the coulisses, where a servant took it up, saw how beautiful and fragrant it was, pocketed it, and when he got home put it into a wineglass filled with water, where it lay all the night. Early in the morning it was placed before his grandmother, who sat, feeble with age, in her armchair. She looked upon the stemless but beautiful rose, delighted in it and in its fragrance.

19. "Thou wast not placed upon a rich and fashionable lady's table," she said, “but thou camest to a poor old woman. How beautiful thou art!"

20. And with childlike joy she looked upon the blossom, no doubt thinking of her own blooming youth which now had passed away.

I

21. "The pane was cracked," said the Wind. got easily in, saw the old woman's youthful bright eyes, and the stemless, yet beautiful Rose in the wineglass. Indeed, the happiest of them all! I know it! I can tell it!"

22. Each rose on the bush in the garden had its own history. Each rose believed and thought itself the happiest, and it is faith that makes us happy.

HANS CHRISTIAN ANDERSEN.

If there is a virtue in the world at which we should always aim, it is cheerfulness.

L. THE MANLIEST MAN

1. The manliest man of all the race,
Whose heart is open as his face,

Puts forth his hand to help another.
'Tis not the blood of kith or kin,
'Tis not the color of the skin;

'Tis the true heart which beats within

That makes the man a man and brother.

2. His words are warm upon his lips,
His heart beats to his finger tips,

He is a friend and loyal neighbor.
Sweet children kiss him on the way,
And women trust him, for they may,
He owes no debt he cannot pay;

He earns his bread with honest labor.

3. He lifts the fallen from the ground, And puts his feet upon the round

4.

Of dreaming Jacob's starry ladder,
Which lifts him higher, day by day,
Toward the bright and heavenly way,
And farther from the tempter's sway,
That stingeth like the angry adder.

He strikes oppression to the dust,
He shares the blows aimed at the just,

He shrinks not from the post of danger.
And in the thickest of the fight
He battles bravely for the right,
For that is mightier than might,

Though cradled in an humble manger.

5. Hail to the manly man! he comes
Not with the sound of horns and drums,
Though grand as any duke, and grander;
He dawns upon the world, and light
Dispels the dreary gloom of night,
And ills, like bats and owls, take flight;
He's greater than great Alexander.

- GEORGE W. BUNGAY.

LI.

WASHINGTON

1. Washington stands among the greatest men of human history, and those in the same rank with him are very few. Whether measured by what he did, or what he was, or by the effect of his work upon the history of mankind, in every aspect he is entitled to the place he holds among the greatest of his race.

2. Few men in all time have such a record of achievement. Still fewer can show, at the end of a career so crowded with high deeds and memorable victories, a life so free from spot, a character so un

selfish and so pure, a fame so void of doubtful points demanding either defense or explanation. Eulogy of such a life is needless, but it is always important to recall and to freshly remember just what manner of man he was.

3. In the first place, he was physically a striking figure. He was very tall, powerfully made, with a strong, handsome face. He was remarkably muscular and powerful. As a boy, he was a leader in all outdoor sports. No one could fling the bar farther than he, and no one could ride more difficult horses.

4. As a young man, he became a woodsman and hunter. Day after day he could tramp through the wilderness with his gun and surveyor's chain, and then sleep at night beneath the stars. He feared no exposure or fatigue, and outdid the hardiest backwoodsman in following a winter trail and swimming icy streams.

5. This habit of vigorous bodily exercise he carried through life. Whenever he was at Mount Vernon he gave a large part of his time to fox-hunting, riding after his hounds through the most difficult country. His physical power and endurance counted for much in his success when he commanded his army, and when the heavy anxieties of general and president weighed upon his mind and heart.

6. He was an educated but not a learned man. He read well and remembered what he read, but his life was from the beginning a life of action, and the world of men his school. He was not a military genius like Hannibal, or Cæsar, or Napoleon, of which the world has had only three or four examples. But he was a great soldier of the type which the English race has produced, like Marlborough and Cromwell, Wellington, Grant, and Lee.

7. He was patient under defeat, capable of large combinations, a stubborn and often reckless fighter, a winner of battles, but much more, a conclusive winner in a long war of varying fortunes. He was, in addition, what very few great soldiers or commanders have ever been, a great constitutional statesman, able to lead a people along the paths of free government without undertaking himself to play the part of the strong man, the usurper, or the savior of society.

8. He was a very silent man. Of no man of equal importance in the world's history have we so few sayings of a personal kind. He was ready enough to talk or to write about the public duties which he had in hand, but he seldom talked of himself. Yet there can be no greater error than to suppose Washington cold and unfeeling because of his silence and reserve.