himself, just as the building was completed, on the third

EQUITABLE BUILDING.

336 A FAMILY FLIGHT AROUND nOME.

of March, 1743, and it was first opened to public use on the
fourteenth of March of that year. The whole interior was de-
stroyed by fire in January, 1763, and rebuilt by the town and State-
In 1806 it was enlarged to its present size.

Nathan made them look at the grasshopper, which is the weather-
cock, which is selected in memory of the Athenian cicada. The
Athenian people selected this as their emblem because they believed
they sprang from the ground, and they supposed the grasshoppers-
did.

The people of Boston long since provided themselves with a much
larger market house than Peter Faneuil's. When they did so, they
gave up the market in Faneuil Hall, and used the basement for
other purposes. But their lawyers, after a while, recollected that
stirring town meeting, and the promise of the town to maintain
the market "forever." Clearly enough, if the town meant to keep-
the hall, it must maintain the market. So the butchers and fruit
men were brought back again ; and Miss Lejeune did not fail to-
buy some bananas for the party in the market, that they might
keep Peter Faneuil well in their memory.

The Historic Hall is over the market, and always open to visitors,
and here the party spent half an hour in looking at the pictures.
Mr. Horner told them of the last and only time when he heard
Wendell Phillips there. It is not the largest hall in Boston, but it
is still the favorite hall for any public meeting about some public
interest, where people are not expecting to sit down.

The gentlemen joined the party by appointment here, and they
all went to lunch together. They then went up the Equitable
elevator and mounted the tower, so that the ladies might see the
sea view. And they finished the day's excursion by going into the
Old South Meeting House.

This old meeting house was twice as big as Faneuil Hall of
the Revolution, so that the crowded town meetings of those days
often adjourned to the Old South. As the patriots called Faneuil

CITY HALL, BOSTON.

THE SECOND DAY. 339

Hall the "cradle of liberty," Governor Gage called the Old South
the "nursery of rebellion." The religious society which formerly
occupied it built, a few years ago, a new church in the western
part of Boston, and sold this meeting-house to an association
which wished to preserve it as a memorial of the history of Bos-
ton. The sellers did not wish to have any opposition church estab-
lished in the old building ; they therefore put a • provision in the
deed, that for twenty years it should not be used for public reli-
gious purposes. It is probably the only spot in the United States
where, by the expressed" wish of a church, public worship is for-
bidden.

The travellers found a great deal to interest them in the meet-
ing house, — relics of the past there preserved. The boys, indefatigable,
obtained leave to climb up the spire, from which it is said that the
English governor. Gage, saw the embarkation of his troops for
Bunker Hill, and what he could see of the battle.

The next day proved favorable for Nathan's plans, which in-
volved a visit to Bunker Hill Monument and the Navy Yard.

"I should like," he said to the girls, "to begin by taking you
out to Concord, that you might see the bridge over the Concord
River, and the scene of what we call Concord Fight. But if the
day prove hot, it would have been tiresome, as we have the Monu-
ment to climb. For that expedition one needs half a day, or
better, a day. You know you would want to see Mr. Emerson's
house and Mr. Hawthorne's."

They started later, therefore, than the Concord plan would have
required. A transfer at Scollay Square, the very heart of active
Boston, put them in a Charlestown car. In Scollay Square stands
very properly a statue of Winthrop, the founder of Boston, and its
first Governor; as at the foot of the street stands Sam Adams.

Nathan explained to the girls, when they came to river and
bridge, that at the time of Bunker Hill battle there was no bridge.
The English army, when it attacked the hill, had to cross in

340

A FAMILY FLIGHT AROUND HOME.

boats, and he showed them on the east, the Une the boats took,
landing where the Navy Yard now is. The forces landed there
and waited through a hot day before the attack. The battle was
fought on a hot June afternoon.

After they came to Charlestown, a short walk brought them to
5 the top of the hill, where

a large green park takes in
all the ground of the his-
toric Redoubt. A bronze
statute of Prescott seems to
welcome the visitor.

By an ascent even longer
than that they made at the
State House, they climbed
the Monument, and earned
their sight of the panorama
from its top.

The party had given them
a note to introduce them to
the commander at the Navy
Yard on their return. It
proved that he was absent.
But they needed no pass nor
introduction. They were very
courteously received ; and
as there happened to be a
ship fitting out with stores
for the Mediterranean Sta-
puLPiT WINDOW IN THE OLD SOUTH CHURCH. tjon^ Bcssic had hcr chance

to see "a three-masted ship," nearly ready for sea.

"But after all," she said, when Nathan very kindly attracted her
attention to the craft, "this is not what I mean. Papa, we have
seen plenty of these passing at sea ! "

THE SECOND DAY.

343

Mr. Horner found that Nathan Turner was thinking of one
thing, and Bessie of another.

"A three-masted schooner," he explained, "is like any other
schooner, with the addition of a third mast. They are, I believe,
steadier with the third mast, and better fitted to carry the loads of
stone and lumber which Maine furnishes to the other States."

NKAR I'HK WHARVES.

344 A FAMILY FLIGHT AROUND HOME.

CHAPTER XXXVIII.

NAHANT.

SATURDAY proved to be a warm day, and it was pro-
posed at breakfast that they should carry out Nathan's plan,
and that all hands should go to Nahant, the rocky peninsula which
bounds the outer harbor on the northeastern side.

So they took the horse car and "transferred" at Summer street
for the ferry-boat, which would take them to the Lynn Railroad.
They could have taken the Eastern Railroad, but the Narrow Guage
Road (so called) runs along the water's edge, and the sail is more
attractive.

Miss Lejeune begged off from this expedition. She had made a
visit to Nahant during the summer, where she had hosts of friends.
"I shall be sure to meet some of them," she said, "and in that
case, every one at Nahant is so hospitable, they will insist upon
lunching or dining you all. You will have better fun incog."

So the young people had their first sniff of sea air from the
boat which crosses from Old Boston to East Boston, where the
railroad begins. Bessie had chances enough to see "ships with
three masts," brigs, schooners, sloops, barks, brigantines and bark-
antines, all which the learned Nathan explained to her. After a
voyage of a mile or two they took the Narrow Guage Railway and
flew along Chelsea Beach, which gave a fine ocean view, and
more of the glory of the infinite sea than the steamboat had
done. At Lynn they found public carriages waiting for the drive
to Nahant.

Mr. Horner, with unwonted extravagance, said that Nahant looked

NAHANT.

345

like the open hand of a giant who had been struck down in the
sea, and that Nahant Beach was his arm. A very thin arm he
had, — a mere thread-paper arm, — for a big hand. For the beach is
only a strip of sand and gravel about two miles long, washed by
the ocean on both sides. At the southern end rise, abrupt and
bold, the rocks of Nahant. They are mostly of trap-rock, which
has been forced by some volcanic effect of the fiery times, up
through the hissing sea. They have a reddish color, with stripes
of black stone, even harder than the rest. And the perpetual
washing of the sea has
worn out clefts and chasms
of every strange outline
and form.

One of these is the
Swallow's Cave, a long
passage through wet rocks,
covered above by rocks,
through which at low tides
adventurers can clamber.
Another is the Spouting
Horn, where, at half-tide,
a sea heavily thrown in
by a stiff eastern gale,
bounds back in spray and
water, as if indeed a sea-
god had thrown it up in
a great fountain. But the
glory of Nahant is not in
any one of these sights-
It is the glory of the infinite ocean. Southeast and west you
liave the sea, and it is no wonder that in this perfect sea-climate
so many people are glad to make a summer home.

Mr. Horner met, by accident, a Boston friend, after they had

SAMUEL ADAMS' STATUE, WASHINGTON STREET.

346

A FAMILY FLIGHT AROUXD HOME.

crossed the beach, who husbanded their time for them in visiting
different points, and before the afternoon closed, asked them to
come back to town in his yacht.

This they accepted with delight, especially as the steamboat
which usually plys between Nahant and Boston was not running.
So, after all, the party were indebted to the hospitalities of Na-
hant, to the amusement of Miss Augusta, when she heard of it.

From the deck of the Sylph, its owner showed them that nearly
south of them, a string of little islands shielded the harbor, in a

measure, from eastern gales.
Of these the three most im-
portant are the three Brew-
sters, on one of which is the
outer light-house. The yacht
first ran by these. Then she
turned inland, and he pointed
out to them the villages of
Hull, which on the southeast
protects the bay, as Nahant on
the northeast. He bade the
helmsman bring the vessel up
at Fort Warren, and the young
people had then a chance to
see the arrangements which
a great fort makes to repel
an enemy. And then, as the
sun went down, down, they ran swiftly up to Boston, saw the
State House and Bunker Hill Monument against the evening glow,
and landed after a day of thorough satisfaction and variety.

Mr. Turner left the party at the door of the Vendome, to re-
turn home for the night. He had been with them hitherto at the
hotel, but he lived out of town, and felt that he must report to
his family.

GOV. JOHN WINTHROP, SCOLLAY SQUARE.

NAHANT.

347

"Be sure you come to-morrow!" called Bessie, as he turned
the corner from the hotel, flourishmg his cane at a street car.

"How sleepy I am!" said Bessie, after dinner, as she threw
herself on a sofa in their parlor.

"I am more tired than sleepy," said Alice, "my feet ache so.
The sidewalks are so hard."

"This is the first time, then, Alice," said Miss Lejeune, "that
you have been in Boston?"

"The first time I was anywhere except East Utopia," replied

Alice

The arrival on the scene of the Horner family was an event of
importance to Alice. The country girl had suddenly been intro-
duced to a series of experiences wholly different from the quiet

tenor of her life.

The next day was Sunday. So much chance was there for a
day of rest. But at breakfast it proved that there were one or
two ecclesiastical landmarks which were to be counted in with the
others, and that, with perfect gravity and reverence, the young
people had arranged to unite their sight-seeing with the rehgious
services of the day. The party all together made an addition not
unacceptable to congregations not yet crowded; for although it
was October, summer wanderers had not yet returned.

The first point was King's Chapel.

The chapel, last of sublunary things

That shocks our senses with the name of King's.

c^nch is Doctor Holmes' description. It is in the very heart of
active Boston. After the Revolution it was long called "The
Stone Chapel," for in those early days stone churches were rare
and nothing bore the name of King. Royal biscuit was then called
"President's biscuit." But after people were sure that no King
Georc^e would return, the Chapel people, who were no longer in

S4S

A FAMILY FLIGHT AROUND HOME.

the habit of praying- for the royal family, returned to " King's
Chapel" as the historical name of their church, and found again

the neglected gilded crown
and mitre, which had once
adorned the organ, and re-
stored them to the places
from which they had been
removed. After the service,
which interested all the
young people, they remained
in the church to look at
the curious old monuments.
They were specially inter-
ested in that of Mrs. Shir-
ley, the lovely wife of Gov-
ernor Shirley. She died just
as he was fortifying Boston
against the largest fleet
which France ever sent
across the seas. This is the
fleet of Longfellow's ballad :

CHRIST CHURCH, SALEM STREET.

For the admiral D'Anville

Had sworn by cross and crown,
To ravage with fire and steel

Our luckless Boston 'I'cnvn.

While Shirley had the whole army of Massachusetts on Boston
Common, and was bringing every resource to bear to resist the
enemy, his heart was wrung day by day by the sickness and the
death of the young bride, whose bust the children saw, and whose
epitaph they translated.

Mr. Horner told them that when the King's Chapel was built
there had been no quarries of stone opened in New England.
The stones for this building were split and hewed from bowlders.

N AH ANT.

34»

By the time it was finished it was currently said and believed
that there was not stone enough in the province for another
church as big. He took them to the back of the church and
showed thenC on a little green, Franklin's statue, placed in what
was the yard of the schoolhouse where he studied as a boy.

King's Chapel was not popular with the Puritan inhabitants of
Boston"! And, because the lower windows are square, and look like
port holes, the street boys of a century and a quarter ago nick-
named it "Christ's Frigate," somewhat irreverently. On the other
side of the street was once the schoolhouse where John Han-
cock and Sam Adams studied. And Nathan showed them where
the "coast" was in winter, which was obstructed by the English
ofBcer whom the schoolboys called to account for his violation
of their inalienable rights.

They went to church with a friend whom they had met on the

yacht coming from
Nahant the day be-
fore, in the morning,
and in the afternoon
Bessie and Mr. Tur-
ner went to Christ
Church, which is the
oldest church build-
ing in Boston now
standing on the
ground where it was
built. It was the
second Episcopalian
church erected in
Boston, and was built
in 1723, several years
before the present Old South. It is a brick edifice, and has long
been known as the "North End Church." In its day was con

king's chapel, tremoni street

250 A FAMILY FLIGHT AROUND HOME.

sidered one of the chief architectural ornaments of the North End.
The old steeple was blown down in the great gale of 1804, f-'iH-
ing upon an old wooden building at the corner of Tileston street,
through which it crushed, to the consternation of the tenants, who,
however, escaped injury. The steeple was replaced from a design
by Charles Bulfinch, which carefully preserved the proportion of
the original. Its chime was the first in New England, and be-
gan to play its charming tunes in 1744.

The Bible, prayer books and silver now in use were given, in
1733, by King George the First. The figures of cherubim in
front of the organ were taken from a French vessel by the pri-
vateer Queen of Hungary, and presented to the church in
1746. There is an interesting bust of Washington in the church
From the steeple of this church the historic sexton hung out
the lanterns which warned the patriots on the other side of the
river that an expedition was starting from the English camp,
against Concord.

"One if by land, — two if by sea," says Mr. Longfellow, whose
history of those days is more likely to be remembered well than
any other. That steeple, as has been said, was blown down in
1804.

As they walked to the car, which was to take them home, Na-
than led Bessie through the Copp's Hill burying ground. Copp's
Hill has never been cut away. Fort Hill is wholly leveled, and
Beacon Hill partly so. These were the three hills which were
the landmarks of old Boston.

A SEA BATH. '^'^

CHAPTER XXXIX.

A SEA BATH.

THE next day, Monday, was deliciously warm, one of those
left over from summer, which drop down sometimes even

late in October.

Bessie, ever since her first glance at the ocean from the top
of the State House, had been longing for a salt bath, and Alice,
who had never bathed in the sea, shared the longing, for she had
begun to swim already in fresh water, and everybody told her
that salt water was more bouyant, making it much easier.

But the way was beset with difficulties, and if Bessie had not
laid her plan before speaking of it. she would have found it diffi-
cult to resist the objections which were raised when she broached
the subject at the breakfast table.

-Bathe after the first of October!" exclaimed a wiry little old
lady who sat at the same table. She was a Boston woman, and
the incarnation of conventionality. "We never think of such a

thing," she said.

"I think we can manage it," said Bessie. "We know our way
about so well now. Alice and I can take the Narrow Guage Rail-
way, and stop at one of those little stations on Beach. I saw

bathing-houses to let at every one of them, as we passed the
other day, and we have our bathing dresses."

As she said this a smile of intelligence passed between her and
Alice, for there had been a little doubt on the part of Alices
mother about the wisdom of packing Alice's bathing-dress.

-My dear," Bessie had said, "you just put it in. It is always

352

A FAMILY FLIGHT AROUND HOME.

safest to have it. And I should take mine to Siberia in January.'*
So there was no difficulty on this score. But old Mrs. Fletcher

raised her hands and eyes. " Beach, — but, my dear Miss

Horner, nobody bathes
there. In fact, I have
been told that the rail-
way itself is terribly vul-
gar. Is it not narrower
than common ? "

Bessie bit her lip, more
with vexation at herself
for broaching the subject
in such company, than
with amusement at the

FROM THK FERRY-BOAT. qUCStlon. O p p O S i t i O H

from this quarter, however, brought her an unexpected ally, for
Miss Lejeune said suddenly:

" My dear Mrs. Fletcher, you are quite mistaken ; Miss Swimmer,
whose mother was a Claveridge, you know, one of the William P.
Claveridges, goes there on purpose, every summer, just for one
bath. Of course, you know, one would not stay there ; but espe-
cially at this season, when the crowd has left, — "

"At this season, — well, yes, it might do," mumbled the old
lady, and retired vanquished from the field.

The Homers had a good laugh, and the girls had their bath,
passing the whole morning in the expedition. Miss Lejeune went
with them and watched them from the piazza of a deserted hotel.
The tide was high, the waves came creaming along the shallow
beach, the water was cold, but delicious. Alice thought she had
never enjoyed anything so much in her life. The occasion was
always afterwards referred to as Mrs. Fletcher's bath.

Nathan Turner's expedition arranged for the day was to Dorchester
Heights, to see the view of the harbor from that point. The

A t;EA BATH. 353

party were scattered all the morning, and had agreed to lunch
solidly, or dine, in the middle of the day, at any place where
they happened to be, and to assemble at some central point late
in the day.

Accordingly, about five o'clock, they started for South Boston.
"Take any car for City Point," was Nathan's final direction as
the party separated. " Ask for the Reservoir, and we will meet
there."

" Dorchester Heights " is simply the name which only old-fash-
ioned people would understand, of the hills in what is now
"South Boston," now surmounted by the "Blind Institution," and
a public park, in which is one of the city reservoirs.

From the hill they enjoyed the spectacle of the harbor, white
with the sails of hundreds of yachts, and all alive with the
movements of the steamers as they went out, just before sunset,
on their voyages to every port of the seaboard, not to say of the
world.

These high hills completely command the harbor, in a military
sense. Why the English generals did not take possession before
Washington did, no one ever knew. That was the sort of imbe-
cility George the Third got by appointing men to office because
they were his relations. When, at last, the vi^inter of 1775-76
broke up, and no ice had formed strong enough for an attack on
Boston over the ice, Washington seized these hills. By the road
now called Dorchester Avenue, which Nathan Turner showed his
friends, he sent from the camp in Roxbury the men and muni-
tions. It was all done by night. On the morning of the fifth
of March the Americans had built a fortification which surprised
the English oflficers in Boston as that on Bunker Hill had sur-
prised them nine months before. " It is like Aladdin's lamp,"
wrote one of them.

General Howe's first plan was to assault the works, as Gage
had assaulted those at Bunker Hill. Howe sent an attacking

354

A FAMILY FLIGHT AROUND HOME.

force to the fort held by him on the island. But a storm made
this attack impossible. Ward, the commander of the American
right wing, strengthened his ranks. Thomas, the general in com-
mand on the Heights, asked nothing better than an attack. But
Howe, at the last, saw that the venture was madness. He en-
tered into negotiations with Washington, and, a fortnight after,
withdrew fleet and army. For several months there was not an
English soldier on American soil.

Before they left the park, which now takes the place of the
fortification, they looked at the tablet of stone which commemorates

THE BEACH.

the history. They found the name of the mayor who put it up,
but no allusion to General Ward who planned the work, or Gen-
eral Thomas who carried it out. Such, alas, is fame!

Nathan Turner was surprised to find Hubert, and even Augus-
tine, well versed in the cause of these historical events. He was
not called upon to tell the story, but only to point out places, to
an intelligent and interested audience.

"I wish I had been in Utopia with you," he said. "You must
have had first-rate books of reference."

^-^'

A SEA BATH. 357

"We bad Professor Bruce," replied Hubert, "and he is better
than a whole library."

When they left the hill the sun was going down, in a red
mist, promising another hot day. The evening was so soft and
warm that they lingered until bedtime in the public garden, sitting
upon benches where they could watch the people who walked
about in crowds under the electric light, and the boats gliding
about on the water.

When they told Mrs. Fletcher, the next morning, how they had
spent the evening, and how pretty it was, she said, "Ah, indeed?
but nobody does it, you know." Alice thought there must be
a great many nobodies in Boston, if all the happy people she
"had seen in the garden counted for nothing.

The next day, when they visited the Historical Society, Nathan
showed his cousins the original gold medal which Congress gave
to Washington in honor of this victory. It was designed by a
French artist, and struck in Paris. It represents Washington
seated on his horse, on Dorchester Heights, as the squadron re-
tires. It bears the proud motto :

" Hostihns primo FugatiSy'*
which may be translated: "The first Flight of the Enemy."

Nathan's programme would have been incomplete without a trip
to Cambridge. Bessie and Miss Lejeune had both made visits to
Philip, in his college room at Harvard, but Tom had not seen
it. "What a pity," said he, "that Philip is away, so that we
cannot go to his room."

"How soon he will be back, now," Bessie replied; "only three
days more." They supposed he was already upon the water, hav-
ing sailed the week before.

At the station of the Providence road they found a street car
waitino- to take them from Park Square to Harvard Square. The
ride takes a short half-hour. At Harvard Square they were on
one side of the College Yard, as the region is called, which n.

358 A FAMILY FLIGHT AROUND HOME.

colleges of more pretence would be named the campus. Buildings
of all ages and all aspects fill it, from the venerable brick of
old Massachusetts, built near two centuries ago, down to the last
devices of modern architecture.

First of all, Nathan led them to the Library, where they looked
at some of the curiosities ; and here they met a classmate of
Philip's, who recognized Mr. Horner, and did the honors of his
room ; so they saw a little of the college life of the students.

Next they went to Memorial Hall, where are the portraits of
the old worthies of the State and college, the trophies of many
base ball victories, and, most interesting of all, if you go at a
meal time, some five hundred of the young men of to-day, eating
with a good appetite ; and then to the Agassiz Museum, which is so-
skilfully arranged that they will all date back to that hour's visit
a clearer knowledge of the great classifications of natural science.

The young people declared that they were not tired even then.
So 'after lunch, they went up to the Botanic Garden, stopped
at the Observatory, and crossed to see the house which was lately
the home of Longfellow, and in the Revolution, that of Washington.

As they all returned to town in a horse car, Mr. Horner said
to Miss Lejeune, " I fancy, Augusta^ you have never done Boston
in this sight-seeing fashion."

"No, indeed," she replied, "and I dare say half the people in
Boston have not themselves. "If," she added, "I should ever go
abroad again, I shall be able to converse with more credit to
myself about the landmarks of Boston."

" If you ever go abroad again ! " exclaimed Tom. " You know,,
aunt Dut, you are saving up now for your next excursion."

At this they all smiled.

Hubert was silent. He knew that he was soon to return to.
Europe, and for him to cross the ocean again, separated anew
from friends who had become very dear to him, was no attractive
prospect.

SCATTERING. -^59

CHAPTER XL

SCATTERING.

IT was quarter of eleven o'clock, before noon, and Nathan Tur-
ner and Alice Martin were walking up and down the side-
walk outside the Boston & Albany station.

"It is to be hoped they will not be late," remarked Mr. Tur-
ner, in his precise way, looking very carefully at his watch. "Ex-
actly fifteen minutes to eleven; I always allow a quarter of an
hour at the station for the regulation of baggage."

«I do not believe they will be late," replied Alice. "Mr. Horner is
an excellent traveller."

"Still, it is well to be accurate," he said, adding, "and so you
are to remain in Boston, Miss Martin.?"

"Yes; is it not wonderful.? Miss Lejeune has so kindly ar-
ranged everything for me. It has been the dream of my life to
spend a winter in Boston, at school, and now it has come to

pass ! "

"Have you friends in Boston.?" he inquired.

"Not one; but I am to board with some pleasant people, and
I hope I shall make friends,— but here they are!"

Two carriages drove up to the end of the station where bag-
gage is received. All the party were there, and all the parcels.

"Ah, you arrived before us;" said Mr. Horner, shaking hands
with Nathan. "Thank you, again, for taking care of Alice, and for
all your kindness to us. Tom, if you will look after the ladies, I

will buy the tickets."

"Had not I better see about drawing-room seats ?" asked Tom.

360

A FAMILY FLIGHT AROUND HOME.

"Yes, that will be better; and, Hubert, take,— ah! you have it,—
Miss Lejeune's bag. "

" Your umbrella, papa," said Bessie, handing it to him.

They all passed into the handsome new station, and after a few
moments, through the gate to the train, Alice following them,
though she was to be left behind. Now that the moment of part-
ing had come, she began to be frightened at the prospect.

KOSTON AND ALIiANY DEPOT, KNEELAND STREET.

"Keep up a good heart, Alice," whispered Bessie, who had
come to be very fond of the girl, "and be sure and write me about
everything."

" Good-by, Mr. Turner," Tom was saying, and, "Good-by, Nathan,"
said Miss Lejeune ; " our little scheme has worked admirably, has
it not.?"

" T thank you most sincerely," he replied, turning out his toes

SCATTERING. 361

more than ever, "for the great favor I have enjoyed in making
the acquaintance of Mr. Horner and his family."

"Well, Alice," said Hubert, "I hope we shall meet again some
time. Will you keep this to remember our quarrels by ? " To her sur-
prise, he pushed a long narrow box into her hand. She found it
afterward to contain a pretty little pin in the shape of a dagger,
which, with Miss Lejeune's assistance, and Mr. Horner's approval,
he had bought for a parting gift.

The car was cleared of all but passengers, and the train rolled
out of the station. As the party settled themselves in their com-
fortable turning seats, Mr. Horner said:

"Here is all our mail. We were lucky not to miss it, for it
has the foreign letters."

There was something for every one, even Augustine, and for some
time all were absorbed in the contents of their respective enve-
lopes. Then a few comments were exchanged, and the letters
passed from one to another, that each might read every one.

When Bessie had done hers, and saw that her father also had
iinished the last flimsy sheet, she came and sat down by his side
on one of the low carpet foot-stools which accompany the chairs.
"You see, papa, what mamma says in her letter?"
"Yes, my dear."

"And may I tell you my plan?" she asked.
"I long to hear it, Bessie," he replied.

She glanced at Miss Lejeune as if to summon her aid, and
that lady leaned a little forward, the better to join the discussion.
"Aunt Dut and I, papa, think we had all better go over at
once, to be with the rest of them. I long to see Mary," she
went on. while tears came in her eyes, "and there is no need
for mamma to come home. And then, do not you see, we can take
Hubert along with us, as far as we go?"

Her father looked at her for a moment with no expression on
his face but a half-smile, then he said,

362

A FAMILY FLIGHT AROUND HOME.

"Now, Bessie, may I tell you my plan?"

" I long to hear it, papa," she said, repeating his own words
with stronger emphasis.

"It is precisely the same as yours."

The boys all looked up at the sound of laughter and approval
which followed this remark, and Tom came from his remote seat
to find out what was going on.

"There is only one difficulty, —and that is Tom, what shall
we do with him " — Bessie was saying as he came up.

SrPNKRY RY IIIK WAV.

"Do not allow Tom to be a difficulty," said he. "I know very
well what you were talking about. Tom will stay in New York
and study his lessons like a good boy, while the rest of you go
to mamma and Mary."

"And I will stay at home," said Miss Lejeune, "and take care
of Tom."

"Now that, aunt Augusta, is out of the question," said Bessie;
"for you must come with us."

"You must go with them," said Tom. "I shall do very welL

SCATTEEING. 363:

Philip will be at Cambridge, and we can meet whenever we feel
solitary."

'♦Never mind, then, about me, now," said Miss Lejeune; "that can
be settled later,"

Hubert was looking eagerly from one to another while this talk
was going on, without half understanding it. The rapidity with
which this American family formed a plan for crossing the Atlantic
was something to which he never became familiar; The present
one brought a wonderful hope to his heart, and he exclaimed, in
a joyful manner,

" Then I shall not have to cross alone ! "

"No, my dear boy," said Mr. Horner, "I have been hoping for
some time that we could manage to spare you that."

By and by they all subsided into silence, each one behind the
pretence of a book, revolving sunny schemes for the future opened
by the new arrangement.

Tom was the only one whose prospects were not of the coulcur
dc rose; his mind was at leisure enough to allow him to talk
with Augustine Stuyvesant, that he might not feel shut out of the-

general joy.

"Well, old fellow," said Tom to him, "we have had a pretty
good summer, have we not ? "

"Yes, indeed," said Augustine; "I hate to go back. I wonder
what will become of us all winter."

To everybody's surprise, while the train was stopping at Spring-
field, Mr. Stuyvesant stepped into the car. The meeting was a
purely accidental one, for he had missed Mr. Horner's letter tell-
ing him at what time to expect Augustine in New York.

"I came up from Newport to Boston," he said, "and should
have looked you up, but this boy did not give us the name of
your hotel in his letter. I was hastening back to New York, in
order to be on hand when my goods were returned to me," he
continued, smiling at his son ; " I have been in one of the rear

364

A FAMILY FLIGHT AROUND HOME.

cars all the way ; they told me I could have a drawing-room seat
in this one at Springfield, but not sooner."

His arrival was most opportune, as he could now join the family
counsels.

"Tom, my boy, spend the winter with us," he cried; "we will

ALONG THE SOUND.

take the best of care of you. We have just engaged a furnished house
for the winter." And he went on to detail the street and number
of it.

Close upon Mr. Stuyvesant, entered the porter with straw-baskets
containing a plentiful lunch previously ordered by telegraph.

Little tables were put up between the chairs, a cloth spread
upon each ; and forth came from the baskets knives, forks, nap-
kins, tumblers, pickles, and the food for a substantial meal.
Hubert was pleased with this feature of American travel.

The journey between Boston and New York is very pleasant,
by the road and the train which the Horners had chosen. The
scenery is pretty all the way, especially along the Sound, and in
the end of October, as they saw it, was brilliant with rich tints

SCATTERING.

365

of autumn foliage. After crossing the Connecticut River the road
follows its banks for a time.

"Only think!" cried Hubert, "that this is our river we have
been swimming in and rowing on all summer."

"Is it.?" exclaimed Augustine, amazed; "it is much bigger

here! "

"And so are you much bigger than when I saw you last," said

his father. Augustine had grown in every way wonderfully through

the summer, and was now a stout-looking boy.

They arrived in New York about six o'clock, after dark, and

drove at once to the hotel which always served as a home for

them when their own house was closed. As they tumbled out on

the broad sidewalk, light as day with the white glare of electric

lamps, a tall young gentleman ran to meet them. It was Philip,

IN CONNECTICUT.

who, after one of the wonderfully short passages often promised
and sometimes made by modern steamers, had just arrived.

"Why, Philip, you here.'" they all exclaimed. "We did not
dream of expecting you before to-morrow ! "

" How long have you been here ? " asked his father.

-366

A FAMILY FLIGHT AROUND HOME.

" About a couple of hours. They told me in the office here you
-were coming by this train."

Then when they were all assembled in the public parlor waiting
for their rooms, Philip said:

" And here, sir, is a telegram which had just come for you. I
ventured to open it."

He was smiling. Mr, Horner pulled out the long, narrow strip
•of paper from its yellow envelope and read aloud, while they all
gathered about him :

Pau, October 20, 18 —
Mary Horner Hervey, aet. sixty minutes, sends her lore to grandpapa.

Clarence Hery«y.

To begin with let every child be given a general knowledge of the earth, and what is on it^
I it, and about it. — Huxley.

Illustrated Science for Young Folks.

UNDERFOOT.

LAURA D. NICHOLS.

With an introduction by E. C. BOLLES. Quarto, illustrated, 235 pp., boards, $i.2C

The earth's treasures are unfolded in " Underfoot " in a light that cannot fail to arrest the
attention of any child. Geology is commonly presented in the dryest of garbs, but here it is
clothed in a most attractive manner.

FOUR FEET, WINGS AND FINS.

MRS. A. E. ANDERSON-MASKELL.
Quarto, illustrated, boards, $1.25 ; cloth, I1.75.
In this elegantly illustrated work of 636 pages
on zoology, is embraced a book that will find
thousands of admirers among the little folks.
This is a book that helps the boys to investi-
gate for themselves, giving such wise sugges-
tions and examples as will make the woods,
fields and animal life have a language intelli-
gible to all who have their Eyes Right, as did
the hero of the story. The author is a lover
of boys, and his stories never fail to interest
them.

EYES RIGHT.

ADAM STWIN.

Quarto, boards, illustrated, $1.25; cloth, ^1.75.

OVERHEAD.

BY
ANNIE MOORE & LAURA D. NICHOLS,

With an Introduction by
LEONARD WALDO, of Harvard CoUege Observatory.
In no sense is this a text-book, but as Prof.
"Waldo says, " it covers up a primer of astronomy under the guise of a story."
%* For sale by all booksellers, or will be sent postpaid on receipt of price, by

D. LOTHROP AND COMPANY, PUBLISHERS,
30 & 32 Franklin St., Boston,

* A series of charming pictures, full of life and unusually natural." — Churchtnan, New York.

" All readers will endorse the highest praise we can betsow on ' Five little Peppers, and how
They grew,' they will contmue to grcnv, we are sure, in the number who read their story witli
interest. It is one of the best told tales given to the children for some time. The perfect re-
production of child-life, in its minutest phases, catches one's attention at once." — Christian
Advocate, Pittsburgh, Pa.

FIVE LITTLE PEPPERS,

and How They Grew.

"**;.-'. „ ^ BY

MARGARET SIDNEY.

Author of "the pettibone name," " half

year at bronckton," "what the

seven did," " the lost

HARE," ETC.

l2mo, cloth, fully illustrated
by Jessie Curtis. 410 pages,
$1.50.

Of this story recently reis-
sued in London by Plodder &
Stoughton, the Christian Ob-
server says : " How the Five
^ little Peppers did grow is a per-
fect mystery, with all their hard-
ships poverty, trials and battles-
with life ; as Mrs. Pepper said^
'They were not brought up,
they just scrambled up.' Many
delighted little readers will„
we hope, get various, useful
and practical hints as to how
to get happiness and con-
tentment out of each other,
when they have not the luxu-
ries, or even the comforts of
life, as the Five Little Peppers
THE YOUNGEST OF THE PEPPERS. did. How things brlghtcued

up to them at l-ast we will leave our young friends to find out, by reading the book for them-
selves, with the prediction that no one of them who reads it will be disappointed."

•»* For sale by all booksellers, or will be sent post-paid upon receipt of price, by

D. LOTHROP AND COMPANY, PUBLISHERS,
30 & 32 Franklin St., Boston.

^riAAHi Kjr UUINUHhSS

0 014 042 540 0

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