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Ned, the son of Webb: What he did.
Ned, the son of Webb: What he did
CHAPTER I.
THE WAR SPIRIT
"She's grand!" exclaimed Ned, enthusiastically. "Uncle Jack, the Kentucky could knock any other ironclad in all the world!"
"Perhaps she could," growled Uncle Jack, somewhat thoughtfully. "I'm glad she is out of range of them, just now, though. I like her looks as she is. It is best for them, too."
They were standing near the head of Pier Number One, North River, gazing at the great line-of-battle ship as she steamed along slowly up the stream.
"Those double turrets make her as tall as a house," said Ned. "There's nothing else like her! See the long noses of those big guns!"
"That's what I came for," replied Uncle Jack. "I wanted to see her, and now I have seen her I am more opposed to war than ever. I'm going to join the Peace Society."
"I'd rather join the navy," said Ned. "But if a shell from one of those guns should burst inside of another ship it would blow her sky-high."
"No!" responded his uncle, with firmness. "She would not go up to the sky, she would go down to the bottom of the deep sea."
"She could do it, anyhow," said Ned, not explaining which of the two ships he referred to.
It was evident that Uncle Jack was too deeply interested in the Kentucky to care for general conversation. For fear, however, that he might not have read the papers, his somewhat excited nephew told him that the steel-clad wonder of the sea had at least twelve thousand horses in her steam engines. He also said that she was of twelve thousand tons burden, but did not say whether that was the load she could carry or whether it might be supposed to be her fighting weight.
"I wish I were captain of her," he declared, at last. "I'd like to conquer England."