so small that a lady's thimble will contain twelve thousand of them. Between Waltham and Boston is Cambridge, where is located the oldest of our country's colleges. It was established only six years after Boston was settled. Two years later a young clergyman, John Harvard, died, and left his books and half his estate to the college. Forthwith it was called by his name. One wooden building was all the college had at first. In this was a bare hall furnished with plain substantial tables, a small room containing John Harvard's books, and a few chambers and studies. Even this building was thought by some people to be "too gorgeous for a wilderness." The first class to graduate numbered nine. Many gifts were received to aid the college, some of money, some of books, some of silver or pewter articles. Live sheep were sent for the students' food, and homespun cloth for their clothing. One gift was a printing press, which was sent across the ocean from Amsterdam in 1639, and was the first in America. The earliest book to be printed on it was the "Bay Psalm Book." The few copies of this which have survived are so precious that collectors are glad to pay its weight in gold for one. The university now has nearly one thousand instructors and about six thousand students, and a library that numbers over one million volumes. In a prominent place on the grounds is a statue of John Harvard seated in a chair on a broad pedestal of stone. Many pranks have been played by the students with this statue, a favorite one being to crown the figure with a pan. It was at Cambridge on the third of July, 1775, that Washington, after an eleven days' journey on horseback from Philadelphia, took command of the American army. He was then forty-three years old. The troops were drawn up on parade, and a multitude of men, women, and children assembled to look on, many of whom came a long distance in all sorts and conditions of vehicles. At nine o'clock in the morning Washington and his officers mounted their horses and rode to the common. The day was warm, and they sought shelter in the shade of a near-by elm, where he wheeled his horse and drew his sword as commanderin-chief of the forces of the United Colonies. The tree still stands, though much decayed and shattered. Washington had his headquarters at Cambridge in a large, dignified mansion, which later became the home of the poet Longfellow. A neighboring colonial Longfellow's house, Cambridge, which during the siege of Boston was Washington's headquarters dwelling not far away was the birthplace and lifelong home of James Russell Lowell. One other Cambridge-born notable was Richard Henry Dana, who, when a youth of nineteen, in 1834, undertook a voyage to the Pacific as a common sailor, a record of which is given in his sea classic, "Two Years Before the Mast." In later life he became an eminent lawyer. A long-time resident of the adjacent town of Arling ton was J. T. Trowbridge, one of the most popular and wholesome of authors of boys' books. Farther on is Lexington, famous in connection with Paul Revere's ride and the beginning of the Revolution. One of the Lexington stone walls, such as served to shelter the farmers firing at the retreating British The little green where the first blood was shed at dawn of April 19, 1775, continues unaltered in size, and from it can be seen several dwellings that were there in colonial days. One of these dwellings is the Harrington house, to the front door of which Jonathan Harrington, sorely wounded, dragged himself after the fight, and died on the threshold in the arms of his wife. At Concord, a few miles beyond, provisions and munitions of war were stored in every farmer's barn, the town house, the tavern shed, and the miller's loft. But, before the British arrived, there was time to secrete most of the military stores. In the middle of the morning occurred the fight at the North Bridge, and the British retreat began. The redcoats were fired on from the shelter of buildings, trees, and stone walls, all along the way until evening, when they reached Charlestown and were protected by the guns of their fleet. In its associations with great writers Concord is the most famous town in the United States. Not far from the historic North Bridge is "The Old Manse," which, at the time of the Revolution, was the dwelling of Ralph Waldo Emerson's grandfather, the Concord minister. Emerson himself became a resident of Concord's |