1. Every nation has its flag. Every ship in foreign waters is known by the colors she shows at her peak. The German merchant ship bears her flag of black, white, and red in horizontal stripes, the war vessel shows the eagle of the empire in the middle on white ground, while in the upper left corner a picture of the iron cross is seen with the national colors; the French frigate hoists her bunting of three vertical stripes, red, white, and blue; the English man-ofwar shows a red flag, with the crosses of St. Andrew and St. George on a blue union in the upper left hand corner; and the Austrian, a double-headed black eagle, on a yellow ground,― every nation having its own appropriate symbol. 2. When we were colonies of England, we sailed and fought under her flag. Twenty years before the Revolution, when we were at war with the French and their allies, the Indians, many a brave man in some hot skirmish with Indians would have welcomed the sight of the red flag of England; it would mean aid and comfort when sorely pressed.

3. But the time was coming when the British colors were not at all welcome to him, for they had become the sign of oppression and tyranny. Every child knows that and how we came to struggle with old mighty England,-to struggle in bloody contest for seven long years.

4. We were thirteen little States, fringed along on the Atlantic coast, with the unbroken forest behind us, and among the great family of nations we had neither place nor name. We were like the last new boy at a public school,we had to fight to obtain due respect from all the great old nations who were looking on.

5. Of course we had no flag; we had to earn that too. For a year or so our privateers carried the Massachusetts State flag. It was better, they thought, than the English flag, at any rate. The field was of white bunting; in the middle, a green pine-tree, and on the opposite side, the motto, "Appeal to Heaven."

6. The Alfred was one of the few large ships we had, and she carried the pine-tree flag, and, beside that, one with thirteen stripes, in red and white, but with no stars; while on the stripes was coiled a rattlesnake, with the motto, "Don't tread on me." The rattlesnake being found only in America, there was, of course, a peculiar meaning in this emblem.

7. In the early part of the Revolution, some of the South Carolina regiments carried the palmetto-tree on their flag. That was a very good symbol, and the State yet keeps it on her coat of arms, though it grows everywhere in the South. The palmetto logs at Fort Moultrie were found very good things to receive cannon-balls, when that fort was besieged by the British in June of 1776.

8. There was this multiplicity of flags because we did not clearly know what we were. No nation had acknowledged us as belonging to their great family yet; in fact, we had not quite cut loose from England; yet we were fighting her with all our might, and it seemed absurd to be under her colors. In the fight at Bunker Hill, the flag planted in the corner of that famous redoubt was of blue bunting, with the cross of St. George in red in the corner, and a pine-tree -that same pine-tree-in the upper right-hand quarter of

the cross.

9. Our army at Cambridge celebrated New-Year's Day, Jan. 1st, 1776, not as the Chinese, by firing crackers and illuminating lanterns in the evening, nor yet by making calls, but by unfurling for the first time in an American camp the flag of thirteen stripes. But even then we had not declared ourselves independent of Great Britain; and this flag had the British union in the corner, and the crosses of St. Andrew and St. George.

10. Finally, on the 14th of June, 1776, Congress, which met then in Philadelphia, settled upon our style of flag. "It shall have," said they, "thirteen stripes, alternate red and

white; and the union of the States shall be indicated by thirteen stars, white, in a blue field, representing a new constellation.'

11. They followed up the adoption of a flag by a Declaration of Independence; and then we went to fighting harder than ever; and, either because we showed better pluck under our new flag, or because other nations began to feel some respect for our courage under difficulties, or for some other reason, France acknowledged our independence.

12. It was not until about forty years ago that it was decided to add another star for every new State as it joined the Union. So that the constellation, as it is now, with nearly forty stars in it, has grown a good deal from the original thirteen. But the stripes still remain the same in number, to remind us of the first little band of States "who fought it out" against Great Britain.

Kate Foot. (Adapted.)

LXXIX. THE LYING SERVANT.

ad-dict', to devote; ergeben.

vice, misdeed; wickedness; Laster.

knave, a servant; Knappe.

val'-et, a servant; Diener.

var'-let, a rascal; Spizbube.

per-sist', to persevere; bestehen.

dole'-ful, woeful; traurig.

de-pict', to picture; abmalen.

fain, inclined; geneigt.

feign, to make a show of doing or meaning; vorgeben.

1. There lived in Swabia* a certain lord, pious, just, and wise, to whose lot it fell to have a serving man, a great

* Swabia was one of the ten circles into which the German empire was di.vided previous to its dissolution in 1806. It has now disappeared from the maps as a geographical division, its territory having been distributed chiefly among Bavaria, Wuertemberg, and Baden.

rogue, and, above all, addicted to the vice of lying. The name of the lord is not in the story; therefore the reader need not trouble himself about it.

2. The knave was given to boast of his wondrous travels. He had visited countries which are nowhere to be found on the map, and seen things which mortal eye never beheld. He would lie through the twenty-four hours of the clock; for he dreamed falsehoods in his sleep, to the truth of which he swore when awake. His lord was a shrewd as well as a virtuous man, and used to see the lies in the valet's mouth; so that he was often caught-hung, as it were, in his own untruths, as in a trap. Nevertheless he persisted still the more in his lies, and when any one said, "How can that be?" he would answer, with fierce oaths and protestations, that it was so.

3. It chanced, one pleasant day in spring, after the rains had fallen heavily, and swollen the floods, that the lord and the knave rode out together, and their way was through a silent and shady forest. Suddenly appeared an old and well-grown fox. "Look!" exclaimed the master; "what a huge beast! Never before have I seen a renard so

large."

4. "Doth this beast surprise thee by its hugeness?" replieth straight the serving man, casting his eye slightingly on the animal, as he fled away for fear; "I have been in a kingdom where the foxes are as big as the bulls in this. Whereupon, hearing so vast a lie, the lord answered calmly, but with mockery in his heart, "In that kingdom there must be excellent lining for cloaks, if furriers can there be found to dress skins so large."

5. And so they rode on, the lord in silence; but soon he began to sigh heavily. Still he seemed to wax more and more sad in spirit, and his sighs grew deeper and more quick. Then the knave inquired of the lord what sudden affliction or cause of sorrow had happened. "Alas!" re

plied the wily master, "I trust that neither of us two hath to-day, by any frowardness of fortune, chanced to say the thing which is not; for, assuredly, he that hath so done must this day perish."

6. The knave, on hearing these doleful words, and perceiving real sorrow to be depicted on his master's countenance, instantly felt as if his ears grew more wide, so that not a word or syllable of so strange a discovery might escape his troubled sense. And so, with eager exclamation, he demanded of the lord to ease his suspense, and to explain why so cruel a doom was now about him who had spoken an untruth.

7. "Hear, then, dear knave, "answered the lord, 66 since thou must needs know; and may no trouble come to thee from what I shall say. To-day we ride far, and in our course is a vast and heavy-rolling flood, of which the ford is narrow, and the pool is deep; it hath the power of sweeping down into its dark holes all dealers in falsehood who may rashly venture to put themselves within its truthloving current. But to him who hath told no lie there is no fear of the river. Spur we our horses, for to-day our journey must be long."

8. Then the knave thought, "Long, indeed, must the journey be for some who are now here ;" and, as he spurred, he sighed more deeply than his master had done before him, who now went gayly on. They soon came to a brook. Its waters were small, and its channel such as a boy might leap across. Yet, nevertheless, the knave began to tremble, and falteringly asked, "Is this the river where harmless liars must perish?" "This? Ah, no," replied the lord; "this is but a brook; no liar need tremble here."

9. Yet was the knave not wholly assured, and stammering, said, "My gracious lord, thy servant now bethinks him that he to-day hath made a fox too huge; that of which he spake was not so large as an ox, but as big as a good-sized