CONTENTS. PAGEHISTORY STORIES. THE STORY OF THE NEGRO FORT 13 A WAR FOR AN ARCHBISHOP 26 THE BOY COMMANDER OF THE CAMISARDS 38 THE CANOE FIGHT 55 THE BATTLE OF LAKE BORGNE 67 THE BATTLE IN THE DARK 77 THE TROUBLESOME BURGHERS 88 THE DEFENCE OF ROCHELLE 99 THE SAD STORY OF A BOY KING 111 TWO OBSCURE HEROES 120 THE CHARGE OF THE HOUNDS 130 THE STORY OF A WINTER CAMPAIGN 140 YOUNG WASHINGTON IN THE WOODS 151 THE STORY OF CATHERINE 163 THE VIRGINIA WIFE-MARKET 175BIOGRAPHY STORIES. BOYHOOD OF DANIEL WEBSTER 185 THE SCULLION WHO BECAME A SCULPTOR 193 BOYHOOD OF WILLIAM CHAMBERS 200 HOW A BOY HIRED OUT, AND WHAT CAME OF IT 206 THE WICKEDEST MAN IN THE WORLD 212 A PRINCE WHO WOULD NOT STAY DEAD 228ILLUSTRATIONS. PAGE _Breakfast and Battle_ 23 _Vladimir Besieging the City Containing his Archbishop_ 35 _Cavalier Personating the Lieutenant of the Count Broglio_ 47 _With a Single Blow he Knocked over the Indian with whom Austill was Struggling_ 63 _Boarding the Gun-boats_ 73 _General Jackson at New Orleans_ 79 _The Burghers Prepare to Defend their City_ 95 _Richelieu Surveying the Works at Rochelle_ 103 _The Parting between King Richard II. and Queen Isabella_ 117 _Martin Preaching to the People on the Duty of Fighting_ 125 "_Just at the Moment when Matters were at their Worst, he Rode up_" 137 _Capture of the Dutch fleet by the Soldiers of the French Republic_ 149 _Washington as a Surveyor_ 157 "_She Went Boldly into his Tent_" 171 "_'To the End of the Twelfth Book of the Æneid,' answered the 'Idle' Boy in Triumph_" 189THE STORY OF THE NEGRO FORT.During the war of 1812-14, between Great Britain and the United States,the weak Spanish Governor of Florida--for Florida was then Spanishterritory--permitted the British to make Pensacola their base ofoperations against us. This was a gross outrage, as we were at peacewith Spain at the time, and General Jackson, acting on his ownresponsibility, invaded Florida in retaliation.Among the British at that time was an eccentric Irish officer, ColonelEdward Nichols, who enlisted and tried to make soldiers of a largenumber of the Seminole Indians. In 1815, after the war was over, ColonelNichols again visited the Seminoles, who were disposed to be hostile tothe United States, as Colonel Nichols himself was, and made anastonishing treaty with them, in which an alliance, offensive anddefensive, between Great Britain and the Seminoles, was agreed upon. Wehad made peace with Great Britain a few months before, and yet thisridiculous Irish colonel signed a treaty binding Great Britain to fightus whenever the Seminoles in the Spanish territory of Florida should seefit to make a war! If this extraordinary performance had been all, itwould not have mattered so much, for the British government refused toratify the treaty; but it was not all.