but it was too late; they were ruined because their agent, in remitting the money, had been behind time. A condemned man was led out for execution. He had taken human life, but under circumstances of the greatest provocation; and public sympathy was active in his behalf. Thousands had signed petitions for a reprieve; a favorable answer had been expected the night before, and though it had not come, even the sheriff felt confident that it would yet arrive. Thus the morning passed without the appearance of the messenger. The last moment was up. The prisoner took his place on the drop, the cap was drawn over his eyes, the bolt was drawn, and a lifeless body hung suspended in the air. Just at that moment a horseman came into sight, galloping down hill, his steed covered with foam. He carried a packet in his right hand, which he waved frantically to the crowd. He was the express rider with the reprieve; but he came too late. A comparatively innocent man had died an ignominious death, because a watch had been five minutes too slow, making its bearer arrive behind time. It is continually so in life. The best laid plans, the most important affairs, the fortunes of individuals, the weal of nations, honor, happiness, life itself, are daily sacrificed because somebody is "behind time." There are men who always fail in whatever they undertake, simply because they are "behind time." There are others who put off reformation year by year, till death seizes them, and they perish unrepentant, because forever "behind time." Five minutes, in a crisis, are worth years. It is but a little period, yet it has often saved a fortune, or redeemed a people. If there is one virtue that should be cultivated more than another, it is punctuality; if there is one error that should be avoided, it is being "behind time.' -Freeman Hunt Aachen, ä'-kěn PRONUNCIATION OF NAMES Abyssinia, ǎb'-Ĭ-sin'-Ĭ-å Acadie, ä-kä-dē Acla, ǎk'-lä Adayes, ä-da'-yes Ali Cogia, ä'-lē kō'-je-a än-drās gä-rä-bï'-tō Angelus, ǎn'-je-lus Anseis, ăn-se-is Assisi, äs-sē'-zē Atchafalaya, ǎch-¿-fà-lï'-å Audubon, ô'-doo-bon Avernus, ä-věr'-nus LIBRARY LIST FOR THE GRADE (Get the books listed under Pleasure Reading first) Aldrich's Story of a Bad Boy Amicis' Heart of a Boy Baldwin's Four Great Americans Baldwin's Story of the Golden Age Baldwin's Story of Roland Baldwin's Story of Siegfried Barbour's For the Honor of the School Barbour's The Half Back Beebe's Four American Naval Heroes Boyesen's Boyhood in Norway Burroughs' Squirrels and Other Fur Bearers Clark's Boy Life in the United States Navy Clemens' Huckleberry Finn Clemens' The Prince and the Pauper Cochrane's Four Hundred Animal Stories Coffin's Old Times in the Colonies Custer's Boots and Saddles Daskam's The Madness of Philip Dodge's Donald and Dorothy Drysdale's The Young Reporter Du Chaillu's Stories of the Gorilla Country Ellis' The Young Scout Goss's In the Navy Greene's Burnham Breaker Hall's Adrift in the Ice Fields Hawthorne's Biographical Stories Hawthorne's Grandfather's Chair Hegan's Mrs. Wiggs of the Cabbage Patch Hill's Fighting a Fire Hocking's Her Benny Holland's Arthur Bonnicastle Ingersoll's Wild Neighbors Johnston's The Little Colonel Johnston's The World's Discoverers Johnston's Two Little Knights of Kentucky King's Cadet Days Kipling's Captains Courageous Lanier's The Boy's King Arthur Long's Following the Deer Long's Ways of Wood Folk Mabie's Heroes Every Child Should Know Martineau's The Peasant and the Prince Martin's Emmy Lou Miller's True Bear Stories Miller's True Bird Stories Mitchell's About Old Story Tellers Page's In Ole Virginia Scott's Quentin Durward Seton's Biography of a Grizzly Seton's Trail of the Sand Hill Stag Stockton's Fanciful Tales Stoddard's Little Smoke Stoddard's The Boy Lincoln Taylor's Boys of Other Countries Thaxter's Stories and Poems for Children Trowbridge's His One Fault Verne's Around the World in Eighty Days Warner's A-Hunting the Deer Warner's Being a Boy Waterman's The Girl Wanted Wiggin's Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm |