Paul Revere's Ride: The Landlord's Tale

For Paul Revere's Ride: The Landlord's Tale by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Charles Santore assumes the perspective of the narrator's ""friend."" For ""Listen, my children, and you shall hear/ Of the midnight ride of Paul Revere,"" an elderly, dapper gentleman leans forward in front of a fire that casts a mysterious light across his face; a view from the foot of the ladder into the tower of the Old North Church depicts the man's climb with two as-yet-unlit lanterns; and time seems to stop as Revere and his horse await the signal from across the Charles River.