a modest little home, just below Bordentown, New Jersey.  When eighty-eight years old he was as active as a man of half his years.  I came upon him one wintry day, when he was of that age, and found him in the barn, shoveling corn into a hopper, of which a sturdy Irishman was turning the crank.  The old admiral kept his hired man busy and enjoyed his own work.  He was of small figure, always wore an old-fashioned blue swallow-tail with brass buttons, took snuff, and would laugh and shake until his weatherbeaten face was purple over some of his reminiscences of the early days of the Republic.

Think of it!  He remembered seeing Benedict Arnold burned in effigy in Philadelphia in 1781; he recalled Paul Jones, and had drunk wine and talked with Washington.

Stewart and Decatur were of about the same age, and attended the old Academy in Philadelphia.  They were bosom friends from boyhood.  Stewart told me that Decatur was a good student, but there was hardly a boy in the school, anywhere near his own age, with whom he did not have a fight.  He would “rather fight than eat,” but he was not a bully, and never imposed upon any one younger or weaker than himself.

A great many of my talks with old Admiral Stewart related to the war with Tripoli, which began in 1801 and lasted nearly four years.  As you will learn, Stewart had a great deal to do with that war, and most of the incidents that follow were told to me by him, a fact which insures their truthfulness and interest.

Among others to whom I shall refer was Commodore Richard Dale, who was born in 1756, and died in 1826.  He was older, as you will notice, than the three whom I have mentioned.  As to his bravery, it is enough to say that he was first lieutenant on the Bonhomme Richard during her terrible fight under Paul Jones with the Serapis, and served with that wonderful naval hero on the Alliance and the Ariel.  Had he not been made of the right stuff he never could have held such a position when a very young man.

[Illustration:  COMMODORE EDWARD PREBLE.]

Another hero was Commodore Edward Preble, born in 1761 and died in 1807.  When only sixteen years old he joined a privateer, and at eighteen was active in the attacks of the Protector on the British privateer Admiral Duff.  He was on the Winthrop, and fought bravely in the battle which resulted in the capture of a British armed brig.  He was commissioned lieutenant in 1798, and the year following commanded the Essex.

From what I have told you, it will be seen that it was a gallant band that our Government sent into the Mediterranean in 1801 to chastise the barbarians and compel them to respect the Stars and Stripes.

CHAPTER VIII.

The First Serious Engagement—­Loss of the Philadelphia—­The Scheme of Captain Bainbridge—­Exploit of Lieutenant Decatur.