92 LITERARY PILGRIMAGES 



The British never would have got by this. For- 

 tunately it is easy to believe that the Minute Man 

 has never seen the barricade or the signs. In 

 him at least Concord, the Concord of the Revolu- 

 tion, holding in its calm heart sons born of the 

 soil and sturdy with its grit, is personified for all 

 men for all time. To turn one's back upon the 

 fence as he does and look across the grassy 

 Musketaquid vigilantly at those swaying lines 

 of British bayonets is to dwell for a little in the 

 Concord which, with a streak of yellow flame and 

 a whizzing bullet, first leapt skyrocket-like into 

 the world's eye. Many things have made the 

 beautiful village a Mecca whither journey pil- 

 grims from all over the world. All come eager 

 to look upon the spot where the farmers marched 

 deliberately upon the king's troops and dared 

 fling back into their faces the red gauntlet of 

 murder. It is not to be believed" that curiosity 

 merely is the spirit which informs these pilgrims. 

 One can but feel that they come to the bridge in 

 reverence for the principles involved in the fray, 

 and in looking upon the very spot hope to learn 

 what went into the making of the men who so 



