The boat's crew proceeded to the reef of rocks and rowed round and round it a great many times. They gazed down into the water, which was so transparent that it seemed as if they could have seen the gold and silver at s the bottom had there been any of those precious metals there. Nothing, however, could they see; nothing more valuable than a curious sea shrub which was growing beneath the water in a crevice of the reef of rocks. It flaunted to and fro with the swell and reflux of the waves 10 and looked as bright and beautiful as if its leaves were gold.

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"We won't go back empty handed," cried an English sailor; and then he spoke to one of the Indian divers. "Dive down and bring me that pretty sea shrub there. That's the only treasure we shall find."

Down plunged the diver, and soon rose dripping from the water, holding the sea shrub in his hand. But he had learned some news at the bottom of the sea.

"There are some ship's guns," said he, the moment he had drawn breath, "some great cannon, among the rocks 20 near where the shrub was growing."

No sooner had he spoken than the English sailors knew that they had found the very spot where the Spanish galleon had been wrecked so many years before. The other Indian divers immediately plunged over the boat's side and swam 25 headlong down, groping among the rocks and sunken cannon. In a few moments one of them rose above the water with a heavy lump of silver in his arms. The single lump was worth more than a thousand dollars. The sailors took it into the boat and then rowed back as speedily as they could, 30 being in haste to inform Captain Phips of their good luck.

But confidently as the captain had hoped to find the Spanish wreck, yet, now that it was really found, the news

seemed too good to be true. He could not believe it till the sailors showed him the lump of silver.

"Thanks be to God!" then cries Captain Phips. "We shall every man of us make our fortunes!"

Hereupon the captain and all the crew set to work 5 with iron rakes and great hooks and lines, fishing for gold and silver at the bottom of the sea. Up came the treasure in abundance. Now they beheld a table of solid silver, once the property of an old Spanish grandee. Now they found a sacramental vessel which had been destined as 10 a gift to some favored church. Now they drew up a golden cup, fit for the king of Spain to drink his wine out of. Perhaps the bony hand of its former owner had been grasping the precious cup and was drawn up along with it. Now their rakes or fishing lines were loaded with masses 15 of silver bullion. There were also precious stones among the treasure, glittering and sparkling so that it is a wonder how their radiance could have been concealed.

After a day or two they lighted on another part of the wreck, where they found many bags of silver dollars. But 20 nobody could have guessed that these were moneybags. By remaining so long in the salt water they had become covered over with a crust which had the appearance of stone, so that it was necessary to break them in pieces with hammers and axes. When this was done, a stream of 25 silver dollars gushed over the deck of the vessel.

The whole value of the recovered treasure, plate, bullion, precious stones, and all, was estimated at more than two millions of dollars. It was dangerous even to look at such a vast amount of wealth. A sea captain who had assisted 30 Phips in the enterprise utterly lost his reason at the sight of it.

Captain Phips and his men continued to fish up plate, bullion, and dollars, as plentifully as ever, till their provisions grew short. Then, as they could not feed upon gold and silver any more than old King Midas could, they found 5 it necessary to go in search of better sustenance. Phips resolved to return to England. He arrived there in 1687 and was received with great joy by the duke of Albemarle and other English lords who had fitted out the vessel. Well they might rejoice; for they took by far the greater 10 part of the treasure to themselves.

The captain's share, however, was enough to make him comfortable for the rest of his days. It also enabled him to fulfill his promise to his wife, by building a “fair brick house" in the Green Lane of Boston. The duke of Albe15 marle sent Mrs. Phips a magnificent gold cup, worth at least five thousand dollars. Before Captain Phips left London, King James made him a knight; so that instead of the obscure ship carpenter who had formerly dwelt among them, the inhabitants of Boston welcomed him on his 20 return as the rich and famous Sir William Phips.

Grandfather's Chair.

1. Who is the author of this selection? What other of his writings have you read? What is the author's nationality? What is the nature of his writing prose or poetry; novels or short stories?

2. What other story in this section has hidden treasure as its goal?

3. Relate Captain Phips' life under the following heads: his early life; his early manhood; his chief adventure. When and where did he live?

4. Do you consider this adventure as exciting as some of the others in this section? Give reasons for your answer.

CHASED BY WOLVES

DURING the winter of 1844, being in the northern part

5

of Maine, I had much leisure for the sports of a new country. To none was I more passionately addicted than to skating. The sequestered lakes, frozen by intense cold, offered a wide plain to the lovers of this pastime. Often s would I bind on my skates and glide away up the glittering river, threading every mazy streamlet that flowed on toward the parent ocean and feeling every pulse bound with the joyous exercise.

It was during one of these excursions that an adventure 10 befell me that I can rarely think upon, even now, without a certain thrill. I had left a friend's house one evening, just before dusk, with the intention of skating a short distance up the noble Kennebec, which, under its icy crust, flowed directly before the door. The air was clear, s calm, and bracing. The full moon silvered the lofty pines and the stars twinkled with rare brilliancy from their dark-blue depths. It was a perfect night—one that challenged a skater to go on and on.

I had gone up the river nearly two miles, when coming 20 to a little stream which emptied into a larger I turned in to explore its course. Fir and hemlock trees of a century's growth met overhead and formed an evergreen archway radiant with frostwork.

All was dark within; but I was young and fearless and 25 as I peered into the unbroken forest I laughed in very joyousness! My wild hurrah rang through the woods and

I stood listening to the echo that reverberated again and again until all was hushed. Occasionally from some tall oak a night bird would flap its wings. I watched the owls as they fluttered by and I held my breath to listen to 5 their distant hooting.

All of a sudden a sound arose which seemed to proceed from the very ice beneath my feet. It was low and tremulous at first, and ended in a long yell. I was appalled. Coming on the ear amid such an unbroken solitude, it To sounded like a blast from an infernal trumpet. Presently I heard the twigs on the shore snap as if from the tread of some animal.

ΤΟ

The blood rushed to my forehead with a bound that made my skin burn, but I felt a strange relief that I had 15 to contend with things of earthly and not spiritual mold. My energies returned. The moon shone through the opening by which I had entered the forest, and considering this the best direction for escape, I shot towards it like

20

an arrow.

The opening was hardly a hundred yards distant and the swallow could not have skimmed them more swiftly; yet as I turned my eyes to the shore I could see two dark objects dashing through the underbrush at a pace nearly double my own. By their great speed and the short yells 25 which they gave, I knew at once that they were of the much-dreaded species known as the gray wolf.

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The untamable fierceness and untiring strength of this animal

"With its long gallop that can tire

The hound's deep hate, the hunter's fire,"

render it an object of dread to benighted travelers. The bushes that skirted the shore now seemed to rush by