officer was sent to take charge of her, and after a few minutes he sent back his boat to ask that some one might be sent him who could speak Portuguese. Nolan stepped out and said he should be glad to interpret if the captain wished, as he understood the language. "Tell them they are free," said Vaughan. Then there was a yell of delight, clinching of fists, leaping and dancing, kissing of Nolan's feet. "Tell them," said Vaughan, well pleased, "that I will take them all to Cape Palmas." 5 10 This did not answer so well. Cape Palmas was practically as far from the homes of most of them as New Orleans or Rio Janeiro was; that is, they would be eternally separated from home there. And their interpreters, as we could understand, instantly said: 15 “Ah, non Palmas." The drops stood on poor Nolan's white forehead as he hushed the men down and said: "He says, 'Not Palmas.' He says, 'Take us home, take us to our own country, take us to our own house, take us to our own pickaninnies and our own women.' 20 He says he has an old father and mother who will die. if they do not see him. And this one says he left his people all sick, and paddled down to Fernando to beg the white doctor to come and help them, and that these caught him in the bay just in sight of home, 25 and that he has never seen anybody from home since then. And this one says," choked out Nolan, "that he has not heard a word from his home in six months, while he has been locked up in a barracoon." As quick as Vaughan could get words, he said: "Tell them yes, yes, yes; tell them they shall go to the mountains of the Moon, if they will. If I sail the schooner through the Great White Desert, they shall 5 go home." And after some fashion Nolan said so. And then they all fell to kissing him again, and wanted to rub his nose with theirs. But he could not stand it long; and getting Vaughan 10 to say he might go back, he beckoned me down into our boat. As we lay back in the stern sheets and the men gave way, he said to me: "Youngster, let that show you what it is to be without a family, without a home, and without a country. And if you are ever 15 tempted to say a word or to do a thing that shall put a bar between you and your family, your home and your country, pray God in his mercy to také you that instant home to his own heaven. Stick by your family, boy; forget you have a self, while you do everything 20 for them. Think of your home, boy; write and send, and talk about it. Let it be nearer and nearer to your thought, the farther you have to travel from it; and rush back to it when you are free, as that poor black slave is doing now. And for your country, boy," and 25 the words rattled in his throat, "and for that flag,' and he pointed to the ship, "never dream a dream but of serving her as she bids you, though the service carry you through a thousand hells. No matter what happens to you, no matter who flatters you or who abuses you, never look at another flag, never let a night pass but you pray God to bless that flag. Remember, boy, that behind all these men you have to do with, behind officers and government, and people even, there is the Country Herself, your Country, and 5 that you belong to Her as you belong to your own mother. Stand by Her, boy, as you would stand by your mother.” I was frightened to death by his calm, hard passion; but I blundered out that I would by all that was holy, 10 and that I had never thought of doing anything else. He hardly seemed to hear me; but he did, almost in a whisper, say: "Oh, if anybody had said so to me when I was of your age!" Extract from a letter written in 1863: "DEAR FRED: "LEVANT, 2° 2' S. @ 131° W. 15 "I try to find heart and life to tell you that it is all over with dear old Nolan. The doctor has been watching him very carefully, and yesterday morning came to me and told me that Nolan. was not so well, and he said he should like to see me. Well, I 20 went in, and there, to be sure, the poor fellow lay in his berth, smiling pleasantly as he gave me his hand, but looking very frail. I could not help a glance round, which showed me what a little shrine he had made of the box he was lying in. The stars and stripes were triced up above and around a picture of 25 Washington, and he had painted a majestic eagle, with lightnings blazing from his beak, and his foot just clasping the whole globe, which his wings overshadowed. The dear old boy saw 5 my glance and said with a sad smile: 'Here, you see, I have a country!' "An hour after I had left him, when the doctor went in gently, he found Nolan had breathed his life away with a smile. "We looked in his Bible, and there was a slip of paper at the place where he had marked the text: They desire a country, even a heavenly: wherefore God is not ashamed to be called their God for He hath prepared for them a city.' : 6 "On this slip of paper he had written: Bury me in the sea; 10 it has been my home, and I love it. But will not some one set up a stone for my memory at Fort Adams, or at Orleans, that my disgrace may not be more than I ought to bear? Say on it: In Memory of PHILIP NOLAN, Lieutenant in the Army of the United States. He loved his country as no other man has less at her hands.'" LOVE OF COUNTRY. SIR WALTER SCOTT. BREATHES there the man, with soul so dead, "This is my own, my native land!" From wandering on a foreign strand? From The Lay of the Last Minstrel." THE HEROINE OF NANCY. IN the year 1476, Charles the Bold, Duke of Burgundy, laid siege to the town of Nancy, capital of the duchy of Lorraine. In the absence of the young duke, René II., who had gone to raise troops among the enemies of Charles, the town and its little garrison were 5 |