And thus ere very long Madge met her first kind friend, and was led to tell the whole story of her pitiful life and craving for love. And at last, through the lady's continued kindness, little Madge was transferred with many other little children from the crowded, noisy, and unwholesome street which had so long been her home, to the care of those whose business it is to take just such poor orphaned little ones to new and happy homes far off in the country, where warm, kind hearts are willing and anxious to adopt them, and bring them up to useful womanhood.
Madge wrote a letter to the lady not long ago, and after telling about her happy times in her new home, she added, "And, oh! Mrs. ----, this dear lady here _kisses_ me good-night always, and it feels just as if I had a mother after all."
[Begun in HARPER'S YOUNG PEOPLE No. 37, July 13.]
Soon after her exciting chase the _Constitution_ sailed from Boston in search of the British frigate _Guerrière_, whose Captain (Dacres) had boastfully enjoined the Americans to remember that she was not the _Little Belt_. On the 19th of August, 1812, the _Constitution_ fell in with her, and Hull skillfully managed to lay his vessel alongside the British frigate, to have a battle at close quarters. The _Guerrière_ opened fire at once; the _Constitution_ kept silent for a while. As the shot from the English frigate began to make havoc on the _Constitution_, Hull's second in command (Lieutenant Morris) asked permission to open fire. "Not yet," quietly said Hull. The request was soon repeated. "Not yet," was the calm reply. A moment afterward, Hull, filled with intense excitement, shouted, "Now, boys, pour it into them!"
[Illustration: THE "CONSTITUTION" AND "GUERRIÈRE."--DRAWN BY J. O. DAVIDSON.]
This command was obeyed with terrible effect. The guns of the _Constitution_ were double-shotted and did fearful work. The frigates were only half-pistol-shot distance from each other. The excitement on both sides was intense. "Hull her! hull her!" shouted Lieutenant Morris. "Hull her! hull her!" shouted the crew in response, for they instantly comprehended the pun. Very soon the _Guerrière_ was a shivered, shorn, and helpless wreck, rolling like a log in the trough of the sea. Hull sent an officer on board to inquire of Dacres whether he had struck his flag. Looking up and down, Dacres coolly replied, "Well, I don't know: our mizzenmast is gone, our mainmast is gone, and, upon the whole, you may say we _have_ struck our flag."