aptain--afterward Commodore--Talbot do himself great credit
there?" asked Evelyn.

"Yes; he fought for hours with his wrist shattered by a musket ball;
then was wounded in the hip and was sent to Red Bank. He was a very
brave man and did much good service during the war, principally on the
water, taking vessel after vessel. In the fight with one of them--the
_Dragon_--his speaking trumpet was pierced by bullets and the skirts of
his coat were shot away."

"How brave he must have been!" exclaimed Lulu with enthusiasm. "Don't
you think so, papa?"

"Indeed, I do," replied the captain. "He was one of the many men of that
period of whom their countrymen may be justly proud."

CHAPTER V.

Little Ned, who was not very well, began fretting and reaching out his
arms to be taken by his father. The captain lifted him tenderly, saying
something in a soothing tone, and carried him away to another part of
the deck.

Then the young people, gathering about Grandma Elsie, who had been an
almost silent listener to Captain Raymond's account of the attacks upon
the forts, and the gallant conduct of their defenders, begged her to
tell them something more of the stirring events of those revolutionary
days.

"You have visited the places near here where there was fighting in those
days, haven't you, mamma?" asked Walter.

"Yes, some years ago," she replied. "Ah, how many years ago it was!" she
added musingly; then continued, "When I was quite a little girl, my
father took me to Philadelphia, and a number of other places, where
occurred notable events in the war of the Revolution."

"And you will tell us about them, won't you, mamma?" Walter asked, in
coaxing tones.

"Certainly, if you and the rest all wish it," she returned, smiling
lovingly into the eager young face, while the others joined in the
request.

"Please tell about Philadelphia first, mamma," Walter went on. "You went
to Independence Hall, of course, and we've all been there, I believe;
but there must be some other points of interest in and about the city,
I should think, that will be rather new to us."

"Yes, there are others," she replied, "though I suppose that to every
American Independence Hall is the most interesting of all, since it was
there the Continental Congress held its meetings, and its bell that
proclaimed the glad tidings that that grand Declaration of Independence
had been signed and the colonies of Great Britain had become free and
indepen