James Otis Kaler

“ With so much to excite the imagination, it is little wonder that the forenoon passed slowly to the children, and they partook of the noonday meal with unseemly haste, as if by so doing it would be possible to hasten the slowly moving hands of the clock. ”

“ Mistress Lamb replied. "For my part I am not eager to see a bonfire, and Sarah's frock will be ruined if we get into another crowd."
"But we can't go home now," and there was a tone of deepest regret in Mistress Dean's voice. "The gentlemen are to meet us at Bowling Green after the festivities are over, and if we were not there they might spend half the night searching over the city. We must go on; but I should feel much easier in mind if the girls were safely at home; there are many rough people abroad."
"All of which is fortunate for us," Dorothy whispered to Sarah. ”

“ Arrived on the Broad Way, a halt was made to view a parade of sailors led by Captain Bevan, who had made himself famous by having command of the privateering brig Clinton when she captured the French ship La Pomme.
It was difficult for the children to realize that there were so many seamen hailing from the port of New York, all of whom, if the inscriptions on their banners could be credited, were not only willing, but eager, to do their full share toward proving that the United Colonies were "absolved from all allegiance to the British crown." ”

“ When the excitement of the day is over, my child, I shall expect you to commit to memory the words adopted by those brave men who compose the Congress, and to such end I have brought home that copy of Master Gaines' Mercury newspaper wherein may be found the ringing sentiments which cannot fail of commanding the attention and respect of all right-thinking men. ”

“ Mistress Dean said soothingly when she saw the look of disappointment on Dorothy's face. "You may make certain that nothing will be done in regard to the bonfire until night has fully come." Then to Mistress Lamb she added, "Perhaps it would have been better had we gone directly home from the common; I am afraid the children may get hurt in the crush. What an enormous city New York is, to be sure." ”

“ Sarah Lamb, daughter of Anthony, the maker of mathematical instruments, was to bear Dorothy company on her sight-seeing, for her mother and Mistress Dean were to visit the common together, each acting as protector to the other, since their husbands were to parade in the ranks of the Sons of Liberty. ”

“ Then came a procession of men and women from the markets, nearly all of whom carried some symbol or banner to show their sympathy with the spirit of revolution, and when this had passed the head of Wall street, Mistress Dean and Mistress Lamb led the children toward the common, for the hour was drawing near when the troops would be formed in a hollow square to hear read the Declaration issued by the Congress. ”

“ Mistress Dean explained, and then the soldiers whose camps were near at hand marched forward as those from the Broad Way came on the parade ground.
With wondrous exactness the square was formed around the group of officers on horseback, and one of the general's aids began to read in a clear, ringing voice that declaration which was to arouse the world.
"When, in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another———"
Dorothy and Sarah could hear distinctly the words ”

“ On it the girls read, without being able fully to understand the meaning:
"A Tory [2] is a thing whose head is in England, its body in America, and whose neck ought to be stretched."
"Resistance to Tyrants," "All men are created equal," "George III. is unfit to be the ruler of a free people," were among the inscriptions painted on the streamers or banners carried by the marching men, and although there were many of the spectators who frowned at the sentiments displayed, never one dared to open his mouth in protest, lest he be roughly handled by those who claimed to be Whigs. ”