night in Maumee Bay. It was a delightful evening,
clear and slightly cool on the water, the stars shining, and a gentle
breeze stirring; and they sat upon the deck for an hour or more.

"Where are we going to-morrow, papa?" asked Grace in a pause in the
conversation, which had been running upon the scenes and adventures of
the day.

"To Erie, to view it as the scene of some of Commodore Perry's
doings--if that plan suits the wishes of those present," returned her
father. "What do you say, mother?"

"That I highly approve," answered Mrs. Travilla's sweet voice.

"As no doubt we all do," added Mrs. Lilburn.

"Yes," said her husband--"even to the one who may be suspected of
belonging to the British side. But what doings there have you to tell
of, captain?"

"It was there that Perry's fleet was made ready for the celebrated
Battle of Lake Erie," said Captain Raymond--"Perry's victory was won
September 10, 1813."

"Just a few weeks after the fight at Fort Stephenson," remarked
Lucilla.

"Yes," said her father; "and at that time the fleet was nearly ready.
What we now speak of as Erie was then called Presqu' Isle. The harbor
is a large bay, one of the finest on the lake. A low, sandy peninsula
juts out some five miles into the lake. It has sometimes been an
island, when storms have cleft its neck; and it was a barren sand
bank, though now it has a growth of timber upon it. In Perry's time
the harbor was a difficult one to enter, by reason of having a
tortuous channel, shallow and obstructed by sand bars and shoals."

"Was Erie a city at the time Perry's fleet was built there, papa?"
asked Grace.

"No; only an insignificant village, hardly twenty years old; and there
were many miles of wilderness, or very thinly populated country,
between it and the larger settlements. All the supplies for our men,
except the timber for the vessels, had to be brought from a distance,
with great labor."

"Captain, was it not at Erie that General Wayne died?" asked Grandma
Elsie.

"Yes," he said. "In 1794 General Wayne established a small garrison
there and caused a blockhouse to be built at the lake shore of
Garrison Hill. He returned there after his victory over the Indians in
the Maumee Valley, and occupied a loghouse near the blockhouse, where
he died of gout. At his own request he was buried at the foot of the
flag-staff."

"Is his grave there now, papa?" asked Elsie.

"No," replied the captain; "his remains were removed