girl got hold of it, after all, before my little match
girl had seen it. How I wish I could find her!"

Said the artist in reply: "Well, the girl is coming in a day or two to
look at the picture, and I will send her to you. I had no idea that it
was you from whom the locket had been stolen. It is strange indeed!"

And thus ere very long Madge met her first kind friend, and was led to
tell the whole story of her pitiful life and craving for love. And at
last, through the lady's continued kindness, little Madge was
transferred with many other little children from the crowded, noisy, and
unwholesome street which had so long been her home, to the care of those
whose business it is to take just such poor orphaned little ones to new
and happy homes far off in the country, where warm, kind hearts are
willing and anxious to adopt them, and bring them up to useful
womanhood.

Madge wrote a letter to the lady not long ago, and after telling about
her happy times in her new home, she added, "And, oh! Mrs. ----, this
dear lady here _kisses_ me good-night always, and it feels just as if I
had a mother after all."

[Begun in HARPER'S YOUNG PEOPLE No. 37, July 13.]

THE STORY OF THE AMERICAN NAVY.

BY BENSON J. LOSSING.

CHAPTER VI.

Soon after her exciting chase the _Constitution_ sailed from Boston in
search of the British frigate _Guerriere_, whose Captain (Dacres) had
boastfully enjoined the Americans to remember that she was not the
_Little Belt_. On the 19th of August, 1812, the _Constitution_ fell in
with her, and Hull skillfully managed to lay his vessel alongside the
British frigate, to have a battle at close quarters. The _Guerriere_
opened fire at once; the _Constitution_ kept silent for a while. As the
shot from the English frigate began to make havoc on the _Constitution_,
Hull's second in command (Lieutenant Morris) asked permission to open
fire. "Not yet," quietly said Hull. The request was soon repeated. "Not
yet," was the calm reply. A moment afterward, Hull, filled with intense
excitement, shouted, "Now, boys, pour it into them!"

[Illustration: THE "CONSTITUTION" AND "GUERRIERE."--DRAWN BY J. O.
DAVIDSON.]

This command was obeyed with terrible effect. The guns of the
_Constitution_ were double-shotted and did fearful work. The frigates
were only half-pistol-shot distance from each other. The excitement on
both sides was intense. "Hull her! hull her!" shouted Lieutenant Morris.
"Hull her! hull h