hood of his home to listen to the sounds of conflict
upon Bunker's Hill, and to watch the flaming ruin of Charlestown.
Profound was the impression made upon him by the spectacle, and it was
intensified by many an hour spent afterward upon the same spot during
the siege and bombardment of Boston. Then John Adams went as a
delegate to the Continental Congress at Philadelphia, and his wife and
children were left for twelve months, as John Quincy Adams says,--it
is to be hoped with a little exaggeration of the barbarity of (p. 003)
British troops toward women and babes,--"liable every hour of the day
and of the night to be butchered in cold blood, or taken and carried
into Boston as hostages, by any foraging or marauding detachment."
Later, when the British had evacuated Boston, the boy, barely nine
years old, became "post-rider" between the city and the farm, a
distance of eleven miles each way, in order to bring all the latest
news to his mother.

Not much regular schooling was to be got amid such surroundings of
times and events, but the lad had a natural aptitude or affinity for
knowledge which stood him in better stead than could any dame of a
village school. The following letter to his father is worth
preserving:--

BRAINTREE, _June the 2d, 1777_.

DEAR SIR,--I love to receive letters very well, much better than
I love to write them. I make but a poor figure at composition, my
head is much too fickle, my thoughts are running after birds'
eggs, play and trifles till I get vexed with myself. I have but
just entered the 3d volume of Smollett, tho' I had designed to
have got it half through by this time. I have determined this
week to be more diligent, as Mr. Thaxter will be absent at Court
and I Cannot pursue my other Studies. I have Set myself a Stent
and determine to read the 3d volume Half out. If I can but (p. 004)
keep my resolution I will write again at the end of the week
and give a better account of myself. I wish, Sir, you would give
me some instructions with regard to my time, and advise me how to
proportion my Studies and my Play, in writing, and I will keep
them by me and endeavor to follow them. I am, dear Sir, with a
present determination of growing better. Yours.

P.S. Sir, if you will be so good as to favor me with a Blank
book, I will transcribe the most remarkable occurrenc