n Paul to descend with me. We found Captain Daniel seated
with Mr. Carroll, the barrister, and Mr. Chase.

"Captain," I said to my old friend, "I have a rare joy this day in making
known to you Mr. John Paul Jones, of whom I have spoken to you a score of
times. He it is whose bravery sank the Black Moll, whose charity took me
to London, and who got no other reward for his faith than three weeks in
a debtors' prison. For his honour, as I have told you, would allow him
to accept none, nor his principles to take the commission in the Royal
Navy which Mr. Fox offered him."

Captain Daniel rose, his honest face flushing with pleasure. "Faith, Mr.
Jones," he cried, when John Paul had finished one of his elaborate bows,
"this is well met, indeed. I have been longing these many years for a
chance to press your hand, and in the names of those who are dead and
gone to express my gratitude."

"I have my reward now, captain," replied John Paul; "a sight of you
is to have Richard's whole life revealed. And what says Mr. Congreve?

"'For blessings ever wait on virtuous deeds,
And tho' a late, a sure reward succeeds.'

"Tho' I would not have you believe that my deed was virtuous. And you,
who know Richard, may form some notion of the pleasure I had out of his
companionship."

I hastened to present my friend to the other gentlemen, who welcomed him
with warmth, though they could not keep their amusement wholly out of
their faces.

"Mr. Jones is now the possessor of an estate in Virginia, sirs," I
explained.

"And do you find it more to your taste than seafaring, Mr. Jones?"
inquired Mr. Chase.

This brought forth a most vehement protest, and another quotation.

"Why, sir," he cried, "to be

'Fixed like a plant on his peculiar spot,
To draw nutrition, propagate, and rot,'

is an animal's existence. I have thrown it over, sir, with a right good
will, and am now on my way to Philadelphia to obtain a commission in the
navy soon to be born."

Mr. Chase smiled. John Paul little suspected that he was a member of the
Congress.

"This is news indeed, Mr. Jones," he said. "I have yet to hear of the
birth of this infant navy, for which we have not yet begun to make
swaddling clothes."

"We are not yet an infant state, sir," Mr. Carroll put in, with a shade
of rebuke. For Maryland was well content with the government she had
enjoyed, and her best patriots long after shunned the length of
secession