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mingled. But when the overture was played through, and his name was called, the child seemed, in her eagerness, to forget me and all the earth beside him. She rose to her feet and leaned forward for a better view of her beloved, as he mounted to the speaker's stand.

I knew by her deep breathing that her heart was throbbing in her throat. I knew, too, by the way her brother came up the steps and to the front that he was trembling. The hands hung limp; his face was pallid, and the lips blue as with cold. I felt anxious. The child, too, seemed to discern that things were not well with him. Something like fear showed in her face.

He made an automatic bow. Then a bewildered, struggling look came into his face, then a helpless look, and then he stood staring vacantly, like one in a dream, at the waiting audience. The moments of painful suspense went by, and still he stood as if struck dumb. I saw how it was; he had been seized with stage-fright.

Alas! little sister! She turned her large dismayed eyes upon me. "He's forgotten it," she said. Then a swift change came into her face; a strong determined look; and on the funeral-like silence of the room broke the sweet, brave childvoice:

"Amid the permutations and combinations of the actors and the forces which make up the great kaleidoscope of history, we often find that a turn of Destiny's hand-"

Everybody about us turned and looked. The breathless silence; the sweet, childish voice; the childish face; the long, unchildlike words, produced a weird° effect.

But the help had come too late; the unhappy brother was already staggering in humiliation from the stage. The band quickly struck up, and waves of lively music rolled out to cover the defeat.

I gave the little sister a glance in which I meant to show the intense sympathy I felt; but she did not see me. Her eyes

swimming with tears, were on her brother's face. I put my arm around her, but she was too absorbed to heed the caress, and before I could appreciate her purpose she was on her way to the shame-stricken young man sitting with a face like a statue.

the set face relaxed, and a The young men got closer She sat down beside him,

When he saw her by his side quick mist came into his eyes. together to make room for her. laid her flowers on his knee, and slipped her hand into his. I could not keep my eyes from her sweet pitying face. I saw her whisper to him, he bending a little to catch her words. Later, I found out that she was asking him if he knew his "piece" now, and that he answered "yes."

When the young man next on the list had spoken, and while the band was playing, the child, to the brother's great surprise, made her way up the stage steps, and pressed through the throng of professors and trustees and distinguished visitors, up to the college president.

"If you please, sir," she said with a little curtsy, "will you and the trustees let my brother try again? He knows his piece now.

For a moment the president stared at her through his goldbowed spectacles, and then, appreciating the child's petition,° he smiled on her, and went down and spoke to the young man that had failed.

So it happened that when the band had again ceased playing, it was briefly announced that Mr. would now deliver

his oration-"Historical Parallels."

A ripple of heightened and expectant interest passed over the audience, and then all sat stone still, as though fearing to breathe lest the speaker might again take fright. No danger. The hero in the youth was aroused. He went at his "piece" with a set purpose to conquer, to redeem himself, and to bring the smile back to the child's tear-stained face. I watched the face during the speaking. The wide eyes, the parted

lips, the whole rapt being said that the breathless audience was forgotten, that her spirit was moving with his.

And when the address was ended with the ardent abandon° of one who catches enthusiasm in the realization that he is fighting down a wrong judgment and conquering a sympathy, the effect was really thrilling. That dignified audience broke into rapturous applause; bouquets intended for the valedictorian rained like a tempest. And the child, the child that had helped to save the day-that one beaming little face, in its pride and gladness, is something to be forever remembered. -Sarah Winter Kellogg

Words: commencement-graduation exercises; artless-simple, innocent; valedictorian-the student who receives the highest standing, and is thereby entitled to give the farewell address; permutationschanges; kaleidoscope-an instrument containing loose fragments of colored glass with reflecting surfaces, so that when one turns it as he looks into it, there is an ever-changing display of interesting designs made by the glass fragments. Hence, changing events; concentrated -fixed; automatic-mechanical, as a figure moved by machinery; weird-strange; humiliation-shame and sorrow; distinguished. famous; petition--request; abandon-freedom.

Questions: What other school stories have you read? Do you remember any that you prefer to this one?

Pleasure Reading:

Hughes' Tom Brown at Rugby

Trowbridge's The Little Master

Eggleston's The Hoosier School Boy

Eggleston's The Hoosier School Master

KIND HEARTS AND SIMPLE FAITH

OWE'ER it be, it seems to me,

HOME

'Tis only noble to be good;

Kind hearts are more than coronets,
And simple faith than Norman blood.

-Alfred Tennyson

THE FIRST GRENADIER OF FRANCE

FOR

OR many years a touching and beautiful custom might have been witnessed in a certain regiment of French grenadiers, which was meant to commemorate the heroism of a departed comrade. When the companies assembled for parade and the roll was called, there was one name to which its owner could not answer-it was that of La Tour d'Auvergne.* When it was called, the oldest sergeant present stepped a pace forward and, raising his hand to his cap, said proudly: "Died on the field of honor."

He was not unworthy in life of the honor thus paid him after his death. He was educated for the army, which he entered in 1767. He always served with distinction, but he constantly refused offers of promotion, saying that he was only fit for the command of a company of grenadiers; but, finally, the various grenadier companies being united, he found himself in command of a body of eight thousand men, while retaining only the rank of captain. Hence he was known as "The First Grenadier of France."

When he was forty years of age, he went on a visit to a friend in a region that was soon to become the scene of a campaign. While there, he was careful to acquaint himself with the country, thinking it not unlikely that this knowledge might be of use to him. He presently learned that the war had actually shifted to that quarter.

A regiment of Austrians was pushing on to occupy a narrow pass, the possession of which would give them an opportunity to prevent an important movement of the French which was then in progress. They hoped to surprise this post, and were moving so rapidly upon it that they were not more than two hours distant from the place where the grenadier was staying, and which they would have to pass in their march.

He had no idea of being captured by the enemy in their advance, and he at once set off for the pass. He knew that it

was defended by a stout tower and garrison of thirty men, and he hoped to be able to warn the French of their danger.

He hastened on, and, arriving there, found the tower in a perfect condition. But it had just been vacated by the garrison, who, hearing of the approach of the Austrians, had fled, leaving their arms, consisting of thirty excellent muskets. He gnashed his teeth with rage when he discovered this. Searching in the building, he found several boxes of ammunition which the cowards had not destroyed. For a moment he was in despair; but immediately, with a grim smile, he began to fasten the main door and pile against it such articles as he could find.

When he had done this, he loaded all the guns, and placed them, together with a good supply of ammunition, under the loop-holes that commanded the road by which the enemy must advance. Then he ate heartily of the provisions he had brought with him, and sat down to wait. He had formed the heroic resolution to defend the tower alone against the enemy. There were some things in his favor in such an undertaking.

The pass was steep and narrow, and the enemy's troops could enter it only in double files, in doing which they would be fully exposed to the fire from the tower. The garrison of thirty men could easily have held it against a division, and now one man was about to hold it against a regiment.

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It was dark when he reached the tower, and he had to wait some time for the enemy. They were longer in coming than he expected, and for a while he was tempted to believe that they had abandoned the expedition.

About midnight, however, his practiced ear caught the tramp of feet. Every moment they came nearer, and at last he heard them entering the defile. He immediately discharged two muskets into the darkness, to warn the enemy that he knew of their presence and intention; then he heard the quick, short commands of the officer, and, from the sounds, supposed that the troops were retiring from the pass.

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