Germany, and France. There was no case of incendiarism or blowing up of munition plants traced to enemy aliens in the United States, although our newspapers reported such crimes every day. There were no such internal disorders as occurred in the United Kingdom, Australia, Italy, Germany, Austria, and Russia. There was no such complete alteration of administration in the United States as in every other belligerent. We had the fewest cabinet changes of any government during the war. We had no such revolution as Germany, AustriaHungary, and Russia. We had no attempted secessions, as in the United Kingdom, the Union of South Africa, Belgium, Russia, Austria, Germany, and Turkey.

No nation was ever before put to such a strain as ours in the Great War, for none ever contained so many representatives of the belligerent nationalities, yet none proved more stable and strong. Our national motto was not true when it was adopted, but it is now. At last the American people, regardless of racial diversity, can say with sincerity: United we stand.

JOSEPH BOND

By T. W. GOODSPEED

The branch of the Bond family from which Joseph Bond was descended had its home in Bury St. Edmunds, in Suffolk County, England, where King Canute built his great monastery, celebrated for its "magnificence and splendor." There lived Jonas Bond three hundred and more years ago. He had three grandsons who were brothers, all of whom migrated to the New World. These were Thomas, William, and John. The first of these settled in Maryland. William, an "educated merchant," made his home in Watertown, Massachusetts. John Bond, born in England in 1624, was first mentioned in the records of Newbury, Massachusetts, in 1642, so that he must have come to America in his early youth. The records of the town show that on August 5, 1649, he married Hester Blakely, and that among their children was John, born in 1650. After 1660 the family moved to Rowley, where a farm was bought, and they later settled in Haverhill, where the father died in 1675. The son John became a farmer in Beverly and with his younger brother Joseph was out fighting in King Philip's War in 1676. His son Edward was born in 1714. Hitherto the branch of the Bond family with which this narrative has to do had for a hundred years confined itself to the one county of Essex, the northeasternmost of the counties of Massachusetts. Edward Bond broke away from the home environment and migrated to the village of Leicester near the center of the state. A little after 1760 we find him keeping the public house in that place, and the total destruction of the house by fire in January, 1767, was an event of such general interest as to find a place in the records of the village. He was a selectman of the town. His son Benjamin, born in 1743, married Elizabeth Harrod, the daughter of an officer in the Revolution.

Among their sons was David, who was born in 1778. He devoted. himself as he grew up to farming in Brimfield, Hampden County, and in Hardwick, in the same county of Worcester which had been the home of his father and grandfather. His son Benjamin was born in Brimfield, June 6, 1814. He, after reaching manhood, became a farmer in the town of Ware in Hampshire County, not more than a dozen miles from his boyhood home in Hardwick. He bought his farm about 1833,

when he was nineteen years old, and made it his home for fifty-seven years. He died in 1894, at the age of eighty. He was twice married and had a family of six sons and two daughters. His second wife was Louisa Eaton, a lineal descendant of Francis Eaton, who came over in the "Mayflower" in 1620. Francis Eaton was one of the signers of the famous "agreement" entered into by the Pilgrim Fathers before they landed on Plymouth Rock. He signed for himself, his wife Sarah, and his son "Samuell." Governor Bradford records that the son was a "sucking child," from which one infers that Francis Eaton was probably one of the very youngest of that company of famous Fathers. His first wife died early and he married twice after her death, he himself passing away only thirteen years after the landing, but leaving four children. From one of them was descended Louisa Eaton, the mother of Joseph Bond, of whom this sketch is written.

He was the second son of his mother and the fifth of his father. The first Mrs. Bond had three sons, and the second had three sons and two daughters. Joseph Bond was born on the Ware farm, February 13, 1852. He felt himself peculiarly rich in brothers. One of his early teachers asked his class one day, "What do farmers raise ?" and Joseph, raising his hand, promptly answered, "Boys!" In the first group of boys were Nelson, Sylvester, and David; and in the second, Rufus, Joseph, and Henry.

The town of Ware is situated on the river Ware, halfway between Worcester on the east and Springfield on the southwest, about thirtyfive miles from each. It has grown to be an important manufacturing point and is the nearest place of any considerable size to the center of the state. It is on the elevated plateau east of the Berkshire Hills. This table-land has a mean altitude of 1,100 feet above the sea, though the village of Ware is 600 feet lower, an illustration of the diversities of level of that whole region-low-lying meadows along the rivers and smaller water courses, climbing, sometimes gradually, often abruptly, to lofty hills and uplands. It forms a bench between the lowlands toward the coast and the mountainous country bordering the Hudson River.

Thus, while this part of central Massachusetts is called a plateau and lacks in some measure the charm and variety of the Berkshires and the ruggedness and sublimity of the Taconic Mountains of western Massachusetts, it is a most delightful country of small rivers and brooks, hills, valleys, villages, farms, and forests. The farm of Benjamin Bond lay two miles north of the village of Ware on a high table-land, so elevated that it overlooked the surrounding country in all directions,

presenting views of diversified picturesqueness and beauty. It was a dairy farm of 150 acres. Over the hill was the schoolhouse where the Bond boys and girls began their education. The soil of the old Bay State was sandy or stony, but it was unsurpassed in richness for producing the men who have built into greatness the American Commonwealth. On the hill farm of Ware the six boys of farmer Bond grew into stalwart manhood. The father was a man of great common sense and of such practical wisdom that his counsel was often sought by his neighbors. He was physically strong, stalwart, active, and none of his six sons could ever beat him in a foot race until he had passed threescore years and ten. One of his sons says of him that he was a strong man intellectually and physically. His little finger was bigger than the thumb of any of his sons after they grew to manhood. He was a kind, thoughtful, and loving father, and his six sons all looked up to him and respected him, so that his word was always law to them. He was of a strong religious character and was a deacon in the Baptist church till the meeting-house was burned, when, the house not being rebuilt, he took his family to the Congregational church. He taught a Sunday-school class for many years. He maintained the custom of family worship. Deeply religious, he was the companion and leader of his sons. He never said "Go!" to them, but "Come!" He entered into their sports and games, ran races, and pitched quoits with them, and they were naturally devoted to him. He retained his activity and vigor down to old age.

The mother being of like spirit with the father, the large family was admirably brought up under strong, wise, affectionate, Christian discipline. The children were unusually fond of each other, and there were enough of them and things enough to do to make their youth exceedingly interesting. The labors of the farm with so many hands to help were not too burdensome. Their number made it possible for them to avail themselves of all the schooling the country schools afforded. They were fortunate in living in a region which was a wonderful boys' country. In summer and autumn the woods and streams invited them. In the winter there was coasting on the hills and skating on the river and ponds. There were manhood memories of a dog, the companion and playfellow of the boys and a continuous occasion of interest and amusement. Joseph used to tell with joyful remembrance of the day when he, with his brother Rufus, in the woods for a day's fun, treed a gray squirrel. Like true boys they determined to capture it alive and take it home and tame it. Joseph, ten years old, climbed the tree to

dislodge their prey, while Rufus, the next older than himself, remained below to capture him. Joseph followed him out on a limb and succeeded in shaking him off. As he came down, Rufus, careless of consequences, caught him with his bare hands as he "would a baseball." He was, of course, badly bitten, but held on, and the young hunters carried their captive home in triumph and made a pet of him. Brought up in the country on a farm, these brothers were not without the joy of life and the fun boys ought to have.

Mr. David Bond, the second older brother of Joseph, still lives in Ware. He has drawn for me so true a picture of life on a Massachusetts farm sixty years ago that I cannot forbear giving it to my readers.

Our lives were so closely linked together that I cannot take one out by itself. In our family were six boys and two girls, who were the youngest. My two older brothers were in the Civil War during those four years, and I was anxious to go but was too young. We first went to the district school. I remember it was sometimes difficult to reach the schoolhouse, as the hill down which we went across lots to the school would be covered with ice. We would have to sit down and make a hole in the ice with our heel and draw ourselves down to that and then make a hole with the other heel and draw ourselves down to that, and so on till we reached the foot of the hill. You could hardly call it rapid transit.

We did not have much time for play, for when we reached home there would be the chores to do. In winter there would be wood to chop, but in the evenings we would crack nuts, pop corn, play checkers, etc. In the summer after our work was done we would run and see who would get first to the swimming pool, half a mile away, or we would try high jumping, pitching quoits, the three-legged race, etc. We were strong, active boys, always ready for fun, and liked to play tricks on each other. We were so far from town we did not have other boys to play with, but depended on each other and were happy by ourselves.

[Here is another squirrel story.] We used to hunt grey squirrels and always had one in the house. One Sunday father had gone ahead in the carriage to church and we boys were to follow on foot. As we were walking along through the woods we saw a squirrel run into his hole in a tree. In those days we wore high-topped boots reaching half way up to the knee. One of us took off a boot and clapped it over the hole. Another climbed the tree to a hole higher up and with a long stick we gave him managed to drive the squirrel into the boot, which we then pinched together and we had him safely. By this time it was too late to go to church. [The father, on his return from church, was placated without serious consequences.]

At another time we had been reading about how Daniel Boone practiced snuffing a candle with a rifle ball so that he could hit a deer's eye in the night. In some way we got hold of an old pistol, and after father had gone to town in the evening on some errand we boys would go up to our bedroom, take the tallow candle that was in use those days, and, placing it on a chair at one side of the room, try with out pistol to snuff it out. The walls to this day bear the marks of the bullets.

About that time we four younger boys formed the B.A.C.-the Bond Agricultural Club. We adopted a constitution and by-laws, elected officers, and held regular