spiked their cannon.

When he returned to the harbor, he found that his orders had been disobeyed, not one ship had been fired. It was now day and the people were aroused, but Paul Jones was unwilling to go without carrying out a part of his plan and with his own hand he set fire to the largest ship.

The English made many attempts to seize the doer of this daring deed, and at one time there were fortytwo British ships on the waters seeking to capture the bold rover. One of the ships which set out to capture the Ranger was the Drake. Jones met it in battle and defeated and captured the English vessel which had more guns and better-trained and betterequipped men than his.

The Ranger was recalled to defend the coast of America, and for months Paul Jones was in France without a ship. At last he was given an old trading-vessel fitted out as a war-ship. He called it Bon Homme Richard, the French name for Poor Richard in honor of his friend Franklin's Poor Richard of the almanac. In September, 1779, Commodore Jones sailed toward the English coast with four small vessels. There he met two large English war-ships that were convoying, or accompanying, a fleet of forty merchant-vessels. The merchant-vessels took refuge on the English coast, and the war-ships advanced to fight. The shots of the English ship, the Serapis, inflicted so much injury on the Richard that Captain Pearson of the Serapis

thought it was sinking and asked the American commander, "Has your ship struck?"

"I have not yet begun to fight," was Jones's stern reply.

He had the two vessels lashed together. Then, with his own hands helping to work the guns, he directed the fight with dauntless resolution. His ship was riddled with shot and on fire; still he refused to yield; when the vessel seemed sinking, he drove his prisoners to the pumps and made them work for life itself. One of his ships, instead of coming to his aid, fired on him. His situation seemed desperate. Captain Pearson called again to know if he had struck and he answered, 'No, that if he could do no better he would. ་ sink with his colors flying.'

After a deadly combat of three-and-a-half hours, in which the Serapis and the Richard literally "shot each other to pieces," the Serapis had to yield. The king conferred on Captain Pearson the honor of knighthood as a reward for his brave, though unsuccessful, fight. When Jones heard of this he said that if ever he met Pearson at sea again he would make a lord of him. After the Revolution in which he served America so bravely and ably, Jones made his home in France. There in 1792 ended his adventurous life in which he had, as he said, "twenty-three battles and solemn rencounters by sea."

Thomas Jefferson

The Author of the Declaration of Independence

Not all the work of securing American independence was done by the able generals and the brave soldiers. The patriot cause in the Revolution owed much to men who never served in the army. One of these was Franklin, who secured for the colonies aid and recognition from France. Another was Thomas Jefferson, called "the pen of the Revolution," who wrote the Declaration of Independence.,

Thomas Jefferson was born in Virginia, in 1743; his father, a wealthy country gentleman, died when Thomas was about fourteen years old. The country boy divided his time between books and outdoor sports, and his mind was well-trained and his slender frame was as active and as tireless as an Indian's. Then at seventeen he rode off to Williamsburg to enter William and Mary College.

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At Williamsburg was formed the friendship with Patrick Henry which continued till after the Revolution; it was broken by differences in political opinions. It was on a flyleaf of one of Thomas Jefferson's law books that Henry wrote his "resolutions." ferson was one of the audience that listened entranced to the eloquent speech against the Stamp Act. When Jefferson was twenty-four, he was admitted to practice law at Williamsburg. He became an able and