Elsie Yachting with the Raymonds. Finley Martha
André had been taken."
"Oh, is it, sir?" exclaimed Max, in a tone of intense interest. "How I would like to visit it, – can we, Papa?"
"I too; oh, very much!" said Lulu. "Please take us there, – won't you, Papa?"
"I fear there will be hardly time, my dears; but I will see about it," was the indulgent reply.
"You have been here before, Raymond?" Mr. Keith said inquiringly.
"Yes; on my first bridal trip," the Captain answered in a low, moved tone, and sighing slightly as the words left his lips.
"With our own mother, Papa?" asked Lulu, softly, looking up into his face with eyes full of love and sympathy.
"Yes, daughter; and she enjoyed the view very much as you are doing now."
"I'm glad; I like to think she saw it once."
An affectionate pressure of the hand he held was his only reply. Then turning to his friend, "It is a grand view, Keith," he said; "and one that always stirs the patriotism in my blood, inherited from ancestors who battled for freedom in those Revolutionary days."
"It is just so with myself," replied Keith; "and the view is a grand one in itself, though there were no such association, – a superb panorama! The beautiful, majestic river sweeping about the rock-bound promontory below us there, with its tented field; yonder the distant spires of Newburgh, and the bright waters of its bay, seen through that magnificent cleft in the hills," pointing with his finger as he spoke, – "ah, how often I have seen it all in imagination when out in the far West scouting over arid plains, and among desolate barren hills and mountains, where savages and wild beasts abound! At times an irrepressible longing for this very view has come over me, – a sort of homesickness, most difficult to shake off."
"Such as years in the ports of foreign lands have sometimes brought upon me," observed the Captain, giving his friend a look of heartfelt sympathy.
"Dear Papa, I'm so glad that is all over," Lulu said softly, leaning lovingly up against him as she spoke, and again lifting to his eyes her own so full of sympathy and affection. "Oh, it is so pleasant to have you always at home with us!"
A smile and an affectionate pressure of the little soft white hand he held were his only reply.
"Ah, my little girl, when Papa sees a man-of-war again, he will be likely to wish himself back in the service once more!" remarked Keith, in a sportive tone, regarding her with laughing eyes.
"No, sir, I don't believe it," she returned stoutly. "Papa loves his home and wife and children too well for that; besides, he has resigned from the navy, and I don't believe they'd take him back again."
"Well, Lu," said Max, "that's a pretty way to talk about Papa! Now, it's my firm conviction that they'd be only too glad to get him back."
"That's right, Max; stand up for your father always," laughed Keith. "He is worthy of it; and I don't doubt the government would be ready to accept his services should he offer them."
"Of course," laughed the Captain; "but I intend to give them those of my son instead," turning a look upon Max so proudly tender and appreciative that the lad's young heart bounded with joy.
"Ah, is that so?" said Keith, gazing appreciatively into the lad's bright young face. "Well, I have no doubt he will do you credit. Max, my boy, never forget that you have the credit of an honourable name to sustain, and that in so doing you will make your father a proud and happy man."
"That is what I want to do, sir," replied Max, modestly. Then hastily changing the subject, "Papa, is that town over there Phillipstown?"
"Yes; what do you remember about it?"
"That a part of our Revolutionary army was camped there in 1781. And there, over to the left, is Constitution Island, – isn't it, sir?"
"Yes," answered his father; then went on to tell of the building of the fort from which the island takes its name, and its abandonment a few days after the capture by the British of Forts Clinton and Montgomery, near the lower entrance to the Highlands, in 1777.
"Such a pity, after they had been to all the expense and trouble of building it!" remarked Lulu.
"Yes, quite a waste," said Max; "but war's a wasteful business anyway it can be managed."
"Quite true, Max," said, Mr. Keith; "and soldier though I am, I sincerely hope we may have no more of it in this land."
"No, sir; but the best way to keep out of it is to show ourselves ready for self-defence. That is what Papa says."
"And I entirely agree with him. Shall we go now, Raymond, and see what of interest is to be found in the buildings and about the grounds of the academy?"
The Captain gave a ready assent, and they retraced their steps, he helping Lulu down the mountain as he had helped her up.
Keith took them, first, to the artillery laboratory to see, as he said, some trophies and relics of the Revolution. Conducting them to the centre of the court, "Here," he remarked, "are some interesting ones," pointing, as he spoke, to several cannon lying in a heap, and encircled by some links of an enormous chain.
"Oh," exclaimed Max, "is that part of the great chain that was stretched across the Hudson, down there by Constitution Island, in the time of the Revolution?"
"Yes," replied Keith. "And these two brass mortars were taken from Burgoyne at Saratoga; this larger one, Wayne took from the British at Stony Point. I dare say you and your sister are acquainted with the story of that famous exploit."
"Oh, yes, sir!" they both replied; and Lulu asked, "Is that the English coat-of-arms on the big cannon?"
Her look directed the query to her father, and he answered, "Yes."
"And what do these words below it mean, Papa, – 'Aschaleh fecit, 1741'?"
"Aschaleh is doubtless the name of the maker; 'fecit' means he executed it, and 1741 gives the time when it was done."
"Thank you, sir," she said. "Is there any story about that one?" pointing to another cannon quite near at hand.
"Yes," he said; "by its premature discharge, in 1817, a cadet named Lowe was killed. In the cemetery is a beautiful monument to his memory."
"Here are two brass field-pieces, each marked 'G. R.,'" said Max. "Do those letters stand for George Rex, – King George, – Papa?"
"Yes; that was the monogram of the king."
"And the cannon is fourteen years younger than those others," remarked Lulu; "for, see there, it says, 'W. Bowen fecit, 1755.'"
"Oh, here's an inscription!" exclaimed Max, and read aloud, "'Taken from the British army, and presented, by order of the United States, in Congress assembled, to Major-General Green, as a monument of their high sense of the wisdom, fortitude, and military talents which distinguished his command in the Southern department, and of the eminent services which, amid complicated dangers and difficulties, he performed for his country. October 18th, 1783.' Oh, that was right!" supplemented the lad, "for I do think Green was a splendid fellow."
"He was, indeed!" said the Captain; "and he has at last been given such a monument as he should have had very many years sooner."
"Where is it, Papa?" asked Lulu.
"In Washington. It is an equestrian statue, by Henry Kirke Brown."
"Yes; and very glad I am that even that tardy act of justice has been done him, – one of the bravest and most skilful commanders of our Revolutionary War," remarked Mr. Keith. Then he added, "I think we have seen about all you will care for here, Raymond, and that you might enjoy going out upon the parade-ground now. The sun is near setting, and the battalion will form presently, and go through some interesting exercises."
"Thank you!" the Captain said. "Let us, then, go at once, for I see Max and his sister are eager for the treat," he added, with a smiling glance from one brightly expectant young face to the other.
CHAPTER IV
They reached the parade-ground just in time to see the battalion forming under