Captain Thompson was a sterling patriot.

He dearly loved his country, and gladly caught at every chance to display the broad flag of the Union.

Accordingly, on this memorable day the gorgeous ensign was hoisted at the peak, the American jack waved at the fore-topmast head, and a long pennant fell in wavy folds from the main truck.
"If I had a big gun," exclaimed the worthy skipper, in a paroxysm of patriotism "a thirty-two-pound carronade, I would fire a genuine republican salute, and make such a thundering noise, not only in the air above but in the depths below, as to wake up the lazy inhabitants of the deep, and make them peep out of their caves to ask the cause of the terrible rumpus over their heads." At this very moment a suspicious-looking, double-headed cloud was slowly rising in the west, and ere long spread over a large space in the heavens.

As it rolled onward, flashes of lightning were seen and a distant rumbling was heard a thunder squall was at hand.

The lightning became more vivid, and the thunder more frequent and deafening.