you; you are only frightened. Be brave and I will shape you into things of great use to men. Be brave and you shall rule the world." Then in spite of Iron's piteous cries, he kept on pounding and twisting and turning and shaping the helpless metal 5 until at length it was changed into many forms of use and beauty rings, chains, axes, knives, cups, and curious tools. But it was so soft, after being thus heated and beaten, that the edges of the tools were quickly dulled. Try as he might, the Smith did not know how to give the 10 metal a harder temper. One day a honeybee strolled that way. It buzzed around the smithy and then lit on a clover blossom by the door. "O bee," cried the busy Smith, "you are a cunning 15 little bird, and you know some things better than I know them. Come now, and help me temper this soft metal. Bring me a drop of your honey; bring the sweet liquor which you suck from the meadow flower; bring the magic dew of the wildwood. Give me all such things that I may 20 make a mixture to harden Iron." The bee answered not it was too busy with its own affairs. It gathered what honey it could from the blossom and then flew swiftly away. Under the eaves above the smithy door an idler was 25 sitting a mischief-making hornet who heard every word that the Smith said. "I will help him make a mixture," this wicked insect muttered. "I will help him to give Iron another temper." Forthwith he flew to the thorny thickets and the miry. bogs and the fever-breeding marshes, to gather what evils he might. Soon he returned with an arm load - the poison 30 5 15 of spiders, the venom of serpents, the miasmata of swamps, the juice of the deadly nightshade. All these he cast into the tub of water wherein the Smith was vainly trying to temper Iron. The Smith did not see him, but he heard him buzzing and supposed it was the honeybee with sweets from the meadow flowers. "Thank you, pretty little bird," he said. "Now I hope we shall have a better metal. I hope we shall make edges o that will cut and not be dulled so easily." 20 25 Thereupon he drew a bar of the metal, white hot, from the forge. He held it, hissing and screeching, under the water into which the poisons had been poured. Little thought he of the evil that was there. He heard the hornet humming and laughing under the eaves. "Tiny honeybee," he said, "you have brought me much sweetness. Iron tempered with your honey will be sweet although sharp. Nothing shall be wrought of it that is not beautiful and helpful and kind." He drew the metal from the tub. He thrust it back among the red coals. He plied the bellows and the flames leaped up. Then, when the metal was glowing again, he laid it on the anvil and beat it with strong, swift strokes; and as he worked he sang: "Ding! Ding! Ding-a-ling, ding! Of Iron, sharp Iron, strong Iron, I sing, Forthwith Iron leaped up, angry and biting and fierce. 30 He was not a soft and ductile metal as before, but Iron hardened into tough blue steel. Showers of sparks flew from him, snapping, burning, threatening; and from among them sprang swords and spears and battle-axes, and daggers keen and pointed. Out of the smithy and out through the great world these cruel weapons raced, slashing and clashing, thrusting and cutting, raging and killing, and s carrying madness among men. The wicked hornet, idling under the eaves, rejoiced at the mischief he had wrought. But the Smith was filled with grief, and the music of his anvil became a jangling discord. "Oh, Iron," he cried, "it was not for this that I caused you to leave your hiding places in the hills and bogs! The three sisters intended that you should be a blessing to mankind; but now I greatly fear that you will become a curse." At that moment the honeybee, laden with the sweets of field and wood, came buzzing into the smithy. It whispered hopefully into the ear of the Smith: "Wait until my gifts have done their work." Retold from the Kalevala. I. Find on a map the country from which this legend comes. 2. According to this story, where did iron come from? Why was it fearful of fire? Who finally enticed it into the fire's embrace? 3. Why did the smith cease to be happy? What did the honeybec have in mind in the last sentence? Show how the honeybee's prophccy has come true, by naming the peaceful uses of iron. 4. A good description of an ancient forge is given. Of what did it consist? How is iron handled to-day in modern iron foundries and steel mills? 15 THE WONDERFUL ARTISAN BY JAMES BALDWIN There are enough Greek legends to fill several volumes. They relate the doings of the gods and heroes of ancient Greece, and endeavor to account for the origin of plants and animals and the founding of cities. This story no doubt contains many facts but it is chiefly fiction. HILE Athens was still only a small city there lived within its walls a man named Dædalus (děd'a-lus), who was the most skillful worker in wood and stone and metal that had ever been known. It was he who taught 5 the people how to build better houses and how to hang their doors on hinges and how to support the roofs with pillars and posts. He was the first to fasten things together with glue; he invented the plumb line and the auger; and he showed seamen how to put up masts in their 10 ships and how to rig the sails to them with ropes. He built a stone palace for Ægeus, the young king of Athens, and beautified the Temple of Athena which stood on the great rocky hill in the middle of the city. ΙΟ 15 20 Dædalus had a nephew named Perdix, whom he had. taken when a boy to teach the trade of builder. But Perdix was a very apt learner and soon surpassed his master in the knowledge of many things. His eyes were ever open to see what was going on about him, and he learned the lore of the fields and the woods. Walking one day by the sea he picked up the backbone of a great fish, and from it he invented the saw. Seeing how a certain bird carved holes in the trunks of trees, he learned how to make and use the chisel. Then he invented the wheel which potters use in molding clay; and he made of a forked stick the first pair of compasses for drawing circles; and he studied out many other curious and useful things. Dædalus was not pleased when he saw that the lad was 5 so apt and wise, so ready to learn, and so eager to do. "If he keeps on in this way," he murmured, "he will be a greater man than I; his name will be remembered and mine will be forgotten." Day after day, while at his work, Dædalus pondered over 10 this matter, and soon his heart was filled with hatred towards young Perdix. One morning when the two were putting up an ornament on the outer wall of Athena's temple, Dædalus bade his nephew go out on a narrow scaffold which hung high over the edge of the rocky cliff 15 whereon the temple stood. Then when the lad obeyed, it was easy enough, with a blow of a hammer, to knock the scaffold from its fastenings. Poor Perdix fell headlong through the air, and he would have been dashed in pieces upon the stones at the foot of 20 the cliff had not kind Athena seen him and taken pity upon him. While he was yet whirling through mid-air she changed him into a partridge, and he flitted away to the hills to live forever in the woods and fields which he loved so well. And to this day, when summer breezes 25 blow and the wild flowers bloom in meadow and glade, the voice of Perdix may still sometimes be heard calling to his mate from among the grass and reeds or amid the leafy underwoods. As for Dædalus, when the people of Athens heard of his 30 dastardly deed they were filled with grief and rage— grief |