PUNISHMENT FOR THE "BOSTON TEA PARTY." THE PROVINCIAL CONGRESS AND THE "MINUTE-MEN." PAUL REVERE AND OTHER PATRIOTIC YOUNG MEN SPY OUT THE BRITISH PLANS. PAUL REVERE STARTS ON HIS "MIDNIGHT RIDE." HE SPREADS THE ALARM. SIGNS OF THE THREATENING STORM. THE FIGHT AT LEXINGTON. PAUL REVERE ACTS AS GUIDE TO ADAMS AND HANCOCK. THE BRITISH AT CONCORD; THE FIGHT AT THE NORTH BRIDGE. THE BRITISH RETREAT FROM CONCORD TO LEXINGTON. LORD PERCY'S TIMELY ARRIVAL. THE BRITISH DRIVEN BACK TO BOSTON. PAUL REVERE AFTER THE REVOLUTION. TO THE PUPIL 1. What were Gage's secret plans, and how did Paul Revere and his band of patriots try to thwart them? 2. Draw a map, locating Boston, Medford, Lexington, and Concord. 3. Impersonating Paul Revere, write an account of the famous "midnight ride." 4. Imagine yourself as a boy living in Concord at the time of the battle, and tell your experiences. 5. Describe the retreat of the British. 6. When did this battle take place? CHAPTER XV Benjamin Franklin and Aid from France [1706-1790] [Illustration: Benjamin Franklin.] American independence, the beginnings of which we have just been considering, was accomplished after a long struggle. Many brave men fought on the battle-field, and many who never shouldered a musket or drew a sword exerted a powerful influence for the good of the patriot cause. One of these men was Benjamin Franklin. He was born in Boston in 1706, the fifteenth child in a family of seventeen children. His father was a candle-maker and soap-boiler. Intending to make a clergyman of Benjamin, he sent him, at eight years of age, to a grammar-school, with the purpose of fitting him for college. The boy made rapid progress, but before the end of his first school-year his father took him out on account of the expense, and put him into a school where he would learn more practical subjects, such as writing and arithmetic. The last study proved very difficult for him. Two years later, at the age of ten, he had to go into his father's shop. Here he spent his time in cutting wicks for the candles, filling the moulds with tallow, selling soap in the shop, and acting the part of errand-boy. Many times he had watched the vessels sailing in and out of Boston Harbor, and often in imagination had gone with them on their journeys. Now he longed to become a sailor, and, quitting the drudgery of the candle-shop, to roam out over the sea in search of more interesting life. But his father wisely refused to let him go. His fondness for the sea, however, took him frequently to the water, and he learned to swim like a fish and to row and sail boats with great skill. In these sports, as in others, he became a leader among his playmates.