"I cannot see. She is a schooner, and evidently armed."
"Bear down upon her, that we may know her value."
All was excitement and flurry.
The crew were anxious for a brush with the enemy, and had come to think the Lively Bee invincible.
No United States war ship was near, and so the field was open to the little privateer.
To the great disgust of the crew, however, the distant craft flew the Stars and Stripes, and so, was not an enemy.
For several days the Lively Bee flew over the water without seeing the sail of an enemy's ship.
The men were getting weary and disheartened.
Amusements palled on them, and they were fast settling into a state of chronic grumbling.
Then it was that the masthead shouted: