playfellows to accompany them, they started, one bright morning, to
drive over by themselves. As they passed up Washington Street in the old
town, Reuben's eyes were looking for the Lee mansion, which he said was
now used for a bank, and which, with its furniture, cost its builder,
Colonel Lee, fifty thousand dollars. They found it, with its date of
1768 over the door, and soon were in the main hall, where was hanging
the same panel paper which was put on when the house was built. They
noticed the curious carving of the balusters, as well as of a front
room, which was wainscoted from floor to ceiling; they wished that it
had never been used for a bank, but that it was still the old mansion as
it used to be; for then they could see, among other things, the
paintings hanging on the walls, of Colonel Lee and his wife, which
Reuben said were eight feet long and five feet wide, and painted by a
man named Copley. His mother smiled when she heard him add, with all the
spirit of Young America: "And he painted them both for one hundred and
twenty-five dollars. Why, just my head alone cost my papa one hundred
dollars; and just think of those two big ones for only one hundred and
twenty-five dollars!"

As all three of the boys sat in the large recessed window-seat, Reuben
declared that he did not see how the window-panes could have been the
wonder of the town, for they were not near as large as his Uncle
Edward's, and nobody wondered at them!

They then imagined, walking in the same room where they then were,
General Washington, as he came there in 1789 to be entertained by the
Lees; and also Monroe, Jackson, and even Lafayette, who had been there,
too. When one of the boys asked if the street in which he lived, in
Salem, was named for that Lafayette, Mrs. Tracy noted the question as a
good sign.