." The
inscription on the monument informs us that here the first British
soldier fell. An iron chain incloses a little plot by the side of a
stone wall where rest those who met the first armed resistance. Crossing
the bridge which spans a dark and sluggish stream one reaches French's
fine statue with Emerson's noble inscription,--

"By the rude bridge that arched the flood,
Their flag to April's breeze unfurled,
Here once the embattled farmers stood
And fired the shot heard round the world."

No historic spot has a finer setting or an atmosphere so well fitted to
calm reflection on a momentous event.

On the way to Concord, if one is so fortunate as to go by trolley, one
passes through Lexington and catches a glimpse of its bronze "Minute
Man," more spirited and lifelike in its tense suspended motion than
French's calm and determined farmer-soldier. In the side of a farmhouse
near the Concord battle-field--if such an encounter can be called a
battle--a shot from a British bullet pierced the wood, and that historic
orifice is carefully preserved; a diamond-shaped pane surrounds it. Our
friend, Rev. A.W. Jackson, remarked, "I suppose if that house should
burn down, the first thing they would try to save would be that
bullet-hole."

But Concord is richest in the memory of the men who have lived and died
there, and whose character and influence have made it a center of
world-wide inspiration. One has but to visit Sleepy Hollow Cemetery to
be impressed with the number and weight of remarkable names associated
with this quiet town, little more than a village. Sleepy Hollow is one
of a number of rather unusual depressions separated by sharp ridges that
border the town. The hills are wooded, and in some instances their steep
sides make them seem like the half of a California canyon. The cemetery
is not in the cuplike valley, but on the side and summit of a gentle
hill. It is well kept and very impressive. One of the first names to
attract attention is "Hawthorne," cut on a simple slab with rounded top.
It is the sole inscription on the little stone about a foot high.
Simplicity could go no farther. Within a small radius are found the
graves of Emerson, Thoreau, Alcott, John Weiss, and Samuel Hoar.
Emerson's monument is a beautiful boulder, on the smoothed side of which
is placed a bronze tablet. The inscriptions on the stones placed to the
memory of the different members of the family are most fitting and