=Discussion.= 1. Describe the scene before the custom-house on the evening of March 3, 1770. 2. What do you think of the conduct of the young men of Boston? 3. How did it happen that the crowd gathered so quickly? 4. What is your opinion of Captain Preston as compared with Henry Knox? 5. Why was the situation called a crisis? 6. How could it have been avoided? 7. What was the effect of the fateful order? 8. Do you admire Governor Hutchinson’s stand? 9. What happened to Captain Preston and his soldiers? 10. What defense did Captain Preston probably make? 11. Do you sympathize with Laurence in his feeling about the Revolution? 12. In what respects do you think the dreams of the two boys expressed their natures? 13. Read the paragraphs that seem to you most thrilling and dramatic. 14. Select sentences that you think show Hawthorne’s skill at descriptive writing. 15. Pronounce the following: hearth; incivility; peremptory; villains. =Phrases= awoke the echoes, 364, 12 lingering on the cupola, 364, 13 lobster-backs, 364, 28 rebel rascals, 364, 31 peremptory tones, 365, 24 accountable to, 365, 27 fatal mandate, 367, 12 loath to reveal, 367, 18 unworldly infant, 367, 27 strict justice, 368, 14 majestic movement, 368, 22 mobs and broils, 368, 23 necessity was upon them, 368, 30 sole remaining witness, 369, 14 SOME FAMOUS PORTRAITS The next evening the astral lamp was lighted earlier than usual, because Laurence was very much engaged in looking over the collection of portraits which had been his New Year’s gift from Grandfather. Among them he found the features of more than one famous personage who had been connected with the adventures of our old chair. Grandfather bade him draw the table nearer to the fireside, and they looked over the portraits together, while Clara and Charley likewise lent their attention. As for little Alice, she sat in Grandfather’s lap, and seemed to see the very men alive whose faces were there represented. Turning over the volume, Laurence came to the portrait of a stern, grim-looking man in plain attire, of much more modern fashion than that of the old Puritans. But the face might well have befitted one of those iron-hearted men. Beneath the portrait was the name of Samuel Adams.