Elsies Vacation and After Events | Page 5

to,"
said Max; "but I don't think they have any right to expect it; also I am
sure I should be shamefully ungrateful if I were to lie down for my
night's rest without a word of thanks to him for his protecting care over
me and mine through the day that is just past. As to its being a
baby-like performance, it is one in which some of the greatest, as well
as best men, have indulged. Washington was a man of prayer. So was
General Daniel Morgan--that grand revolutionary officer who whipped
Tarleton so completely at the battle of the Cowpens. There was
Macdonough also, who gained that splendid victory over the British on
Lake Champlain in the war of 1812-14. Have you forgotten that just
before the fight began, after he had put springs on his cables, had the
decks cleared, and everything was ready for action, with his officers
and men around him, he knelt down near one of his heaviest guns and
in a few words asked God to help him in the coming struggle? He
might well do that, because, as you know of course, we were in the
right, fighting against oppression and wrongs fit to rouse the
indignation of the most patient and forbearing of mortals."
"That's a fact!" interrupted Hunt. "Americans have always been
forbearing at the start; but let them get once thoroughly roused and they
make things hot enough for the aggressors."
"So they do," said Max, "and so I think they always will; I hope so,
anyhow; for I don't believe it's right for any nation to allow any of its
people to be so dreadfully wronged and ill-treated as thousands of our
poor sailors were, by the English, before the war of 1812 taught them
better. I don't believe the mass of the English people approved, but they
couldn't keep their aristocracy--who hated republicanism, and wanted
always to continue superior in station and power to the mass of their

countrymen and ours--from oppressing and abusing our poor sailors,
impressing, flogging, and ill-treating them in various ways, and to such
a degree that it makes one's blood boil in reading or thinking of it. And
I think it's right enough for one to be angry and indignant at such
wrongs to others."
"Of course it is," said Hunt; "and Americans always will resist
oppression--of themselves or their weaker brethren--and I glory in the
fact. What a fight that was of Macdonough's! Do you remember the
incident of the gamecock?"
"No; what was it?"
"It seems that one of the shots from the British vessel Linnet
demolished a hencoop on the deck of the Saratoga, releasing this
gamecock, and that he flew to a gun-slide, where he alighted, then
clapped his wings and crowed lustily.
"That delighted our sailors, who accepted the incident as an omen of
the victory that crowned their arms before the fight was over. They
cheered and felt their courage strengthened."
"Good!" said Max, "that cock was at better business than the fighting
he had doubtless been brought up to."
"Yes; so say I:
"O Johnny Bull, my joe John, Behold on Lake Champlain, With more
than equal force, John, You tried your fist again; But the cock saw how
'twas going. And cried 'Cock-a-doodle-doo,' And Macdonough was
victorious, Johnny Bull, my joe!"
"Pretty good," laughed Max. "But there are the taps; so good-night."
CHAPTER III.
Lulu woke early the next morning and was dressed and on deck before
any other of the Dolphin's passengers. Day had dawned and the eastern

sky was bright with purple, orange, and gold, heralding the near
approach of the sun which, just as she set her foot on the deck,
suddenly showed his face above the restless waves, making a golden
pathway across them.
"Oh, how beautiful!" was her involuntary exclamation. Then catching
sight of her father standing with his back toward her, and apparently
absorbed in gazing upon the sunrise, she hastened to his side, caught
his hand in hers, and carried it to her lips with a glad, "Good-morning,
you dear papa."
"Ah! good-morning, my darling," he returned, bending down to press a
kiss on the bright, upturned face.
"Such a lovely morning, papa, isn't it?" she said, standing with her hand
fast clasped in his, but turning her eyes again upon sea and sky. "But
where are we now? Almost at Fortress Monroe?"
"Look and tell me what you see," was his smiling rejoinder, as, with a
hand on each of her shoulders, he turned her about so that she caught
the view from the other side of the vessel.
"O papa, is that it?" she exclaimed. "Why, we're almost there, aren't
we?"
"Yes; we will reach our anchorage within a few minutes."
"Oh, are we going to