mb under his chin,
and, through his spectacles, appeared to be attentively reading a
manuscript.

"Here we see the most illustrious Boston boy that ever lived," said
Grandfather. "This is Benjamin Franklin! But I will not try to compress,
into a few sentences, the character of the sage, who, as a Frenchman
expressed it, snatched the lightning from the sky, and the sceptre from a
tyrant. Mr. Sparks must help you to the knowledge of Franklin."

The book likewise contained portraits of James Otis and Josiah Quincy.
Both of them, Grandfather observed, were men of wonderful talents and true
patriotism. Their voices were like the stirring tones of a trumpet,
arousing the country to defend its freedom. Heaven seemed to have provided
a greater number of eloquent men than had appeared at any other period, in
order that the people might be fully instructed as to their wrongs, and
the method of resistance.

"It is marvellous," said Grandfather, "to see how many powerful writers,
orators, and soldiers started up, just at the time when they were wanted.
There was a man for every kind of work. It is equally wonderful, that men
of such different characters were all made to unite in the one object of
establishing the freedom and independence of America. There was an
overruling Providence above them."

"Here was another great man," remarked Laurence, pointing to the portrait
of John Adams.

"Yes; an earnest, warm-tempered, honest, and most able man," said
Grandfather. "At the period of which we are now speaking, he was a lawyer
in Boston. He was destined, in after years, to be ruler over the whole
American people, whom he contributed so much to form into a nation."

Grandfather here remarked, that many a New Englander, who had passed his
boyhood and youth in obscurity, afterward attained to a fortune, which he
never could have foreseen, even in his most ambitious dreams. John Adams,
the second president of the United States, and the equal of crowned kings,
was once a schoolmaster and country lawyer. Hancock, the first signer of
the Declaration of Independence, served his apprenticeship with a
merchant. Samuel Adams, afterward governor of Massachusetts, was a small
tradesman and a tax-gatherer. General Warren was a physician, General
Lincoln a farmer, and General Knox a bookbinder. General Nathaniel Greene,
the best soldier, except Washington, in the revolutionary army, was a
Quaker and a blacksmith. All these became illustrious me