Harper's Young People, August 31, 1880 Part 5

"Well, then," suggested the host, "we'll try the newsboys. We'll just have Laddie standing by the door when they go past, and maybe he can pick out this brother of his from the lot."

The company sat for a long time round the tables. Bonny kept still, listening and wondering, though he understood little of the speeches and the toasts. Once all eyes were again turned toward Bonny.

A gentleman rose and said, "Ladies and gentlemen, I beg to propose the health of the first guest of the Metropolis Hotel, who, though uninvited, has given the patriarch of this palace the privilege of entertaining an angel unawares."

But Bonny answered nothing to the looks bent upon him. With one hand full of nuts and bonbons, the other in his heavy pocket, and a face of perfect peace, the little guest of the Metropolis Hotel lay fast asleep in his chair.

He was rosily awake again by the time the newsboys were crying their evening papers.

"Come and watch for Nickie," coaxed the host; and with Bonny's small, warm hand in his own he stepped out on the broad granite slab in front of the hotel.

"That isn't Nickie--nor that--nor that," Bonny kept saying at first.

"Oh, Nickie!" he shouted, suddenly; and plunging forth into the street, tumbled against a small boy in big trousers and an overgrown cap, whose bundle of papers looked much fatter than he did.

Astonished Nickie, who had not been home since morning, could scarcely believe his senses at first, as he stared at his little brother through the dusk, the fog, and the rain-drops that now began to fall. However, he could answer all the questions that Laddie had been unable to satisfy, and in a very short interval a carriage had been summoned, the host had stowed away in it a capacious basket hastily filled with choice remnants from the feast, and Bonny Laddie was rolling toward his home in charge of the gentle stranger lady and her husband.

Was there ever in the most agitated of kettles such bubbling and boiling over as took place inside the crowded Donald tenement that night? Had not they all been breaking their loving, anxious hearts about Bonny Laddie, and lo! here he was, safe in the old red cape, smiling and shining as usual, and rather mystified at having such a fuss made over him.

The stranger lady, promising Bonny to come again, made haste to go away, but before going she had time to wonder at something she saw. Why did Bonny's tired but blithe-looking mother give the lady's husband such a sad, almost fearful, look? Why did he seem confused, and going over to the sick man, say, "I will reconsider that matter, John. You may rest easy"?

Afterward she understood. When John's master had that afternoon curtly refused Mrs. Donald's pet.i.tion, and let her go away disappointed and distressed, her patient waiting and her earnest pleading having been in vain, he had considered himself right, from the stand-point of his own interest. But then he had known nothing of the clean, crowded household, and nothing of this yellow-haired laddie who reminded him of another little yellow-haired laddie who had been taken from him.

[Begun in HARPER'S YOUNG PEOPLE No. 37, July 13.]

THE STORY OF THE AMERICAN NAVY.

BY BENSON J. LOSSING.

CHAPTER VIII.

After an almost uneventful cruise, excepting the capture of the British war schooner _Pictou_, and a chase by two British frigates, the gallant and "lucky" _Const.i.tution_ remained in Boston eight or nine months. Late in December, 1814, she sailed from Boston for the Bay of Biscay, in command of Captain Charles Stewart, equipped with fifty-two guns and fully manned. She cruised for a while off the port of Lisbon and further southward; and late in February, 1815, she met, fought, and conquered the English frigate _Cyane_ and her consort the _Levant_. The battle occurred in the night--the moon shining brightly. For fifteen minutes the three vessels kept up an incessant cannonade, and the moon was obscured by a dense cloud of smoke. By superior seamanship as well as gunnery, Stewart vanquished both his antagonists, while the _Const.i.tution_ was only slightly injured.

Stewart sailed with his prizes to Port Praya, Cape de Verde Islands. The next day three large British vessels were dimly seen in a fog approaching. The _Const.i.tution_ slipped out of the harbor under cover of the mist, followed by her prizes. The English vessels gave chase, but Stewart, by expert seamanship, saved his own ship and the _Cyane_ from capture, but the _Levant_ was overtaken and caught. This was the final cruise of the _Const.i.tution_ in the war of 1812-15, for peace had been proclaimed before this victory was achieved. "Old Ironsides" was ever afterward revered by the American people, and she is yet afloat in the service.

In 1814 Lake Champlain as well as Lake Ontario was a theatre of valiant deeds. In September a land and naval force invaded New York from Canada.

The Americans had created a little navy on Lake Champlain to oppose the British, and placed it in charge of Commodore Macdonough. The hostile fleets met in Plattsburg Bay, and while a sharp conflict was raging between the land forces, a severe naval battle was fought on the lake.

The British Commodore (Downie) was killed, and Macdonough achieved a brilliant victory, for which he was honored by citizens and by Congress.

Meanwhile, Chauncey and Sir James L. Yeo were manoeuvring for the control of Lake Ontario without coming to any very serious blows.

In the summer of 1814 some new vessels were added to the navy. In June the frigate _Guerriere_ was launched at Philadelphia in the presence of 50,000 people. In August the _Java_ was launched at Baltimore before 20,000 spectators. The public and private vessels were very active.

Indeed, the story of the cruises of some of the privateers at this time might be made as exciting as any tale of fiction.

The _Wasp_, Captain Blakeley, made a successful cruise southward, vanquishing the _Reindeer_, _Avon_, and _Atlanta_. She was lost at sea in October, 1814, and was never heard of afterward. Captain Warrington cruised in the _Peac.o.c.k_ in the spring of 1814. He captured the _Epervier_, a most valuable prize. In May he crossed the Atlantic to the Bay of Biscay, captured fourteen merchant vessels, and returned to New York. At the same time Barney was very active with a flotilla of gun-boats on the waters of Chesapeake Bay, and in August, having destroyed his vessels to keep them from the British, he and his men a.s.sisted in the battle of Bladensburg.

At the beginning of 1815, Decatur was in command of a small squadron at New York. The _President_ was his flag-ship. With her alone he sailed out of New York Harbor on a dark night, eluded the blockading fleet, and at dawn the next morning was chased by four British vessels. The _President_ was deeply laden for a long cruise. One of her pursuers (the _Endymion_) overtook her, when a sharp action began. The two frigates ran side by side before the wind for two hours in a running fight, during which the _Endymion_ was so crippled that she was about to strike her colors. At that moment the other pursuers came up, and the _President_ was captured, not by a single vessel, but by a squadron.

The other vessels of Decatur's squadron, ignorant of the fate of the _President_, sailed for an appointed gathering-place in the South Atlantic Ocean. Captain Biddle, in the _Hornet_, captured the _Penguin_ in March, after a conflict which called forth the highest praises for the American commander. Afterward, while the _Hornet_ and _Peac.o.c.k_ were sailing together, they were chased by the _Cornwallis_, a British 74.

They escaped, and the _Peac.o.c.k_, continuing her cruise eastward, captured the _Nautilus_ in the Straits of Sunda, the last vessel captured in the war.

The American privateers made such havoc among English shipping that the mercantile community were dismayed. "One of these sea-devils," said a London newspaper, "is seldom caught; but they impudently defy the English privateers and heavy 74's. Only think--thirteen guineas for one hundred pounds were paid to insure a vessel across the Irish Channel!"

They had captured or destroyed during the war about sixteen hundred British merchant vessels of all cla.s.ses. Our little navy had produced a wonderful change in public opinion in Europe concerning the resources and power of the United States. It had achieved the independence of the Republic.

In time of peace our navy has been employed in the beneficent work of giving aid to commerce; in making explorations of strange seas; in scientific investigations of ocean phenomena; and in the important operations of the Coast Survey, begun in 1817. The most conspicuous of the peaceful performances of our navy were known respectively as the "South Sea Exploring Expedition" and the "j.a.pan Diplomatic Expedition."

The former began in 1838, and ended in 1842. It was composed of six government vessels, furnished with a complete corps of scientific men, and was commanded by Lieutenant Charles Wilkes. It went southward until it reached pack ice, in south lat.i.tude 66, and made a voyage of about ninety thousand miles.

[Ill.u.s.tration: COMMODORE PERRY'S SHIPS IN THE BAY OF JEDDO.]

The j.a.pan Diplomatic Expedition consisted of a squadron of seven vessels, commanded by Commodore M. G. Perry. Its business was to carry a letter to the Emperor of j.a.pan from the President of the United States, who asked him to open his sea-ports to American commerce. The expedition sailed in the fall of 1852, and reached j.a.pan in 1853. Perry was met on the bosom of the bay of Jeddo, in which his squadron had anch.o.r.ed, by high officials in the Emperor's state barges, and to them the object of the expedition was made known. The j.a.panese were astonished, for they had never seen a steam-ship. After several months' consideration the Emperor agreed to the President's request, and in 1860 he sent an emba.s.sy to the United States. Ever since then there has been free intercourse between the two nations.

[TO BE CONTINUED.]

"I AM THE LAD THAT FOLLOWS THE PLOUGH."

BY MARY A. BARR.

[Ill.u.s.tration]

I am the lad that follows the plough-- Robin and Thrush just whistle for me-- In a hickory suit that's pretty well worn I go to the field at early morn, I help to scatter the golden corn-- Robin and Thrush just whistle for me.

Out in the meadows and woods and lanes-- Robin and Thrush just whistle for me-- I watch the sheep and the lambs at play; When the gra.s.s is high I toss the hay; There isn't a boy in the world so gay-- Robin and Thrush just whistle for me.

I go with father to shear the sheep-- Robin and Thrush just whistle for me-- I fodder the cattle, the mangers fill, I drive a team, I go to the mill, I milk the cows with a right good will-- Robin and Thrush just whistle for me.

I help the peaches and plums to save-- Robin and Thrush just whistle for me-- For I am the boy can climb a tree; There isn't an apple too high for me, There isn't a nut that I can't see-- Robin and Thrush just whistle for me.

When I am a man I'll own a farm-- Robin and Thrush just whistle for me-- Horses and sheep and many a cow, Stacks of wheat, and a barley mow; I'll be a farmer and follow the plough: Robin and Thrush shall whistle for me.

'Tis better to stand in the golden corn-- Robin and Thrush just whistle for me-- To toss the hay on the breezy lea, To pluck the fruit on the orchard tree, Than roam about on the restless sea: So, sailor-boy, I'll follow the plough.

'Tis better to hear the wild birds sing, Robin and Thrush on the apple bough-- 'Tis better to have a farm and a wife, And lead a busy, peaceable life, Than march to the noisy drum and fife: So, soldier-boy, I'll follow the plough.

[Ill.u.s.tration]

[Ill.u.s.tration: OUR POST-OFFICE BOX.]

NEW YORK CITY.