breaks out like water pent up that has found a new channel to gurgle in. Shall I climb this beech-tree for a stick? I would in a minute if it were only in the country. That's another objection to a city life. Nobody is surprised in the country to see a man up a tree. But in a city, a gentlemanly person making his way up into a tree. would have a motley crowd around him in a jiffy! (Now you, boys and girls, who have learnt your "time measure," can you inform the world of the exact duration of a "jiffy"?) And no wonder, come to think of it. The art of climbing is one of adroitness rather than of gracefulness. First, a jump and a good hug with the arms. Then, drawing up the legs, the knees clasp each side of the tree, the feet touching each other at a point that would be intersected by a line drawn through the spine and extended. You resemble a frog drawn up for a spring, and set up endways. Next, you straighten up and raise your arms a ring higher. Then, holding fast by them like an earth-worm, you bring on the other half. After two or three jerks you will begin to put one leg around the tree, so that the calf shall clasp one side and the shin scrape itself on the other. And as you go up, so do the legs of your pantaloons,1 which, at ten feet above the ground, are corrugated 2 around your knees in a manner that will give your shin and the bark of the tree a fair chance to see which is the toughest. And about this time it is a curious fact that most climbers begin to quirl their tongue out of the corners of their mouths, as if that were a great help to them. Now, I decline doing all this in a city, with policemen musing whether I am to be arrested for insanity, 8 and my neighbours laughing, and boys cheering me, and cabmen chaffing me-not even for a forked stick to secure my daisy will I so expose myself. Cities are hateful. Everybody must do what everybody else does. Ah, sweet herald of spring! There you nestle in the grass, unconscious of all the disturbance in my breast. But what shall I do? To be defeated now would be ignominious indeed! Why not climb over? What if I should slip and get caught on the top of these iron spikes? A dainty spectacle! If only halfway over, I should be no better off than on this side, and certainly no better on. 5 Must I relinquish it, then? What! baffled by a daisy? I must either gain the daisy, or lose my selfrespect. Have it I must! . 1 Pantaloons, trousers. 2 Corrugated, in wrinkles or folds. Have it I did. Adapted. 4 Ignominious, shameful; disgraceful. 5 Baffled, beaten; defeated. OUTBREAK OF THE AMERICAN WAR OF INDEPENDENCE. TEAR the beginning of the reign of George III.1 an NEA attempt was made to tax the American colonies, thirteen of which had by that time been established along the coast of the Atlantic between Canada and Florida. The Americans resolved not to pay any tax levied by the British Parliament, as they were not represented in that assembly. Their determination was so unanimous that the Government thought it prudent to repeal all the taxes except one on tea, which was retained by way of asserting the right of the British Legislature to tax the colonies. The tax was of trifling amount, but it was as stoutly resisted as ever; for the acute Americans saw at once that the amount of the tax did not affect the principle at stake.2 Accordingly, when ships laden with tea reached America, they were received in a manner that plainly declared that not a leaf of taxed tea would be drunk in America. At New York and Philadelphia the ships were not permitted to unload. At Charlestown the cargoes were landed, and stowed away in damp, musty cellars. The head of the revolt, however, was at Boston. This old Puritan town set itself in an attitude of defiance. A strong guard of armed citizens paraded the wharf day and night with the intention of preventing a single leaf of tea from being landed. The captains were ordered to take their taxed tea back to England again, but they refused. At length the Bostonians could not endure the sight of these hated vessels any longer in their harbour. Under cover of the darkness of a December evening, a number of armed men disguised as savage Mohawks boarded the ships, hoisted out 340 chests, knocked out their ends, and discharged their contents into the sea. These "sons of liberty" then returned quietly and grimly to their homes, for well they knew that they would soon have barrels of gunpowder instead of chests of tea, and that they would be called upon to give account for their deeds that day upon the battlefield. 4 When the tea was tossed into the sea at Boston, the gauntlet was thrown down challenging the British Government to do their worst. The British lion now began to roar, and measures were taken for punishing the refractory citizens of Boston. But all the colonies 5 except Georgia banded themselves together to resist the British Government in any attempt to take vengeance for the violent proceedings of the men of Boston. Twelve colonies sent delegates to a general Congress held at Philadelphia in 1774. They drew up a celebrated address to the Government at home called the Declaration of Rights, stating their grievances as colonists and their rights as Englishmen. They also resolved to suspend all trade with the mother country till the justice of their demands was acknowledged. The address issued by the Congress was unfavourably received in Parliament, although supported by three of the leading statesmen and greatest orators of the day, namely, Chatham, Burke, and Fox. Lord Chatham, as William Pitt was now called, told the House of Lords, "that it was folly to force the taxes in the face of a continent in arms," remarking in a very significant tone, that if three millions of English colonists dared not defend their freedom, the world would conclude that England itself might be attacked with impunity." He rightly considered that the contest would be between English soldiers, sent from our shores in mere ship-loads, and a host of men of the same race fighting round their homes for their own beloved liberty. Edmund Burke also bade the Commons beware lest they severed those ties of brotherhood, "which, light as air though strong as iron, bound the colonies to the mother-land." But all these warnings were unheeded. The fight of words over this right of taxation was now ended, and the sword was about to decide where the tongue had failed to convince. Blood first flowed at Lexington, near Concord. The British soldiers having fought their way into Concord destroyed many barrels of flour, sowed the bed of the river with bullets, and spiked two cannons. Having thus rendered useless the stores which the Americans had been collecting for their army, the soldiers prepared to return to Boston. The way back led through forests, and concealed therein were men long accustomed to the hunter's rifle. The ranks of the unfortunate soldiers were thinned continually, as they hastened back, leaving behind them a long trail of the dead and dying. Thus the sword was drawn and the scabbard thrown away, and the American War of Independence begun. A second Congress now assembled at Philadelphia. There thirteen states formed themselves into a union, and took measures for raising an army. They wisely appointed George Washington as the Commander-inchief. He had already shown his talent for war by his conduct in the English army, when fighting with the French in America. To his prudence, perseverance, ability, and disinterested conduct, the Americans are chiefly indebted for the success which finally crowned their arms. He belongs to the world's true heroes, to the small number of the great and noble. His name is of course revered in America, but it is now hardly less respected in England. Before Washington took the chief command, the British had won a dear-bought victory at Bunker's Hill, near Boston. The loss of the victor was about double that of the vanquished. Before the close of the year 1775 the colonists made one last attempt to obtain their rights by peaceful means. They dispatched to the Government their celebrated petition known as "The Olive Branch." But no dove of peace brought an olive leaf back The Americans now resolved to separate from the |