evoted followers one sunny Saturday afternoon.

Blair was mounted on a sugar hogshead which stood in front of one of the
warehouses on the wharf. From this place of eminence he looked down on a
constantly increasing crowd of youthful listeners. A half hour before, a
row of little legs had been hanging over the side of the wharf, while
their owners were intent upon certain corks and lines that danced or
quivered amid the waves below. Now the lines were made fast to stone and
log, while the small fishermen stood agape to listen to the fluent
orator.

This was but the nucleus of the gathering crowd. Every boy who came near
the eager circle must of course stop to find out what was going on; and
it was with no little pride that Blair beheld the dozens of faces soon
upturned to his.

Blair might have remembered that if there had been but a dead dog in the
centre of the group, there would have been an equal gathering and
pushing to know the cause of the meeting; but he, like many an older
speaker, was willing to attribute to his eloquence what might have had
even a humbler cause.

"Our rights invaded; a man's ship no longer his castle; the free
American forced to forsake his stars and stripes! The foot of the
Briton pollutes our decks. His tyrannical arm takes captive our fathers,
and dooms them to a servitude of which the world knows no equal. Shall
we submit? We will not submit. We have protested. We have declared war
to the death. Has Fairport a voice in this matter? Where are those whom
we love best? Where but upon the wide sea, a prey to our remorseless
enemy. Where is _your_ father, and _yours_, and _yours_, and _mine_?"
said Blair, making his appeal personal as he pointed to the sailors'
sons. "This insolence must be checked. We must rebuke the proud Briton
on the very scene of his abominations. We must triumph over him on the
tossing ocean, and teach him that America, not Britannia, rules the
waves. Would that we all stood on some staunch ship, to do battle with
our young right-arms. Then should Englishmen cringe before us; then
would we doom to sudden destruction their boasted admirals and flimsy
fleets. Down with the English! down with the English!"

Blair stamped emphatically on his hollow throne, until it rang again.

"Down with the English!" echoed the crowd in a burst of enthusiasm.

At this moment a short, stout lad came round a neighboring corner. On
his arm he carried a large basket of clean linen, with