NSIDES.

Ay, tear her tattered ensign down!
Long has it waved on high,
And many an eye has danced to see
That banner in the sky;
Beneath it rung the battle shout,
And burst the cannon's roar;
The meteor of the ocean air
Shall sweep the clouds no more!

Her deck, once red with heroes' blood,
Where knelt the vanquished foe,
When winds were hurrying o'er the flood
And waves were white below,
No more shall feel the victor's tread
Or know the conquered knee;
The harpies of the shore shall pluck
The eagle of the sea!

O! better that her shattered hulk
Should sink beneath the wave;
Her thunders shook the mighty deep,
And there should be her grave;
Nail to the mast her holy flag,
Set every threadbare sail,
And give her to the god of storms,
The lightning and the gale.

There was no talk of destroying the _Old Ironsides_ after that. The man
that did it would have won eternal disgrace. She still floats, and no
doubt she will float, as long as two of her glorious old timbers hang
together.

CHAPTER XIV

THE FIGHT OF CAPTAIN JACOB JONES

THE LIVELY LITTLE "WASP" AND HOW SHE STUNG THE "FROLIC"

NO doubt most of my readers know very well what a wasp is and how nicely
it can take care of itself. When I was a boy I found out more than once
how long and sharp a sting it has, and I do not think many boys grow up
without at some time waking up a wasp and wishing they had left it
asleep.

The United States has had three _Wasps_ and one _Hornet_ in its navy,
and the British boys who came fooling in their way found that all of
them could sting. I will tell you about the time one of our _Wasps_ met
the British _Frolic_ and fought it in a great gale, when the ships were
tossing about like chips on the ocean billows.

Not long after the _Constitution_ had her great fight with the
_Guerriere_, a little sloop-of-war named the _Wasp_ set sail from
Philadelphia to see what she could find on the broad seas. This vessel,
you should know, had three masts and square sails like a ship. But she
was not much larger than one of the sloops we see on our rivers to-day,
so it was right to call her a sloop. For captain she had a bold sailor
named Jacob Jones.

The first