les, firing her musket and charging with her bayonet as
well as any of the men beside her.

But there is a great deal of hard work connected with infantry service,
and although she was eager for the excitement of battle with the
exhilarating smell of powder and the cheering shouts of her
fellow-soldiers, Mary did not fancy tramping on long marches, carrying
her heavy musket and knapsack. She got herself changed into a regiment
of cavalry, and here, mounted upon a horse, with the encumbrances she
disliked to carry comfortably strapped behind her, Mary felt much more
at ease, and much better satisfied. But she was not destined to achieve
fame as a dashing cavalry man with foaming steed and flashing sabre. One
of her comrades was a very prepossessing young fellow, and Mary fell in
love with him, and when she told him she was not really a cavalry man
but a cavalry woman, he returned her affection, and the two agreed that
they would quit the army, and set up domestic life as quiet civilians.
They were married, and went into the tavern-keeping business. They were
both fond of horses, and did not wish to sever all connection with the
method of life they had just given up, and so they called their little
inn the Three Horse Shoes, and were always glad when any one of their
customers came riding up to their stables, instead of simply walking in
their door.

But this domestic life did not last very long. Mary's husband died, and,
not wishing to keep a tavern by herself, she again put on the dress of a
man and enlisted as a soldier. But her military experience did not
satisfy her, and after all she believed that she liked the sea better
than the land, and again she shipped as a sailor on a vessel bound for
the West Indies.

Now Mary's desire for change and variety seemed likely to be fully
satisfied. The ship was taken by English pirates, and as she was English
and looked as if she would make a good freebooter, they compelled her to
join them, and thus it was that she got her first idea of a pirate's
life. When this company disbanded, she went to New Providence and
enlisted on a privateer, but, as was very common on such vessels
commissioned to perform acts of legal piracy, the crew soon determined
that illegal piracy was much preferable, so they hoisted the black flag,
and began to scourge the seas.

Mary Reed was now a regular pirate, with a cutlass, pistol, and every
outward appearance of a daring sea-robber, except that sh