... to print here that one which takes for its theme The Merrimac . Tuesday Morning, March 18, 1862. [From the Charleston Courier.] THE MERRIMAC Bv Paul H. Hayne. We listened to the thunders Ofher mighty guns for hours, Till the air seemed rent asunder By their detonating powers; Yet, we did not dread...

... an occasion that would test more adequately the temper of an author than the final realiza­ tion that his first published book had failed to find readers. There Thoreau as Wit and Humorist 173 came a day when the publisher of A Week on the Concord and Merrimac Rivers could no longer conceal his impatience...

... authorities. He at once wrote Mr. Welles requesting that the new ironclad, Roa­ noke, a heavily armored, double turret monster, far more powerful than the first of that type which had curbed the ram­ pant Merrimac in Hampton Roads, be placed in position to defend this harbor from attack by a hostile ship...