And in a little more than two years he was flying over to England for refuge and safety, and was no longer a king. Mr. Polk was still in the White House. It was an odd, low, two-story frame house where royalty had been thankful to teach such boys as Ben and Jim and Charles. There was a steep, sloping roof with wide eaves, a rather narrow doorway in the middle of the front, carved with very elaborate work, and an old knocker with a lion's head, small but fierce. The large room on one side had been the schoolroom, and the board floor was worn in two curious rows where the boys had shuffled their feet. The fireplace was what most people came to see. It was spacious and had a row of blue and white Antwerp tiles with pictures taken from the New Testament. They were smoked and faded now, but they still told their story. The mantelpiece and the doors were a mass of the most elaborate carving. There were still some old houses standing in New York that had been built with bricks brought from Holland. Charles was very much interested in these curiosities and had found one of the houses down in Pearl Street. Then they drove up through McGowan's Pass, where Washington had planned to make a decisive stand at the battle of Harlem Heights. There was the ledge of rock and the pretty lake that was to be Central Park some day. It was all wildness now. There was so much to see that Dr. Joe declared they had no more time to spend following Washington's retreat. "But it was just grand that he should come back here to be inaugurated the first President of the United States," said Charles. "I am proud of having had that in New York." "The city has a great many famous points," said Dr. Joe; "but we seem to have lost our enthusiasm over them. Beyond there," nodding his head over east, "is the Murray House that can tell its story. Handsome Mrs. Murray, and she was a Quaker, too, made herself so charming in her hospitality to the British generals that she detained them long enough for Silliman's brigade to retreat to Harlem. Washington was awaiting them at the Apthorpe House, and they had left that place not more than fifteen minutes when the British came flying in the hot haste of pursuit. So but for Mrs. Murray's smiles and friendliness they might have captured our Washington as well as the city." "That was splendid," declared Charles enthusiastically. "And maybe as a boy Lindley Murray might have thought up his grammar that he was to write later on to puzzle your brains," continued Dr. Joe. "Well, that is odd, too. I'll forgive him his grammar," said Ben, with a twinkle in his eye. "And if we don't go on we will have no time for Professor Audubon and the birds. But we could ramble about all day." "I didn't know there were so many interesting things in the city. They seem somehow a good ways off when you are studying them," replied Charles. He really wished Hanny was in the carriage. She was so eager about all these old stories.