The tables seemed so full of people that Bonny had to walk u_Harper's Young People, August 31, 1880 An Illustrated Weekly

to find a place. A queer hush fell on the clatter and the chatter.

People dropped their forks. They watched this little figure with the

sunny hair, the happy face, the shabby shoes, the tumbled check apron,

that dragged after it the well-nigh forgotten red cape, and at last

mounting into an empty chair, said, with a sigh of satisfaction, and in

a very clear voice, "I want dinner, please."

Bonny glanced round him. He thought everybody looked pleased, and

catching the eye of a lady who bent toward him, he smiled back a shy,

friendly smile.

This lady was the first to speak to him. She crossed eagerly over and

said, "May I sit beside you, dear? I knew a little boy once with yellow

hair like yours."

Bonny never noticed that she had tears in her soft eyes now.

"I like your hair best," he answered, half timidly, half frankly. The

lady's hair was very dark, and she wore in it a splendid yellow flower.

"But, please, I am so hungry! May I have dinner?"

Before the lady could answer, a stout gentleman came hurrying up.

"Well, well, let's see about this," he began, in a rollicking tone.

"Shake hands, little stranger. So you came to my dinner, did you?"

Bonny dropped his head. He was rather afraid of the loud-voiced man; but

the lady whom he was not afraid of said, re-assuringly, "This is the man

who gives the dinner, little one; this is his house; he'll be very good

to you, never fear."

So Bonny looked up then, and replied, simply, "I came; I was hungry, and

I came."

The host cleared his throat, and said, heartily, while he patted Bonny's

curls, "Well, I didn't expect you, that's a fact; but we'll give you

just as good a dinner, for all that. A dinner?--I'll warrant you we

will: and upon my word, ladies and gentlemen, I rather think the

Metropolis Hotel is honored to have the chance."

Never, never had Bonny imagined such a dinner as he ate that day. The

lady who sat by his side cut up the chicken, and helped him choose among

the lavish dainties that the host kept insisting on having brought for

him to taste.

Hungry? It seemed to Bonny that he never in this world could be hungry

again.

His innocent heart ran over, and he told his new friend, the lady, all

she asked him about his sick father, his tired mother, the little

tenement that was like the kettle that all boiled away, and the big

family that crammed it so full when gathered together. But one thing

neither the lady, nor her husband, who filled Bonny's pocket with

pennies, nor the host, could succeed in finding out from him.

This was where the little fellow belonged, and how to return him to his

home.

Street and number he knew naught about. What was his name? "Bonny

Laddie." His father's name? "Oh, John." What kind of work did his father

do? "Oh, nothing; father is sick." He had no clear ideas associated with

any calling except with Nickie's, as they found by questioning.

That Nickie peddled papers, and that Bonny would when he was bigger, he

was very positive about.

"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 petition, 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" _Constitution_ 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

_Constitution_ 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 _Constitution_ 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 _Constitution_ 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 _Peacock_ 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

assisted 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 _Peacock_ were

sailing together, they were chased by the _Cornwallis_, a British 74.

They escaped, and the _Peacock_, 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 classes. 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 "Japan 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 latitude 66 deg., and made a voyage of

about ninety thousand miles.

[Illustration: COMMODORE PERRY'S SHIPS IN THE BAY OF JEDDO.]

The Japan 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 Japan 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 Japan in 1853. Perry was met on

the bosom of the bay of Jeddo, in which his squadron had anchored, by

high officials in the Emperor's state barges, and to them the object of

the expedition was made known. The Japanese 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

embassy 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.

[Illustration]

I am the lad that follows the plough--