"The assault had lasted only about half an hour. Lossing tells us, 'The dark storm cloud in the west passed northward, the setting sun beamed out with peculiar splendor, a gentle freeze from the southwest bore the smoke of battle far away over the forest toward Lake Erie, and in the lovely twilight of that memorable Sabbath evening the brave young Croghan addressed his gallant little band with eloquent words of praise and grateful thanksgiving. As the night and the silence deepened, and the groans of the wounded in the ditch fell upon their ears, his generous heart beat with sympathy. Buckets filled with water were let down by ropes from the outside of the pickets; and as the gates of the fort could not be opened with safety during the night, he made a communication with the ditch by means of a trench, through which the wounded were borne into the fort and their necessities supplied.'" "Oh, how good and kind he was!" exclaimed Grace. "I am proud of him as one of my countrymen. Is he still living, papa?" "No, daughter; he died in New Orleans on January 8, 1849." "The anniversary of the great victory there in the War of 1812! Was he not rewarded for his gallant defence of Fort Stephenson?" "Yes; he was brevetted lieutenant-colonel for his gallantry, and some twenty years later Congress voted him a gold medal in acknowledgment of it. In 1846 he joined Taylor's army in Mexico and served with credit at the Battle of Monterey." "You have given us an interesting tale, captain," remarked Cousin Ronald as the story seemed to have come to an end--"one that was really new to me; for I have read but little about that war--which I hope we can always refer to as the last between the mother country and this, my adopted one--the native land of my bonny young wife," he added with a loving and admiring look at Annis. "Ah, my dear, how true it is that love is blind," said Annis softly, giving him a look of fond appreciation. "Ha, ha! A pair of old lovers!" laughed a voice that seemed to come from somewhere in the rear of the little party. "Yes, that's what we are," said Annis with mirthful look and tone. "And who are you that dares to say such saucy things to our company?" asked Ned, looking sharply round toward the spot from which the voice had seemed to come. "Somebody that has a tongue of his own and a right to use it," returned the voice, but the speaker was still invisible. "Well, whoever you are you've no business here on my father's yacht without an invitation," cried Ned, hurrying toward the spot from which the strange voice seemed to come. "You silly, impudent youngster! I'm not here without an invitation," said the voice, seeming to come from a greater distance than before. "Not?" exclaimed Ned; "then who invited you?" "The captain and owner of the vessel."