hubrick, of which the author wrote: "Anxious to know what
the effect would be on the public, I read a chapter to S----, now
captain, which contained an account of a ship working off-shore in a
gale. My listener betrayed interest as we proceeded, until he could no
longer keep his seat. He paced the room furiously until I got through,
and just as I laid down the paper he exclaimed: 'It is all very well,
but you have let your jib stand too long, my fine fellow!' I blew it out
of the bolt-rope in pure spite!" And thus it was that when the author
"came beating out of the 'Devil's Grip,'" this old messmate jumped from
his seat and paced the floor with strides, not letting a detail escape
him. Cooper was fully satisfied and accepted the criticism, and the
tale, alive with spirited description of sea-action, won the day. It was
written with all the author's power and accuracy of detail. In "Mr.
Gray" appeared John Paul Jones, while "Long Tom Coffin" was said to be
Mr. Irish, the mate of the _Stirling_, in which the lad "Cooper made his
voyage before-the-mast." Of this mate and the Yankees the author wrote:
"He too was from Nantucket, and was a prime fellow, and fit to command a
ship." Prof. Brander Matthews calls this simple-hearted cockswain and
Natty Bumppo "co-heirs of time." The famous fifth chapter of "The Pilot"
was the first fiction to show that "a master of the sea tale had come
into the world, and it has never been surpassed in literature of the
sea." This, the third of Cooper's novels, won for him his greatest
popularity. It was dedicated to William Branford Shubrick, United States
Navy--the author's loyal friend since their days together on the _Wasp_,
in 1809. Its inscription reads in part: "My Dear Shubrick--by your old
Messmate, the Author." A few days after "The Pilot" was issued, January,
1824, Cooper wrote this friend: "I found Wiley had the book in the hands
of his five printers--on my return--for reprint. So much for our joint
efforts." Concerning "The Pilot" and its author, this appeared in the
_Edinburgh Review_: "The empire of the sea is conceded to him by
acclamation."

[Illustration: "TALES FOR FIFTEEN, OR IMAGINATION AND HEART."]

[Illustration: CHARLES WILKES.]

[Illustration: JOHN PAUL JONES.]

Meeting Cooper at dinner three months later, Bryant wrote his wife that
"he seemed a little giddy with the great success his works have met."
Another said: "What wonder that the hearty, breezy author of 'The