ship bowling along before a fresh gale of wind.

"I had sailed with many Captains," writes Elijah Hall, second
Lieutenant of the staunch, little vessel, "but I never had seen a ship
crowded as Captain Jones drove the _Ranger_. The wind held
northeasterly and fresh 'til we cleared Sable Island and began to draw
on to the Banks. Then it came northeast and east-northeast with many
snow squalls, and thick of nights."

Imagine the situation of the _Ranger_'s crew, with a top-heavy,
cranky ship under their feet, and a Commander who day and night
insisted on every rag she could stagger under, without laying clear
down!

As it was, she came close to beam-ends more than once, and on one
occasion righted only by letting-fly her sheets cut with hatchets.
During all this trying work Captain Jones was his own navigating
officer, keeping the deck eighteen or twenty hours out of the
twenty-four; often serving extra grog to the men with his own hands;
and, by his example, silencing all disposition to grumble. In the
worst of it, the watch and watch was lap-watched, so that the men
would be eight hours on to four off; but no one complained. It speaks
well alike for commander and crew that not a man was punished or even
severely reprimanded during the terrific voyage.

But Captain Jones made good his boast. He actually did land at
Nantes--upon the coast of France--early in the morning of December
second, 1777, thirty-two days out from Portsmouth. His crew were
jubilant, and sang a song which ran:

"So now we had him hard and fast,
Burgoyne laid down his arms at last,
And that is why we brave the blast,
To carry the news to London!
Heigh-ho! Carry the News!
Go! Go! Carry the News!
Tell old King George that he's undone!
He's licked by the Yankee squirrel gun.
Go!
Go!
Carry the news to London!"

And Captain John made haste to proceed to Paris, placing the
dispatches in the hands of Dr. Franklin early upon the fifth day of
December,--travelling two hundred and twenty miles in sixty hours. He
returned to his ship about the middle of the month, to find that
several of the crew were mutinous.

"See here, Captain," said one--a seaman from Portsmouth, New
Hampshire--"Me and my pals enlisted at home after readin' a hand-bill
which said that we wuz to get $40.00 apiece extra, for this cruise.
Now, your young Lieutenant tells us that the reg'lations of Congress
say that we are to