CHAPTER IX.
By the middle of the afternoon Grandma Elsie, Grace, and the little ones were all weary enough to be glad to return to the _Dolphin_ for a rest.
After a refreshing nap Grace and the children gathered about Mrs.Travilla and begged for the fulfilment of her promise to tell the story of "Long Tom," and she kindly complied.
"The _General Armstrong_ was a privateer, and the fight I am now going to tell about was one of the most famous of the war of 1812-14," she said.
"The vessel was commanded by Captain Samuel C.Reid, a native of Connecticut.

He went to sea when only eleven years old and was a midshipman with Commodore Truxton.

He was still a young man--only thirty--when the event of which we are talking occurred.

That was on the 26th of September, 1814, in the harbor of Fayal, one of the Azores islands belonging to Portugal.
"While lying there at anchor the _Armstrong_ was attacked by a large British squadron.

That was in flagrant violation of the laws of neutrality.