Fifty Famous People | Page 8

waited and watched.
The clock struck eleven. He was beginning to feel tired. Perhaps the soldiers had given up their plan.
He walked up and down the river bank, leading his horse behind him; but he kept his eyes turned always toward the dim, dark spot which he knew was the old North Church.
All at once a light flashed out from the tower. "Ah! there it is!" he cried. The soldiers had started.
He spoke to his horse. He put his foot in the stirrup. He was ready to mount.
Then another light flashed clear and bright by the side of the first one. The soldiers would cross the river.
Paul Revere sprang into the saddle. Like a bird let loose, his horse leaped forward. Away they went.
Away they went through the village street and out upon the country road. "Up! up!" shouted Paul Revere. "The soldiers are coming! Up! up! and defend yourselves!"
[Illustration]
The cry awoke the farmers; they sprang from their beds and looked out. They could not see the speeding horse, but they heard the clatter of its hoofs far down the road, and they understood the cry, "Up! up! and defend yourselves!"
"It is the alarm! The redcoats are coming," they said to each other. Then they took their guns, their axes, anything they could find, and hurried out.
So, through the night, Paul Revere rode toward Concord. At every farmhouse and every village he repeated his call.
The alarm quickly spread. Guns were fired. Bells were rung. The people for miles around were roused as though a fire were raging.
The king's soldiers were surprised to find everybody awake along the road. They were angry because their plans had been discovered.
When they reached Concord, they burned the courthouse there.
At Lexington, not far from Concord, there was a sharp fight in which several men were killed. This, in history, is called the Battle of Lexington. It was the beginning of the war called the Revolutionary War. But the king's soldiers did not find the gunpowder. They were glad enough to march back without it. All along the road the farmers were waiting for them. It seemed as if every man in the country was after them. And they did not feel themselves safe until they were once more in Boston.

THE BOY AND THE WOLF

In France there once lived a famous man who was known as the Marquis de Lafayette. [Footnote: Mar'quis de La fa yette'.] When he was a little boy his mother called him Gilbert.
Gilbert de Lafayette's father and grandfather and great-grandfather had all been brave and noble men. He was very proud to think of this, and he wished that he might grow up to be like them.
His home was in the country not far from a great forest. Often, when he was a little lad, he took long walks among the trees with his mother.
"Mother," he would say, "do not be afraid. I am with you, and I will not let anything hurt you."
One day word came that a savage wolf had been seen in the forest. Men said that it was a very large wolf and that it had killed some of the farmers' sheep.
"How I should like to meet that wolf," said little Gilbert.
He was only seven years old, but now all his thoughts were about the savage beast that was in the forest.
"Shall we take a walk this morning?" asked his mother.
"Oh, yes!" said Gilbert. "Perhaps we may see that wolf among the trees. But don't be afraid."
His mother smiled, for she felt quite sure that there was no danger.
They did not go far into the woods. The mother sat down in the shade of a tree and began to read in a new book which she had bought the day before. The boy played on the grass near by.
The sun was warm. The bees were buzzing among the flowers. The small birds were singing softly. Gilbert looked up from his play and saw that his mother was very deeply interested in her book.
"Now for the wolf!" he said to himself.
He walked quickly, but very quietly, down the pathway into the darker woods. He looked eagerly around, but saw only a squirrel frisking among the trees and a rabbit hopping across the road.
Soon he came to a wilder place. There the bushes were very close together and the pathway came to an end. He pushed the bushes aside and went a little farther. How still everything was!
He could see a green open space just beyond; and then the woods seemed to be thicker and darker. "This is just the place for that wolf," he thought.
Then, all at once, he heard footsteps. Something was pushing its way through the bushes. It was coming toward him.
"It's the wolf, I'm sure! It will not see me till it comes very near. Then I