"A square-rigged vessel, sir," was the answer of the lookout.

It was early morning, December 25th, 1702, and a stiff breeze was driving a saucy New England privateer along at the rate of ten knots an hour. The officers and sailors usually made a sort of holiday of this sacred day. After breakfast it was common to muster the entire crew on the spardeck, dressed as the fancy of their captain might dictate, where church service was read by the captain, after which the remainder of the day was devoted to idleness. This Christmas morn, however, they were destined to spend in a very different manner. They had hardly finished breakfast, when the man at the mast-head gave utterance to the cry which always thrills a privateer," Sail, ho!"

Among those to crowd the forward deck were two boys aged respectively twelve and sixteen years, who, from their strong family resemblance, were, beyond doubt, brothers. Their blue jackets, ornamented with bright anchor buttons, which glistened in the sun, their blue trousers, their sailor hats and flowing ribbons indicated that they were young midshipmen. These two boys were Elmer and George Stevens, the sons of a wealthy Virginian, Robert Stevens. The boys early expressed a strong desire to enter the navy, and, at

their urgent and repeated solicitation, the father secured for them commissions as midshipmen on board the New England privateer Elizabeth. The times were never peaceful, for even while nations were smiling on each other and holding out the olive branch, as did England and France, their vessels were at sea waging a warfare little better than piracy.

After the sailors crowded the deck, waiting with breathless eagerness, the captain again shouted: 66 Mast-head there!"

66 What does she look like?"

"A large ship, sir, standing toward us."

By this time nearly all of the crew were on deck, eagerly straining their eyes to obtain a glimpse of the approaching ship, and expressing in whispers their opinions as to her probable character. These whispers became so loud and annoying that the captain shouted:

Keep silence, fore and aft!"

Silence being secured, he once more hailed the lookout and asked:

"What does she look like?"

"A large frigate, bearing down upon us, sir!" A whisper ran over the deck that the strange ship was a French frigate.

The English crew had cause to become excited

by the appearance of a vessel, for the feelings between France and England were anything but pleasant. The Earl of Bellamont, reached Boston as governor of Massachusetts in 1699. The encroachments of the French, who had outgeneraled the English in securing the control of the mouth of the Mississippi River, and were then preparing to extend their territorial jurisdiction in the east as far westward as the Kennebec River, greatly annoyed him.

According to the opinions of the English courts, the St. Croix River, now the eastern boundary of the United States, was to be the western boundary of the French dominion in that quarter; but the French king had an entirely different understanding of the matter, and his representative in Nova Scotia gave notice to the authorities of Massachusetts that it was their intention to assert jurisdiction as far westward as the Kennebec. The British ministry were at once informed of the threatened invasion by Bellamont; but they paid no heed to his notice. No doubt the invasion would have been successfully carried out, had not war between England and France begun soon after.

In the month of May, 1702, Queen Anne and. her allies, the Emperor of Germany and the StatesGeneral of Holland, declared war against France and Spain. When hostilities began in Europe, they were the signal for the English colonists in

America to prepare for another fierce struggle with the French and Indians. The coolest heads among the American colonies had foreseen the inevitable long before it came. A terrible, bloody war must result from the struggle between

the two powers, contending for su

premacy in the new world.

Elmer and

George Stevens were on their first

THE OTHERS.

cruise when war was declared and, with all the ardor of youth, looked forward to the time when they should meet the enemy on the sea. When the

strange vessel was sighted, the boys hurried to the deck with the others and stood side by side watching the ship as she bore down upon them. She was so large, and their own craft seemed so small, that less courageous lads would have been intimidated.

George, the younger, was delighted. He had heard many stories of wild sea fights and thrilling adventures, and he longed to experience the strange sensations produced by the whistling of iron balls. His great-grandfather Philip Stevens (or Philip Estevan, for he was a Spaniard by birth) had been a sailor in early life, had helped to lay the foundation of Jamestown, and was an intimate friend of Captain John Smith. George had heard so many stories of this worthy ancestor, that he determined to emulate him on the sea.

"Elmer, is it a Frenchman? Zounds! I hope so; for I do so want to make him strike his colors, he declared to his brother.

Elmer, who was older and more experienced than his brother, smilingly answered:

George, you may get quite enough of this Frenchman."

แ Is it a Frenchman?"

"I trow it is, my brother; but wait; the captain will soon know. The fellow is larger than we." What boy ever was intimidated or restrained from a fight because another was larger? George