them.

How would you work to get a six-foot vessel over a four-foot sand bar?
Well, that doesn't matter; all we care for is the way Captain Perry did
it. He took two big scows and put one on each side of the _Lawrence_.
Then he filled them with water till the waves washed over their decks.
When they had sunk so far they were tied fast to the brig and the water
was pumped out of them. As the water went out they rose and lifted the
_Lawrence_ between them until there were several feet of water below her
keel. Now the brig was hauled on the bar until she touched the bottom;
then she was lifted again in the same way. This second time took her out
to deep water. Next, the _Niagara_ was lifted over the bar in the same
manner.

The next day the British, who had been taking things very easily, came
sailing down to destroy Perry's ships. But they opened their eyes wide
when they saw them afloat on the lake. They had lost their chance by
wasting their time.

Perry picked up men for his vessels wherever he could get them. The most
of those to be had were landsmen. But he had his fifty good men from
Newport and a hundred were sent him from the coast. Some of these had
been on the _Constitution_ in her great fight with the _Guerriere_.

[Illustration: OLIVER H. PERRY.]

Early in August all was ready, and he set sail. Early in September he
was in Put-in Bay, at the west end of Lake Erie, and here the British
came looking for him and his ships.

Perry was now the commodore of a fleet of nine vessels,--the brigs
_Lawrence_, _Niagara_ and _Caledonia_, five schooners, and one sloop.
Captain Barclay, the British commander, had only six vessels, but some
of them were larger than Perry's. They were the ships _Detroit_ and
_Queen Charlotte_, a large brig, two schooners, and a sloop. Such were
the fleets with which the great battle of Lake Erie was fought.

I know you are getting tired of all this description, and want to get on
to the fighting. You don't like to be kept sailing in quiet waters when
there is a fine storm ahead. Very well, we will go on. But one has to
get his bricks ready before he can build his house.

Well, then, on the 10th of September, 1813, it being a fine summer day,
with the sun shining brightly, Perry and his men sailed out from Put-in
Bay and came in sight of the British fleet over the waters of the lake.

What Captain Perry now did was fine. He hoisted a great blue flag, and
when it unrolled in the wind