you. He is sending all his fleetness, all his strength, into your feet. Your mother and sister are pale with eagerness. Hilda is trembling, and dare not look up. Fly, Peter! The crowd has not gone deranged; it is only cheering. The pursuers are close upon you. Touch the white column. It beckons; it is reeling before you; it

"Huzza! Huzza! Peter has won the silver skates!" "Peter van Holp!" shouted the crier. But who heard him? "Peter van Holp!" shouted a hundred voices; for he was the favorite boy of the place. "Huzza! Huzza!"

Now the music was resolved to be heard. It struck up a lively air, then a tremendous march. The spectators, thinking something new was about to happen, deigned to listen and to look.

The racers formed in single file. Peter, being tallest, stood first. Gretel, the smallest of all, took her place at the end. Hans, who had borrowed a strap from the cake boy, was near the head.

Three gayly twined arches were placed at intervals upon 20 the river, facing the Van Gleck pavilion.

Skating slowly and in perfect time to the music, the boys and girls moved forward, led on by Peter. It was beautiful to see the bright procession gliding along like a living creature. It curved and doubled and drew its graceful 25 length in and out among the arches; whichever way Peter, the head, went, the body was sure to follow. Sometimes it steered direct for the center arch; then, as if seized with a new impulse, turned away, and curled itself about the first one; then unwound slowly, and bending low, with 30 quick, snakelike curvings, crossed the river, passing at length through the farthest arch.

When the music was slow, the procession seemed to crawl like a thing afraid; it grew livelier, and the creature darted forward with a spring, gliding rapidly among the arches, twisting, turning, never losing form, until, at the call of the bugle, it suddenly resolved itself into boys and s girls standing in double semicircle before Madame van Gleck's pavilion.

Peter and Gretel stand in the center, in advance of the others. Madame van Gleck rises majestically. Gretel trembles, but feels that she must look at the beautiful lady. She cannot hear what is said. She is thinking that she ought to try and make a curtsy, when suddenly something so dazzling is placed in her hand that she gives a cry of joy. Then she ventures to look about her. Peter, too, has something in his hands. “Oh, oh! how splendid!" she cries, and "Oh! how splendid!" is echoed as far as people

can see.

Meantime the silver skates flash in the sunshine, throwing dashes of light upon those two happy faces.

- Hans Brinker, or the Silver Skates.

1. Describe the crowd and the scene before the race begins. What similar scene have you witnessed?

2. Explain by diagram how the race was conducted.

3. Who won the first heat for the boys? The second? The third? Answer the same questions for the girls.

4. What fine act of courtesy enabled Peter to stay in the race? Who is Gretel? Is she related to Peter? Why is Carl not liked? 5. Near what large city did the race take place? Find it on the map.

6. Tell of a race of any kind you have witnessed or taken part in.

. 10

TRUE SUCCESS

Have little care that life is brief,
And less that art is long,
Success is in the silences

Though fame is in the song.

BLISS CARMAN.

You

LETTER TO HIS SON

BY ROBERT E. LEE

must study to be frank with the world; frankness is the child of honesty and courage.

Say just what you mean to do on every occasion and take it for granted you mean to do right. If a friend asks a favor, you should sgrant it if it is reasonable; if not, tell him plainly why you cannot; you will wrong him and wrong yourself by equivocation of any kind. Never do a wrong thing to make a friend or keep one; the man who requires you to do so is dearly purchased at a sacrifice. Deal kindly but 10 firmly with all your classmates; you will find it the policy which wears best. . . . If you have any fault to find with anyone, tell him, not others, of what you complain; there is no more dangerous experiment than that of undertaking to be one thing before a man's face and another behind 15 his back. We should live, act, and say nothing to the injury of anyone. It is not only best as a matter of principle but it is the path of peace and honor.

ΙΟ

In regard to duty, let me, in conclusion of this hasty letter, inform you that nearly a hundred years ago there 20 was a day of remarkable gloom and darkness - still known as "the dark day"- a day when the light of the sun was slowly extinguished as if by an eclipse. The Legislature of Connecticut was in session, and as the members saw the unexpected and unaccountable darkness 25 coming on they shared in the general awe and terror. It was supposed by many that the last day-the day of