ewalk were much worn. That was a great many years ago.

That wharf was Captain Jonathan's and Captain Jacob's and they owned the
ships that sailed from it; and, after their ships had been sailing from
that wharf in the little city for a good many years, they changed their
office to Boston. After that, their ships sailed from a wharf in Boston.

Once, in the year 1807, the brig _Industry_ sailed from Boston for far
countries with Captain Sol as her captain. There was, at that time, a
great war between France and Spain, on one side, and England and some
other countries, on the other side; but the English ships had to do
almost all the fighting, for their side, that was done on the ocean.
And there were a good many English and French and Spanish privateers
sailing about, seeing how much harm they could do to the ships that
belonged to the other side.

[Illustration]

A privateer was a vessel that was fitted out by private persons, just as
if Captain Jonathan and Captain Jacob had made up their minds that the
_Industry_ should be a privateer, if the United States was at war. And
they would fit her out with guns and swords and cutlasses, and they
would get a crew for her, and they would ask the government if she could
be a privateer. And the government would probably have said that she
could, and they would have sent Captain Jonathan and Captain Jacob some
papers, called "letters of marque and reprisal," which said that the
_Industry_ was a United States privateer and that she could take ships
as prizes and sell them. Governments do not do that, now, and a
privateer is no better than a pirate; but they all did it a hundred
years ago.

Captain Sol had thought about it a great deal, for privateers weren't
very particular what ships they captured; and he wondered whether he
ought to carry a whole lot of guns. He always had some guns on the ship,
but not enough to make a fight with, if the other vessel had a whole
lot, as privateers always did. But, finally, he decided that he had
better not, or he might be taken for a pirate. For his country wasn't
at war and, of course, he hadn't any papers. Pirates that are captured
are usually short lived. So he had sailed away without any guns worth
mentioning.

The _Industry_ sailed along over the ocean for about two weeks and
nothing much happened, and she wasn't so very far from the coast of
Spain; perhaps she was three or four hundred miles away.

For, on that voyage, she was bo