might float until it could be beached. The water in the
ship increased rapidly, and extinguished the fires under the boilers; the
wind, blowing a high gale, swung into the northwest, thus driving the now
helpless hulk out to sea. Huge combing waves swept the decks from end to
end. O'Brien tells the story: "We looked in vain for another craft of any
kind, and by the middle of the afternoon it seemed as though it was all up
with us, for there was not much daylight left, and with her deck almost
awash it was impossible that the _Tillie_ should keep afloat all night. The
gale had swept us rapidly out to sea. The wind, which was filled with icy
needles, had kicked up a wild cross-sea, and it was more comfortable to go
down with the ship than even to think of trying to escape in the boats." At
last, when there seemed no longer any hope of rescue, the big five-masted
schooner _Governor Ames_ came plunging through the heaving seas, and,
by masterly seamanship and good fortune, backed by the heroism of her
commander and crew, succeeded in taking off all except four, who went down
with the ship. But the work went on. There is not space here to tell of the
several vessels whose names, through the engagement of the craft in these
enterprises, became as familiar to newspaper readers as are the names of
ocean liners today. A few months later, the United States Government
sent its ships and its men to help those who, for three hard years, had
struggled for national independence.

XII

_THE STORY OF SUGAR_

Chemically, sugar is a compound belonging to the group of carbohydrates, or
organic compounds of carbon with oxygen and hydrogen. The group includes
sugars, starches, gums, and celluloses. Sugar is a product of the vegetable
kingdom, of plants, trees, root crops, etc. It is found in and is
producible from many growths. As a laboratory process, it is obtainable
from many sources, but, commercially, it is derived from only two, the
sugar cane and the beet root. This statement, however, has a certain
limitation in that it omits such products as maple sugar, malt sugar, milk
sugar, and others having commercial or chemical uses on a limited scale.
But it is only with the crystallized sucrose, the familiar sugar of the
market and the household, that we are dealing here. The output of the other
sugars is measurable in hundreds or even thousands of pounds, but the
output of the sugar of commerce is measured in millions of tons. Lo