ment along which carts and chariots rolled two thousand years ago.

And what had become of Vesuvius, the treacherous mountain? Half, or more than half, of the side of the old crater had been blown away; and what was left, which is now called the Monte Somma,* stands in a half circle round the new cone and the new crater which is burning at this very day. True, after that eruption which killed Pliny, Vesuvius fell asleep again, and did not awake for one hundred and thirtyfour years, and then again for two hundred and sixty-nine years; but it has been growing more and more restless as the ages have passed on, and now hardly a year passes without its sending out smoke and stones from its crater, and streams of lava from its sides.

-Charles Kingsley

Words: pumice-hardened volcanic glass; brimstone-sulphur. Questions: Do you know why Charles Kingsley was specially interested in Admiral Pliny, perhaps more than in other Romans? Was Admiral Pliny worthy of the high position that he held in the Roman navy? What volcano in California has recently attracted the attention of the world?

Pleasure Reading:

Yonge's Book of Golden Deeds

Bulwer-Lytton's Last Days of Pompeii

Ο

FATE

NE ship drives east and another drives west,

With the self-same winds that blow.

'Tis the set of the sails,

And not the gales

Which tell us the way to go.

Like the winds of the sea are the ways of Fate,

As we voyage along through life.

"Tis the set of a soul

That decides its goal,

And not the calm or the strife.

-Ella Wheeler Wilcox

A CHRISTMAS HYMN

T WAS the calm and silent night!

years fifty-three

Had Rome been growing up to might,
And now was queen of land and sea.
No sound was heard of clashing wars,-

Peace brooded o'er the hushed domain:
Apollo, Pallas, Jove and Mars

Held undisturbed their ancient reign,
In the solemn midnight
Centuries ago.

"Twas in the calm and silent night!
The senator of haughty Rome
Impatient urged his chariot's flight,
From lordly revel rolling home:
Triumphal arches, gleaming, swell

His breast with thoughts of boundless sway;

What recked the Roman what befell

A paltry province far away,
In the solemn midnight,
Centuries ago?

Within that province far away,

Went plodding home a weary boor;
A streak of light before him lay,

Fallen through a half-shut stable door
Across his path. He passed, for naught
Told what was going on within;
How keen the stars!-his only thought,-
The air how calm and cold and thin,
In the solemn midnight,

Centuries ago!

O strange indifference! low and high
Drowsed over common joys and cares;
The earth was still-but knew not why;
The world was listening unawares.
How calm a moment may precede

One that shall thrill the world forever!
To that still moment none would heed,
Man's doom was linked no more to sever,
In the solemn midnight,

Centuries ago!

It is the calm and solemn night;
A thousand bells ring out, and throw
Their joyous peals abroad, and smite
The darkness-charmed and holy now!
The night that erst no name had worn,
To it a happy name is given :
For in that stable lay, new born,

The peaceful Prince of earth and heaven,
In the solemn midnight,
Centuries ago.

-Alfred Domett

L

MUSIC

ET me go where'er I will,

I hear a sky-born music still.

It is not only in the rose,

It is not only in the bird,

Not only where the rainbow glows,
Nor in the song of woman heard;
But in the darkest, meanest things,-
There alway, alway something sings.

-Ralph Waldo Emerson

THE CRUSADER AND THE SARACEN*

(During the eleventh, twelfth, and thirteenth centuries, the Christian nations of Europe sent several military expeditions into the Holy Land to drive the Mohammedans out of that country. These great expeditions are known in history as the Crusades. The most famous of all the Crusaders was King Richard of England; while Saladin, the Sultan of Egypt and Syria, was the greatest leader of the Saracens or Mohammedans.

This story is taken from Sir Walter Scott's The Talisman.* The characters are really Richard and Saladin. As this scene is taken from the first chapter of The Talisman, perhaps you will want to get the book and read the entire story.)

T

HE burning sun of Syria had not yet attained its highest point in the horizon when a Knight of the Red Cross, who had joined the host of the Crusaders in Palestine, was pacing slowly along the sandy deserts which lie in the vicinity of the Dead Sea.

O

The dress of the rider and the accouterments of his horse were peculiarly unfit for the traveler in such a country. A coat of linked mail, with long sleeves, plated gantlets, and a steel breastplate had not been esteemed a sufficient weight of armor; there was, also, his triangular shield suspended round his neck, and his barred helmet of steel, over which he had a hood and collar of mail, which was drawn around the warrior's shoulders and throat, and filled up the vacancy between the hauberk and the headpiece. His lower limbs were sheathed, like his body, in flexible mail, securing the legs and thighs, while the feet rested in plated shoes, which corresponded with the gantlets.

A long, broad, straight-shaped, double-edged falchion, with a handle formed like a cross, corresponded with a stout poniard on the other side. The knight also bore, secured to his saddle, with one end resting on his stirrup, the long steelheaded lance, his own proper weapon, which, as he rode, projected backwards, and displayed its little pennoncel, to dally with the faint breeze, or drop in the dead calm. To this

cumbrous equipment must be added a surcoat of embroidered cloth, much frayed and worn.

The surcoat bore, in several places, the arms of the owner, although much defaced. These seemed to be a couchant° leopard, with the motto, "I sleep-wake me not." An outline of the same device might be traced on his shield, though many a blow had almost effaced the painting.

The accouterments of the horse were scarcely less massive and unwieldy than those of the rider. The animal had a heavy saddle plated with steel, uniting in front with a species of breastplate, and behind with defensive armor made to cover the loins.

Then there was a steel ax, or hammer, called a mace of arms, and which hung to the saddle bow; the reins were secured by chain work, and the front-stall of the bridle was a steel plate, with apertures for the eyes and nostrils, having in the midst a short, sharp pike, projecting from the forehead of the horse like the horn of the fabulous unicorn.

Nature had her demands for refreshment and repose even on the iron frame and patient disposition of the Knight of the Sleeping Leopard; and at noon, when the Dead Sea lay at some distance on his right, he joyfully hailed the sight of two or three palm trees, which arose beside the well which was assigned for his midday station. His good horse expanded his nostrils and quickened his pace, as if he snuffed afar off the living waters, which marked the place of repose and refreshment. But labor and danger were doomed to intervene ere the horse or horseman reached the desired spot.

As the Knight of the Couchant Leopard continued to fix his eyes attentively on the yet distant cluster of palm trees, it seemed to him as if some object was moving among them. The distant form separated itself from the trees, which partly hid its motions, and advanced towards the knight with a speed which soon showed a mounted horseman, whom his turban,