emes at world-wide empire.
He planned to invade England, and to carry his troops across the Channel
while the great English war-ships were engaged with his own vessels; but
by the time that Napoleon led the troops of France, Horatio Nelson was
in command of a British squadron. The French might be all-conquering on
land, but the English had yet to be defeated on the seas.
Before the great decisive battle of Trafalgar Nelson sent his famous
message to all the men under him: "England expects every man to do his
duty!" When the battle was over, the little English admiral had won the
greatest naval victory in his country's history. The same indomitable
pluck that had carried him through so many dangers won that great day.
He would not be downed, no matter what the odds against him.
The same qualities which had sent the delicate boy of thirteen hurrying
through the rain to Chatham, intent only on reaching his goal, brought
about the great sea victories of Admiral Lord Horatio Nelson.
XII
Robert Fulton
The Boy of the Conestoga: 1765-1815
It was mid-afternoon on July 3d, 1778. A group of a dozen boys sat in
the long grass that grew close down to the banks of the narrow, twisting
Conestoga River, in eastern Pennsylvania. All of the boys were hard at
work engaged in a mysterious occupation. By the side of one of them lay
a great pile of narrow pasteboard tubes, each about two feet long, and
in front of this same small boy stood a keg filled with what looked like
black sand.
Each of the group was busy working with one of the pasteboard tubes,
stopping one end tightly with paper, and then pouring in handfuls of the
"sand" from the keg, and from time to time dropping small colored balls
into the tubes at various layers of the sand. These balls came from a
box that was guarded by the same boy who had charge of the tubes and the
keg, and he dealt them out to the others with continual words of
caution.
"Be careful of that one, George," he said, handing him one of the
colored balls; "those red ones were very hard to make, and I haven't
many of them, but they'll burn splendidly, and make a great show when
they go off."
"How do you stop the candle when all the balls and powder are in, Rob?"
asked another boy.
"See, this way," said the young instructor, and he slipped a short fuse
into the tube and fastened the end with paper and a piece of twine.
"There's something'll let folks know to-morrow's the Fourt
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