that kept up all the day long.

[Illustration: View of Federal Hall and Part of Broad Street, 1796.]

Washington was escorted to the house that had been prepared for him, a
little way out of town at the top of a hill.

If in the days that you read this you walk along Pearl Street until you
come to the East River bridge at Franklin Square, a part of the city
crowded with tenements and factories, you will stand close by where the
house was. On the abutment of the bridge you will find a tablet that has
been riveted to the stone, so that all who pass may know that Washington
once lived there. The house was built by Walter Franklin, a rich
merchant, and was therefore called the Franklin House. The square,
however, does not take its name from this man, but from the renowned
Benjamin Franklin.

Very soon, on a bright, sunshiny day, Washington stood on the balcony of
Federal Hall, surrounded by the members of the Senate and the House of
Representatives, with the citizens thronging every inch of the nearby
streets. And there he took the oath of office, and having taken it the
cry was raised, "Long Live George Washington, First President of the
United States," a cry that was echoed from street to street, and went on
echoing out into the country beyond.

[Illustration: The John Street Theatre, 1781.]

The life of the First President was a simple and a busy one. He rose at
four o'clock each morning and went to bed at nine in the evening. Many
hours a day he worked at matters of state, receiving all who called, so