lifting baby Ned to one knee, Elsie to the other, while the
rest of the young members of the household grouped themselves about him,
he began his story after a slight pause to collect his thoughts.

"You all, I think, have more or less knowledge of the War of 1812-14,
which finished the work of separation from the mother country so nearly
accomplished by the War of the Revolution. Upon the close of that
earlier contest, England, it is true, acknowledged our independence, but
evidently retained a hope of finally recovering her control here.

"All through the intervening years, our sailors on our merchant vessels,
and even, in some instances, those belonging to our navy, were subjected
to insults and oppression when met on the high seas by the more powerful
ones of the English. The conduct of British officers--claiming the right
to search our vessels for deserters from theirs, and often seizing
American born men as such--was most gallingly insulting; the wrongs thus
inflicted upon our poor seamen were enough to rouse the anger and
indignation of the meekest of men. The clearest proofs of citizenship
availed nothing; they were seized, carried forcibly aboard the British
ships, and, if they refused to serve their captors, were brutally
flogged again and again.

"But I will not go into details with which you are all more or less
acquainted. We did not lack abundant cause for exasperation, and at
length, though ill prepared for the struggle, our government declared
war against Great Britain.

"That war had lasted two years; both parties were weary of the struggle,
and negotiations for peace were being carried on in Europe. In fact the
treaty had been signed, December 24, in the city of Ghent, Belgium, but
news did not travel in those days nearly so fast as it does now, and so
it happened that the battle of New Orleans was fought two weeks
afterward, January 8, 1815, both armies being still in ignorance of the
conclusion of peace."

"What a pity!" exclaimed Grace.

"And Andrew Jackson was the commanding general?" remarked Walter in a
tone between inquiry and assertion. "Was he an American by birth,
Brother Levis?"

"Yes; his parents were from Ireland, but he was born on the border
between North and South Carolina, in 1767; so that he was old enough to
remember some of the occurrences of the Revolutionary War; one of them
being himself carried to Camden, South Carolina, as a prisoner, and
there nearly starved to death a