Joanna’s Reviews > Grandfather's Chair: A History for Youth > Status Update

"And at this very time a venerable friend and contemporary of your Grandfather, after long pilgrimages beyond the sea, has set up his staff of rest at Washington’s headquarters.”
“You mean Professor Longfellow, Grandfather,” said Laurence. “Oh, how I should love to see the author of those beautiful Voices of the Night!”

“How odd it is,” observed Clara, “that the liberties of America should have had anything to do with a cup of tea!”

"He was a poor man, and earned his bread by a humble occupation; but with his tongue and pen he made the King of England tremble on his throne."

"It was not for threepence, nor for any amount of money, that America quarrelled with England,” replied Grandfather; “it was for a great principle."

"The happiness of former days was a possession forever. And there was something in the mingled sorrow of his lifetime that became akin to happiness, after being long treasured in the depths of his heart. There it underwent a change, and grew more precious than pure gold."

"And now Grandfather perceived that little Alice had fallen fast asleep, with her head upon his footstool. Indeed, as Clara observed, she had been sleeping from the time of Sir Hovenden Walker’s expedition against Quebec until the death of Governor Burnet,—a period of about eighteen years."

"In this chair, from one year’s end to another, sat that prodigious bookworm, Cotton Mather, sometimes devouring a great book, and sometimes scribbling one as big."