{"collection":"myth-cosmogony","full_text_available":true,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/gutenberg_47764/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/gutenberg_47764","id":"gutenberg_47764","license":"Public Domain (US)","rights_basis":"gutenberg_metadata_copyright_false","source":"gutenberg","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/47764","summary":null,"tags":["Biographical fiction","Category: Children & Young Adult Reading","Category: History - American","Category: Mythology, Legends & Folklore","Category: Short Stories","Children -- Conduct of life -- Juvenile fiction","Children's stories","Conduct of life -- Juvenile fiction","Courage -- Juvenile fiction","Indians of North America -- Juvenile fiction","Scotland -- Juvenile fiction"],"text":"[Illustration: Fort Ticonderoga, from Eastern Shore.]\n\n                   *       *       *       *       *\n\n\n\n\n                     _HISTORICAL SERIES--BOOK II_\n\n\n\n\n                                STORIES\n                            OF HEROIC DEEDS\n\n                          FOR BOYS AND GIRLS\n\n                                  BY\n\n                            JAMES JOHONNOT\n\n                            [Illustration]\n\n                    NEW YORK * CINCINNATI * CHICAGO\n                         AMERICAN BOOK COMPANY\n\n                   *       *       *       *       *\n\n\n\n\n                           COPYRIGHT, 1887,\n                      BY D. APPLETON AND COMPANY.\n                                 E-P 2\n\n\n\n\nPREFACE.\n\n\nIn preparing this little book, three things have been kept constantly\nin mind--the plan of the whole series, the thought and sentiment\nexpressed in each lesson, and the language used to express the thought.\n\nThe main feature of the plan is to furnish pupils interesting\nhistorical stories for the purpose of giving them a taste for the study\nof history, to enable them to distinguish between fact and fiction, and\nto stimulate them to high endeavor by noble example.\n\nIn selecting, preparing, and arranging the stories, care has been taken\nthat the thought is such as to be readily understood, and that on the\nwhole it tends to awaken the higher emotions. The moral lesson involved\nshould be absorbed rather than learned, and the teacher should beware\nof destroying the value of any lesson by dealing out moral pap.\n\nThe language is that of common life, such as the pupil hears every day\nfrom parent, friend, and teacher--such as the morning newspaper brings,\nand such as is necessary for him to master in its printed and written\nforms in the shortest possible time. When a word is unknown, the\nteacher should develop its meaning before permitting the lesson to go\non. The interest in the story will be a sufficient stimulus to secure\nthe best of attention, and the highest excellence in delivery.\n\nIn the use of language, it is far better that pupils should be obliged\nto stretch upward rather than be remanded to the nursery. Baby-talk\nshould no more be revived than long-clothes, and the time spent in\nwriting stories in words of one syllable might be used to a much better\npurpose.\n\nThe history of the Do-as-you-likes speaks for itself. It is a fancy\nstory rather than a myth, but it is one that children will like, long\nbefore they will understand its whole significance; and we much doubt\nwhether the Rev. Charles Kingsley ever produced a more valuable and\noriginal book than \"Water-Babies,\" from which this story is taken.\n\n\n\n\nCONTENTS.\n\n\n                                               PAGE\n\n                                MYTHS.\n\n        I. Latona and the Rustics                 7\n       II. The Music of Pan                       9\n      III. Baucis and Philemon                   10\n       IV. The Dragon's Teeth                    13\n        V. The Do-as-you-likes                   17\n\n\n                            INDIAN STORIES.\n\n       VI. Columbus and the Eclipse              25\n      VII. The Pequots                           27\n     VIII. Schenectady                           29\n       IX. The Story of Mrs. Dustin              31\n        X. Rogers's Slide                        34\n       XI. General Clinton's March               36\n      XII. Frances Slocum                        39\n     XIII. Obed's Pumpkins                       43\n\n\n                      STORIES OF THE REVOLUTION.\n\n      XIV. The Gasp\u00e9                             50\n       XV. Ethan Allen                           53\n      XVI. Joseph Reed                           54\n     XVII. General Prescott                      56\n    XVIII. Prescott and the Yankee Boy           58\n      XIX. Battle of the Kegs                    62\n       XX. The Daring of Paul Jones              66\n      XXI. Fort Moultrie                         71\n     XXII. Count Pulaski and his Banner          73\n    XXIII. Lydia Darrah                          77\n     XXIV. The Liberty-Bell                      80\n      XXV. The Tory's Horse                      83\n     XXVI. General Schuyler                      87\n    XXVII. Ode                                   92\n\n\n                           SCOTTISH STORIES.\n\n   XXVIII. Edinburgh Castle                      93\n     XXIX. Scottish Strategy                     96\n      XXX. Castle Dangerous                     100\n     XXXI. The Black Agnes                      103\n\n\n                        MISCELLANEOUS STORIES.\n\n    XXXII. A Little Maid                        108\n   XXXIII. Alexander Selkirk                    112\n    XXXIV. The Old-fashioned School             118\n     XXXV. Story of Franklin's Kite             123\n    XXXVI. The Case of John Hook                126\n   XXXVII. The First Steamboat in the West      128\n  XXXVIII. The Power of Kindness                134\n    XXXIX. Old Ironsides                        137\n       XL. Chicago                              142\n\n\n\n\nMYTHS.\n\n\n_I.--LATONA AND THE RUSTICS._\n\n1. Once on a time the goddess Latona wandered into the country with\nher infant twins in her arms. Weary with her burden and parched with\nthirst, she espied in the bottom of the valley a pond of clear water,\nwhere the country people were at work gathering willows and osiers. The\ngoddess approached, and, kneeling on the banks, would have slaked her\nthirst in the cool water but the rustics forbade her.\n\n2. \"Why do you refuse me water?\" said she; \"water is free to all.\nNature allows no one to claim as property the sunshine, the air, and\nthe water; I come to take my share of the common blessing. Yet I ask it\nof you as a favor. I only desire to quench my thirst. My mouth is so\ndry that I can hardly speak. A draught of water would revive me, and I\nwould own myself indebted to you for life itself. Let these infants\nmove your pity, who stretch out their little arms as if to plead for\nme.\"\n\n3. Who would not have been moved with the gentle words of the goddess?\nBut these clowns would not desist; they even added jeers and threats of\nviolence if she did not leave the place. Nor was this all; they waded\ninto the pond, and stirred up the mud with their feet, so as to make it\nunfit to drink.\n\n4. Latona was so angry that she lifted up her voice to Heaven and cried\nout, \"May they never quit that pool, but pass their lives there!\" And\nso it came to pass. They now live in the water, sometimes below and\nsometimes with their heads above the surface. Sometimes they come\nout on the bank, but soon leap again into the water. They still use\ntheir bass voices in railing, and, though they have the water all\nto themselves, they still croak about it. Their voices are harsh,\ntheir throats bloated, their mouths have stretched, their necks have\ndisappeared, and their heads are joined directly to their bodies. Their\nbacks are green, their huge bellies white, and they leap instead of\nwalking. Have you seen anything like them?\n\n\n_II.--THE MUSIC OF PAN._\n\n1. Pan, the earth-god, had great skill in music, and he performed upon\nhis pipes in a wonderful way. Everybody praised him, and he grew so\nvain that he thought no one could equal him, and he sent a challenge\nto Apollo, the god of the lyre, to a trial of skill. The challenge\nwas accepted, and Imolus, the mountain-god, was chosen umpire. Imolus\ncleared away the trees from his ears, to listen. At a given signal, Pan\nblew his pipes, and his rustic melody greatly pleased himself and his\nfollowers.\n\n2. Then Imolus turned his head toward the sun-god, and all the trees\nturned with him. Apollo rose: in his left hand he held the lyre, and\nwith his right hand struck the strings. The music was truly heavenly,\nand Imolus at once awarded the victory to the god of the lyre. All\nagreed with him except old King Midas, who happened to be present. He\nquestioned the decision of the umpire, and declared that Pan's music\nwas the best. Apollo would not permit such a depraved pair of ears any\nlonger to wear the human form, but caused them to grow out long, and to\nbecome hairy within and without, and movable at the roots. So the old\nking, as long as he lived, wore the ears of a donkey.\n\n\n_III.--BAUCIS AND PHILEMON._\n\n1. On a certain hill in Phrygia stand a linden-tree and an oak. Not\nfar from the spot are a marsh, and a lake which was once the site of a\nthriving village. Once on a time, Jupiter, in human shape, and Mercury,\nwithout his wings, paid a visit to this country, and, after a weary\nday's walk, they reached the village about nightfall. Here they applied\nfor shelter in vain. Everywhere they were driven away with insults, and\neven, in some places, the dogs were set upon them. At last they reached\nthe outskirts of the village, where stood a humble thatched cottage.\nHere Baucis, a pious old dame, and her husband Philemon, united when\nyoung, had grown old together.\n\n2. One need not look here for master or for servant; they two were the\nwhole household, master and servant alike. Here the two travelers found\nrest. As they crossed the humble threshold, and bowed their heads to\npass under the low door, the old man placed a seat, and Baucis set\nabout preparing them some food. She raked out the coals, kindled up the\nfire with dry sticks, and with her scanty breath blew it into a flame.\nHer husband gathered pot-herbs from the garden, and cut a slice of\nbacon from the flitch in the chimney, which Baucis quickly prepared for\nthe pot. She then filled a beechen bowl with clean water for her guests\nto wash, keeping up a pleasant talk all the time.\n\n3. On the bench where her guests were to sit she placed a cushion\nfilled with sea-weed, and then set out the table. This she rubbed down\nwith sweet-smelling herbs, and placed upon it some olives, radishes,\nand cheese, and eggs lightly cooked in the ashes. All was served in\ncoarse earthen dishes. When all was ready, the stew, smoking hot, was\nplaced upon the table. Some wine was added; and, for dessert, apples\nand wild-honey; and, over and above all, friendly faces and simple and\nhearty welcome.\n\n4. The guests sat down, and the old couple saw with astonishment that,\nas fast as it was poured out, the wine renewed itself, and they then\nknew that they were entertaining superior beings. They begged pardon\nfor the coarseness of their fare, but Jove raised them to their feet,\nthanked them for their kindness, and then said: \"We are gods. The\npeople of the village must pay the penalty for their indolence and\ncruelty. Come with us to the top of yonder hill.\" They hastened to\nobey, and, with staff in hand, labored up the steep ascent. At the top\nthey turned their eyes below, and they saw the whole village turned\ninto a lake, and their house the only one remaining.\n\n5. But, while they gazed with wonder at the sight, their old\ncottage changed into a temple. Lofty columns took the place of the\ncorner-posts, the thatch was changed to a gilded roof, the floors\nbecame marble, and the doors were hung with ornaments of gold. Then\nJupiter spoke and said: \"Excellent old people, what favors have you\nto ask of us?\" Then Baucis and Philemon took counsel together, and\nanswered, \"Let us finish our lives here, where we have lived so long,\nand we wish to pass from life together in the same hour.\"\n\n6. The prayer was granted. For many years they were the keepers of the\ntemple, and when they were very old, as they stood before the steps\nof the sacred edifice, they felt themselves stiffen so they could not\nstir. At the same moment a leafy crown grew over the heads of each,\nand they had scarcely time to say, \"Good-by, dear Philemon,\" \"Good-by,\ndear Baucis,\" when they were changed into two stately trees--he into a\nsturdy oak, and she into a graceful linden. There they stand, side by\nside, to the present day, and when the wind rises the peasant can hear\nthe rustle of the leaves as the branches caress each other, which seems\nto say, \"Dear Baucis!\" \"Dear Philemon!\"\n\n\n_IV.--THE DRAGON'S TEETH._\n\n1. For many years Cadmus traveled in search of his lost sister Europa,\nwho was carried off by Jupiter in the disguise of a white bull. As he\nwas unsuccessful, he dare not return to his own country, but consulted\nthe oracle to know where he should settle. He was told to follow a\ncow, and where she lay down he should found a city and call it Thebes.\nAs he came out of the cave where the oracle dwelt, he saw the cow and\nfollowed her. After several hours' weary tramp she lay down on a broad\nplain, and Cadmus saw that here he must build his city.\n\n2. He gave thanks, and, wishing to offer a sacrifice to Jupiter, he\nsent his servants to bring pure water for a libation from a grove near\nby. In the cave by the fountain lurked a horrid serpent with a crested\nhead, and scales glittering like gold. His eyes shone like fire, and\nhe had a triple tongue and triple rows of teeth. No sooner had the\nservants dipped their vessels in the water, than out rushed the serpent\nwith a fearful hiss and killed them all with his fangs and poisonous\nbreath.\n\n3. Cadmus waited until midday for their return, and then went in search\nof them. He wore a lion's hide, and besides his javelin he carried\na lance. When he entered the wood and saw the dead bodies of his\nmen, and the monster with his bloody jaws, he exclaimed, \"O faithful\nfriends, I will avenge you or share your death!\" So saying, he lifted\na huge stone and threw it at the serpent, but it made no impression on\nthe monster. Cadmus next threw his javelin, and this penetrated the\nserpent's scales. Fierce with pain, the monster broke off the handle\nof the weapon but left the iron point still in the flesh. His neck\nswelled with rage, bloody foam covered his jaws, and the breath of his\nnostrils poisoned the air around. Now he threw himself forward upon\nCadmus, but the hero retreated backward holding his spear before\nthe monster's open jaws. At last Cadmus made a sudden thrust with the\nspear and pinned the serpent's head to a tree. Then how the monster did\nwrithe, and hiss, and spit out his venom! but the spear held fast, and\nhe soon died.\n\n[Illustration]\n\n4. Then Cadmus heard a voice telling him to take out the dragon's teeth\nand sow them in the ground. So he made a furrow in the ground, and into\nit he sowed the teeth and covered them up. Scarce had he done so, when\nthe clods began to move, and the points of spears appeared above the\nground. Next helmets, with their nodding plumes, came up, and next the\nshoulders and breasts and limbs of men. Soon a crop of warriors stood\nbefore him, all armed for fight. Their looks became fierce and cruel as\nthey stood and glared at one another. Cadmus was afraid of his life,\nbut one of them said, \"Meddle not with our civil war.\" At length one of\nthe warriors raised his sword and smote down another. Then commenced\na fight, and soon all of them were killed but five. These cast away\ntheir weapons and said, \"Let us live in peace.\" They joined Cadmus, and\nhelped him build his city of Thebes.\n\n\n_V.--THE DO-AS-YOU-LIKES._\n\n1. The fairy brought out from her cupboard a big book, and Tom and\nlittle Ellie read in the title-page, \"The History of the Great and\nFamous Nation of the Do-as-you-likes, who came away from the Country of\nHardwork, because they wanted to play on the Jew's-harp all day long.\"\n\n2. In the first picture they saw these Do-as-you-likes living in the\nland of Ready-made, at the foot of the Happy-go-lucky Mountains, where\nflap-doodle grows wild; and if you want to know what that is, you must\nread \"Peter Simple.\"\n\n3. Instead of houses, they lived in the beautiful caves of tufa, and\nbathed in the warm springs three times a day; and, as for clothes, it\nwas so warm there that the gentlemen walked about in little besides a\ncocked hat and a pair of straps, or some light summer tackle of that\nkind; and the ladies all gathered gossamer in autumn to make their\nwinter dresses.\n\n4. They were very fond of music, but it was too much trouble to learn\nto play the piano or violin; so they sat on ant-hills all day long and\nplayed on the Jew's-harp; and if the ants bit them, why they just got\nup and went to the next ant-hill, till they were bitten there also.\n\n5. And they sat under the flapdoodle-trees, and let the flapdoodle drop\ninto their mouths; and under the vines, and squeezed the grape-juice\ndown their throats; and if any little pigs ran about ready roasted,\ncrying \"Come, and eat me,\" as was the fashion in that country, they\nwaited till the pigs ran against their mouths, and then took a bite,\nand were content, just as so many oysters would have been.\n\n6. They needed no weapons, for no enemies ever came near their land;\nand the stern old fairy Necessity never came near them to hunt them up,\nand make them use their wits or die. And so on, till there were never\nsuch comfortable, easy-going, happy-go-lucky people in the world.\n\n7. \"Well, that is a jolly life,\" said Tom. \"You think so?\" said the\nfairy. \"Do you see that great peaked mountain there behind, with smoke\ncoming out of its top?\" \"Yes.\" \"And do you see those ashes, and slag,\nand cinders lying about?\" \"Yes.\" \"Then turn over the next five hundred\nyears, and you will see what happens.\"\n\n8. And behold! the mountain had blown up like a barrel of gunpowder,\nand then boiled over like a kettle; whereby one third of the\nDo-as-you-likes were blown into the air, and another third were\nsmothered in the ashes; so that there were only one third left. \"You\nsee,\" said the fairy, \"what comes of living on a burning mountain.\"\n\n9. \"Oh, why did you not warn them?\" said little Ellie. \"I did warn them\nall I could. I let the smoke come out of the mountain, and wherever\nthere is smoke there is a fire. And laid the ashes and cinders all\nabout; and wherever there are cinders, cinders may be again. But they\ndid not like to face facts, my dears, as few people do; and so they\ninvented a cock-and-bull story, which, I am sure, I never told them,\nthat the smoke was the breath of a giant, whom some god or other had\nburied under the mountain; and other nonsense of that kind. And when\nfolks are in that humor I can not teach them, save by the good old\nbirch-rod.\"\n\n10. And then she turned over the next five hundred years; and there\nwere the remnant of the Do-as-you-likes, doing as they liked, as\nbefore. They were too lazy to move away from the mountain; so they\nsaid, \"If it has blown up once, that is all the more reason it will not\nblow up again.\" And they were few in number, but they only said, \"The\nmore the merrier, but the fewer the better fare.\"\n\n11. However, that was not quite true; for all the flapdoodle-trees were\nkilled by the volcano, and they had eaten all the roast pigs, who, of\ncourse, could not be expected to have little ones; so they had to live\nvery hard, on nuts and roots which they scratched out of the ground.\nSome of them talked of sowing corn, as their ancestors used to do,\nbefore they came into the land of Ready-made, but they had forgotten\nhow to make plows, and had eaten all the seed-corn which they had\nbrought out of the land of Hardwork years since; and of course it was\ntoo much trouble to go away and find more. So they lived miserably on\nroots and nuts, and all the weakly little children had great stomachs,\nand then died.\n\n12. \"Why,\" said Tom, \"they are growing no better than savages.\" \"And\nlook how ugly they are all getting!\" said Ellie. \"Yes; when people live\non poor vegetables, instead of roast beef and plum-pudding, their jaws\ngrow larger and their lips grow coarser, like the poor people who eat\nnothing but potatoes.\"\n\n[Illustration]\n\n13. And she turned over the next five hundred years, and there they\nwere all living up in trees, and making nests to keep off the rain.\nAnd underneath the trees lions were prowling about. \"Why,\" said\nEllie, \"the lions seem to have eaten a good many of them, for there\nare very few left now!\" \"Yes,\" said the fairy, \"you see it was only\nthe strongest and most active ones who could climb the trees, and so\nescape.\" \"But what great, hulking, broad-shouldered chaps they are!\"\nsaid Tom; \"they are as rough a lot as ever I saw.\"\n\n14. And she turned over the next five hundred years. And in that\nthey were fewer still, and stronger, and fiercer; but their feet had\nchanged shape very oddly, for they laid hold of the branches with their\ngreat-toes, as if they had been thumbs, just as a Hindoo tailor uses\nhis toes to thread his needle.\n\n15. The children were very much surprised, and asked the fairy whether\nthat was her doing. \"Yes and no,\" she said, smiling. \"It was only those\nwho could use their feet as well as their hands who could get a good\nliving; so they got the best of everything, and starved out all the\nrest.\" \"But there is a hairy one among them,\" said Ellie. \"Ah!\" said\nthe fairy, \"that will be a great man in his time, and chief of all the\ntribe.\"\n\n16. And when she turned over the next five hundred years, it was\ntrue. For this hairy chief had hairier children still. The climate was\ngrowing so damp that none but the hairy ones could live; all the rest\ncoughed and sneezed, and had sore throats, and went into consumptions,\nbefore they could grow up into men and women.\n\n17. Then the fairy turned over the next five hundred years. And they\nwere fewer still. \"Why, there is one on the ground picking up roots,\"\nsaid Ellie, \"and he can not walk upright.\" No more he could; for, in\nthe same way that the shape of their feet had altered, the shape of\ntheir backs had altered too. \"Why,\" said Tom, \"I declare they are all\napes!\"\n\n18. \"Something fearfully like it, poor, foolish creatures,\" said the\nfairy. \"They are grown so stupid now, that they can hardly think; for\nnone of them have used their wits for many hundred years. They have\nalmost forgotten, too, how to talk. For each stupid child forgot some\nof the words it heard from its stupid parents, and had not wit enough\nto make fresh words for itself. Besides, they have grown so fierce and\nsuspicious and brutal, that they keep out of each other's way, and mope\nand sulk in dark forests, never hearing each other's voice, till they\nhave forgotten almost what speech is like. I am afraid they will all\nbe apes very soon, and all be doing only what they liked.\"\n\n19. And in the next five hundred years they were all dead and gone, by\nbad food and wild beasts and hunters; all except one tremendous old\nfellow with jaws like a jack, who stood full seven feet high; and M. du\nChaillu came up to him and shot him, as he stood roaring and thumping\nhis breast. And he remembered that his ancestors had once been men, and\nhe tried to say, \"Am I not a man and a brother?\" but he had forgotten\nhow to use his tongue; and then he had tried to call for a doctor,\nbut he had forgotten the word for one. So all he said was \"Ubboboo!\"\nand died. And that was the end of the great and jolly nation of the\nDo-as-you-likes.\n\n\n\n\nINDIAN STORIES.\n\n\n_VI.--COLUMBUS AND THE ECLIPSE._\n\n1. When Columbus first landed upon the shores of the New World, and\nfor a long time after, the natives thought that he had come down from\nheaven, and they were ready to do anything for this new friend. But, at\none place, where he stayed for some months, the chiefs became jealous\nof him and tried to drive him away. It had been their custom to bring\nfood for him and his companions every morning; but now the amount they\nbrought was very small, and Columbus saw that he would soon be starved\nunless he could make a change.\n\n2. Now, Columbus knew that in a few days there was to be an eclipse\nof the sun; so he called the chiefs around him and told them that\nthe Great Spirit was angry with them for not doing as they agreed in\nbringing him provisions, and that, to show his anger, on such a day,\nhe would cause the sun to be darkened. The Indians listened, but they\ndid not believe Columbus, and there was a still greater falling off in\nthe amount of the food sent in.\n\n3. On the morning of the day set, the sun rose clear and bright, and\nthe Indians shook their heads, as they thought how Columbus had tried\nto deceive them. Hour after hour passed, and still the sun was bright;\nand the Spaniards began to fear that the Indians would attack them\nsoon, as they seemed fully convinced that Columbus had deceived them.\nBut at length a black shadow began to steal over the face of the sun.\nLittle by little the light faded, and darkness spread over the land.\n\n4. The Indians saw that Columbus had told them the truth. They saw that\nthey had offended the Great Spirit, and that he had sent a dreadful\nmonster to swallow the sun. They could see the jaws of this horrible\nmonster slowly closing to shut off their light forever. Frantic with\nfear, they filled the air with cries and shrieks. Some fell prostrate\nbefore Columbus and entreated his help; some rushed off and soon\nreturned laden with every kind of provisions they could lay their\nhands on. Columbus then retired to his tent, and promised to save them\nif possible. About the time for the eclipse to pass away, he came out\nand told them that the Great Spirit had pardoned them this time, and\nhe would soon drive away the monster from the sun; but they must never\noffend in that way again.\n\n5. The Indians promised, and waited. As the sun began to come out from\nthe shadow, their fears subsided, and, when it shone clear once more,\ntheir joy knew no bounds. They leaped, they danced, and they sang. They\nthought Columbus was a god, and, while he remained on the island, the\nSpaniards had all the provisions they needed.\n\n\n_VII.--THE PEQUOTS._\n\n1. Early in 1621 the Pilgrims who settled at Plymouth, Massachusetts,\nmade a treaty with Massasoit, the chief of the Wampanoags, who\ninhabited the eastern part of the State. This treaty was observed by\nall the Indian tribes in the vicinity for a long time, and it was not\nuntil three years after the first settlers arrived in Connecticut that\nan Indian war broke out.\n\n2. The Pequots were a small but very warlike tribe, living upon Long\nIsland Sound, near the border of Rhode Island. These Indians attacked\nthe settlers, and in 1627 they killed three men at Saybrook, and six\nmen and three women at Wethersfield.\n\n3. These things caused great alarm, and a council was called at\nHartford to consider what was to be done. A force, consisting of ninety\nwhite men and seventy friendly Indians, under the command of Captain\nMason, were sent against them.\n\n4. They went down the Connecticut River from Hartford to Saybrook in\nboats, and thence eastward along the Sound to the Indian fort Mystic,\nnear where Stonington now stands. They reached the spot about daybreak.\nThe Pequots had no suspicion that an enemy was near. But as they\nreached the fort a dog barked, and the Indian sentinel called out,\n\"Owanux! Owanux!\" (Englishmen! Englishmen!), and the savages sprang to\narms. The soldiers fired and killed many Indians, but it was a fight of\nthe little army of whites against six hundred.\n\n5. The Indians fought bravely, and Captain Mason, fearful of being\ndefeated, called out, \"We must burn them!\" A torch was applied to a\nwigwam, and soon the whole fort was in flames. Seventy wigwams were\nburned, and six hundred men, women, and children perished.\n\n6. A few Indians escaped, and, joining others of their tribe, took\nrefuge in a swamp in Fairfield. Here the whites pursued them, and\nkilled and captured nearly the whole tribe. The prisoners and all that\nremained alive of the Pequots, were divided and given to the Mohicans\nand the Narragansetts, two tribes friendly to the English.\n\n\n_VIII.--SCHENECTADY._\n\n1. In the winter of 1690 a small party of French and Indians made a\nraid upon Albany. They concluded to destroy Schenectady first. The\npeople of Schenectady had been warned of their danger, but they would\nnot believe that men would come from Canada, a distance of two or three\nhundred miles, through the deep snows of winter, to molest them.\n\n2. But they were fatally deceived. A strong stockade, of more than a\nmile in length, was built around the houses which composed the village.\nThis stockade had a gateway at each end, and these gateways were\nusually carefully guarded at night. But, believing themselves safe,\nthe watchman became careless and went to sleep. The enemy arrived on\nSaturday night, and succeeded in getting within the stockade without\ngiving any alarm. They divided themselves into small parties, so that\nevery house might be attacked at the same instant. They entered the\nplace about eleven o'clock.\n\n3. The inhabitants were all asleep, and stillness rested upon the\nplace. With a noiseless step the enemy distributed themselves through\nthe village, and, at a given signal, the savage war-whoop was sounded.\nWhat a dreadful cry was this to the startled fathers and mothers of\nthis unhappy town!\n\n4. It is scarcely possible to describe the scene that followed. The\npeople, conscious of their danger, sprang from their beds, but were met\nat the door and slaughtered by the savages; and the Indians, rendered\nfrantic by the wild scene, ran through the place, slaying those they\nchanced to meet.\n\n5. Sixty of the people were killed, and twenty-five were made\nprisoners. Some attempted to escape, but as they were in their\nnight-clothes, and the night was very cold, only a part of them reached\nAlbany, sixteen miles distant, the nearest point of refuge, and of\nthese, twenty-five lost limbs by the cold. As the alarm was given, the\nIndians returned to Canada without an attack upon Albany.\n\n\n_IX.--THE STORY OF MRS. DUSTIN._\n\n1. In the winter of 1696 a party of Indians made an attack upon the\ntown of Haverhill, Massachusetts. Among the people of that town was\na Mr. Dustin. He was in a field at work, when the news of the attack\nreached his ears. He immediately started and ran to his house to save\nhis family. He had seven children, and these he collected for the\npurpose of taking them to a place of safety before the Indians should\narrive.\n\n2. His wife was ill, and she had an infant but a week old. He now\nhurried to her, but, before she could get ready to leave the house, Mr.\nDustin saw that a party of savages were already close by. Expecting\nthat all would be slain, he ran to the door and mounted his horse, with\nthe intention of taking one of his children--the one that he loved\nbest--and flying with it to a place of safety.\n\n3. But which should he take? Which of his seven children should he\nleave to the savages? He could not decide, and therefore, telling\nthe children to run forward, he placed himself between them and the\nIndians. The Indians fired at him, but they did not hit him. He had a\ngun, too, and he fired back at them.\n\n4. Then he hurried his little children along, loading his gun as he\nwent, and firing at his pursuers. Thus he proceeded for more than a\nmile--protecting his little family, defending himself, and keeping the\nenemy at a distance. At length, he reached a place of safety, where\nthe children were beyond the reach of the Indians. His feelings were\ndivided between joy for the escape, and grief for the poor wife left\nbehind.\n\n5. But Mrs. Dustin was destined to undergo the severest trials.\nAlthough she was very ill, the savages compelled her, with the nurse\nand her little infant, to go with them. They soon left the town of\nHaverhill, and set out to go to the homes of the Indians. These were\nat a distance of one hundred and fifty miles. It was winter, and the\njourney was to be taken on foot through the wilderness.\n\n6. Mrs. Dustin and the nurse were soon overcome with fatigue. The\nIndians, seeing that the little infant occupied much of their\nattention, snatched it from its mother, and killed the little innocent\nby striking it against a tree. After a toilsome march, and the greatest\nsuffering, Mrs. Dustin and her companion completed the journey.\n\n7. But now the Indians were to remove to a distant place, and these\ntwo women were forced to accompany them. When they reached the end of\ntheir journey, they found out that they were to be tortured. They then\nresolved to make their escape.\n\n8. One night Mrs. Dustin, the nurse, and another woman rose secretly\nwhile the Indians were asleep. There were ten of them in the wigwam\nwhere they were. These the women killed with their own hands and then\ndeparted. After wandering a long time in the woods, they reached\nHaverhill, and Mrs. Dustin was restored to her family.\n\n\n_X.--ROGERS'S SLIDE._\n\n1. Major Rogers, a brave patriot, commanded a corps of rangers in the\nwinter of 1758. He was stationed on Lake George. One day he started\nwith a few men to spy out the position of his Indian foes.\n\n2. A band of Indians surprised the party, and put them to flight. Major\nRogers, by the aid of his snow-shoes, was able to gain the summit of a\nhill overlooking the lake. At this point the lake is narrow, and the\nrocks are piled up in huge masses. One crag rises to the height of\nabout four hundred feet, with an almost perpendicular surface, sloping\ndown to the lake below.\n\n3. The major knew that the Indians would follow rapidly on his track.\nWhen he reached the brow of the cliff he quickly cast off his knapsack\nand haversack, and sent them sliding down the icy path. He then took\noff his snow-shoes, and, without moving them, turned himself about and\nput them on his feet again. He retreated along the brow of the hill for\nseveral rods, and down a ravine he made his way to the lake, found his\npack, and fled on the ice to Fort George.\n\n[Illustration: Rogers's Slide, Lake George]\n\n4. The Indians arrived at the spot, saw the two tracks, and supposed\nthat two people had cast themselves off the rock rather than be\ncaptured. Just then they saw the bold ranger making his way across the\nice, and believed that he had safely slid down the steep face of the\nrock. They thought that the pale-face must be protected by the Great\nSpirit, and made no attempt at pursuit. The rock has ever since been\nknown as Rogers's Slide.\n\n\n_XI.--GENERAL CLINTON'S MARCH._\n\n1. In the War of the Revolution, the Indians belonging to the Six\nNations, living in Central and Western New York, mostly joined the\nBritish. For several years parties of Tories and Indians, every little\nwhile, would attack the frontier settlements and murder the settlers.\nIn 1778 General Sullivan was sent into the country around Seneca Lake\nto break up the hostile force, and, if possible, to drive the Indians\nout of the country. A part of this force, under the American General\nClinton, started from the Mohawk Valley to join Sullivan in Southern\nNew York.\n\n2. The march was through an unbroken wilderness. As there were no\nroads, their provisions were loaded into boats and floated up the small\nstreams, and there the freight, boats, and all, were carried by the men\nto the head-waters of another stream. They had little trouble until\nthey reached Otsego Lake, and from this point they expected less, as\nthe outlet of the lake formed the Susquehanna River, and on this river,\nfar below, they expected to join Sullivan. But the weather was hot, and\nfor many weeks there had been no rain. The river had not water enough\nto float the boats, and for a time Clinton thought he would be obliged\nto turn back.\n\n3. But at last he hit upon a scheme that promised success. He built a\ndam across the river just where it flows out of the lake. His soldiers\nrolled in great bowlders from the fields, and filled the spaces between\nwith brush and clay. The water could not flow out freely, and the lake\nbegan to rise. In three weeks it was six feet above its summer level.\nThe boats were then made ready, with the provisions and men on board,\nand the dam was torn down. The waters flooded the banks of the narrow\nstream, and the whole party were carried down to the place of meeting\nwith Sullivan in safety.\n\n[Illustration]\n\n4. The Indians along the stream saw this sudden rise of waters, and\nthey were much frightened. No rain had fallen, and the only way they\ncould account for it was that the Great Spirit had sent the waters to\nhelp the white men, and they everywhere fled in the greatest alarm.\nGeneral Clinton did not meet one armed enemy until he joined Sullivan,\nand the combined army met no opposition until they reached the spot\nwhere Elmira now stands. Here a battle took place, in which the Indians\nwere defeated. Upon the return of Sullivan from his successful raid\ninto the Indian country, he was obliged to kill his horses for want of\nforage, and the place where the horses' skulls lay for a long time has\nsince been called Horseheads.\n\n\n_XII.--FRANCES SLOCUM._\n\n1. In 1778 the Tories and Indians made an attack upon the little\nsettlement of Wyoming, on the Susquehanna River, in Pennsylvania.\nThe fort was captured, and nearly all the prisoners--men, women, and\nchildren--were murdered in cold blood. Every house was burned, and the\nfew people who escaped into the woods, went through terrible trials\nbefore they reached a place of safety. Most of the savages had bloody\nscalps hung to their belts, to show that they had taken part in the\nbattle and the murder that followed.\n\n2. Near the scene of the Wyoming battle lived a Quaker, named Slocum,\nwho had been a great friend of the Indians. For a time no one troubled\nhim; but early one morning some Indians came down, scalped a boy, named\nKingsley, and carried away Frances, Mrs. Slocum's little daughter, five\nyears old. Soon after, Mr. Slocum was also murdered. The mother stayed\nin the valley, hoping to hear of her lost child. When peace came, two\nbrothers of the lost one went to Canada in search of her, but all their\ninquiries were in vain, and they gave her up as dead.\n\n3. But the mother still hoped on. She was certain that Frances was\nstill alive. Other captives were found, but the mother went down to her\ngrave without any tidings of the child that had been so cruelly taken\nfrom her. The brothers became aged men, and little Frances was almost\nforgotten.\n\n4. In 1837, fifty-nine years after her capture, an Indian agent and\ntrader gave an account of a white woman living with the Indians near\nLogansport, Indiana. Joseph Slocum and a sister at once set out for\nOhio, where they met their younger brother, Isaac. The three then\nwent on to Logansport, where they learned that the white woman lived\nabout twelve miles distant. She was sent for, and the next morning she\ncame riding into town upon a spirited young horse, and accompanied\nby her two daughters. She could not speak English, and an interpreter\nwas found. She listened to what her brothers had to say, but did not\nanswer. At sunset she started for her home, but promised to be back in\nthe morning.\n\n5. She came, true to her promise. The mother had told Joseph years\nbefore of one sure test. When they were little children Joseph, then\na child two and a half years old, while playing with a hammer gave\nFrances a blow upon the middle finger of the left hand, which crushed\nthe bone and deprived the finger of the nail. When Joseph told this\nincident the aged woman was greatly agitated, and, while tears streamed\ndown her face, she held out the wounded finger. There was no longer a\ndoubt. The love for her kindred which had slept for more than fifty\nyears was aroused, and she eagerly inquired after her father, mother,\nbrothers, and sisters.\n\n6. Her full heart was opened, and she freely gave the story of her\nlife. She said the savages took her to a cave in the mountains the\nfirst night. She was kindly treated, and was tenderly carried in their\narms when she was weary. She was adopted by an Indian family, and\nbrought up as their daughter. For years she had led a roving life, and\nshe liked it. She was taught the use of the bow, and soon learned all\nthe arts of the Indian household. When she grew up, her Indian parents\ndied, and she soon afterward married a young chief of the nation.\n\n7. She was treated with more respect than Indian women generally are;\nand she was so happy in her life that the greatest evil she feared was\nthat she should be obliged to go back to the whites, whom she regarded\nas the Indians' worst enemies. Her husband was dead, and she had been a\nwidow many years. Children and grandchildren were around her, and life\nwas passing pleasantly away. When she finished her story, she lifted\nher right hand in a solemn manner and said, \"All this is as true as\nthat there is a Great Spirit in the heavens!\"\n\n8. The next day her brothers and sister went out to visit her at her\nhome. She was living in a well-built log-house, which was surrounded\nby cultivated fields. She had a large herd of cattle and sixty horses.\nShe had saved her share of the annuity which the Government paid the\nIndians, and had about one thousand dollars in specie. Her white\nfriends stayed with her several days, and had a delightful visit.\nAfterward Joseph, his wife, and daughter paid her another visit, and\nthen bade her a last farewell. She died about 1844, and was buried with\ngreat honors, as she was regarded as a queen by her tribe.\n\n\n_XIII.--OBED'S PUMPKINS._\n\n1. Moving was serious business ninety years ago, when the Moore family\nmigrated to Ohio, for everything had to be carried hundreds of miles in\na wagon, and there was no sending back for anything forgotten. So Obed\nprudently secured passage for some pumpkin-seeds, lest a failure of\npumpkin-pies for Thanksgiving might annul that festival altogether in\nthe unknown wilderness.\n\n2. There was only one room in their new house, and no regular up-stairs\nat all--only a loft where the boys slept, and to which they had to\nclimb on a ladder when they went to bed. Ruth and Dolly slept in the\ntrundle-bed down-stairs.\n\n3. That first winter was a hard one, but nobody really suffered. Mr.\nMoore was clearing up his land, so they had an abundance of fuel; the\nboys trapped rabbits, and their father's musket kept them supplied\nwith other game, but Mrs. Moore had to measure the flour and meal very\ncarefully, and as for other things, they went without, only once, when\nObed found a squirrel's nest in a hollow tree, and came in with his\npockets full of nuts.\n\n4. \"Little did that rascal know who he was gathering these for,\" he\nremarked, as they cracked them on the hearth that evening. \"Yes, and\nmaybe it's little you know who you'll raise your pumpkins for. Injuns,\nlike as not,\" said Joe.\n\n5. One morning Dolly declared that she had been wakened in the night by\nmice in the chimney-cupboard. \"It _can't_ be mice; we're too far from\nneighbors,\" said Mrs. Moore, opening the cupboard. Joe climbed upon\na chair behind her, and there on the topmost shelf were some nibbled\nscraps of cloth and paper.\n\n6. \"O Obed!\" he exclaimed, in dismay, \"your pumpkin-seeds are all\ngone!\" Just then there was a rustle, and he caught sight of two bright,\nblack eyes. They saw him, too, and another rustle gave him a vanishing\nglimpse of a bushy tail. \"It's squirrels!\" he shouted; \"Obed, they've\ncome to get their pay for the nuts you stole.\" \"Oh, dear!\" said Obed,\n\"I'd rather have my pumpkin-seeds than all the nuts that ever grew. We\nnever shall taste pumpkin-pies again, now.\"\n\n7. Weeks afterward they were burning out some stumps in the clearing,\nwhen out from a hollow one popped a squirrel. Obed ran to investigate,\nand, poking around and pulling away the rotten wood, brought to light\nsome rags and bits of paper. \"Hello!\" he exclaimed, \"the identical\nchap that carried off my pumpkin-seeds!\" And sure enough, there were\nthe empty shells, and among them--oh, for a vision of the smile that\nlighted Obed's freckled face!--three whole, sound seeds.\n\n8. All their crops did well that first year, and the way those\npumpkin-vines bore was a marvel; but no abundance could shake Obed's\nresolve to reserve the first pumpkin-pies for Thanksgiving.\n\n9. On the preceding Monday, Mr. Moore started for the nearest village\nto purchase winter supplies. With many brave assurances and secret\nmisgivings, his family saw him set out, for the journey required two\ndays, and the Indians were growing threatening of late. But when the\nfirst night had worn away in safety, they began to feel easier, and\ngave themselves up to the Thanksgiving preparations.\n\n10. \"O Obed!\" said Joe, as late in the afternoon he staggered into the\nhouse under a huge yellow pumpkin, \"let's make some jack-lanterns;\n'twon't hurt the pumpkins for pies.\" Obed assented, and they had just\ncompleted those grotesque horrors, and were going out to do the chores,\nwhen a man galloped up, and everybody rushed to the door.\n\n11. \"Get ready for the redskins!\" he shouted, springing from the\nsaddle, \"and give me a fresh horse. They killed a family down the river\nlast night, and nobody knows where they'll turn up next! Husband away?\nWhew! that's bad! Well, shut up as tight as you can. Cover up your\nfire, and don't strike a light to-night.\" And, leaping upon the horse\nthe boys led around, he flew away to warn the next settler.\n\n12. They made what hasty preparations they were able, and Mrs. Moore\nreluctantly yielded to Obed's urgent plea that she would keep the\nyounger children quiet in the loft, while he and Joe watched below.\n\n13. The two boys crouched beside the hearth listening to every sound.\nAt last Obed crept to the window. A snow-flurry had whitened the ground\nearly in the evening, and, as he peered out, the boy descried shadows\nmoving across the fields. \"They're coming, Joe!\" he whispered; \"stand\nby that window with the axe, while I get the rifle pointed at this one.\"\n\n14. Joe noiselessly stationed himself, and Obed opened the\nbullet-pouch. As his fingers came in contact with the leaden balls,\nhis heart chilled. They were too large for his rifle! They belonged\nto the musket, and his father had taken the wrong pouch. With a last\ndespairing hope he was feeling in the cupboard for any chance balls\nthat might have been left behind, when he stumbled over something that\nnearly threw him headlong. It was the forgotten jack-lantern. With a\nsudden thought he pulled off his coat and flung it over the face of\nthe lantern, then searching in the ashes for a live coal, cautiously\nlighted the candle within and closed the opening. With every sense\nsharpened to its utmost, he lifted the pumpkin and went softly toward\nthe window. Ten or twelve dusky figures were stealthily nearing the\nhouse, and at the same instant he detected a slight noise at the door.\n\n15. \"They'll sound the war-whoop in a minute, if I give them time,\" he\nsaid to himself. \"Now for it!\" And he dropped the coat, leaving the\ngrinning monster exposed to view. Mrs. Moore, listening with bated\nbreath in the room above, just then heard an unearthly yell and fainted\ndead away. \"Quick, Joe! Light up the other one!\" exclaimed Obed,\nexcitedly, as he saw the savages flying wildly back to the woods.\n\n[Illustration]\n\n16. Joe, with every hair on end, was still standing valiantly at his\npost, his uplifted axe ready to fall on the first head that should risk\nan entrance. He had paid no attention to Obed's movements, and was\nmomentarily expecting to hear the roar of the old rifle.\n\n17. \"The other jack-lantern! Don't you see that's what scar't 'em so?\"\ndemanded Obed as, emboldened by his success, he bobbed the hideous\nthing up and down before the window. Joe finally comprehended, and,\nspeedily lighting the second one, imitated Obed's lively evolutions\nwith such effect that, when Mrs. Moore came-to, the yells were dying\naway in the distance, and she heard Obed climbing the ladder.\n\n18. The anxious mother now gathered her family in the room below, and\nwatched patiently for daylight and her husband. They came together, and\nthe story had to be told all over again. \"And so,\" added Joe, \"Obed did\nraise his pumpkins for the Injuns, after all.\"\n\n\n\n\nSTORIES OF THE REVOLUTION.\n\n\n_XIV.--THE GASP\u00c9._\n\n1. Just before the Revolution, the British ship-of-war Gasp\u00e9 was\nsent to Narragansett Bay to see that the trade was all right there.\nLieutenant Duddington was the commander, and he annoyed the traders as\nmuch as possible. He would order a vessel to stop, go on board of her,\nand, having seen that everything was right, would go off with words\nof insult instead of apology. The Governor of Rhode Island ordered\nDuddington to let the trading-vessels alone, but the pert little\nofficer only laughed at him. Next the Governor appealed to Admiral\nWatson, and received an insulting reply.\n\n2. By this time the people were aroused. The petty little tyrant had\nissued an order that all vessels sailing up the bay should lower their\nflag by way of salute--an order very much like that of Gessler when he\nrequired the people to bow to a hat set upon a post. On the 9th of\nJune Captain Lindsay, coming up in his packet, refused to lower his\nflag. The Gasp\u00e9 gave chase, but Captain Lindsay dodged about among the\nshoals in such a way that the Gasp\u00e9 got aground on the sand. Here she\nmust stick until high tide, about three o'clock the next morning.\n\n3. The news soon reached Providence. Mr. John Brown, one of the leading\nmerchants, saw that it was a good time to end the troubles. He fitted\nout eight of the largest boats he could get, and placed them under the\ncommand of Captain Whipple, one of his most trusted ship-masters. The\nboats left Providence about ten o'clock in the evening, with sixty-four\nmen, armed with paving-stones. As they approached the Gasp\u00e9, the\nsentinel hailed them, and Lieutenant Duddington fired a pistol at them.\nThe reply was a single musket-shot, which brought the officer down,\nbadly wounded. The ship's company were then ordered ashore, and the\nship set on fire. At dawn she blew up.\n\n4. A large reward was offered by Admiral Watson for the discovery of\nthe parties engaged in this affair. Although the boats were publicly\nfitted out, and their departure was seen by hundreds of people, not\none jot of information could he get. Commissioners sent over from\nEngland met with no better success, and after a trial of six months\nthey gave it up as a bad job. A poem, written in regard to this affair,\nconcludes with this verse:\n\n  5.  \"Now, for to find these people out,\n      King George has offered very stout:\n      One thousand pounds to find out one\n      That wounded William Duddington;\n      One thousand more he says he'll spare\n      For those who say the sheriffs were;\n      One thousand more there doth remain\n      For to find out the leader's name;\n      Likewise five hundred pounds per man\n      For any one of all the clan.\n      But let him try his utmost skill,\n      I'm apt to think he never will\n      Find out any of those hearts of gold\n      Though he should offer fifty-fold.\"\n\n\n_XV.--ETHAN ALLEN._\n\n1. During the Revolution, the pride and the hero of the Green Mountains\nwas Ethan Allen, and probably there was no man living then that had\nmore of the elements of the popular hero than he. He was tall, almost\na giant in stature, and strong in proportion. He was easily excited to\nanger, and his rage was something terrific. In another place it is told\nhow he surprised and captured the strong fortresses of Ticonderoga and\nCrown Point. Afterward he was captured and taken prisoner to England.\nThe brutal British officer in command put him in irons, and one day\nspat in his face. Allen, beside himself with rage at this insult,\nwith his teeth wrenched off the head of the nail which fastened his\nhandcuffs, and attacked the officer, who was obliged to retreat to save\nhis life.\n\n2. With all his rough ways and fits of anger Allen was a remarkably\nhonest man. It is related of him that he owed a person in Boston sixty\npounds, for which he gave his note. When due, it was sent to Vermont\nfor collection. Allen could not pay at the time, and he employed a\nlawyer to postpone the payment until he could raise the money. The\nlawyer arose in court and denied Allen's signature to the note, as this\nwould oblige the other party to send to Boston for a witness, and give\nAllen all the time he wanted.\n\n3. When the lawyer made his plea, Allen, who happened to be in the\nback part of the court-room, strode forward, and in a voice of thunder\naddressed the lawyer: \"Mr. Jones, I did not hire you to come here to\nlie! This is a true note--I signed it--I'll swear to it--and I'll pay\nit! I want no shuffling, I want time. What I employed you for was to\nget this matter put over to the next court, not to come here and lie\nand juggle about it.\" The lawyer shrank from his blazing eye, and the\ncase was put over as he wished.\n\n\n_XVI.--JOSEPH REED._\n\n1. A hero of another kind, and one we should never forget, is Joseph\nReed, of New Jersey. He entered the patriot army, and proved a brave\nand efficient officer. In 1778 he entered Congress, and, while quiet,\nhe became one of the most useful members. Soon after he entered\nCongress, a British commission was sent out to see if the difficulties\nbetween the two countries could not be adjusted and the war terminated.\nThe terms they offered, however, did not include independence.\nConvinced that they could not accomplish their object directly, the\ncommissioners resorted to deceit and bribery, and they offered Joseph\nReed ten thousand guineas if he would use his influence to help\nalong their project. The noble patriot heard the offer with great\nindignation, and replied, \"I am not worth purchasing, but, such as I\nam, the King of Great Britain is not rich enough to buy me.\" The poet\nFreneau has recorded this incident in a poem from which the following\nextract is made:\n\n  2.  \"No single art engaged his manly mind,\n      In every scene his active genius shined;\n      Nature in him, in honor to our age,\n      At once composed the soldier and the sage.\n\n  3.  \"Firm in his purpose, vigilant and bold,\n      Detesting traitors, and despising gold,\n      He scorned all bribes from Britain's hostile throne,\n      For all his country's wrongs were thrice his own.\"\n\n\n_XVII.--GENERAL PRESCOTT._\n\n1. In 1777 the British troops upon the Island of Rhode Island were\ncommanded by General Prescott. Of all the disreputable officers sent\nover by the British during the Revolution, he was the meanest and\nthe worst. He was cruel at heart, a petty tyrant, and a real coward.\nHis government was so offensive to the people of Rhode Island, that\nthey determined to put an end to it. The British army was stationed\nat Newport, and the British ships sailed up and down Narragansett Bay\nto protect the island from any attempted surprise on the part of the\nAmericans. Feeling perfectly secure under the protection of the fleet,\nGeneral Prescott made his headquarters at the house of a Mr. Ovington,\nfive miles out of Newport, and beyond the British military lines.\n\n2. The residence of General Prescott became known to the patriot\nleaders at Providence, and they resolved to make an effort to capture\nhim. The enterprise was intrusted to Colonel William Barton, who\nentered upon the service with zeal and discretion. On the night of July\n10, 1777, Barton, with a few chosen men, embarked in four whale-boats,\nand with muffled oars rowed across the bay to the island, passing\ndirectly through the fleet of ships and guard-boats. They came so near\nthe ships that they could hear the sentinel's cry of \"All is well!\"\nAfter landing they made their way silently to the Ovington house, and\ncaptured the guard without creating an alarm.\n\n3. Barton boldly entered the house, and found Mr. Ovington reading, the\nrest of the family being in bed. He inquired for General Prescott's\nroom, and was told it was directly overhead. Taking with him four\nsailors, and Sisson, a powerful negro, Barton ascended the stairs,\nand gently tried the door. It was locked; but there was no time to\nbe lost: the negro drew back a few paces, and, using his head for a\nbattering-ram, burst open the door at the first effort. Prescott begged\ntime to dress, but, as time was precious, he was hurried down to the\nshore without clothes, and placed in the boat, where he could dress at\nleisure. The boats then took their way back in perfect silence, and\nabout midnight landed upon the mainland in safety. \"Sir, you have made\na bold push to-night!\" said Prescott, to his captor. \"We have been\nfortunate,\" replied Barton.\n\n\n_XVIII.--PRESCOTT AND THE YANKEE BOY._\n\n1. In the spring of 1778, Prescott was exchanged for General Charles\nLee, and returned to Rhode Island. Soon afterward the British admiral\ninvited the general to dine with him and his officers on board his\nship, then lying in front of Newport. Martial law yet prevailed on the\nisland, and men and boys were frequently sent by the authorities on\nshore to be confined in the ship as a punishment for slight offenses.\nThere were several on board at the time.\n\n2. After dinner, the free use of wine made the company hilarious, and\ntoasts and songs were frequently called for. A lieutenant remarked to\nthe admiral, \"There is a Yankee lad confined below who can shame any of\nus in singing.\"\n\n3. \"Bring him up,\" said the admiral. \"Yes, bring him up,\" said\nPrescott. The boy was brought to the cabin. He was pale and slender,\nand about thirteen years of age. Abashed by the presence of great\nofficers, with their glittering uniforms, he timidly approached, when\nthe admiral, seeing his embarrassment, spoke kindly to him, and asked\nhim to sing a song.\n\n4. \"I can't sing any but Yankee songs,\" said the trembling boy. \"Come,\nmy little fellow, don't be afraid,\" said the admiral. \"Sing one of your\nYankee songs--any one you can recollect.\"\n\n[Illustration]\n\n5. The boy still hesitated, when the brutal Prescott, who was a\nstranger to the lad, roared out: \"Sing us a song, or I will give you a\ndozen with the cat!\" But the admiral interfered and told him to sing,\nand he should be set at liberty the next morning. Thus encouraged, the\nlad sang the following ballad, composed by a sailor at Newport:\n\n  6.  \"'Twas on a dark and stormy night,\n        The wind and waves did roar;\n      Bold Barton then, with twenty men,\n        Went down upon the shore.\n\n  7.  \"And in a whale-boat they set off,\n        To Rhode Island fair,\n      To catch, a red-coat general\n        Who then resided there.\n\n  8.  \"Through British fleets and guard-boats strong\n        They held their dangerous way,\n      Till they arrived unto their port,\n        And then did not delay.\n\n  9.  \"A tawny son of Afric's race\n        Them through the ravine led,\n      And entering then the Overton house,\n        They found him in his bed.\n\n  10. \"But to get in they had no means\n        Except poor Cuffie's head,\n      Who beat the door down, then rushed in.\n        And seized him in his bed.\n\n  11. \"'Stop! let me put my clothing on,'\n        The general then did pray;\n      'Your clothing, massa, I will take,\n        For dress we can not stay,'\n\n  12. \"Then through rye-stubble him they led,\n        With shoes and clothing none,\n      And placed him in their boat quite snug,\n        And from the shore were gone.\n\n  13. \"Soon the alarm was sounded loud,\n        'The Yankees they have come,\n      And stolen Prescott from his bed,\n        And him have carried home!'\n\n  14. \"The drums were beat, sky-rockets flew,\n        The soldiers shouldered arms,\n      And marched around the ground they knew,\n        Filled with most dire alarms.\n\n  15. \"But through the fleet with muffled oars\n        They held their devious way,\n      And landed him on 'Gansett shores,\n        Where Britons held no sway.\n\n  16. \"When unto land the captors came,\n        When rescue there was none,\n      'A bold push this,' the general cried;\n        'Of prisoners I am one.'\"\n\n17. The boy was frequently interrupted by roars of laughter at\nPrescott's expense, which strengthened the child's nerves and voice;\nand when he had concluded his song, \"I thought,\" wrote a gentleman who\nwas present, \"the deck would go through with the stamping.\" General\nPrescott joined heartily in the merriment produced by the song, and,\nthrusting his hand into his pocket, he pulled out a coin, and handed it\nto the boy, saying, \"Here, you young dog, is a guinea for you!\" The boy\nwas set at liberty the next morning, and went ashore.\n\n\n_XIX.--BATTLE OF THE KEGS._\n\n1. In 1777, while the British occupied Philadelphia, Washington made an\neffort to destroy their shipping. He caused torpedoes to be constructed\nin the form of strong kegs, and launched in the river, hoping that\nthe tide would float them against the British ships, when they would\nexplode. But the British discovered them, and for a time were greatly\nfrightened. Then they opened upon them a furious cannonade; and for the\nnext twenty-four hours they fired at everything that floated in the\nwater. Mr. Hopkinson, the author of \"Hail, Columbia,\" has given the\nfollowing amusing account of this battle:\n\n  2.  Gallants attend, and hear a friend\n        Trill forth harmonious ditty;\n      Strange things I'll tell, which late befell\n        In Philadelphia city.\n\n  3.  'Twas early day, as poets say,\n        Just when the sun was rising,\n      A soldier stood on log of wood,\n        And saw a sight surprising.\n\n  4.  As in his maze, he stood to gaze,\n        The truth can't be denied, sir,\n      He spied a score of kegs or more\n        Come driving down the tide, sir.\n\n  5.  A sailor too, in jerkin blue,\n        The strange appearance viewing,\n      First rubbed his eyes in great surprise,\n        Then said, \"Some mischief's brewing.\"\n\n  6.  The soldier flew, the sailor too,\n        And, scared almost to death, sir\n      Wore out their shoes to spread the news,\n        And ran till out of breath, sir.\n\n  7.  Now up and down, throughout the town,\n        Most frantic scenes were acted;\n      And some ran here, and others there,\n        Like men almost distracted.\n\n   8. Some fire cried, which some denied,\n        But said the earth had quaked;\n      And girls and boys, with hideous noise,\n        Ran through the streets half naked.\n\n   9. Now in a fright, Howe starts upright,\n        Awaked by such a clatter;\n      He rubs both eyes, and boldly cries,\n        \"For God's sake, what's the matter?\"\n\n  10. At his bedside he then espied\n        Sir Erskine at command, sir;\n      Upon one foot he had one boot,\n        And 'tother in his hand, sir.\n\n  11. \"Arise! arise!\" Sir Erskine cries,\n        \"The rebels--more's the pity--\n      Without a boat, are all afloat,\n        And ranged before the city!\n\n  12. \"The motley crew, on vessels new,\n        With Satan for their guide, sir,\n      Packed up in bags, or wooden kegs,\n        Come driving down the tide, sir.\n\n  13. \"Therefore prepare for bloody war!\n        These kegs must all be routed;\n      Or surely we despised shall be,\n        And British valor doubted.\"\n\n  14. The royal band, now ready stand,\n        All ranged in dread array, sir;\n      With stomach stout, to see it out,\n        And make a bloody day, sir.\n\n  15. The cannons roar from shore to shore,\n        The small-arms loud did rattle;\n      Since war began, I'm sure no man\n        E'er saw so strange a battle.\n\n  16. The rebel dales, the rebel vales,\n        With rebel trees surrounded,\n      The distant woods, the hills and floods,\n        With rebel echoes sounded.\n\n  17. The kegs, 'tis said, though strongly made\n        Of rebel stones and hoops, sir,\n      Could not oppose their powerful foes,\n        The conquering British troops, sir.\n\n  18. From morn till night, these men of might\n        Displayed amazing courage;\n      And, when the sun was fairly down,\n        Retired to sup their porridge.\n\n  19. Such feats did they perform that day,\n        Against those wicked kegs, sir,\n      That years to come, if they get home,\n        They'll make their boasts and brags, sir.\n\n\n_XX.--THE DARING OF PAUL JONES._\n\n1. It was in the spring of 1778 that the name of John Paul Jones became\nso terrible along the western coasts of Britain--his native coasts, as\nfamiliar to him as to a Solway fisherman.\n\n2. And what a tough, valiant, intractable, audacious hero he was, with\nhis foppish ways and costume, his romantic, fantastic courtesy and\nenthusiasm! He had been a Nelson, if he had had Nelson's opportunities.\nHe was a little man, too, like Nelson, though compactly built, and his\nvoice was \"soft and still, and small, and his eye had keenness and\nsoftness in it, and, full as he was of the spirit of mastery, he was\nall gentleness, consideration, generosity, to men who obeyed him.\" Like\nall the greatest fighters, he performed his immortal exploits while he\nwas young; he was but thirty-two when he did his greatest day's work.\n\n3. On the southwestern coast of Scotland John Paul Jones was born.\nNothing could keep him from the sea. At twelve he was apprenticed to a\nmerchant in the American trade, in whose ships he served seven years,\nas cabin-boy, and sailor before the mast. At the age of twenty-four\nwe find him settled in Tobago, engaged in commerce, and possessing\nconsiderable property. In 1774 he came to the colonies. The Revolution\nbreaking out, he obtained a lieutenant's commission in the forming navy\nof the United States. He acquired sudden and very great distinction.\nIn one short cruise he took sixteen prizes, of which he burned eight\nand sent in eight. He had some sharp actions with king's ships, and\ncaptured one, which had on board a company of British troops, and ten\nthousand suits of clothes--a most precious acquisition in 1776.\n\n4. It was Paul Jones who first hoisted the Stars and Stripes. On the\nvery day, June 14, 1777, on which Congress resolved that \"the flag of\nthe thirteen United States be thirteen stars, white in a blue field,\nrepresenting a new constellation,\" they also resolved that \"Captain\nPaul Jones be appointed to command the ship Ranger.\" As he had been the\nfirst to hoist the flag of the United States on a ship-of-war, so, on\nentering the harbor of Brest in February, 1778, seven days after the\nsigning of the treaty of alliance, he was the first naval officer who\nhad the pleasure of acknowledging a salute to that flag from a foreign\npower.\n\n5. Soon after, Captain Jones sailed in the Ranger for the Scottish\ncoast, on his first cruise in British waters. On the seventh day he\nwas between the Isle of Man and Whitehaven waters, which he knew as\nfamiliarly as New-Yorkers do the Narrows. Whitehaven was the town at\nwhich he had been apprenticed, and from which he had sailed for ten\nyears. It was a town of several thousand inhabitants, and its harbor\ncontained three or four hundred vessels closely moored together. Jones\nhad formed the daring scheme of running in near the port, landing two\nparties, burning all these ships, and retiring before an armed force\ncould be raised to repel him.\n\n6. At midnight, with two boats and thirty-one men, provided with\ncombustibles and dark-lanterns, he left his ship and made for\nWhitehaven pier. Day was dawning when he reached it, for the light\nwind had made him hours too late in starting. He would not abandon the\nenterprise, however, unpromising as it seemed. Sending one boat to the\nnorth side of the harbor to fire the vessels collected there, he went\nhimself to do the same office to the stranded fleet on the south side.\n\n7. Familiar with every foot of the ground he had to traverse, he boldly\nlanded under the guns of the two forts that protected the harbor,\nand he himself climbed the wall of one of them, and spiked every\ngun, without giving alarm. All the sentinels, he found, had gone to\nthe guard-house, and there he secured and disarmed every one of them\nwithout giving or receiving a scratch. Then, accompanied by one man,\nhe scaled the other fort and spiked its guns. Returning to the pier to\nbegin the conflagration, he found there the other boat, which had come\nback for a light, the candles in the lanterns having burned out. Jones\nnow discovered that all his own candles were consumed, and there was\nnot in either boat a spark of fire, or the means of kindling one. The\nday, too, had dawned, and every second was precious. Nevertheless, he\nsent one of his men to a house near by for a light, who soon returned\nsuccessful, and the boats again separated for the work of destruction.\n\n8. Ten minutes later a barrel of fat, ignited in the steerage of a\nship that lay surrounded by a hundred and fifty others, all left high\nand dry by the receded tide, shot a bolt of roaring flame through the\nhatchway. The people of the town, in hundreds, were soon running to the\npier. Captain Jones stood by the side of the burning vessel, pistol in\nhand, and ordered the crowd to keep their distance, which they did.\nNot till the flames had caught the rigging and wreathed about the\nmainmast, not till the sun was an hour high, not till the whole town\nwas rushing amazed to the scene, did Jones give the order to embark.\n\n9. His men entered the boats without opposition, the captain releasing,\nat the last moment, all his prisoners but three, who were all he had\nroom for. He stood on the pier till his men were seated in the boats,\nand for some little time after; then, stepping gracefully into his\nplace, he gave the word, the oars splashed into the water, and they\nmoved toward the ship, while from every eminence in the vicinity\nhundreds and thousands of silent, astonished spectators gazed upon the\nunearthly scene.\n\n10. \"To the forts!\" was the cry on shore, as soon as the spell of the\nenemy's presence was removed. \"Their disappointment,\" says Jones, \"may\neasily be imagined, when they found at least thirty heavy cannon, the\ninstruments of their vengeance, rendered useless! At length, however,\nthey began to fire, having, as I apprehend, either brought down\nship-guns, or used one or two cannon which lay on the beach dismounted,\nand had not been spiked. They fired with no direction, and the shot\nfalling short of the boats, instead of doing us any damage, afforded\nsome diversion, which my people could not help showing, by discharging\ntheir pistols in return for the salute.\" The people of the town\nsucceeded in confining the ravages of the fire to a few ships. Had it\nbeen possible, he remarks, to have landed a few hours sooner, he could\nhave burned three hundred vessels.\n\n\n_XXI-FORT MOULTRIE._\n\n1. Early in 1776 Governor Rutledge, of South Carolina, built Fort\nMoultrie, to protect Charleston from an attack by sea. The fort was\nbuilt of palmetto-wood, which is soft, but very tough and springy.\nIn the middle of the fort was a low place scooped out of the earth,\ndesigned to hold water. Before the fort was finished, the British\nadmiral, Sir Peter Parker, with two large ships-of-war, made his\nappearance off the harbor. Colonel Moultrie commanded within the fort.\nHis men were all militia, and had never been in battle before.\n\n2. Sir Peter commenced a furious attack upon the fort from his\nprincipal ships. But the balls entered the soft palmetto-wood and did\nno damage. Shells were thrown into the fort, struck in the interior\nditch, which on the day of battle was filled with mud, instead of\nwater, and the fuses were put out, or the shells burst and did no other\ndamage than covering the men with a thick coat of mud. All day long the\nships kept up their terrible broadsides, and all day long did the brave\nmilitiamen in the fort return the fire slowly but with good aim. It\nwould not do to waste fire, as powder was low; and several times during\nthe battle the gunners were obliged to stop firing until a new supply\nof powder came in from the city.\n\n3. In the meantime, the people in the city were fearful and anxious;\nthat small, half-finished fort was all that stood between them and\ncapture. They could hardly believe that Colonel Moultrie with his raw\ntroops could resist the attack of a formidable British fleet. All day\nlong they heard the boom of the cannon, and all day long the steeples\nand roofs of houses were crowded with anxious spectators. With joy,\nthey saw the ships crawl away toward night, fearfully cut up, while\nthe fort continued its firing as the powder came slowly in. Then the\nbells rang, and a shout went up, that cheered the hearts of the brave\ngarrison at the fort. One of the ships got aground, and was set on\nfire and burned up. Only ten of the militia were killed, and twenty-two\nwounded, while the loss on the ships numbered hundreds.\n\n[Illustration]\n\n4. One incident of this battle is worthy of note. During the action,\nthe flag-staff was shot away, and the flag fell to the earth outside\nthe fort. Sergeant William Jasper at once jumped over the parapet,\npicked up the flag, and, amid the storm of iron from the fleet, he\nfastened it to a staff and set it up once more, and then leaped unhurt\ninto the fort. The next morning Governor Rutledge publicly thanked\nJasper, and gave him a small sword that hung by his side. Three years\nlater the gallant sergeant was killed in the attack upon Savannah.\n\n\n_XXII.--COUNT PULASKI AND HIS BANNER_\n\n1. Count Casimer Pulaski was a native of Poland. At an early age he\nentered the army, where he soon became a leader of a patriotic movement\nto rid Poland at once of an unpopular king and of Russian rule. His\nlittle army was defeated, and in 1771 he entered the service of the\nTurks, then at war with Russia. In 1776 he went to Paris and had an\ninterview with Dr. Franklin, and resolved to enter the service of the\nUnited States. He sailed for America the next year, and was placed by\nWashington in command of cavalry. He proved a very valuable acquisition\nto the American cause. His familiarity with military affairs enabled\nhim to bring his corps to a high degree of efficiency in regard to\ndiscipline, and in battle he was a very thunderbolt. He was stationed\nalong the New Jersey coast, keeping watch of the British during the\ngreater part of 1778; and the next spring he was ordered south to\nassist General Lincoln and the Count d'Estaing in the reduction of\nSavannah.\n\n2. This enterprise, planned by Washington with every prospect of\nsuccess, met with a series of mishaps and disasters from the very\nfirst. The troops were tardy in concentrating, enabling the British\ncommander to complete measures of defense which at first were very\nimperfect. Then there was a want of co-operation between the American\nforces and their French allies. When everything was in readiness,\nCount d'Estaing granted the British commander twenty-four hours truce,\nwhich he employed to so good a purpose that the idea of an assault was\nabandoned, and the operations were turned into a siege. For twelve days\nthere was constant battle, ending in a general assault. No troops ever\nfought better, but they were driven back from the strong fortifications\nof the enemy with great loss. The golden moment was lost, and the great\nsacrifice of life was in vain. Count Pulaski was in the van of the\nfight during all these anxious days, and was stricken down at the very\nlast moment, a hero dying for our freedom.\n\n3. In 1777 Pulaski visited Lafayette while that officer was wounded,\nand under the care of the Moravian nuns, at Bethlehem, Pennsylvania.\nWhen it became known that the brave Pole was raising a company of\ncavalry, the nuns prepared a banner of crimson silk, beautifully\nwrought with the needle by their own hands, and sent it to Pulaski with\ntheir blessing. This banner he received with grateful thanks, and took\nit with him in every battle to the day of his death. The story of this\nbanner is beautifully told by Longfellow:\n\n  4.  \"When the dying flame of day\n      Through the chancel shot its ray,\n      Far the gleaming tapers shed\n      Faint light on the cowl\u00e8d head;\n      And the censer burning swung,\n      When before the altar hung\n      That proud banner, which with prayer\n      Had been consecrated there;\n    And the nuns' sweet hymn was heard the while,\n    Sung low in the dim, mysterious aisle.\n\n  5.  \"Take thy banner. May it wave\n      Proudly o'er the good and brave,\n      When the battle's distant wail\n      Breaks the Sabbath of our vale;\n      When the clarion's music thrills\n      To the hearts of these lone hills;\n      When the spear in conflict shakes,\n      And the strong lance, shivering, breaks.\n\n  6.  \"Take thy banner; and, beneath\n      The war-cloud's encircling wreath,\n      Guard it--till our homes are free--\n      Guard it--God will prosper thee!\n      In the dark and trying hour,\n      In the breaking forth of power,\n      In the rush of steeds and men,\n      His right hand will shield thee then.\n\n  7.  \"Take thy banner. But when night\n      Closes round the ghastly fight,\n      If the vanquished warrior bow,\n      Spare him--by our holy vow;\n      By our prayers and many tears;\n      By the mercy that endears--\n      Spare him--he our love hath shared;\n      Spare him as thou wouldst be spared.\n\n  8.  \"Take thy banner, and, if e'er\n      Thou shouldst press the soldier's bier.\n      And the muffled drums should beat\n      To the tread of mournful feet,\n      Then this common flag shall be\n      Martial cloak and shroud for thee.\n    And the warrior took that banner proud.\n    And it was his martial cloak and shroud.\"\n\n\n_XXIII.--LYDIA DARRAH._\n\n1. While the British were in Philadelphia, one of Howe's principal\nofficers made his quarters at the house of a Quaker named William\nDarrah. His wife, Lydia, was a true patriot, but she said so little,\nand performed her household work so well, that she won the entire\nconfidence of her guest. One day he said to her, \"I expect some friends\nto call this evening, and they will stay late, so have your family out\nof the way early.\" This order aroused her curiosity, and, when her\nfamily were in bed, she took off her shoes and went into the passage\nand listened to what was going on. She heard one of the officers read\nan order of Sir William Howe for the troops to march out the next night\nsilently, and surprise Washington in his quarters. She went back to\nbed, and, when it was time for her to get up and let out the visitors,\nshe was apparently fast asleep. She formed her plans during the night,\nand, early in the morning, she awakened her husband and told him that\nflour was wanted for family use, and that she must go to Frankford to\nget it.\n\n2. It was a cold morning in December, and a deep snow covered the\nground. On foot, with a bag in her hand, she set out, calling at Howe's\nheadquarters for a permit to leave the city. At an early hour she\nreached Frankford, and, leaving her bag at the mill, she went on until\nshe reached the American outposts. Here she met Colonel Craig, who had\nbeen sent out by Washington to get what news he could of the enemy.\nTo him Mrs. Darrah told her story, and then went back to the mill,\nshouldered her flour, and hastened home.\n\n3. From her window, the next night, in the cold starlight, she watched\nthe British troops as they marched silently out of town, and a few\nhours later she saw them on their way back from their \"fool's errand.\"\nThe officer came home and bade Lydia go to his room. With an air of\ngreat secrecy he said, \"Were any of your family up on the night when I\nhad company in my room?\" \"No,\" she replied; \"they all retired at eight\no'clock.\" \"It is very strange,\" said the officer. \"You, I know, was\nasleep, for I knocked on your door three times before you heard me.\nBut, by some means, our plans became known, for, when we went out, we\nfound Washington ready to receive us, with his cannon mounted and his\ntroops under arms, so we were compelled to march back like a parcel of\nfools.\"\n\n\n_XXIV.--THE LIBERTY-BELL._\n\n1. The old State-House at Philadelphia still stands, and is preserved\nwith the greatest care. Thousands of people from all parts of the\nUnited States visit it every year, for here Congress met in 1776, and\nhere the Declaration of Independence was signed, July 4th. In the\nState-House is kept the old Liberty-Bell, which is thought almost as\nsacred as the house itself.\n\n2. This bell was bought in England, in 1752, for the State-House. It\nwas then the largest bell in America. Upon the first trial-ringing it\ncracked, and it hung unused in the steeple for a year. It was then\ntaken down and recast, with these words in relief letters around its\ntop: \"_Proclaim liberty throughout the land, unto all the inhabitants\nthereof._\" In the hall underneath this very bell, twelve years later,\nCongress did indeed proclaim liberty, and the joyful ringing of\nthis bell first told the crowd of anxious people without that the\nDeclaration of Independence had been passed. For two hours the tones\nof the bell floated down from above and mingled with the roll of drums,\nthe booming of cannon, and shouts of the multitudes below.\n\n[Illustration]\n\n3. After more than fifty years of service, the bell was cracked again,\nand rendered useless. It is now kept as a sacred relic of the past. The\nfollowing is the last stanza of a poem upon the old bell by William\nRoss Wallace:\n\n  4.  \"That old bell is still seen by the patriot's eye,\n      And he blesses it ever, when journeying by;\n      Long years have passed o'er it, and yet every soul\n      Will thrill, in the night, to its wonderful roll;\n      For it speaks to its belfry when kissed by the blast,\n      Like a glory-breathed tone from the mystical past.\n      Long years shall roll o'er it, and yet every chime\n      Shall unceasingly tell of an era sublime;\n      Oh, yes! if the flame on our altars should pale,\n        Let its voice but be heard, and the freeman will start,\n      To rekindle the fire, while he sees on the gale\n        All the stars and the stripes of the flag of his heart.\"\n\n\n_XXV.--THE TORY'S HORSE._\n\n1. While Cornwallis was virtually master of the Carolinas, raids were\nmade in all directions to prevent the patriots from assembling, and to\nbreak up the bands of Sumter and Marion, which had proved to be very\nannoying to the British commander. The most noted commander of these\nraids was Colonel Tarleton, who displayed great activity in plundering\nand burning the homes of the patriots. Some of the planters were\nTories, and eagerly welcomed the British troops.\n\n2. While Tarleton was out on one of his raids, Macdonald, a young\nScotchman, one of Marion's men, played a curious trick on an old\nTory, who lived in the neighborhood. As soon as he heard that Colonel\nTarleton had encamped, he dressed himself in the British uniform, and\nearly in the morning called upon the Tory, and said to him:\n\n3. \"Colonel Tarleton sends his compliments, and, knowing you to be a\ngood friend of the king, begs you will send him one of your best horses\nfor a charger, to help drive the rebels out of the country.\"\n\n4. \"Send him one of my finest horses!\" cried the old Tory, his eyes\nsparkling with joy. \"Yes, Mr. Sergeant, that I will. A good friend\nof the king did he call me? Yes, God save his sacred majesty, a good\nfriend I am, indeed, and true! And faith I am glad, too, that the\ncolonel knows it. Here, Dick, run, jump, fly, you rascal, to the\nstable, and bring me out Selim. Young Selim! Do you hear?\"\n\n5. Then, turning to Macdonald, he went on: \"Well, Mr. Sergeant, you\nhave made me confounded glad this morning, you may depend! And now,\nsuppose you take a glass of peach--of good old peach, Mr. Sergeant?\nDo you think it would do you any harm?\" \"Why, they say it is good on\na rainy morning, sir,\" replied Macdonald. \"Oh, yes, famous of a rainy\nmorning, Mr. Sergeant--a mighty _antifogmatic_. It prevents the ague,\nMr. Sergeant, and clears the throat of the cob webs, sir.\"\n\n6. \"Your honor's health!\" said Macdonald, as he turned off a bumper of\nthe strong cordial. But scarcely had he smacked his lips, before Dick\nparaded Selim, a proud, full-blooded steed, that stepped as though he\ndisdained the earth he walked upon.\n\n[Illustration]\n\n7. Here the old fellow broke out again: \"There, Mr. Sergeant, there\nis a horse for you! A charger fit for a king. Well, my compliments to\nColonel Tarleton. Tell him I have sent him my young Selim--my Grand\nTurk. Say to him that he is too noble for me, and that the only work\nfit for him is to drive the rebels out of the country.\" And, to send\nSelim off in high style, he ordered Dick to bring down his new saddle\nand holsters, with his silver-mounted pistols. Then, giving Macdonald a\nhot breakfast, and lending him a great-coat, as it was raining, he let\nhim go.\n\n8. The next morning he waited upon Colonel Tarleton, and told his\nname, with the smiling countenance of one who expected to be eaten up\nwith fondness. But Tarleton treated him as an entire stranger. After\nrecovering a little, he bluntly asked Colonel Tarleton how he liked\nhis charger. \"Charger, sir!\" replied Tarleton. \"Yes, sir, the elegant\nhorse I sent you yesterday by your sergeant.\" \"An elegant horse by my\nsergeant? I really don't understand this!\"\n\n9. The looks and voice of Colonel Tarleton too sadly convinced the\nold traitor that he had been bit, and that young Selim was gone.\nTo have been outwitted in this manner by a rebel--to have lost his\npeach-brandy, his hot breakfast, his great-coat, his new saddle, his\nsilver-mounted pistols, and, worse than all, his darling horse, his\nyoung, full-blooded, bounding Selim--the sense of all these losses\ncame crowding upon him so suddenly that the old sinner liked to have\nsuffocated on the spot. He grew black in the face, and as soon as he\ncould recover breath he broke out into a torrent of curses against the\nrebels generally, and Macdonald in particular.\n\n10. And Selim! a noble horse he was indeed! Full sixteen hands high,\nwith the eye of a hawk, the spirit of a king-eagle, the chest of a\nlion, swifter than a roebuck, and strong as a buffalo! Macdonald kept\nSelim up lustily to the top of his mettle. The horse soon learned his\nmaster's ways, and at the first glimpse of the red-coats he would paw\nand champ his bit with rage; and the moment he heard the word \"Go!\" off\nhe was among them like a thunderbolt.\n\n\n_XXVI.--GENERAL SCHUYLER._\n\n1. In the year 1781 the war was chiefly carried on in the South, but\nthe North was constantly troubled by parties of Tories and Indians, who\nwould swoop down on some small settlements, and make off with whatever\nthey could lay their hands on.\n\n2. During this time General Schuyler was staying at his house, which\nstood just outside the stockade or walls of Albany. The British\ncommander sent out a party of Tories and Indians to capture General\nSchuyler.\n\n3. When they reached the outskirts of the city, they learned from\na Dutch laborer, whom they had taken, that the general's house was\nguarded by six soldiers, three watching by night, and three by day.\nThey then let the Dutchman go, after making him swear an oath of\nsecrecy. This oath he did not keep very strictly, for, the minute the\nband was out of sight, he took to his short legs and warned the general\nof their approach.\n\n4. On one of those scorching August days, when you feel as if you\nhardly had energy enough to move, and when the very trees droop their\ndusty leaves, too lazy to hold up their heads, Schuyler and his family\nwere sitting in the large hall, when a servant entered and told the\ngeneral that there was a strange man at the back door who wished to see\nhim.\n\n5. Schuyler, understanding the trap, gathered his family in one of the\nupper rooms, and, giving orders that the doors and windows should be\nbarred, fired a pistol from one of the top-story windows to alarm the\nneighborhood. The guards, who had been lounging in the shade of a tree,\nstarted to their feet at the sound of the pistol; but, alas! too late,\nfor they found themselves surrounded by a crowd of dusky figures, who\nbound them hand and foot, before they had time to resist.\n\n6. In the room up-stairs was the sturdy general, standing resolutely\nby the door, with his gun in hand, his black slaves gathered around\nhim, each with some weapon. At the other end of the room the women were\nhuddled together, some weeping, some praying. Suddenly, a crash is\nheard, which chills the very blood, and brings vividly to each one's\nmind the tales of Indian massacres so common at that day. The band had\nbroken in at one of the windows.\n\n7. At that moment, Mrs. Schuyler springing to her feet, rushed to the\ndoor; for she remembered that the baby, only a few months old, having\nbeen forgotten in the hour of flight, was asleep in its cradle on the\nfirst floor. But the general, catching her in his arms, told her that\nher life was of more value than her child's, and that, if any one must\ngo, he would. While, however, this generous struggle was going on, the\nthird daughter, gliding past them, was soon at the side of the cradle.\nAll was as black as night in the hall, save for a small patch of light\njust at the foot of the stairs; this came from the dining-room, where\nthe Indians could be seen pillaging the shelves, pulling down the\nchina, and quarreling with one another over their ill-gotten booty.\n\n[Illustration]\n\n8. How to get past the spot was the question, but the girl did not\nhesitate. She reached the cradle unobserved, and was just darting\nback with her precious burden, when, by ill-luck, one of the savages\nhappened to see her. Whiz! went his sharp tomahawk, within a few inches\nof the baby's head, and, clearing the edge of the brave girl's dress,\nstuck deep in the stair-rail.\n\n9. Just then one of the Tories, seeing her flit by, and supposing\nher to be a servant, called after her, \"Wench, wench, where is your\nmaster?\" She, stopping a moment, called back, \"Gone to alarm the town!\"\nand, hurrying on, was soon again with her father up-stairs.\n\n10. And now, nearly all the plunder having been secured, the band\nwas about to proceed to the real object of the expedition, when the\ngeneral, raising one of the windows, called out in lusty tones, as if\ncommanding a large body of men: \"Come on, my brave fellows! Surround\nthe house! Secure the villains who are plundering!\" The cowards knew\nthat voice, and they each and every one of them took to the woods as\nfast as their legs would carry them, leaving the general in possession\nof the field.\n\n\n_XXVII.--ODE._\n\n  1.  How sleep the brave who sink to rest,\n      With all their country's wishes blest!\n      When Spring, with dewy fingers cold,\n      Returns to deck their hallowed mold,\n      She then shall dress a sweeter sod\n      Than Fancy's feet have ever trod.\n\n  2.  By fairy-hands their knell is rung;\n      By forms unseen their dirge is sung;\n      Then Honor comes, a pilgrim gray,\n      To bless the turf that wraps their clay;\n      And Freedom shall awhile repair.\n      And dwell a weeping hermit there.\n\n  --_Collins_\n\n\n\n\nSCOTTISH STORIES.\n\n\n_XXVIII.--EDINBURGH CASTLE._\n\n1. While Robert Bruce was gradually getting possession of the country,\nand driving out the English, Edinburgh, the principal town of Scotland,\nremained with its strong castle in possession of the invaders. Sir\nThomas Randolph was extremely desirous to gain this important place,\nbut the castle is situated on a very steep and lofty rock, so that it\nis difficult, or almost impossible even, to get up to the foot of the\nwalls, much more to climb over them. So, while Randolph was considering\nwhat was to be done, there came to him a Scottish gentleman, named\nFrancis, who had joined Bruce's standard, and asked to speak with him\nin private. He then told Randolph that in his youth he had lived in the\ncastle of Edinburgh, and that his father had then been governor of the\nfortress.\n\n2. It happened at that time that Francis was much in love with a lady\nwho lived in a part of the town beneath the castle, which is called the\nGrass-Market. Now, as he could not get out of the castle by day to see\nhis mistress, he had practiced a way of clambering by night down the\ncastle crag on the steep side, and returning up at his pleasure; when\nhe came to the foot of the wall he made use of a ladder to get over\nit, as it was not very high on that point, those who built it having\ntrusted to the steepness of the crag. Francis had gone and come so\nfrequently in this dangerous manner that, though it was now long ago,\nhe told Randolph he knew the road so well that he would undertake to\nguide a small party of men by night to the bottom of the wall, and, as\nthey might bring ladders with them, there would be no difficulty in\nscaling it. The great risk was that of their being discovered by the\nwatchmen while in the act of ascending the cliff, in which case every\nman of them must perish.\n\n3. Nevertheless, Randolph did not hesitate to attempt the adventure. He\ntook with him only thirty men, and came one dark night to the foot of\nthe crag, which they began to ascend under the guidance of Francis, who\nwent before them, upon his hands and feet, where there was scarce room\nto support themselves. All the while these thirty men were obliged to\nfollow in a line, one after the other, by a path that was fitter for a\ncat than for a man. The noise of a stone falling, or a word spoken from\none to another, would have alarmed the watchmen. They were obliged,\ntherefore, to move with the greatest precaution. When they were far up\nthe crag, and near the foundation of the wall, they heard the guards\ngoing their rounds, to see that all was safe in and about the castle.\n\n4. Randolph and his party had nothing for it but to lie close and\nquiet, each man under the crag, as he happened to be placed, and trust\nthat the guards would pass by without noticing them. And while they\nwere waiting in breathless alarm, they got a new cause of fright.\nOne of the soldiers of the castle, willing to startle his comrades,\nsuddenly threw a stone from the wall, and cried out, \"Aha! I see you\nwell!\" The stone came thundering down over the heads of Randolph and\nhis men, who naturally thought themselves discovered. If they had\nstirred, or made the slightest noise, they would have been destroyed,\nfor the soldiers above might have killed every man of them, merely by\nrolling down stones. But being courageous and chosen men, they remained\nquiet, and the English soldiers, who thought their comrade was merely\nplaying them a trick (as indeed he was), passed on, without further\nexamination.\n\n5. Then Randolph and his men got up and came in haste to the foot of\nthe wall, which was not above twice a man's height in that place.\nThey planted the ladders they had brought, and Francis mounted first\nto show them the way; Sir Andrew Grey, a brave knight, followed him;\nand Randolph himself was the third man who got over. Then the rest\nfollowed. When once they were within the walls, there was not so much\nto do, for the garrison were asleep, and unarmed, excepting the watch,\nwho were speedily destroyed. Thus was Edinburgh Castle taken, in the\nyear 1312-'13.\n\n\n_XXIX.--SCOTTISH STRATEGY._\n\n1. There was a strong castle near Linlithgow, where an English\ngovernor, with a powerful garrison, lay in readiness to support the\nEnglish cause, and used to exercise much severity upon the Scotch\nin the neighborhood. There lived, at no great distance from this\nstronghold, a farmer, a bold and stout man, whose name was Binnock,\nor, as it is now pronounced, Binning. This man saw with great joy the\nprogress which the Scotch were making in recovering their country from\nthe English, and resolved to do something to help his countrymen, by\ngetting possession, if it were possible, of the Castle of Linlithgow.\nBut the place was very strong, situated by the side of a lake, defended\nnot only by gates, which were usually kept shut against strangers,\nbut also by a portcullis. A portcullis is a sort of door formed of\ncross-bars of iron, like a gate. It has not hinges like a door, but is\ndrawn up by pulleys, and let down when any danger approaches. It may\nbe let go in a moment, and then falls down into the doorway, and, as\nit has great iron spikes at the bottom, it crushes all that it lights\nupon; and in case of a sudden alarm, a portcullis may be let suddenly\nfall, to defend the entrance when it is not possible to shut the gates.\nBinnock knew this very well, but he resolved to be provided against\nthis risk also when he attempted to surprise the castle.\n\n2. So he spoke with some bold, courageous countrymen, and engaged\nthem in the enterprise, which he accomplished thus: Binnock had been\naccustomed to supply the garrison of Linlithgow with hay, and he had\nbeen ordered by the English governor to furnish some cart-loads, of\nwhich they were in want. He promised to bring it accordingly; but, in\nthe night before he drove the hay to the castle, he stationed a party\nof his friends, as well armed as possible, near the entrance, where\nthey could not be seen by the garrison, and gave them directions that\nthey should come to his assistance as soon as they should hear him\ngive a signal, which was to be, \"Call all, call all!\" Then he loaded\nhis cart, and placed eight strong men, well armed, lying flat on their\nbreasts, and covered over with hay, so that they could not be seen. He\nhimself walked carelessly beside the wagon; and he chose the stoutest\nand bravest of his servants to be the driver, who carried at his belt a\nstout axe or hatchet.\n\n3. In this way Binnock approached the castle early in the morning; and\nthe watchman, who only saw two men, Binnock being one of them, with\na cart of hay, which they expected, opened the gates, and raised up\nthe portcullis to permit them to enter the castle. But as soon as the\ncart had got under the gateway, Binnock made a sign to his servant,\nwho with his axe suddenly cut asunder the soam (that is, the yoke which\nfastens the horses to the cart), and the horses, finding themselves\nfree, naturally started forward, the cart remaining behind. At the same\nmoment Binnock cried, as loud as he could, \"Call all, call all!\" and\ndrawing his sword, which he had under his country habit, he killed the\nporter. The armed men then jumped up from under the hay, where they lay\nconcealed, and rushed on the English guard. The Englishmen tried to\nshut the gates, but they could not, because the cart of hay remained\nin the gateway, and prevented the folding-doors from being closed. The\nportcullis was also let fall, but the grating was caught on the cart,\nand so could not drop to the ground. The men who were in ambush near\nthe gate, hearing the cry, \"Call all, call all!\" ran to assist those\nwho had leaped out from among the hay; the castle was taken, and all\nthe Englishmen killed or made prisoners. King Robert rewarded Binnock\nby bestowing on him an estate, which his posterity afterward enjoyed.\n\n\n_XXX.--CASTLE DANGEROUS._\n\n1. Roxburgh was then a very large castle, situated near where two fine\nrivers, the Tweed and the Teviot, join each other. Being within five\nor six miles of the border, the English were extremely desirous of\nretaining it, and the Scots equally so of obtaining possession of it.\n\n2. It was upon the night of what is called Shrove-tide, a holiday,\nwhich Roman Catholics paid great respect to, and solemnized, with much\ngayety and feasting.\n\n3. Most of the garrison of Roxburgh Castle were feasting and drinking,\nbut still they had set watches on the battlements of the castle, in\ncase of any sudden attack; for, as the Scots had succeeded in so\nmany enterprises of the kind, and as Douglas was known to be in the\nneighborhood, they thought themselves obliged to keep a very strict\nguard.\n\n4. There was also an Englishwoman, the wife of one of the officers, who\nwas sitting on the battlements with her child in her arms, and, looking\nout on the fields below, she saw some black objects, like a herd of\ncattle, straggling in near the foot of the wall, and approaching the\nditch or moat of the castle. She pointed them out to the sentinel, and\nasked him what they were. \"Pooh, pooh!\" said the soldier, \"it is Farmer\nSuch-a-man's cattle\" (naming a man whose farm lay near to the castle).\n\"The good man is keeping a jolly Shrove-tide, and has forgot to shut up\nhis bullocks in their yard; but if the Douglas come across them before\nmorning, he is likely to rue his negligence.\"\n\n5. Now, these creeping objects they saw from the castle were no real\ncattle, but Douglas himself and his soldiers, who had put black cloaks\nabove their armor, and were creeping about on their hands and feet,\nin order, without being observed, to get so near to the foot of the\ncastle-wall as to be able to set ladders to it. The poor woman, who\nknew nothing of this, sat quietly on the wall, and began to sing to her\nchild. You must know that the name of Douglas was become so terrible to\nthe English, that the women used to frighten their children with it,\nand say to them, when they behaved ill, that they would make the Black\nDouglas take them. And this soldier's wife was singing to her child:\n\n      \"Hush ye, hush ye, little pet ye;\n      Hush ye, hush ye, do not fret ye;\n      The Black Douglas shall not get thee.\"\n\n\"You are not so sure of that!\" said a voice close beside her. She felt\nat that moment a heavy hand, with an iron glove, laid on her shoulder,\nand when she looked round, she saw the very Black Douglas, she had been\nsinging about, standing close beside her, a tall, swarthy, strong man.\nAt the same time another Scotsman was seen ascending the walls near to\nthe sentinel. The soldier gave the alarm, and rushed at the Scotsman,\nwhose name was Simon Ledehouse, with his lance; but Simon parried the\nblow, and, closing with the sentinel, struck him a deadly blow with his\ndagger.\n\n[Illustration]\n\n6. The rest of the Scots followed to assist Douglas and Ledehouse,\nand the castle was taken. Many of the soldiers were put to death, but\nDouglas protected the woman and the child. I dare say she made no more\nsongs about the Black Douglas.\n\n\n_XXXI.--THE BLACK AGNES._\n\n1. Among the warlike exploits of this period, we must not forget the\ndefense of the Castle of Dunbar, by the celebrated Countess of March.\nHer lord had embraced the side of David Bruce, and had taken the field\nwith the regent. The countess, who from her complexion was termed\nBlack Agnes, by which name she is still familiarly remembered, was a\nhigh-spirited and courageous woman, the daughter of Thomas Randolph,\nEarl of Moray, and the heiress of his valor and patriotism. The Castle\nof Dunbar itself was very strong, being built upon a chain of rocks\nstretching into the sea, having only one passage to the mainland, which\nwas well fortified. It was besieged by Montague, Earl of Salisbury,\nwho employed to destroy its walls great military engines, constructed\nto throw huge stones, with which machines fortifications were attacked\nbefore the use of cannon.\n\n2. Black Agnes set all his attempts at defiance, and showed herself\nwith her maids on the walls of the castle, wiping the places where the\nhuge stones fell with a clean towel, as if they could do no ill to her\ncastle, save raising a little dust, which a napkin could wipe away. The\nEarl of Salisbury then commanded them to bring forward to the assault\nan engine of another kind, being a species of wooden shed, or house,\nrolled forward on wheels, with a roof of peculiar strength, which from\nresembling the ridge of a hog's back, occasioned the machine to be\ncalled a sow. This, according to the old mode of warfare, was thrust\nup to the walls of a besieged castle or city, and served to protect\nfrom the arrows and stones of the besieged a party of soldiers placed\nwithin the sow, who were in the mean while to undermine the wall, or\nbreak an entrance through it with pick-axes and mining-tools. When the\nCountess of March saw this engine advanced to the walls of the castle,\nshe called out to the Earl of Salisbury in derision, and making a kind\nof rhyme----\n\n      \"Beware, Montagow,\n      For farrow shall thy sow!\"\n\nAt the same time she made a signal, and a huge fragment of rock, which\nhung prepared for the purpose, was dropped down from the wall upon the\nsow, whose roof was thus dashed to pieces. As the English soldiers who\nhad been within it were running away as fast as they could to get out\nof the way of the arrows and stones from the wall, Black Agnes called\nout, \"Behold the litters of English pigs!\"\n\n3. The Earl of Salisbury could jest also on such serious occasions.\nOne day he rode near the walls with a knight dressed in armor of\nproof, having three folds of mail over an acton, or leathern jacket:\nnotwithstanding which, one William Spens shot an arrow with such force\nthat it penetrated all these defenses and reached the heart of the\nwearer. \"That is one of my lady's love-tokens,\" said the earl, as he\nsaw the knight fall dead from his horse. \"Black Agnes's love-shafts\npierce to the heart!\"\n\n4. Upon another occasion, the Countess of March had well-nigh made the\nEarl of Salisbury her prisoner. She made one of her people enter into\na treaty with the besiegers, pretending to betray the castle. Trusting\nto this agreement, the earl came at midnight before the gate, which\nhe found open, and the portcullis drawn up. As Salisbury was about\nto enter, one John Copland, a squire of Northumberland, pressed on\nbefore him, and, as soon as he passed the threshold, the portcullis\nwas dropped; and thus the Scots missed their principal prey, and made\nprisoner only a person of inferior condition.\n\n5. At length, the Castle of Dunbar was relieved by Alexander Ramsay,\nof Dalwolsy, who brought the countess supplies by sea, both of men and\nprovisions. The Earl of Salisbury, learning this, despaired of success,\nand raised the siege, which had lasted nineteen weeks. The minstrels\nmade songs in praise of the perseverance and courage of Black Agnes.\nThe following lines are nearly the sense of what is preserved:\n\n  6.  \"She kept a stir in tower and trench,\n      The brawling, boisterous Scottish wench;\n      Came I early, came I late,\n      I found Agnes at the gate.\"\n\n\n\n\nMISCELLANEOUS STORIES.\n\n\n_XXXII.--A LITTLE MAID._\n\n1. Away off in the beautiful country of Greece, a long, long time ago,\nthere lived a little maiden, the daughter of a king. Her name was\nGorgo--not a very pretty name, perhaps, to us who are used to calling\nlittle girls Maud and Ethel and Helen, but a strong name, and therefore\nquite appropriate to the little maid who bore it, as you shall see.\nIn those old times there used to be many wars, and the country of\nSparta, the part of Greece where Gorgo lived, was famous for its brave\nwarriors, who never thought for a moment of their own safety when their\ncountry was in danger. Sometimes these were not good wars, but wars for\nspite and revenge, instead of for freedom and for loyalty to beautiful\nGreece.\n\n2. Some wicked man would wish to avenge an injury he had received, and\nin order to do this he would go about among the different kingdoms and\npersuade the rulers to join with him and try to overcome his enemy; and\nthen there would be terrible bloodshed in order to satisfy one wicked\nman's revenge. Aristagoras was such a man as this. He was dissatisfied\nwith his king, and wished to become a king himself instead. One day\nhe came to Sparta on this evil errand, and tried to persuade King\nCleomenes, the father of little Gorgo, to help his base project. He\ntalked with the king a long time. He promised him power and honor and\nmoney if he would do as he wished; more and more money, and, as the\nking refused, still more and more money he offered, and at last the\nking almost consented.\n\n3. But it had happened that when Aristagoras had come into the presence\nof the king, the king's little daughter was standing by his side with\nher hand in his. Aristagoras wanted Cleomenes to send her away, for he\nknew very well that it is much harder to induce a man to do something\nwrong when there is a dear little child at his side. But the king had\nsaid, \"No, say what you have to say in her presence, too.\" And so\nlittle Gorgo had sat at her father's feet, looking up into his face\nwith her innocent eyes, and listening intently to all that was said.\nShe felt that something was wrong, and when she saw her father look\ntroubled and hesitate, and cast down his eyes, she knew the strange\nvisitor was trying to make him do something he did not quite want to\ndo. She stole her little hand softly into her father's, and said,\n\"Papa, come away--come, or this strange man will make you do wrong.\"\n\n4. This made the king feel strong again, and, clasping the little\nmaid's hand tightly in his own, he rose and left the tempter, and went\naway with the child who had saved him and his country from dishonor.\nGorgo was only ten years old then, but she was worthy to be a king's\ndaughter, because, being good and true herself, she helped her father\nto be good and true also.\n\n5. When she grew to be a woman she became the wife of a king, and\nthen she showed herself as noble a queen as she had been a princess.\nHer husband was that King Leonidas who stood in the narrow pass of\nThermopyl\u00e6 with his small army, and fought back the great hosts of the\nPersians until he and all his heroic band were killed. But, before this\nhappened, there was a time when the Grecians did not know that the\ngreat Persian army was coming to try and destroy them, and a friend of\ntheirs, who was a prisoner in the country where the great Xerxes lived,\nwishing to warn the Spartans of the coming of the Persians, so that\nthey might prepare, sent a messenger to King Leonidas. But when the\nmessenger arrived, all he had to show for his message was a bare, white\nwaxen tablet. The king and all the lords puzzled over this strange\ntablet a long time, but could make nothing out of it. At last they\nbegan to think it was done for a jest, and did not mean anything.\n\n6. But just then the young Queen Gorgo said, \"Let me take it,\" and\nafter looking it all over she exclaimed, \"There must be some writing\nunderneath the wax!\" They scraped away the wax from the tablet, and\nthere, sure enough, written on the wood beneath, was the message of the\nGrecian prisoner and his warning to King Leonidas.\n\n7. Thus Gorgo helped her country a second time; for, if the Spartans\nhad not known that the army was coming, they could not have warned the\nother kingdoms, and perhaps the Persians would not have been conquered.\nBut as it was, Leonidas and the other kings called their armies\ntogether, and, when the Persian host came sweeping over the plains,\nthe Greeks were ready to meet them, and to fight and die for their\nbeautiful Greece.\n\n8. So this one little maid of hundreds of years ago, princess and\nqueen, helped to save her father from disgrace and her country from\nruin. And we may feel sure that she was strong and true to the last,\neven when her brave husband, Leonidas, lay dead in the fearful pass of\nThermopyl\u00e6, and she was left to mourn in the royal palace at Sparta.\n\n\n_XXXIII.--ALEXANDER SELKIRK._\n\n1. Nearly two hundred years ago, an Englishman, living in London, named\nDaniel Defoe, wrote the story of Robinson Crusoe to interest and amuse\nboys and girls. Only think of it! Before that time nobody knew anything\nabout the lonely island, or about the ship that was wrecked there.\nNobody could know that Robinson was washed ashore and saved. Nobody\ncould see him build his hut, and plan how to live day by day. Nobody\ncould see his tame goats run out to meet him, or hear his parrot cry,\n\"Poor Robinson Crusoe!\" Nobody could form the acquaintance of the\nfaithful man Friday, whom Robinson saved from the cannibals, and who\nbecame such a dear friend to him. None of this could any boy or girl at\nthat time enjoy, because the story had not yet come out of the head of\nDefoe.\n\n2. But, while Robinson Crusoe is a story that never really happened,\nDaniel Defoe had something to make it out of. In 1704 a Scotch sailor,\nnamed Alexander Selkirk, then twenty-eight years old, was left upon\nJuan Fernandez, an uninhabited island in the Pacific, off the coast\nof Chili. He had quarreled with the captain of the ship in which he\nsailed, and the captain sent him ashore to improve his temper. Here he\nlived alone for four years and four months, when, an English vessel\nappearing, he was carried back to his native country.\n\n3. About half of what is said to have happened to Robinson Crusoe\nreally happened to Alexander Selkirk. The hut was built; search was\nmade for food; fish were drawn from the water, and turtles found upon\nthe shore. Cabbage-palm grew in the woods, and, from seeds found in the\nwrecked vessels, turnips, parsnips, and radishes were grown. The goats,\ntoo, were a living reality, and, when his powder gave out, the active\nyoung Scotchman could run down a young goat, and so secure a dinner.\n\n[Illustration]\n\n4. Here this sailor remained during the long years, busy and lonesome.\nThe poet Cowper has supposed that he was made entirely unhappy by\nhis longing for society and friends, and has expressed his supposed\nsentiments in the following poem:\n\n  5.  I am monarch of all I survey;\n        My right there is none to dispute:\n      From the center all round to the sea,\n        I am lord of the fowl and the brute.\n      O Solitude! where are the charms\n        That sages have seen in thy face?\n      Better dwell in the midst of alarms,\n        Than reign in this horrible place.\n\n  6.  I am out of humanity's reach;\n        I must finish my journey alone;\n      Never hear the sweet music of speech;\n        I start at the sound of my own.\n      The beasts that roam over the plain\n        My form with indifference see;\n      They are so unacquainted with man,\n        Their tameness is shocking to me.\n\n  7.  Society, friendship, and love,\n        Divinely bestowed upon man,\n      Oh, had I the wings of a dove,\n        How soon would I taste you again!\n      My sorrows I then might assuage\n        In the ways of religion and truth;\n      Might learn from the wisdom of age,\n        And be cheered by the sallies of youth.\n\n  8.  Religion! what treasures untold\n        Reside in that heavenly word!\n      More precious than silver and gold,\n        Or all that the earth can afford.\n      But the sound of the church-going bell\n        These valleys and rocks never heard,\n      Never sighed at the sound of a knell,\n        Or smiled when the Sabbath appeared.\n\n  9.  But the sea-fowl has gone to her nest,\n        The beast has laid down in his lair;\n      Even here is a season of rest,\n        And I to my cabin repair.\n      There's mercy in every place;\n        And mercy, encouraging thought,\n      Gives even affliction a grace,\n        And reconciles man to his lot.\n\n10. Selkirk might sometimes have indulged in thoughts like these, but\ngenerally he was too busy to give much heed to them. Besides, the life\nitself had its charms, and, after his rough usage upon the ship, he\nkeenly felt the joy of perfect freedom. Then the animals which he tamed\nbegan to appear as real friends, and, though no man Friday came to\ncheer and comfort him, he began to really love his new home and enjoy\nthe life which he led.\n\n11. This is the account given of the appearance of Selkirk by Rogers,\ncaptain of the vessel that finally took Selkirk off from the island:\n\"At night, after we came to anchor, we discovered a bright light upon\nthe island. In the morning we sent our yawl ashore with six men, all\narmed, and, as it was gone some time, we sent our pinnace, with the men\narmed, for we were afraid lest the Spaniards were there and had seized\nour boat. We put out a signal for the boat, when our pinnace returned\nfrom the shore and brought abundance of craw-fish, with a man clothed\nin goat-skins, who looked wilder than the first owners of them. At his\nfirst coming on board us, he had so much forgot his language for want\nof use that one could scarcely understand him, for he seemed to speak\nhis words by halves. We offered him a dram, but he would not touch it,\nhaving drunk nothing but water since he came upon the island, and it\nwas some time before he could relish our victuals.\n\n12. \"He took goats by speed of foot, for his way of living, and\ncontinual exercise of walking and running, cleared him of all gross\nhumors, so that he ran with wonderful swiftness through the woods, and\nup the rocks and hills. We had a bull-dog, which we sent with several\nof our nimblest runners, to help him in catching goats, but he tired\nboth the dog and men, caught the goats, and brought them back to us.\nBeing forced to shift without shoes, his feet had become so hard that\nhe ran everywhere without annoyance; and it was some time before he\ncould wear shoes after we found him; for, not being used to any so\nlong, his feet swelled when he came first to use them again.\"\n\n13. Selkirk returned to his native country, married, and settled down\nto a steady life. He never forgot his lonely isle, and often wished\nhimself back among his goats and cats. He learned dram-drinking once\nmore, and, as he began to eat and drink as people did around him, he\nlost much of the health and strength which he gained in his solitary\nhome. From him we may all learn that the simple, natural way of living\nmay be the best for us in giving us health to enjoy life and perform\nour duties.\n\n\n_XXXIV.--THE OLD-FASHIONED SCHOOL._\n\n1. Imagine yourselves in Master Ezekiel Cheever's school-room. It is a\nlarge, dingy room, with a sanded floor, and is lighted by windows that\nturn on hinges, and have little, diamond-shaped panes of glass. The\nscholars sit on long benches, with desks before them. At one end of\nthe room is a great fireplace, so spacious that there is room enough\nfor three or four boys to stand in each of the chimney-corners. This\nwas the good old fashion of fireplaces when there was wood enough in\nthe forests to keep people warm without their digging into the bowels\nof the earth for coal.\n\n2. It is a winter's day when we take our peep into the school-room.\nSee what logs of wood have been rolled into the fireplace, and what a\nbroad, bright blaze goes leaping up the chimney! And every few moments\na vast cloud of smoke is puffed into the room, which sails slowly over\nthe heads of the scholars, until it gradually settles upon the walls\nand ceiling. They are blackened with the smoke of many years already.\n\n3. Do you see the venerable schoolmaster, severe in aspect, with a\nblack skull-cap on his head, like an ancient Puritan, and the snow of\nhis white beard drifting down to his very girdle? What boy would dare\nto play or whisper, or even glance aside from his book, while Master\nCheever is on the outlook behind his spectacles? For such offenders, if\nany such there be, a rod of birch is hanging over the fireplace, and a\nheavy ferule lies on the master's desk.\n\n[Illustration]\n\n4. And now school is begun. What a murmur of multitudinous tongues,\nlike the whispering of leaves of a wind-stirred oak, as the scholars\ncon over their various tasks! Buzz! buzz! buzz! Amid just such a murmur\nhas Master Cheever spent about sixty years; and long habit has made it\nas pleasant to him as the hum of a bee-hive when the insects are busy\nin the sunshine. Now a class in Latin is called to recite. Forth steps\na row of queer-looking little fellows, wearing square-skirted coats\nand small-clothes, with buttons at the knee. They look like so many\ngrandfathers in their second childhood.\n\n5. These lads are to be sent to Cambridge and educated for the\nlearned professions. Old Master Cheever has lived so long, and seen\nso many generations of school-boys grow up to be men, that now he\ncan almost prophesy what sort of a man each boy will be. One urchin\nshall hereafter be a doctor, and administer pills and potions, and\nstalk gravely through life, perfumed with asafoetida. Another shall\nwrangle at the bar, and fight his way to wealth and honors, and, in his\ndeclining age, shall be a worshipful member of his Majesty's Council. A\nthird shall be a worthy successor to the old Puritan ministers now in\ntheir graves. But as they are merely school-boys now, their business is\nto construe Virgil.\n\n6. Next comes a class in arithmetic. These boys are to be the\nmerchants, shopkeepers, and mechanics of a future period. Hitherto\nthey have traded only in marbles and apples. Others will upheave the\nblacksmith's hammer, or drive the plane over the carpenter's bench, or\ntake the lapstone and the awl, and learn the trade of shoemaking. Many\nwill follow the sea, and become bold, rough sea-captains. Wherefore,\nteach them their multiplication-table, good Master Cheever, and whip\nthem well when they deserve it; for much of the country's welfare\ndepends on these boys.\n\n7. But, alas! Master Cheever's watchful eye has caught two boys at\nplay. Now we shall see awful times. The malefactors are summoned\nbefore the master's chair. Master Cheever has taken down that terrible\nbirch-rod! Short is the trial--the sentence quickly passed--and now\nthe judge prepares to execute it in person. Thwack! thwack! thwack! In\nthose good old times a schoolmaster's blows were well laid on. And thus\nthe forenoon passes away. Now it is twelve o'clock. The master looks at\nhis great silver watch, and then, with tiresome deliberation, puts the\nferule into the desk. \"You are dismissed,\" says Master Cheever.\n\n8. The boys retire, treading softly until they have passed the\nthreshold; but fairly out of the school-room lo, what a joyous shout!\nWhat a scampering and trampling of feet! What care they for the\nferule and birch-rod now? Were boys created merely to study Latin\nand arithmetic? No; the better purposes of their being are to sport,\nto leap, to run, to shout, to slide upon the ice, to snow-ball. Happy\nboys! Enjoy your play-time now, and come again to study and to feel the\nbirch-rod and the ferule to-morrow.\n\n9. Now the master has set everything to rights, and is ready to go home\nto dinner. Yet he goes reluctantly. The old man has spent so much of\nhis life in the smoky, noisy, buzzing school-room, that, when he has a\nholiday, he feels as if his place were lost, and himself a stranger in\nthe World.\n\n  _Hawthorne._\n\n\n_XXXV.--STORY OF FRANKLIN'S KITE._\n\n1. It was in the spring of 1752 that Franklin thought of trying\nthe experiment with a kite; and it was during one of the June\nthunder-storms of that year that the immortal kite was flown.\n\n2. Who does not know the story? How he made his kite of a large silk\nhandkerchief, and fastened to the top of the perpendicular stick a\npiece of sharpened iron wire. How he stole away, upon the approach of\na storm, into the common not far from his own house, say about the\ncorner of Race and Eighth Streets, near a spot where there was an old\ncow-shed. How, wishing to avoid the ridicule of possible failure, he\ntold no one what he was going to do, except his son, who accompanied\nhim, and who was then not the small boy he is represented in a\nhundred pictures, but a braw lad of twenty-two, one of the beaux of\nPhiladelphia.\n\n3. How the kite was raised in time for the coming gust, the string\nbeing hempen, except the part held in the hand, which was silk. How, at\nthe termination of the hempen string, a common key was fastened; and in\nthe shed was deposited a Leyden bottle, in which to collect from the\nclouds, if the clouds should contain it, the material requisite for an\nelectric shock. How father and son stood for some time under the shed,\npresenting the spectacle, if there had been any one to behold it, of\ntwo escaped lunatics, flying a kite in the rain; the young gentleman,\nno doubt, feeling a little foolish. How, at last, when a thunder-cloud\nappeared to pass directly over the kite, and yet no sign of electricity\nappeared the hopes of the father, too, began to grow faint. How, when\nboth were ready to despair of success, Franklin's heart stood still\nas he suddenly observed the fibers of the hempen string to rise,\nas a boy's hair rises when he stands on the insulating-stool. How,\nwith eager, trembling hand, he applied his knuckle to the key, and\ndrew therefrom an unmistakable spark, and another and another, and as\nmany as he chose. How the Leyden vial was charged, and both received\nthe most thrilling shock ever experienced by man; a shock that might\nhave been figuratively styled electric, if electric it had not really\nbeen. How, the wet kite being drawn in, and the apparatus packed, the\nphilosopher went home exulting, the happiest philosopher in Christendom.\n\n4. And this was only the beginning of triumph. The next ships that\narrived from the Old World brought him the news that the same\nexperiment, in the mode originally suggested by him, of erecting an\niron rod upon an eminence, had been successfully performed in France,\nso that his name had suddenly become one of the most famous in Europe.\n\n\n_XXXVI.--THE CASE OF JOHN HOOK._\n\n1. Wirt, in his life of Patrick Henry, gives this specimen of the\neloquence of the great orator. In Campbell County, Virginia, lived a\nScotchman, named Hook, who was suspected of being a Tory. The American\narmy was greatly distressed for food, and a commissary, named Venable,\ntook two of Hook's steers, without his consent, to feed the starving\nsoldiers. After the war, a lawyer, named Cowan, advised Hook to sue\nVenable for trespass. Venable employed Patrick Henry. The case was\ntried in the old court-house in New London.\n\n2. Mr. Henry depicted the distress of the American army in the most\ngloomy colors, and then asked: \"Where was the man with an American\nheart, who would not have thrown open his fields, his barns, his\ncellars, the doors of his house, the portals of his breast, to have\nreceived with open arms the meanest soldier of that little band of\nfamished patriots? Where is the man? There he stands; but whether the\nheart of an American beats in his bosom, you, gentlemen, are to judge?\"\nHe then carried the jury, by the powers of his imagination, to the\nplains around York, the surrender of which had followed shortly after\nthe act complained of.\n\n3. He depicted the surrender in the most glowing and noble colors of\nhis eloquence. The audience saw before their eyes the dejection of the\nBritish as they marched out of the trenches; they saw the triumph which\nlighted up every patriotic face, and heard the shouts of victory and\nthe cry of \"Washington and liberty!\" as it rang through the American\nranks and echoed back from hill and shore. \"But hark! what notes of\ndiscord are these which disturb the general joy? They are notes of John\nHook, hoarsely bawling through the American camp, '_Beef! beef! beef!_'\"\n\n4. The whole audience was convulsed. The clerk of the court, unable to\ncontain himself, and unwilling to disturb the court, rushed out of the\ncourt-house and threw himself on the grass in the most violent paroxysm\nof laughter, where he was rolling when Hook, with very different\nfeelings, came out into the yard for relief also. \"Jemmy Steptoe,\"\nhe said to the clerk, \"what ails ye, mon?\" Mr. Steptoe was only able\nto say that he could not help it. \"Never mind ye,\" said Hook; \"wait\ntill Billy Cowan gets up; he'll show him the la'!\" But Mr. Cowan could\nscarcely utter a word. The jury instantly returned a verdict against\nHook. The people were highly excited, and Hook was obliged to leave the\ncounty to avoid a coat of tar and feathers.\n\n\n_XXXVII.--THE FIRST STEAMBOAT IN THE WEST._\n\n1. Many things combined to make the year 1811 the wonderful year of\nthe West. During the earlier months, the waters of many of the great\nrivers overflowed their banks, so that the whole country was covered\nfrom bluff to bluff. Widespread sickness followed, such as had never\nbefore been known. A spirit of change and uneasiness seemed to seize\nthe very inhabitants of the forest. A countless multitude of squirrels,\nobeying some great and universal impulse, left their joyous, gamboling\nlife and their ancient retreats in the North, and were seen pressing\nforward by tens of thousands in a deep and sober phalanx to the South.\nNo obstacles seemed to check this extraordinary and united movement.\nThe word had been given them to go forth, and they obeyed it, though\nmultitudes perished in the broad Ohio, which lay in their path.\n\n[Illustration]\n\n2. The splendid comet of that year long continued to shed its twilight\nover the forests. As the autumn drew to a close, the whole Mississippi\nValley, from the Missouri to the Gulf, was shaken to its center\nby continued earthquakes. It was at this very time, when so many\nextraordinary events of Nature combined to spread wonder and awe, that\nthe first steamboat was seen descending the great rivers, and the\nawe-struck Indian on the banks beheld the Pinelore, or \"fire-canoe,\"\nflying through the turbid waters.\n\n3. The banks of the Ohio and its tributaries were covered with\ninnumerable farms; and rafts, flat-boats, and barges of every\ndescription, laden with the produce, floated upon its wide surface,\ntoward the general market of the West, New Orleans. Besides the barges\nand vessels of heavy burden, which made their long annual voyage to and\nfrom the city, the river was covered, particularly in time of flood, by\nthousands of queer machines, for boats they can hardly be called, most\nof which soon disappeared. From seventy to eighty days were consumed\nin thus effecting the long and monotonous voyage from Pittsburg to New\nOrleans.\n\n4. The experiments in steam navigation made on the Hudson River and\nadjoining waters, previous to the year 1809, were attended with\ncomplete success. Attention was now paid to the Western rivers, and Mr.\nRoosevelt, of New York, accompanied by Mr. Fulton, visited these rivers\nto see whether they would admit of steam navigation. At this time two\nboats, the North River and the Clermont, were running on the Hudson.\nMr. Roosevelt surveyed the rivers from Pittsburg to New Orleans, and\nmade a favorable report, and it was decided to build a boat at the\nformer town.\n\n5. Accordingly, during the year 1811 the first boat was launched on the\nwaters of the Ohio. It was called the Orleans, and was intended to ply\nbetween Natchez, in the State of Mississippi, and the city whose name\nit bore. In October it left Pittsburg for a trial voyage. No freight or\npassengers were taken. Mr. Roosevelt with his family; Mr. Baker, the\nengineer; Andrew Jack, the pilot; and six hands, with a few domestics,\nformed her whole burden. There were no wood-yards at that time, and\nconstant delays were unavoidable.\n\n6. Late at night on the fourth day after quitting Pittsburg, they\narrived safely at Louisville, having been but seventy hours descending\nupward of seven hundred miles. The novel appearance of the vessel, and\nthe fearful rapidity with which it made its passage over the broad\nreaches of the river, excited both terror and surprise among many of\nthe settlers along the banks, whom the rumor of such an invention had\nnever reached.\n\n7. The unexpected arrival of the boat at Louisville, in the course of a\nfine, still, moonlight night, created a great stir. The extraordinary\nsound which filled the air as the pent-up steam was suffered to escape\non rounding to, produced a general alarm, and multitudes in the town\nrose from their beds to see what was the matter. It was related that an\nimpression widely prevailed that the comet had fallen into the Ohio.\n\n8. The low stage of water caused a detention at Louisville until the\nlast week in November, when the voyage was resumed. When the boat\narrived at a point five miles above the Yellow Banks, she was moored to\ntake in wood. While thus engaged, our voyagers were accosted in great\nalarm by the squatters of the neighborhood, who inquired if they had\nheard strange noises on the river and in the woods on the preceding\nday, or had seen the shores shake.\n\n9. Hitherto nothing extraordinary had been perceived. The following\nday they pursued their monotonous voyage in those vast solitudes.\nThe air was misty, still, and dull. Though the sun was visible, like\na glowing ball of copper, his rays hardly shed more than a mournful\ntwilight on the surface of the water. Evening drew nigh, and with it\nsome indications of what was passing around them became evident. And as\nthey sat on deck, they ever and anon heard a rushing sound and violent\nsplash, and saw large portions of the shore tearing away from the land\nand falling into the river.\n\n10. It was, as my informant said, \"an awful day, so still that you\ncould have heard a pin drop on the deck.\" They spoke little, for every\none on board appeared thunderstruck. The comet had disappeared about\nthis time, which circumstance was noticed with awe by the crew. The\ntrees were seen waving and nodding on the bank without a wind. Toward\nevening of the second day they found themselves at a loss for a place\nof shelter. The pilot said that he was lost; that the channel was\neverywhere altered. A large island in mid-channel familiar to the pilot\nwas sought in vain, having entirely disappeared.\n\n11. Thus in doubt and terror, they proceeded hour after hour till dark,\nwhen they found a small island and rounded-to. Here they lay, keeping\nwatch on deck during the long autumnal night, and listening to the\nsound of the roaring waters. Several times in the course of the night\nearthquake-shocks were felt. It was a long night, but morning dawned\nand showed them that they were near the mouth of the Ohio.\n\n12. About noon that day they reached the small town of New Madrid, on\nthe right bank of the Mississippi. Here they found the inhabitants in\nthe greatest distress and consternation. Part of the population had\nfled in terror to the higher grounds; others prayed to be taken on\nboard, as the earth was opening in fissures on every side, and their\nhouses hourly falling around them.\n\n13. At that time you floated for three or four hundred miles on the\nrivers without seeing a human habitation. Proceeding from New Madrid,\nafter many days of great danger, they reached their destination at\nNatchez in January, 1812, to the great astonishment of all, the escape\nof the boat having been considered an impossibility.\n\n\n_XXXVIII.--THE POWER OF KINDNESS._\n\n1. William Savery was a Quaker, living near Philadelphia, during the\nRevolutionary War. He was a kindly-disposed man, and many were his\ncharitable deeds that the public knew nothing about. He was a tanner by\ntrade, and one night a number of hides were stolen from his yard. While\nhe suspected a neighbor of his, a worthless sort of fellow, he had no\nproof against him. He said nothing about his loss, but the next day\nthe following advertisement appeared in the papers:\n\n2. \"Whoever stole a lot of hides on the 5th of the present month, is\nhereby informed that the owner has a sincere wish to be his friend. If\npoverty tempted him to this false step, the owner will keep the whole\nmatter secret, and will gladly put him in the way of obtaining a living\nby means more likely to bring him peace of mind.\"\n\n3. This odd notice attracted a good deal of attention; but the thief\nalone knew from whom the kind offer came. When he read it, his heart\nwas filled with sorrow for what he had done. A few nights afterward, as\nthe tanner's family were about going to bed, they heard a timid knock;\nand, when the door opened, there stood Smith, with the hides on his\nshoulder. Without looking up, he said: \"I have brought these back, Mr.\nSavery. Where shall I put them?\"\n\n4. \"Wait till I can light a lantern, and I will go to the barn with\nthee,\" replied Mr. Savery. \"Then, perhaps, thou wilt come in and tell\nme how this thing happened, and we will see what can be done for thee.\"\n\n5. As soon as they were gone out, his wife prepared some hot coffee,\nand placed pies and meat on the table. When they returned from the\nbarn, she said, \"Neighbor Smith, I thought some hot supper would do\nthee good.\" Smith turned his back toward her, and did not speak. After\na moment, he said in a choked voice: \"It is the first time I ever\nstole anything, and I feel very bad about it. I don't know how it is.\nI am sure I didn't think once that I should ever come to be what I am.\nBut I took to drinking, and then to quarreling. And since I began to\ngo down-hill, everybody gives me a kick. You are the first man, Mr.\nSavery, that has ever offered me a helping hand. God bless you! I stole\nthe hides from you, meaning to sell them. But I tell you the truth,\nwhen I say it is the first time I was ever a thief.\"\n\n6. \"Let it be the last time, my friend,\" replied William Savery. \"The\nsecret shall be between me and thee. Thou art still young. Promise me\nthat thou will not drink any more liquor for a year, and I will employ\nthee to-morrow at good wages. Perhaps we may find some work for thy\nfamily also. The little boy can at least pick up stones. But eat a bit\nnow, and drink some hot coffee, to keep thee from craving anything\nstronger. Keep up a brave heart for the sake of thy wife and children.\nWhen thou hast need of coffee, tell Mary, and she will always give it\nto thee.\"\n\n7. The poor fellow tried hard to eat and drink, but the food seemed to\nchoke him. He could not smother his feelings, and he bowed his head on\nthe table and wept like a child. By-and-by he ate and drank with good\nheart; and his host parted with him for the night with this kindly\nword, \"Try to do well, John, and thou wilt always find a friend in me.\"\n\n8. Smith began to work for him the next day, and remained with him many\nyears, a sober, honest, and faithful man. The secret of the theft was\nkept between them; but, after John's death, William Savery told the\nstory, to show that evil may be overcome with good.\n\n\n_XXXIX.--OLD IRONSIDES._\n\n1. When war was declared between the United States and Great Britain in\n1812, the British power was dominant upon the ocean. Since the times of\nSir Francis Drake and the Spanish Armada, the British navy had retained\nthe supremacy then gained. In three hundred years no British fleet had\never surrendered to an enemy. Such continued success made the British\narrogant, and they looked down with contempt upon the naval power of\nany other people. At the beginning of the war, the American navy was\nsmall and weak. It consisted of about twenty vessels, the largest of\nwhich were frigates.\n\n2. But the few vessels of the American navy were strongly built, and\nwere manned by officers who had gained their fighting experience in\nthe war with the Barbary states. Neither the officers nor men were in\nany fear of the great power of Britain, and they particularly hated\nthe British for their habit of impressing American seamen. Thus it\nhappened that all the American commanders had made up their minds to\nfight whenever the force against them was any where nearly equal, and\nto fight for victory.\n\n3. Among the vessels of our little navy was the frigate Constitution,\nbetter known, from the strength of her build, as \"Old Ironsides.\" At\nthe breaking out of the war she was commanded by Captain Isaac Hull,\none of our most experienced naval officers. In August, 1812, Hull\nsailed on a cruise, looking for an enemy, and in a short time he fell\nin with the British frigate Guerriere, a vessel about equal in size to\nthe Constitution. Both parties advanced eagerly to the conflict, but\nin thirty minutes the Guerriere was reduced to a mere wreck, and the\nBritish flag was hauled down.\n\n[Illustration]\n\n4. Captain Hull sailed into Boston Harbor, where the Old Ironsides was\nrepaired and made ready for sea. Captain Hull generously resigned, so\nas to permit others to have a share of glory, and Captain Bainbridge\nwas appointed to the command of the Constitution.\n\n5. On December 29th, Captain Bainbridge, while cruising off the\ncoast of Brazil, encountered the British frigate Java, one of the\nbest-appointed ships in the British navy. A running battle ensued,\nwhich lasted four hours, and so well did Captain Bainbridge manage\nhis ship that he reduced the Java to a wreck, while the damage to the\nConstitution was so slight that it was ready for another fight the next\nday.\n\n6. Peace between the two countries was arranged at Ghent, between\ncommissioners appointed by both powers, in December, 1814, but the news\nwas not received in this country for several weeks. The Constitution,\nunder the command of Captain Stewart, sailed from Boston on a cruise\nin December, and, on the 20th of February, 1815, she encountered two\nBritish vessels--the Cyane and Levant--the combined force of which was\nequal to that of the Constitution, if not greater. The action commenced\nat six in the evening, and continued for four hours in the moonlight\nnight. At ten o'clock, both British vessels were prizes to the\nConstitution, while she was so little damaged that complete repairs\nwere made without making a port.\n\n7. After the war great improvements were made in ship-building, and\nsoon the old frigate became too old-fashioned for active service at\nsea, and for a time she was employed as a receiving-ship. At last it\nwas proposed to withdraw her entirely from service, and break her up.\nThis proposition roused the indignation of the poet Holmes, then a boy,\nand his hot wrath broke up the project and saved the ship. She is now\nused as a school-ship for the training of seamen. Here follows the poem:\n\n  8.  Ay! tear her tattered ensign down!\n        Long has it waved on high;\n      And many an eye has danced to see\n        That banner in the sky.\n      Beneath it rang the battle-shout,\n        And burst the cannon's roar;\n      The meteor of the ocean-air\n        Shall sweep the clouds no more!\n\n  9.  Her deck, once red with hero's blood,\n        Where knelt the vanquished foe,\n      When winds were hurrying o'er the flood,\n        And waves were white below,\n      No more shall feel the victor's tread\n        Or know the conquered knee;\n      The harpies of the shore shall pluck\n        The eagle of the sea.\n\n  10. Oh! better that her shattered hulk\n        Should sink beneath the wave;\n      Her home was on the mighty deep,\n        And there should be her grave.\n      Nail to the mast her holy flag,\n        Set every threadbare sail,\n      And give her to the god of storms,\n        The lightning and the gale!\n\n\n_XL.--CHICAGO._\n\n1. It is the evening of October 9, 1871. The great city of the West\nis settling down into the quiet of the night. The Sabbath has ended.\nThe churches have closed, and citizens of all ranks and kinds are\npeacefully resting in their homes. The guardians of the night are all\nout, faithful to watch, quick to detect, and prompt to act. Three\nhundred thousand people throw off the cares of the day, and seek their\nneeded repose. No cause of alarm, save the wind, which since noon\nhas risen from a gentle breeze to a fierce gale at sunset. Even now\nit increases, and in the morning papers we may expect a catalogue of\nchimneys blown down, and of houses unroofed. Beyond this there is\nnothing to fear, and all is well.\n\n[Illustration: View of Chicago from Madison Street Bridge, before the\nFire.]\n\n2. A little way out from what is now the heart of the town was a\nsection covered with piles of lumber and rows of wooden tenements ready\nfor the torch. The lights are flickering through the dark alleys as\na poor woman takes a lamp and goes into a hovel to milk the cow. The\nblustering wind bids her be careful. An uneasy movement of the cow, and\nthe lamp is overturned into the straw and litter of the stable. A flame\nshoots up, and the milker has scarcely time to reach the door when\nthe whole building is on fire. She, with her children, rush into the\nstreet, as the flame comes in through roof, window, and doorway of her\ndwelling. Then the roar of the wind-swept flame and the appalling cry\nof fire!\n\n3. But the city is prepared for these accidents. The fire-bells\nring out their alarm. Trained horses take their places by the steam\nfire-engines, and the heart has scarcely time to beat before they are\non a mad gallop down the streets. In a moment a thousand jets of water\nwill subdue the fire, and the city will again sink to quiet rest.\n\n4. But, swift as the firemen speed to the scene, the flame is swifter\nstill. Borne on the wings of the wind, it leaps from street to street.\nIt is no longer a wind but a tempest, and a tempest of flame. The\ntrack of the devouring element broadens and dives toward the heart of\nthe city. Men, women, and children rush frantically to get out of the\npath of destruction. Down go miles of stately houses and blocks of\nbusiness. The reservoirs of grain, the vast hotels, and the spires of\nchurches appear for a moment through the glare, then melt away into\nashes. The whole world is in flames!\n\n5. While hope remains, men are active; but now they stand in sullen\ndespair. They look on helpless and hopeless through the long hours of\nthe night. The first rays of the morning reveal a scene of widespread\nand total desolation. The heart of the city has been consumed. Twenty\nthousand of its inhabitants are homeless.\n\n6. One consoling thought is left. The fire-fiend is at last curbed,\nhemmed in on the east by the lake, on the north by the river which\nstretches between it and the homes in which seventy-five thousand\npeople are peacefully asleep, all unaware of the devastation that has\nbeen raging so near them. Surely the fiery foe will not reach those\nhomes. The river is their protection. The comforting thought is but\nmomentary. Already a livid cloud is sweeping across the narrow stream.\nBurning brands and glowing embers are borne on the wings of a fierce\ntornado straight toward those peaceful homes.\n\n7. The scene that ensues has no parallel in the history of the world.\nWho shall arouse those sleepers and warn them of their peril? Who,\nnow, when the flames are already at the doors, shall bear away the\nsick ones, the aged, the little children, the babes, to safety? Alas!\nwhither shall they be borne? The lake on one side; on the other, a\nnarrow pathway leading toward the country to the north, along which the\nflames are rushing with mad rapidity. Every other way of escape is cut\noff.\n\n8. Many plunge breast-deep into the lake, and there during long hours\nstand many hundreds of people, feeble women, some with babes in their\narms, many sick and aged, till the fire subsides and rescue comes.\nNearly one hundred thousand souls are fleeing before the merciless\nflames. During that fearful Monday this great throng continue their\nflight without food, without water, scorched by the hot blast, their\nclothes and often their hair on fire; the stronger bearing the weaker\nin their arms and on their shoulders, they rush on, every moment\npursued by the flames. Many sink to the ground to rise no more, how\nmany never will be known.\n\n9. Finally they are in the open country. It is a strange, weird place\nto pass a night in, a graveyard, but it is a place of safety from\nthe foe that all day had pursued them. And there, about ten o'clock\nat night, as they see the last house on the other side of the city\nlimits crumble to ashes, they sink down to their dismal bivouac, many\npillowing their heads upon the graves among which they lay.\n\n10. Many were the \"heroic deeds\" that had been wrought on that fearful\nday, heroic deeds of husbands and wives in rescuing each other and\ntheir children, of children in rescuing parents and brothers and\nsisters, of many in helping the helpless when sore pressed themselves,\nand of all in maintaining the brave, heroic fight against such fearful\nodds.\n\n11. And now opens another chapter of the \"story of heroic deeds\" in\nthe history of the Chicago fire. It is the story of the heroism of\nsympathy, of charity, of generosity, of dauntless energy. How shall\nthese thousands of homeless ones, with winter impending, be sheltered?\nHow food gotten to the famished crowd in the graveyard, who have not\ntasted food since Sunday night?\n\n12. The city stricken is still quick to act. During Monday, while the\nconflagration is still raging, relief committees are organizing; the\nhouses of those who are left with houses are being opened to those who\nhave none; the sound of axe and hammer is heard on every side, erecting\nbarracks and temporary cabins; men and women are gathering stores of\nfood and clothing; and loaded wagons are making their way around the\nburning city to reach the encampment in the cemetery and on the open\nprairie. The telegraph has also been set to telling to other cities the\nstory of the great calamity. Before and during the night trains of cars\ncome from the whole country for many miles around, loaded with food,\nclothing, blankets, and even delicacies for the sick. And so on to\nTuesday morning the half-famished, homeless multitude once more welcome\ntheir morning meal, and before night the whole vast multitude on the\nstreets have obtained some kind of shelter.\n\n13. And now the return click is heard at the telegraph-offices. Cities\ntoo distant to send food send words of cheer and money. As the day\nwears on, the wires can scarcely carry all the messages of sympathy\nwhich come pouring in. London, Paris, Berlin, all the great cities of\nEurope, vie with each other in liberality, and send their substantial\nofferings through the cable under the sea, and, before the sun sets,\nmessages of organized aid come from distant Calcutta and Melbourne. The\nthrill of human sympathy had encircled the earth. Nor did the supplies\nfail until the people of the grateful city cried, \"Enough!\"\n\n14. In the old Arabian story, the palace of Aladdin is built in a\nsingle night by the aid of magic. But now the wonder wrought by the\ngenii is surpassed. From the ashes of that terrible night a new city\ngrows up, marvelous in its freshness, its strength, and its beauty.\nNo need of magic here, or rather the only magic needed is that of\nself-reliance and the sympathy of the world so bountifully expressed.\n\n15. With a full heart the poet Whittier describes the scene, and the\nlesson to be derived from it:\n\n      Men said at vespers, \"All is well!\"\n      In one wild night the city fell;\n      Fell shrines of prayer and marts of gain,\n      Before the fiery hurricane.\n\n  16. On threescore spires had sunset shone,\n      Where ghastly sunrise looked on none.\n      Men clasped each other's hands, and said,\n      \"The City of the West is dead!\"\n\n  17. Brave hearts who fought in slow retreat,\n      The fiends of fire from street to street,\n      Turned powerless to the blinding glare,\n      The dumb defiance of despair.\n\n  18. A sudden impulse thrilled each wire\n      That signaled round that sea of fire;\n      Swift words of cheer, warm heart-throbs came,\n      In tears of pity died the flame.\n\n  19. From East, from West, from South, from North,\n      The messages of hope shot forth,\n      And underneath the severing wave,\n      The world, full-handed, reached to save.\n\n  20. Fair seemed the old; but fairer still\n      The new, the dreary void shall fill\n      With dearer homes than those o'erthrown\n      For love shall lay each corner-stone.\n\n  21. Rise, stricken city! from thee throw\n      The ashen sackcloth of thy woe,\n      And build, as to Amphion's strain,\n      To songs of cheer thy walls again!\n\n  22. How shriveled in thy hot distress\n      The primal sin of selfishness!\n      How instant rose, to take thy part,\n      The angel in the human heart!\n\n  23. Ah! not in vain the flames that tossed\n      Above thy dreadful holocaust;\n      The Christ again has preached through thee\n      The Gospel of Humanity!\n\n  24. Then lift once more thy towers on high,\n      And fret with spires the western sky,\n      To tell that God is yet with us,\n      And love is still miraculous!\n\n\n                               THE END.\n\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\n\n  Mental Arithmetic\n\n  Bailey's American Mental Arithmetic      35 cents\n\n  For Advanced Grammar Classes, High Schools, Academies, and\n  Normal Schools. Though only recently published, this book has\n  met with the highest favor, and is already in satisfactory use in\n  the best schools.\n\n  Dubbs's Complete Mental Arithmetic       35 cents\n\n  For use in any school where Mental Arithmetic is taught. 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