rnold had fought
until his fleet was annihilated; and not in vain. Carleton sailed back
to St. John's and made his way to Canada. He had seen enough of Yankee
pluck. Thus Arnold, though defeated, gained by his valor the fruit of
victory, for the British gave up their plan of holding the lake.

CHAPTER IV

CAPTAIN PAUL JONES

THE GREATEST OF AMERICA'S NAVAL HEROES

ONCE upon a time there lived in Scotland a poor gardener named John
Paul, who had a little son to whom he gave the same name. The rich man's
garden that the father took care of was close by the sea, and little
John Paul came to love blue water so much that he spent most of his time
near it, and longed to be a sailor.

He lived in his father's cottage near the sea until he was twelve years
old. Then he was put to work in a big town on the other side of the
Solway Firth. This town was called Whitehaven. It was a very busy place,
and ships and sailors were there in such numbers that the little fellow,
who had been put in a store, greatly liked to go down to the docks and
talk with the seamen who had been in so many different lands and seas
and who could tell him all about the wonderful and curious places they
had seen, and about their adventures on the great oceans they had sailed
over.

In the end the boy made up his mind to go to sea. He studied all about
ships and how to sail them. He read all the books he could get, and
often, when other boys were asleep or in mischief, he was learning from
the books he read many things that helped him when he grew older. At
last he had his wish. When he was only thirteen years old, he was put as
a sailor boy on a ship called the _Friendship_.

The vessel was bound to Virginia, in America, for a cargo of tobacco,
and the young sailor greatly enjoyed the voyage and was especially
delighted with the new country across the sea. He wished he could live
in America, and hoped some day to go there again.

When this first voyage was over, he returned to Whitehaven and went back
to the store. But soon after, the merchant who owned the store failed in
business, and the boy was out of a place and had to look out for
himself. This time he became a real seaman. For many years he served as
a common sailor. He proved such a good one that before he was twenty
years old he was a captain. This was how he became one: While the ship
in which he was sailing was in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean, a
terrible fever broke out. The