r the defence of her dearest
rights. America seemed safe, under his protection. His face was grander
than any sculptor had ever wrought in marble; none could behold him
without awe and reverence. Never before had the lion's head, at the summit
of the chair, looked down upon such a face and form as Washington's!"

"Why! Grandfather," cried Clara, clasping her hands in amazement, "was it
really so? Did General Washington sit in our great chair?"

"I knew how it would be," said Laurence; "I foresaw it, the moment
Grandfather began to speak."

Grandfather smiled. But, turning from the personal and domestic life of
the illustrious leader, he spoke of the methods which Washington adopted
to win back the metropolis of New England from the British.

The army, when he took command of it, was without any discipline or order.
The privates considered themselves as good as their officers, and seldom
thought it necessary to obey their commands, unless they understood the
why and wherefore. Moreover, they were enlisted for so short a period,
that, as soon as they began to be respectable soldiers, it was time to
discharge them. Then came new recruits, who had to be taught their duty,
before they could be of any service. Such was the army, with which
Washington had to contend against more than twenty veteran British
regiments.

Some of the men had no muskets, and almost all were without bayonets.
Heavy cannon, for battering the British fortifications, were much wanted.
There was but a small quantity of powder and ball, few tools to build
entrenchments with, and a great deficiency of provisions and clothes for
the soldiers. Yet, in spite of these perplexing difficulties, the eyes of
the whole people were fixed on General Washington, expecting him to
undertake some great enterprise against the hostile army.

The first thing that he found necessary, was to bring his own men into
better order and discipline. It is wonderful how soon he transformed this
rough mob of country people into the semblance of a regular army. One of
Washington's most invaluable characteristics, was the faculty of bringing
order out of confusion. All business, with which he had any concern,
seemed to regulate itself, as if by magic. The influence of his mind was
like light, gleaming through an unshaped world. It was this faculty, more
than any other, that made him so fit to ride upon the storm of the
Revolution, when every thing was unfixed, and drifting about i