AN old friend of ours is David G. Farragut. We met him, you may remember, years ago, on the old _Essex_, under Captain Porter, when he was a boy of only about ten years of age. Young as he was, he did good work on that fine ship during her cruise in the Pacific and her last great fight. When the Civil War began Farragut had got to be quite an old boy. He was sixty years of age and a captain in the navy. He had been born in the South and now lived in Virginia, and the Confederates very much wanted him to fight on their side. "Not after fighting fifty years for the old flag," he said. "And mind what I tell you; you fellows will catch much more than you want before you get through with this business." And so Farragut reported for duty under the old flag. Very soon the ships of the government were busy all along the coast, blockading ports and chasing blockade runners, and fighting wherever they saw a chance. One such chance, a big one, came away down South. For there was the large City of New Orleans, which the British had tried to take nearly fifty years before; and there was the Mississippi River that led straight to it. But strong forts had been built along that river and armed boats were on its waters, and the Yankees of the North might find it as hard to get there as the British did. Now I have to speak of another brave man and good seaman, David D. Porter. He was a son of the captain of the old _Essex_, and a life-long friend of David G. Farragut. Porter was sent down to help blockade the Mississippi in the summer of 1861, and while there he found out all about the forts and the ships on the river. Then he went to Washington and told the Secretary of the Navy all he had learned, and asked him to send down a fleet to try to capture the city. "Where can I find the right man for a big job like that?" asked the Secretary. "Captain Farragut is your man," said Porter. "You have him now on committee work, where a man like him is just wasted, for you have not half as good a seaman on any of your ships." And in that way the gallant Farragut was chosen to command the fleet to be sent to capture the great city of the South. Porter, you see, did not ask for a command for himself, but for his friend. When the fleet was got ready it numbered nearly twenty vessels, but most of them were gunboats, and none of them were very large. The Mississippi was not the place for very large ships. Farragut chose the sloop-of-war _Hartford_ for his flagship and sailed merrily away for the mighty river. He did not forget his friend Porter. For twenty mortar boats were added to the fleet, and Porter was given command of these. A mortar, you should know, is a kind of a short cannon made to throw large shells or balls. It is pointed upward so as to throw them high up into the air and then let them fall straight down on a fort. Porter's mortar boats were schooners that carried cannons of this kind.