Page:A new England boyhood by Hale, Edward Everett.djvu/40

4 every day. This prophecy was then considered extravagant. I have told the story, in the Introduction, of his coming to Boston for the first time, in 1805, when the Northampton passengers joined the Springfield passengers at Brookfield. There was room in the carriage for six only. He therefore gave up his seat to a lady who had pressing duties, and waited in Brookfield twenty-four hours to take his chances for the next stage.

The more important business streets of this town of Boston were paved in the middle with round stones from the neighboring beaches, then as now called cobble-stones—I do not know why; but an accomplished friend, who reads this in manuscript, says that the lapstone on which a cobbler stretches his leather is a cobble-stone. I recommend this etymology to Dr. Murray and Dr. Whitney. The use of bricks for sidewalks was just coming in, but generally the sidewalks were laid with flat slates or shales from the neighborhood, which were put down in any shape they happened to take in splitting, without being squared at the corners. Bromfield Street, Winter Street,