coasting schooner I owned and commanded, and I
almost cried when I had to sell her."

"I don't think you need to be ashamed of this sentiment, or that
an inanimate structure should call it into being," said the young
commander. "I am sure I have not ceased to love the Bellevite; and in
my eyes she is handsomer than any young lady I ever saw. I have not been
able to transfer my affections to the Bronx as yet, and she will have to
do something very remarkable before I do so. But about the speed of our
ship?"

"I have noticed particularly how easily and gracefully she makes her way
through the water when she is going fifteen knots. Why that is faster
than most of the ocean passenger steamers travel."

"Very true; but like many of these blockade runners and other vessels
which the Confederate government and rich men at the South have
purchased in the United Kingdom, she was doubtless built on the Clyde.
Not a few of them have been constructed for private yachts, and I have
no doubt, from what I have seen, that the Bronx is one of the number.
The Scotian and the Arran belonged to wealthy Britishers; and of course
they were built in the very best manner, and were intended to attain the
very highest rate of speed."

"I shall count on eighteen knots at least on the part of the Bronx when
the situation shall require her to do her best. By the way, Captain
Passford, don't you think that a rather queer name has been given to our
steamer? Bronx! I am willing to confess that I don't know what the word
means, or whether it is fish, flesh or fowl," continued Flint.

"It is not fish, flesh or fowl," replied Christy, laughing. "My father
suggested the name to the Department, and it was adopted. He talked with
me about a name, as he thought I had some interest in her, for the
reason that I had done something in picking her up."

"Done something? I should say that you had done it all," added Flint.

"I did my share. The vessels of the navy have generally been named after
a system, though it has often been varied. Besides the names of states
and cities, the names of rivers have been given to vessels. The Bronx is
the name of a small stream, hardly more than a brook, in West Chester
County, New York. When I was a small boy, my father had a country place
on its banks, and I did my first paddling in the water in the Bronx.
I liked the name, and my father recommended it."

"I don't object to the name, though somehow it makes me think o