troduce you to my friend, Mr. Franklin."

"Franklin! Franklin!" exclaimed Mr. Bushnell, eyeing the stranger a
little rudely. "_Doctor Benjamin Franklin_, _if you please_, Benjamin
Gale!" he corrected, to the utter amazement of the party.

The oars missed the stroke, caught it again, and, for a minute, poor
Dr. Franklin was confused by the sudden announcement that he existed
at all, and, in particular, in that small boat on the sea.

"Yes, sir, even so," responded Dr. Gale, cheerfully adding, "and we're
going down to see the new fishing tackle your son is going to catch
the enemy's ships with."

"Fishing tackle! Enemy's ships! Why, David _is_ the laziest man in all
Saybrook town. He does nothing with his first summer but fish, fish
all night long! The only stroke of honest work I've _ever_ known him
to do was to build this boat we're in."

During this time the brothers were pulling with a will for the
island.

Arrived there, the boat was drawn up on the sand, the seine-house
unlocked, and, when the light of day had been let into it, fishing-reel
and seine had disappeared, and, in the language of Doctor Benjamin Gale,
this is what they found therein:

THE AMERICAN TURTLE.

"The body, when standing upright, in the position in which it is
navigated, has the nearest resemblance to the two upper shells of
the tortoise, joined together. It is seven and a half feet long,
and six feet high. The person who navigates it enters at the top.
It has a brass top or cover which receives the person's head, as
he sits on a seat, and is fastened on the inside by screws.

"On this brass head are fixed eight glasses, viz: two before, two
on each side, one behind, and one to look out upwards. On the same
brass head are fixed two brass tubes to admit fresh air when
requisite, and a ventilator at the side, to free the machine from
the air rendered unfit for respiration.

"On the inside is fixed a barometer, by which he can tell the
depth he is under water; a compass by which he knows the course he
steers. In the barometer, and on the needles of the compass, is
fixed fox-fire--that is, wood that gives light in the dark. His
ballast consists of about nine hundred-weight of lead, which he
carries at the bottom and on the outside of the machine, part of
which is so fixed as he can let run down to the bottom, and serves
as an anchor by which he can ride _ad libitum_.

"He has a sounding lead fi