continued Alfred, taking the words out of his sister's mouth, ' and he said a great deal more which Ellen has forgotten-he said, Tom Thumb couldn't sail in such tiny vessels, and shook the basin till the water went over the mast-tops, and wet the flags, and ran down the ropes, and Ellen and I called out to him to give over, and Ellen had tears in her eyes, and said the ships would sink.'-'It was very silly of me, papa, I know,' rejoined Ellen, 'to be so agitated about little pieces of cork, and it made Charles laugh the more heartily-"Pretty sailors!" said he, "that can't bear a squall, and pretty cork-boats these that are overturned by a few waves-why, they are sooner upset than nut-shells, see! there they go-down with the top-gallant-we shall have a shipwreck soon-ha! ha! ha!-why don't you shriek out, Alfred? Ellen, do in pity drop a few more briny tears in these yesty waves," then he shook the basin more roughly than ever, and bawled out,

Let the labouring bark climb hills of scas,
Olympus-high, and duck again as low'

I don't like to tell you the rest, papa.'

'As hell's from heaven!"

'That's what he said,' exclaimed Alfred, and then bounce jumped the ships out of the basin onto the floor, and we all laughed, and Charles told us he was only in fun, and promised to make us better ships of wood, like real ships, such as Peter the Great made.' Yes, papa,' continued Ellen Charles was very good-natured at last, and it was very foolish in me to cry: Mamma has since told me so-Mamma calls it false sentiment. 'It is truly such, my dear,' replied Mr. Darcourt, after patiently listening to all the children had to say, whenever you cry trifles. Reserve your tears for real misfortune: Charles was, however, somewhat too rough in his play, and I do not approve of his quoting Shakespeare on all occasions. I must, however, allow that you shewed some ingenuity in the application of the passage, and that the theatric tone in which you delivered it was well calculated to give a humorous turn to an affair that seemed at first so serious to your sister. Good-humored irony may occasionally be used with good effect; but do not, as I fear you are too much inclined, recur to it on all occasions, or with all persons: some people cannot bear even their follies to be laughed at, and you must, therefore, learn to distinguish between those whom your irony may benefit, and those it will only offend. I have another caution to give you, and I hope you will pay attention to it :-whenever your brother and sister have manifested any ingenuity in the construction even of the most trifling toy, do not laugh at what they have done, though it be much inferior to what persons of greater age might do; shew them how to do better, if you please, but don't forget, at the

same time, to praise their attempts, however imperfect, or unfinished, their work may appear. I think Alfred's little boats were pretty well contrived, and I dare say Peter the Great, at his age, could not have constructed better.'

But did Peter the Great make boats, Papa, as Charles told me,' said Alfred. He did, my dear boy, and very large boats too-boats, or rather ships, that would carry a great many men, and a great many guns. I dare say, Alfred, you would like to know how he learned to make them.'

Oh! yes, Papa, very much-can you tell me how?'

There was a time, Alfred, when Peter the Great knew no more about making ships than you do-if he knew so much. The Russians were not ship-builders before he became their Emperor they had no navy that dared venture on the seas, and the boats they used in the rivers were rather rafts than boats, being flat-bottomed pontoons: there was, however, a small European bark at Moscow, which had been made by a Dutchman, named Brandt, in the reign of Peter's father, which attracted the young Tzar's attention. It was out of repair when he first saw it, but, at his request, the Dutchman, who still resided in Russia, soon restored its mast and rigging, and put it in a proper trim for sailing. Peter had naturally a great dislike to water, which, when carried to excess, Alfred, is called, from the union of two Greek words which signify dread of water, hydrophobia: some say this strong antipathy arose from his having been very much frightened, when he was only about five years old, by the rushing noise of a cataract or waterfall waking him out of sleep, but it was probably constitutional, which means, Alfred, that he was born with a dread of water. But Peter had a very strong mind, and though the sight of water almost threw him into fits, he was determined to overcome his great dislike to it: this he did so completely, that he afterwards took the greatest delight in sailing upon it, and no doubt felt a similiar joy to the poet, who exclaimed, when bounding over the waves,

"Once more upon the waters! yet once more!
And the waves bound beneath me as a steed
That knows his rider. Welcome to their roar!

By the aid of Brandt, he soon learnt to pilot his little skiff in the river Yansa, which flows through Moscow, and became perfectly master of the management of it. He then got the Dutchman to build him a small ship with one deck, called a yacht, and hired a Dutch seaman to teach him how to navigate her. With this little vessel he was very much pleased, and soon became as skilful as the seaman himself in conducting her through the waters. Wishing, however, for more sailing-room than the Yansa afforded, he engaged the Hollanders to build

him five new vessels at Plescow, or Pscow, on the borders of the great lake Peipus, or Tchude, which you will find marked on the map, Alfred, midway between Petersburgh and Riga. This lake is 60 leagues, or 180 miles in circumference, and you may imagine with what delight the young mariner would embark with his newly-constructed vessels on so wide a surface of water. His ambition, however, extending with his acquired skill and experience in the management of ships, nothing now would content him but sailing on the wide ocean: he therefore set out immediately for Archangel, a sea-port on the river Dwina, about four miles from the White Sea, where he purchased a trading vessel from a Dutch merchant, and called it after his own name, Peter. With this vessel, when furnished with a proper crew, he sailed, in the company of some other Dutch and English ships, as far as Ponoi, on the coast of Lapland, about 150 miles from Archangel, so that he thus entered the Frozen Ocean. Sailing now became his favorite amusement he loved "torn ocean's roar," and braved all dangers. with greater intrepidity than old experienced tars. He visited Archangel a second time, and frequently went to sea in the vessel of a Dutch skipper, named Musch, a native of Laandam, in Holland.

'Peter had also an object in all his sailing expeditions besides amusement: it was his anxious desire to raise a Russian fleet for the defence of his dominions on the north and the east, where they were exposed in the one quarter to the incursions of the Swedes, in the other to those of the Turks and the Tartars. The Swedes were excellent mariners, and could at any time attack Russia through the Gulf of Finland, and it was liable to be invaded by its formidable enemies, the Turks and Tartars, on the side of the Black Sea and the river Volga. Peter was therefore most anxious to cover these exposed quarters of his empire with ships, as their most secure defence: he was desirous, too, to make his subjects good sailors, that they might enjoy the benefits of commerce with other countries, as he perceived that nothing would so much tend to enrich and enlighten them. For this purpose, in 1697, he sent sixty young Russians to Venice and Leghorn, that they might learn every thing belonging to the art of ship-building and navigation; and not satisfied with trusting to others, he afterwards went himself, at the age of one-and-twenty, to Holland, and subsequently to England, to make himself personally acquainted with every department of nautical science; that is, Alfred, with every thing relating to the building and managing of ships. This was a most remarkable event in the reign of Peter, and it affords a strong proof of the greatness of his mind, as well as of his love for his country, to whose improvement he sacrificed his own ease and

indulgence, with all that useless pomp to which monarchs in general are so much attached. This great prince visited Holland in disguise, dressed as a Dutch skipper, in a red jacket and white trowsers; he took very humble lodgings at Laandam, consisting only of two small rooms, with a loft over them and an adjoining shed; he went, dressed as a common workman, to the shops in the town, and purchased tools for himself and attendants, who were also dressed as ship-carpenters, though some of them, as Menzikoff, were the most favoured of his courtiers; he finally entered himself as a labouring shipwright in the dock-yard of Mynheer Calf, a wealthy merchant and ship-builder, and adhered strictly to the usual regulations which the other labourers were compelled to observe. He took the name of Peter Timmerman, and as such was addressed by the master. It is said that on one occasion, Mynheer Calf having been requested by an English nobleman to point out the Tzar, called aloud in the usual rough tone of authority common in a dock-yard, "Peter Timmerman, why don't you assist these men?" A number of his fellow-labourers were just then carrying a large beam of wood past him, to which Peter immediately placed his shoulder, and assisted them in putting it in its proper place. From Holland the Tzar went to England, where, instead of wasting his time in idle ceremonies at the court, he visited every place from which he could derive instruction, particularly the dock-yards at Woolwich, Deptford and Chatham, where he made it his business to acquire all the information he could on those parts of naval architecture which were better understood in this country than in Holland. On leaving England, he took with him a great number of clever workmen, carpenters, smiths, mast-makers, sail-makers, gunners, &c., besides captains, surgeons, and a skilful engineer, whom he intended to employ in Russia in building fleets, and constructing harbours, sluices and bridges. By these means, Alfred, Peter the Great succeeded in forming a large navy, with which he was enabled to defeat the Swedes by sea, as he had before overcome them by land; and to gain great victories over the Turks, as well as to defend Russia against the Tartars, who had formerly subjected it. Thus you see how much may be done by personal efforts, and what great things may arise from small beginnings. Many persons were inclined to laugh at the Tzar when they saw him in his ship-carpenter's dress, working like a common labourer in the dock-yards, and steering a little boat in the rivers; but they learnt at last not to 'despise the day of small things,' when they saw his tall navies riding triumphant through the ocean, and his enemies flying before them. Peter himself secretly contemned the ridicule with which both the Russians and the other European nations regarded what they termed his

childish diversions; and when the wisdom of his conduct was sufficiently established by success, he was determined to teach his own subjects the truth of the adage, that "to a great man nothing is little," by paying a distinguished mark of honour to the small skiff in which he had first commenced the business of a sailor. He had always kept it with great care, and called it, by way of distinction, "The Little Grandsire." It was still preserved at Moscow; but he now came to the resolution of transporting it to Petersburg, his new capital, which had grown into a large city under his active superintendence, and was become the emporium of commerce, or a vast market for the exchange of goods with many nations. He therefore gave a grand public entertainment, in honour of the "Little Grandsire," inviting all the great men of his court, and the foreign ministers, or the great men from the courts of other princes then resident in Russia, to be present at its consecration. The little boat, adorned in the most splendid manner, was sent down on board one of the Emperor's galleys to Cronstad, a fortified town on a small island at the eastern end of the Gulf of Finland, about twelve miles from Petersburg. Here twenty-seven large ships of the Russian navy were drawn up in the form of a crescent, or half-moon, in the midst of which the Emperor himself steered the little skiff, whilst each of the men-of-war, as he passed it, struck its colours and fired a salute from its great guns, the skiff gallantly returning the fire from three little brass cannons; after which, it was triumphantly rowed into the harbour, and the following day carried to Petersburg, where it was received with all sorts of naval honours. There the Little Grandsire' is still carefully preserved a memento to future ages of the great things which may arise from small beginnings, and a memorial of the persevering genius of Peter the Great, who, proceeding from step to step in the course of improvement, raised his country, weak and barbarous at the commencement of his reign, to a high rank amongst civilized nations, fixing the pillars of its power both on the land and the ocean, and adorning them with the rich ornaments of the arts and sciences.'

Scarcely was the narrative finished, when Alfred exclaimed, 'I'll swim my corks again, say what you will Charles, and I'll call them Little Grandsires!' Well, Alfred,' replied Charles, I am sure I have no objection to your doing so, if you only go on enlarging them as Peter did, and, if you want any one to help you, I will be your Dutchman, and build you stronger and better shaped vessels: you may swim them on the river at the bottom of the garden, which we will christen the Yansa: they will sail better there than in the wash-hand basin, or if you prefer a lake, like the hard-named one, papa mentioned,