Here ends our brief story of the navy of the United States. It is only a brief outline; sufficient, perhaps, to indicate what remains in store for you when you come to read its marvellous details in volume at some time in the future. Its record in the past is glorious; it may be made more so in the future, for its capabilities are great. It ought to be cherished as the strong right arm of defense for our government, our commerce, and our free institutions.
Our government is now giving it a fostering care hitherto unknown. It has established training-ships, in which American boys are thoroughly instructed in all the arts of expert seamanship and the military tactics of the sea, while particular attention is given to the training of their minds and morals. There are bright promises that our future navy will be controlled by highly educated officers, and its ships be manned by refined, intelligent, and self-respecting American citizens, the peers of those in any other stations in life.
the end.
SEA-BREEZES.
LETTER No. 4 FROM BESSIE MAYNARD TO HER DOLL.
Bar Harbor, August, 1880.
Do you remember, dear Clytie, a poem I read in school last Forefather's Day, beginning like this,
"The breaking waves dashed high
On a stern and rock-bound coast"?