Shut your eyes again, and see the picture as it stands there in the waning light of the ninth of July, 1776.
Four years ago, over the ocean, borne by loyal subjects to a loyal colony, it came, this statue, that you shall see. It is a noble horse, though made of lead, that stands there, poised on its hinder legs, its neck in air. King George sits erect, the crown of Great Britain on his head, a sword in his left hand, his right grasping the bridle-lines, and over all, a sheen of gold, for horse and king were gilded.
King George faces the bay, and looks vainly down. All his brave ships and eight thousand Red Coats, yesterday landed on yonder island, cannot save him now. Had he listened to the petitions of his children it might have been, but he would not hear their just plaints, and now his statue, standing so firm against storm, wind and time, trembles before the sea of wrath surging at its base.
“Come down, come down, you young rascal!” cries a strong voice to Blue-Eyed Boy, but his hands grasped at either ear of the horse, and he clings with all his strength to resist the pull of a dozen hands at his feet.
“Come down, you rogue, or we’ll topple you over with his majesty, King George,” greets the lad’s ears, and opens them to his situation.
“King George!” cried Blue-Eyed Boy with a sudden sense of his ridiculous fear and panic, and he yields to the stronger influence exerted on his right leg, and so comes to earth with emotions of relief and mortification curiously mingled in his young mind.
To think that he had had the vanity to imagine the crowd pursued him, and so has flown from his own friends to the statue of King George for safety!
“I won’t tell,” thinks the lad, “a word about this to anyone at home,” and then he falls to pushing the men who are pushing the statue, and over it topples, horse and rider, down upon 133 the sod of the little United States, just five days old.
How they hew it! How they hack it! How they saw at it with saw and penknife! Blue-Eyed Boy himself cuts off the king’s ear, that will not hear the petitions of people or Congress, proudly pockets it, and walks off, thankful because he carries his own on his head.