ht make acquaintance with them of their own
accord. For this purpose, while ostensibly relating the adventures of a
Chair, he has endeavored to keep a distinct and unbroken thread of
authentic history. The Chair is made to pass from one to another of those
personages, of whom he thought it most desirable for the young reader to
have vivid and familiar ideas, and whose lives and actions would best
enable him to give picturesque sketches of the times. On its sturdy oaken
legs, it trudges diligently from one scene to another, and seems always to
thrust itself in the way, with most benign complacency, whenever a
historical personage happens to be looking round for a seat.

There is certainly no method, by which the shadowy outlines of departed
men and women can he made to assume the hues of life more effectually,
than by connecting their images with the substantial and homely reality of
a fireside chair. It causes us to feel at once, that these characters of
history had a private and familiar existence, and were not wholly
contained within that cold array of outward action, which we are compelled
to receive as the adequate representation of their lives. If this
impression can be given, much is accomplished.

Setting aside Grandfather and his auditors, and excepting the adventures
of the Chair, which form the machinery of the work, nothing in the ensuing
pages can be termed fictitious. The author, it is true, has sometimes
assumed the license of filling up the outline of history with details, for
which he has none but imaginative authority, but which, he hopes, do not
violate nor give a false coloring to the truth. He believes that, in this
respect, his narrative will not be found to convey ideas and impressions,
of which the reader may hereafter find it necessary to purge his mind.

The author's great doubt is, whether he has succeeded in writing a book
which will be readable by the class for whom he intends it. To make a
lively and entertaining narrative for children, with such unmalleable
material as is presented by the sombre, stern, and rigid characteristics
of the Puritans and their descendants, is quite as difficult an attempt,
as to manufacture delicate playthings out of the granite rocks on which
New England is founded.

THE WHOLE HISTORY OF GRANDFATHER'S CHAIR

COMPLETE IN THREE PARTS.

PART I

Chapter I

Grandfather had been sitting in h