d
up from Cambridge to Concord, through Lexington, and had a
chat with old Jonathan Harrington by the roadside. He told
me he was on the Common when the British Regulars fired upon
the Lexington men. He did not tell me then the story which
he told afterward at the great celebration at Concord in 1850.
He and Amos Baker were the only survivors who were there that
day. He said he was a boy about fifteen years old on April
19, 1775. He was a fifer in the company. He had been up
the greater part of the night helping get the stores out of
the way of the British, who were expected, and went to bed
about three o'clock, very tired and sleepy. His mother came
and pounded with her fist on the door of his chamber, and
said, "Git up, Jonathan! The Reg'lars are comin' and somethin'
must be done!"

Governor Briggs repeated this anecdote in the old man's presence
at the Concord celebration in 1850. Charles Storey, a noted
wit, father of the eminent lawyer, Moorfield Storey, sent
up to the chair this toast: "When Jonathan Harrington got
up in the morning on April 19, 1775, a near relative and namesake
of his got up about the same time: Brother Jonathan. But
his mother didn't call him."

A very curious and amusing incident is said, and I have no
doubt truly, to have happened at this celebration. It shows
how carefully the great orator, Edward Everett, looked out
for the striking effects in his speech. He turned in the
midst of his speech to the seat where Amos Baker and Jonathan
Harrington sat, and addressed them. At once they both stood
up, and Mr. Everett said, with fine dramatic effect, "Sit,
venerable friends. It is for us to stand in your presence."

After the proceedings were over, old Amos Baker was heard
to say to somebody, "What do you suppose Squire Everett meant?
He came to us before his speech and told us to stand up when
he spoke to us, and when we stood up he told us to sit down."

So you will understand how few lives separate you from the
time when our country was born, and the time when all our
people were British subjects.

But to come back to our old meeting-house. The windows rattled
in the winter, and the cold wind came in through the cracks.
There was a stove which was rather a modern innovation; but
it did little to temper the coldness of a day in midwinter.
We used to carry to church a little foot-stove with a little
tin pan in it, which we filled with coal from the stove in
the meeting-ho