to the _Merrimac_, and to build her in one hundred
days.

On March 8, 1862, the _Merrimac_ steamed into Hampton Roads, fully
expecting to destroy the Union fleet there. But instead, to the great
amazement of her officers and men a little iron boat, so small that she
looked like a tiny pill-box on a plank, steamed out to meet her. She was
so tiny it was almost impossible to hit her; she was almost entirely
under water, and her gun turret was built to revolve so that she could
fire in any direction. It was like a battle between David and Goliath,
and when the day was over David had won, and the _Merrimac_ had to bow
to the iron "pill-box" which had been named the _Monitor_. Proud was
John Ericsson then, and rightly so, for he had invented an entirely new
kind of ship, and one which was to give its name of _Monitor_ to all
ships of its kind.

The building of the _Monitor_ for its successful battle with the
_Merrimac_ was the most dramatic incident in Ericsson's career as an
inventor, but his whole life showed a series of wonderful inventions
which for value and wide range can probably only be compared with those
of Edison. The prophecy which the fairy had made to the shepherd in
Sweden had come true, the name of Ericsson was known throughout the
world. And in addition to John, the older brother Nils had won great
renown in Sweden. He was made Director of Canals there, and created a
nobleman for his great services to science and to his native land.

On the Battery in New York City, overlooking the wonderful harbor that
is filled with ships of every country, stands the statue of a tall,
handsome man, somewhat of the type of those Norsemen who were the great
adventurers of the Atlantic seas. The statue is of the man who built the
_Monitor_, and who brought to the new world the genius for invention
which he had first shown on the hills and in the woods of Sweden in the
days when, a boy of fourteen, he had taught men how to build the great
canal at Goeta.

XVIII

Garibaldi

The Boy of the Mediterranean: 1807-1882

The town of Nice lay blazing with color under the hot August sun. The
houses, with their shining red-tiled roofs, their painted yellow walls,
their striped and checkered awnings, were scarcely less vivid than the
waters of the bay, which sparkled like a sea of opals under the rich
blue Mediterranean sky. Color was everywhere, brilliant even in the
sun-tanned cheeks, the black hair and eyes, the orange