ing the general sent
Lord' Percy with nine hundred men to strengthen the troops that had gone
before. All that day the inhabitants of Boston heard various rumors.
Some said that the British were making great slaughter among our
countrymen. Others affirmed that every man had turned out with his
musket, and that not a single soldier would ever get back to Boston.

"It was after sunset," continued Grandfather, "when the troops, who
had marched forth so proudly, were seen entering Charlestown. They were
covered with dust, and so hot and weary that their tongues hung out
of their mouths. Many of them were faint with wounds. They had not all
returned. Nearly three hundred were strewn, dead or dying, along the
road from Concord. The yeomanry had risen upon the invaders and driven
them back."

"Was this the battle of Lexington?" asked Charley.

"Yes," replied Grandfather; "it was so called, because the British,
without provocation, had fired upon a party of minute-men, near
Lexington meeting-house, and killed eight of them. That fatal volley,
which was fired by order of Major Pitcairn, began the war of the
Revolution."

About this time, if Grandfather had been correctly informed, our chair
disappeared from the British Coffee House. The manner of its departure
cannot be satisfactorily ascertained. Perhaps the keeper of the Coffee
House turned it out of doors on account of its old-fashioned aspect.
Perhaps he sold it as a curiosity. Perhaps it was taken, without leave,
by some person who regarded it as public property because it had
once figured under Liberty Tree. Or perhaps the old chair, being of a
peaceable disposition, has made use of its four oaken legs and run away
from the seat of war.

"It would have made a terrible clattering over the pavement," said
Charley, laughing.

"Meanwhile," continued Grandfather, "during the mysterious
non-appearance of our chair, an army of twenty thousand men had started
up and come to the siege of Boston. General Gage and his troops were
cooped up within the narrow precincts of the peninsula. On the 17th of
June, 1775, the famous battle of Bunker Hill was fought. Here General
Warren fell. The British got the victory, indeed, but with the loss of
more than a thousand officers and men."

"Oh Grandfather," cried Charley, "you must tell us about that famous
battle."

"No, Charley," said Grandfather, "I am not like other historians.
Battles shall not hold a prominent place in the histo