Lives of the Presidents Told in Words of One SyllableRemy, Jean S.
History
Lives of the Presidents Told in Words of One Syllable
Remy, Jean S.
Presidents -- United States -- Biography
The lit-tle boy who be-came our sixth Pres-i-dent led a life not at all
like that of an-y oth-er of the boys of whom you have read. His fa-ther
was John Ad-ams, our sec-ond Pres-i-dent, and when, on Ju-ly 11th, 1767,
lit-tle John Quin-cy Ad-ams was born in the old home at Brain-tree,
Mass., his great fa-ther was al-read-y speak-ing brave-ly for his
coun-try's rights in the cit-y of Bos-ton. In 1772 the fam-i-ly moved
to Bos-ton, and lit-tle John, for two years, saw, as the oth-er boys
did, the Brit-ish sol-diers in their bright red coats on pa-rade in the
Bos-ton streets, and heard on all sides talk of war with Eng-land. He
saw a lit-tle of real war, too; for when he was eight years old, his
moth-er took him on top of a high hill, called Be-mis Hill, from which
he saw the smoke and heard the roar of can-non in that aw-ful bat-tle of
Bunk-er Hill. When, in 1776, the Brit-ish left Bos-ton, this lit-tle lad
of nine years used to oft-en ride on horse-back in and out of the city
to bring home the lat-est news. This was a ride of twen-ty-two miles
from the old home at Brain-tree, where Mrs. Ad-ams had gone when her
hus-band went to Con-gress, and I think it took a pret-ty brave and
strong boy to ride all those long miles a-lone.
When John Ad-ams went to France to try and get her aid for A-mer-i-ca,
he took with him his lit-tle boy, then ten years old. It was a rough,
hard trip; for, not on-ly were there fierce winds which lashed the waves
in-to fu-ry, but they were chased by Brit-ish ships, for Eng-land did
not want John Ad-ams to get this help from France. But they reached
Par-is in safe-ty, and lit-tle John was at once put in a French school.
He on-ly stayed for a-bout a year and went back home with his fa-ther
in the spring. Now for three months he was with his moth-er, and then
in No-vem-ber he and some oth-er boys who were placed in his fa-ther's
care, all start-ed for France, where they were to be put in a good
school.
This trip was hard-er than the oth-er one, for the big ship,
"Sen-si-ble," sprang a leak, and af-ter some days of great per-il, they
were glad to go to the near-est land, which was Spain; and now there
was a long, hard trip by land be-fore France could be reached. They had
sailed on Nov. 13th, 1779, and it was not un-til Feb. 5th, 1780, that
the lit-tle par-ty reached Par-is.
For two years now our lit-tle lad was hard at work with his books in
Par-is; then his fa-ther was sent to the Neth-er-lands as A-mer-i-can
Min-is-ter, and he took his lit-tle son there and placed him in a school
in Am-ster-dam; from here he went to the U-ni-ver-si-ty at Ley-den,
where he stayed un-til Ju-ly, 1781.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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