Third Day.
The next day proved favorable for Nathan’s plans, which involved a visit to Bunker Hill monument and the navy yard.
“I had meant,” he said to the girls, “to begin by taking you out to Concord, that you might see the bridge over the Concord River, and the scene of what we call ‘Concord Fight.’ But, if the day prove hot, it would have been tiresome, as we have the monument to climb. For that expedition one needs half a day, or better, a day. You know you would want to see Mr. Emerson’s house and Mr. Hawthorne’s. We will try that next fall.”
They started later, therefore, than the Concord plan would have required. A transfer at Scollary Square, the very heart of active Boston, put them in a Charlestown car. In Scollary Square stands very properly a statue of Winthrop, the founder of Boston, and its first governor; as at the foot of the street stands Sam Adams.
Nathan explained to the girls, when they came to river and bridge, that at the time of Bunker Hill battle there was no bridge. The English army, when it attacked the hill, had to cross in boats, and he showed them on the east, the line the boats took, landing where the navy yard now is. The forces landed there and waited through a hot day before the attack. The battle was fought on a hot June afternoon.
After they came to Charlestown, a short walk brought them to the top of the hill, where a large green park takes in all the ground of the historic Redoubt. A bronze statue of Prescott seems to welcome the visitor.
By an ascent even longer than that they made at the State House, they climbed the monument, and earned their sight of the panorama from its top.
Mr. Dudley had given them a note to introduce them to the commander at the navy yard on their return. It proved that he was absent. But they needed no pass nor introduction. They were very courteously received; and, as there happened to be a ship fitting out with stores for the Mediterranean Station, Caroline had her chance to see “a three-masted ship” nearly ready for sea.
Another ship was in the “dry-dock” for some necessary repairs, and they walked about her with that strange feeling of being beneath the level of the sea, which they had seen above before they descended the stairway.