But a Yankee sailor is a hard man to kill--in three weeks cockswain James was at his post again. His recovery was no doubt due to his wonderful constitution and his youth. [Illustration: "Reuben James sprang forward."] As soon as the war with Great Britain was declared, Reuben made all haste to join his old commander, and he served in the frigate _United States_ when she captured the _Macedonian_, and afterwards in the _President_ when she took the _Endymion_. In both actions he got as near Decatur as he could, and in the last-named conflict he received three wounds. Although suffering greatly, he refused to leave the deck until after the _President_ had struck her flag to the squadron that captured her, whereupon Reuben James was carried below weeping--not from pain or anguish, but from sheer mortification and grief. At Decatur's funeral he wept again, honest fellow, and whenever he came to port he would visit his commander's grave. Reuben was in actual service until the year 1836, when he arrived in Washington for the purpose of obtaining a pension. He was suffering very much at this time from an old musket-shot wound that had caused a disease of the bone of his leg. It was exceedingly painful and becoming dangerous. After consultation the doctors ordered amputation, and as he lay in the hospital the decision was announced to him. With his old indifference to danger, and his reckless spirit, Reuben replied in the following words:-- "Doctor, you are the captain, sir. Fire away; but I don't think it is shipshape to put me under jury masts when I have just come into harbor." The day after the operation Reuben was very low, and it was thought that he had but a few hours to live. The old sailor himself declared that he had reached the bitter end of his rope, appeared resigned to his fate, and begged the surgeon to "ease him off handsomely while he was about it." "Reuben," said the doctor, "we have concluded that we will give you a good drink and allow you to name it. What will you have, brown stout or brandy toddy?" "I s'pose I won't take another for a long time, sir," Reuben responded, with a twinkle in his eye. "So just s'pose you give us both; which one first it doesn't much matter."