ent word that he was sorry for the misery he should
inflict on the women and children by a bombardment.

"To that a verbal reply was sent: 'Colonel Davis is a gallant officer,
and has taken care of the ladies.'

"Then Byron presently began a cannonade and bombardment and kept it up
for twenty-two hours.

"The Americans replied in a very spirited manner from a battery on an
eminence. Davis's militia worked it and succeeded in disabling the most
dangerous of the enemy's gunboats and silencing its cannon.

"The British failed in their effort to inflict great damage upon the
town, although they hurled into it as many as eight hundred eighteen and
thirty-two pound shot, besides many shells and Congreve rockets. The
heavy round shot injured some of the houses but the shells did not reach
the town and the rockets passed over it. No one was killed.

"Plenty of powder was sent for the American guns from Dupont's at
Wilmington, and they picked up and sent back the British balls, which
they found just fitted their cannon."

"How good that was," laughed Lulu. "It reminds me of the British at
Boston asking the Americans to sell them their balls which they had
picked up, and the Americans answering, 'Give us powder and we'll return
your balls.' But is that all of your story, papa?"

"Yes, all about the fight at Lewis, but in the afternoon of the next
day the British tried to land to steal some of the live stock in the
neighborhood; yet without success, as the American militia met them at
the water's edge and drove them back to their ships.

"About a month later the British squadron dropped down to Newbold's
ponds, seven miles below Lewis, and boats filled with their armed men
were sent on shore for water; but a few of Colonel Davis's men, under
the command of Major George H. Hunter, met and drove them back to their
ships. So, finding he could not obtain supplies on the Delaware shore,
Beresford's little squadron sailed for Bermuda."

"Good! Thank you for telling me about it, papa," said Lulu. "Are we
going to stop at Lewis?"

"No, but we will pass near enough to have a distant view of the town."

"Oh, I want to see it!" she exclaimed; "and I'm sure the rest will when
they hear what happened there."

"Well, daughter, there will be nothing to hinder," the captain answered
pleasantly.

"How soon will we reach the point from which we can see it best, papa?"
she asked.

"I think about the time we leave the breakfast table