42 OCEAN TO OCEAN ON HORSEBACK. 



fiiFed stranger had but one idea — to catch his fellow- 

 pedestrian by the coat-tails, if need be, and demand to 

 be set on his homeward way. Finally, by making a 

 frantic forward lurch, he succeeded — and discovered 

 that the coat-tails he was grasping were his own ! 



The true Bostonian is secretly rather proud, how- 

 ever, of this distinguished trait of his beloved city, and 

 is willing to go "all around Robin Hood's barn" to 

 get to his destination. 



But the thing of which the Bostonian is proudest of 

 all is his famous Common, whose green turf and noble 

 sh&de-trees have formed a stao;e and backo-round for so 

 many of the most exciting scenes of Colonial and 

 Revolutionary history. Among the troops which have 

 been mustered and drilled upon it were a portion of the 

 forces whicli captured Quebec and Louisburg; and the 

 rehearsals for the grim drama of war, which later was 

 partly performed on the same ground by red-coat and 

 continental, took place here. It was at the Common's 

 foot that the hated "lobster-backs" assembled before em- 

 barking for Lexington; on the Common that they 

 marshalled their forces for the conflict at Bunker Hill. 

 It has been covered with white tents during the British 

 occupation of Boston ; dotted with earthworks behind 

 which the enemy crouched, expecting an attack by 

 Washington upon their stronghold. It was on Boston 

 Common that the school-boys constructed their snow- 

 men, whose destruction by the insolent red-coats sent 

 an indignant deputation of young Bostonians to com- 

 plain to General Gage, who, stunned by what the 

 young Bostonian of to-day would designate as " the 

 eheek of the thing," promised them redress, and 



