which he had captured half
a dozen richly laden vessels belonging to King George's subjects. And
sometimes a rosy little school-boy climbed into our chair, and sat
staring, with wide-open eyes, at the alligator, the rattlesnake, and the
other curiosities of the barber's shop. His mother had sent him, with
sixpence in his hand, to get his glossy curls cropped off. The incidents
of the Revolution plentifully supplied the barber's customers with
topics of conversation. They talked sorrowfully of the death of General
Montgomery and the failure of our troops to take Quebec; for the
New-Englanders were now as anxious to get Canada from the English as
they had formerly been to conquer it from the French.

"But very soon," said Grandfather, "came news from Philadelphia, the
most important that America had ever heard of. On the 4th of July,
1776, Congress had signed the Declaration of Independence. The thirteen
colonies were now free and independent States. Dark as our prospects
were, the inhabitants welcomed these glorious tidings, and resolved to
perish rather than again bear the yoke of England."

"And I would perish, too!" cried Charley.

"It was a great day,--a glorious deed!" said Laurence, coloring high
with enthusiasm. "And, Grandfather, I love to think that the sages
in Congress showed themselves as bold and true as the soldiers in the
field; for it must have required more courage to sign the Declaration of
Independence than to fight the enemy in battle."

Grandfather acquiesced in Laurence's view of the matter. He then touched
briefly and hastily upon the prominent events of the Revolution. The
thunderstorm of war had now rolled southward, and did not again
burst upon Massachusetts, where its first fury had been felt. But she
contributed her full share. So the success of the contest. Wherever
a battle was fought,--whether at Long Island, White Plains, Trenton,
Princeton, Brandywine, or Germantown,--some of her brave sons were found
slain upon the field.

In October, 1777, General Burgoyne surrendered his army, at Saratoga,
to the American general, Gates. The captured troops were sent to
Massachusetts. Not long afterwards Dr. Franklin and other American
commissioners made a treaty at Paris, by which France bound herself to
assist our countrymen. The gallant Lafayette was already fighting for
our freedom by the side of Washington. In 1778 a French fleet, commanded
by Count d'Estaing, spent a considerable time in Bos