Produced by Annie R. McGuire [Illustration: HARPER'S ROUND TABLE] Copyright, 1896, by HARPER & BROTHERS. All Rights Reserved. * * * * * PUBLISHED WEEKLY. NEW YORK, TUESDAY, MARCH 17, 1896. FIVE CENTS A COPY. VOL. XVII.--NO. 855. TWO DOLLARS A YEAR. * * * * * [Illustration] A BOY OF 1775. BY MOLLY ELLIOT SEAWELL. Can you not see the boy of 1775 now--his sturdy legs encased in stout black stockings, german-silver buckles to his knee-breeches, his hair plaited and tied with a smart black ribbon, and all this magnificence topped by three real silver buttons with which his hat is rakishly cocked? But the boy himself is better worth looking at than all his finery--so thought Captain Moore, of his Majesty's ship _Margaretta_, lying at anchor in the harbor of Machias. Jack Leverett was the boy's name--a handsome stripling of sixteen, with a quiet manner but a fearless eye. The two were sitting opposite each other at the cabin table, and through the open port they could see the village and the harbor, bathed in the bright white light of a day in May. The Captain was conscious that this young guest was decidedly in a hurry to leave. A whole hour had they sat at the dinner table, Captain Moore, with the utmost art, trying to find out Jack's errand to Machias--for those were the stirring days when every American had to take his stand for or against King George--and Captain Moore particularly desired to know how Squire Leverett, Jack's father, stood toward the King. But Jack, with native mother-wit, had managed to baffle the Captain. He had readily admitted that he was the bearer of a letter from his father to Jerry O'Brien, master of Squire Leverett's sloop _Priscilla_, in regard to heaving down the sloop. But the Captain, with a seaman's eye, had noted that the _Priscilla_ was in perfect order and did not need to be hove down, and he more than suspected that Jack was the bearer of other and more important news. Through the cabin windows they could see the sloop, a beautiful craft, being warped into her dock, while across the blue water was wafted sweetly the voices of the men, led by the shanty man,[1] singing the old shanty song: "Haul the bowline, our jolly ship's a-rolling, Haul the bowline, the bowline _haul_! Haul the bowline, our jolly mate's a-growling, Haul the bowline, the bowline _haul_!" [1] "Shanty man"--from "Chantez"--a man who could lead the singing while the men worked. A good shanty man was considered to be a valuable acquisition to a vessel. As soon as Jack decently could, he started to rise from the table. Captain Moore had observed that the glass of wine at Jack's plate remained untasted, and it suggested a means of finding out whether the Leveretts meant to go with the King or not. "Do not go," he said, "until you have joined me in drinking the health of his Majesty King George."