The clock of which Longfellow wrote stood on the stair-landing of the old Craigie House, Cambridge, Massachusetts, which he bought in 1843, after having occupied it a number of years. Here he wrote the majority of his poems. Here, one June day, Nathaniel Hawthorne dined with the poet. In the course of conversation, the author of "The House of Seven Gables" told Longfellow the heart-moving story of the Acadian maiden who was separated from her lover by the cruel mandate of the conquerors of Acadia, and here the poem was written that told the story. Here were spent days of gladness with friends who delighted to enter the hospitable door. Here the poet rejoiced in his home with the children of whom he wrote in "The Children's Hour": "Between the dark and the daylight, When the night is beginning to lower, Comes a pause in the day's occupations, That is known as the Children's Hour." And here, one sad day in July, 1861, Mrs. Longfellow was so severely burned that she died the next day. This great sorrow bore rich fruit for those who loved the poet. "Above the grave the strong man sowed his thoughts, and they ripened like the corn in autumn," one of his biographers has said. The house was named for Andrew Craigie, who became the owner of the property in 1793. He had given valuable service during the Revolutionary War, acting as an "apothecary-general" in the Continental Army. He was a man of wealth, and his home was the popular resort for people of note from all parts of the country. During his later years he lost all his money, and his widow was compelled to rent rooms to Harvard students. In this way Edward Everett became a resident of the house. The builder of the mansion was John Vassall. In 1760, when he occupied the house, it was surrounded by a park of one hundred and fifty acres. Soon after the beginning of the war he went to Boston, and later he removed to England, for his sympathies were with the Crown. Accordingly, in 1778, the property was declared forfeited to the State. But the estate really became public property three years before this, when a regiment, under the command of Colonel Glover, pitched its tents in the park. In July, 1775, Washington made the house his headquarters, remaining until April 4, 1776. During these months the house was a busy place. Officers gathered here both for business and for pleasure. Military conferences and court-martials were held in the large room in the second story which was later used by Longfellow as a study. Dinners and entertainments were frequent; these provided a needed safety valve during the weeks of anxious waiting near the British line. Mrs. Washington was a visitor here, thus giving to her husband the taste of home life which he was unwilling to take during the Revolution by making a visit to his estate at Mt. Vernon. On one of the early days of the Commander-in-Chief's occupancy of the house, he wrote this entry in his carefully-kept account book: