he midst of ringing shouts of
"Down with him! Down with horse and king!" Blue-Eyed Boy gets over
King George and clings to the up-reared neck of the leaden horse;
thence he turns his wild-eyed face to the throng below. "Down with
him! He don't hear! He won't hear!" cry the populace.

"I do hear!" in wild afright, shrieks Blue-Eyed Boy, "and I'm not a
Tory."

Shut your eyes again, and see the picture as it stands there in the
waning light of the ninth of July, 1776.

Four years ago, over the ocean, borne by loyal subjects to a loyal
colony, it came, this statue, that you shall see. It is a noble horse,
though made of lead, that stands there, poised on its hinder legs, its
neck in air. King George sits erect, the crown of Great Britain on his
head, a sword in his left hand, his right grasping the bridle-lines,
and over all, a sheen of gold, for horse and king were gilded.

King George faces the bay, and looks vainly down. All his brave ships
and eight thousand Red Coats, yesterday landed on yonder island,
cannot save him now. Had he listened to the petitions of his children
it might have been, but he would not hear their just plaints, and now
his statue, standing so firm against storm, wind and time, trembles
before the sea of wrath surging at its base.

"Come down, come down, you young rascal!" cries a strong voice to
Blue-Eyed Boy, but his hands grasped at either ear of the horse, and
he clings with all his strength to resist the pull of a dozen hands at
his feet.

"Come down, you rogue, or we'll topple you over with his majesty, King
George," greets the lad's ears, and opens them to his situation.

"King George!" cried Blue-Eyed Boy with a sudden sense of his
ridiculous fear and panic, and he yields to the stronger influence
exerted on his right leg, and so comes to earth with emotions of
relief and mortification curiously mingled in his young mind.

To think that he had had the vanity to imagine the crowd pursued him,
and so has flown from his own friends to the statue of King George for
safety!

"I won't tell," thinks the lad, "a word about this to anyone at home,"
and then he falls to pushing the men who are pushing the statue, and
over it topples, horse and rider, down upon the sod of the little
United States, just five days old.

How they hew it! How they hack it! How they saw at it with saw and
penknife! Blue-Eyed Boy himself cuts off the king's ear, that will not
hear the petitions of people or Cong