well-directed blows on the back of the "court gander," the ringleader was brought under control, and the whole cackling herd driven back. 15. As soon as the boy saw the flock feeding

again in their own pasture, he scolded the king soundly for his neglect. Maximilian bore his scolding meekly, and said he hoped the boy would excuse his awkwardness, for, being the king, he was not used to the work.

16. The gooseherd thought the old gentleman was joking. "I was a simpleton," said he, "to trust you with the geese; but I am not such a simpleton as to believe you are the king."

"Well," said Maximilian, with a smile, "here is another florin as a peace-offering."

17. The boy took the florin with a doubtful gaze upon the benevolent face of the donor, and said, with a wise shake of the head, as the king was leaving, "You're a kind gentleman, whoever you may be; but take my word for it, you'll never make a gooseherd.”

HEADS FOR COMPOSITION.

I. BEGINNING OF THE ADVENTURE: King Maximilian takes a walk - the nap—the forgotten book-offer to the gooseherd.

II. KING AND GOOSEHERD: the errand - hesitation of the boy the king's offer a lesson in whip-cracking.

III. THE ROYAL GOOSEHERD: the king's forgetfulness — the geese astray the scolding - the hunt- the conclusion.

62.-The Castle-Builder.

glō'ri-fied, made glorious.

legends, tales.

măn'i-fōld, numerous and various in kind.

I.

A gentle boy, with soft and silken locks;
A dreamy boy, with brown and tender eyes;
A castle-builder, with his wooden blocks
And towers that touch imaginary skies.

A fearless rider on his father's knee;
An eager listener unto stories, told
At the "Round Table" of the nursery,
Of heroes and adventures manifold.

II.

There will be other towers for thee to build;
There will be other steeds for thee to ride;

There will be other legends, and all filled
With greater marvels and more glorified.

Build on, and make thy castles high and fair,
Rising and reaching upward to the skies;
Listen to voices in the upper air,

Nor lose thy simple faith in mysteries.

1. All great inventions have small beginnings, and this is very strikingly the case with that marvelous contrivance, the railroad. We find the first hint of the railroad in the tramway

- that is, a road for trams, or wagons- used two or three hundred years ago for the transportation of coal from English coal-mines.

2. In this primitive railway wooden rails were fastened lengthwise on half-buried timbers, for the purpose of keeping the cart-wheels on the track. A little later the carts or cars were wheeled along on the rails themselves; then, to prevent the wooden rails from wearing out, they were covered with iron; and at last the rails were wholly made of that material.

3. After Watt had perfected the steam-engine, the idea of a locomotive, or engine that could move from place to place, began to be thought

of. Several ingenious men put their wits to work to contrive a steam-carriage; and among these was Oliver Evans, an American. People thought Evans must be insane when he talked of steam-carriages, and made merry at his expense; but he said, "Wait and see! The time will come when passengers and goods will travel fifteen miles an hour in them."

4. Curiously enough, in all these early experiments, the steam-carriage was made to move on common roads. The hint given by the old tramway was not taken by the first experimenters, none of whom thought of putting his steam-carriage on a track.

5. The first trial of steam on a railroad was made on a tramway in Wales. But all kinds of difficulties were met with, and the locomotive was but a rude machine. It moved slowly, and burned a great deal of coal; hardly any one had thought of using it for passenger travel, and the track was rough and very costly.

6. What the locomotive needed was a master, to make it really useful and to bring it to perfection. Such a master was George Stephenson. This great engineer was born in 1781, at a coal village near Newcastle in England.