"he would have appreciated him with his own magnanimity, and would have been truly happy that the evil days were past which made such a man his enemy."

She left the room; and the Captain walked, first to one window, whence he could see the dancing in the garden, then to another window, whence he 10 could see the smiling prospect and the peaceful vineyards.

"Spirit of my departed friend," said he, "is it through thee these better thoughts are rising in my mind? Is it thou who hast shown me, all the way I have been drawn to meet this man, the blessings of the altered time? Is it thou who hast sent thy stricken mother to me, to stay my angry hand? 20 Is it from thee the whisper comes, that this man did his duty as thou didstand as I did, through thy guidance, which has wholly saved me here on earth-and that he did no more?"

He sat down, with his head buried in his hands, and, when he rose up, made the second strong resolution of his life that neither to the French officer, nor to the mother of his 30 departed friend, nor to any soul, while

either of the two was living, would he breathe what only he knew. And when he touched that French officer's glass with his own, that day at dinner, he secretly forgave him in the name of the Divine Forgiver of injuries.

Here I ended my story as the first Poor Traveler. But if I had told it now, I could have added that the time 40 has since come when the son of Major

Richard Doubledick, and the son of that French officer, friends as their fathers were before them, fought side by side in one cause, with their respective nations, like long-divided brothers whom the better times have brought together, fast united.

44. one cause, the Crimean War, in which France and England were allies, and which was in progress when this story was written.

NOTES AND QUESTIONS

1. What was Richard's motive in going to Chatham? What is the significance of taking the King's shilling? Under what name did Richard enlist? Why did he conceal his own name?

2. How did he begin his soldier life? To what would such a course tend? Describe Doubledick's captain. How was Richard affected by his captain's eyes? How can you explain this?

3. How did the Captain show his interest in Richard? What appeal did he make to Dick's manhood? How was Dick affected by the mention of his mother? What promise did he make to the Captain?

4. Through what "stormy times" did Dick's regiment fight its way? What was the influence of the two friends upon others in the regiment?

5. Tell the story of Major Taunton's death. What rank did Dick hold at this time? For what did he seem to live after his friend's death?

6. How many years passed before Dick returned to England? What rank had he attained at that time? To whom only had he told his story? Read the words used by Dick in telling Mrs. Taunton what her son had done for him.

7. What famous battle took place soon after Dick rejoined his regiment? In what city did he lie ill? How did Mary Marshall come again into his life?

8.

Under what circumstances did Dick at last meet the French officer? What did the Frenchman say as he took Dick's hand? Read the words of Mrs. Taunton when she told Dick how her son would have felt toward the brave Frenchman. Read the words addressed to the spirit of his friend as Dick put away from him forever the thought of revenge.

9. What was the second great resolution of Dick's life? In what war did the son of Major Doubledick fight side by side with the son of the French officer? What might be added today about the grandson of the brave Englishman and the grandson of the brave

Frenchman?

SEED-TIME AND HARVEST

JOHN GREENLEAF WHITTIER

As o'er his furrowed fields which lie Beneath a coldly-dropping sky,

Yet chill with winter's melted snow, The husbandman goes forth to sow,

wait for his reward; he may not be alive when the time of reaping comes; his work may be for others. So with the patriotic citizen: he does not serve for the sake of immediate gain, but in order that future generations may live more securely.

2. Such a comparison as this is called a simile. Look up the word in the Index of Special Terms, at the end of the book, for other examples.

3. Study with special care the first five stanzas. The first two lay the foundation for the simile, or comparison. In what ways are the husbandmen and the patriot alike? When Whittier wrote, America was free; what then does the poet mean by his references to "ventures" and trusting "to warmer sun"? In the fourth and fifth stanzas how is the simile advanced? Think carefully upon the fifth stanza. Then re-read the first two lines of the same stanza. What is “God's great thought”? Commit this stanza to memory.

4. This poem may serve as a transition between the group of selections you have just been reading and those that immediately follow. You have been reading about certain illustrations, told in story form, of ideals of service. A man lives not for himself alone, but for others. He lives most intelligently for himself, that is, he advances in power and happiness, when he gives up thinking about himself as the center of his world. The selections that follow illustrate this relationship between man and his fellows from a slightly different angle. Instead of stories about individuals you will find comments in prose and verse upon the meaning of this ideal in a democracy. Democracy is not a form of government; it is a partnership, a brotherhood. The suggestion is in Whittier's poem. Read it once more, try to see it clearly, and try to get, with special clearness, the poet's idea that this "great thought" of Freedom is one requiring two things to bring it into reality: coöperation in service, and working as the husbandman works, inspired by the vision of a harvest that is to bless mankind after seed-time and growthtime are past.

AMERICA!

EDWARD A. STEINER

It seems so long ago that I might almost say, "Once upon a time"an Italian came to our town with a grind-organ, a monkey, and a parrot. The grind-organ and the monkey performed for rich and poor alike, but only the lucky owner of a certain number of kreutzers could arouse the parrot, which, with eyes shut, sat 10 upon his perch while the organ played and the monkey performed. No doubt the parrot was trying to forget this wretched company, and was dreaming of the far-off paradise which once was his.

Now kreutzers, the small coin of our realm, were rather rare in the pockets of little boys. Inasmuch as the par

8. kreutzer, the Austrian kreutzer is meant, worth at the old normal rate of exchange a little less than half a cent in American money.

rot was announced to be a celebrated fortune-teller, I wanted to prove him; 20 so I teased my dear mother just long enough to get the coveted number of coins.

With an air of great importance I pushed through the crowd which encircled the Italian, and the eyes of the multitude were upon me. At least I thought they were, although in reality they were fixed on the parrot; for there had been long dispute as to 30 whether he was alive or not. His master took my money and struck the perch upon which the bird sat immovable, with eyes shut. Quizzically it cocked its head, looked at the promised reward in the hand of its trainer, then majestically descended, drew an envelope out of a row, which no doubt held the fate of all youths of my age, and dropped it upon the little table. 40 Thus my fortune was told, and my fate sealed.

The crowd urged me to open it, but I ran home as fast as I could, reading as I ran. Even before the house was reached I cried out breathlessly, "Mother, I am going to America, and I am going to marry a rich wife."

"I told you," said the dear mother, with a smile which concealed a tear, "you would waste your money. You 10 will stay at home with your widowed mother and be her solace in her old age."

20

30

Then she took me out into the garden under the big pear tree, and showed me the boundaries of our small estate: the poppy field, the cabbage patch, the prune trees-all the land from the pottock, the creek, to the edge of the dusty highway.

"This," she said, "will be yours, my son, and you will get a good, pious wife right here, rather than to go among the Indians and marry a wild woman."

In spite of the allurements offered, my imagination was fired by the parrot's prophecy, and that evening I sought out my teacher and asked him how to go to America.

"It is so far, my boy," he said, “that you will never reach there. It is one day by the omnibus, four days and nights by the railroad, and then across the yam-the great sea-for fourteen days.

"A ship," he continued, "does not go like the omnibus, but like a nutshell on the pottock, and you may at any moment be spilled over and eaten 40 by the fish."

Long, long after this, my boyhood outgrown, a part of the parrot's prophecy was to be fulfilled.

In the part of the world where I lived there were, as everywhere, the rulers and the ruled, the oppressors and the oppressed: viz., the Magyars and the Slovaks. The latter have never

been strong enough to gain national independence, although once there 50 was a Slovak kingdom, and they cherish the memory of a great king whose name was Svatopluk. The warlike Magyars easily subjugated these agricultural Slavs, and they remained an unawakened, half-stupid, servile race. My natural feeling for the oppressed was intensified by the fact that in spite of their many faults they were a lovable people. . . . I 60 sensed their wrongs in my childhood and felt them keenly as I grew into manhood, especially after I came in touch with the revolutionary literature of that period. I think that most boys pass through some such heroic stage, where the thought of martyrdom seems like wine in their blood. I was at that age and committed many a senseless indiscretion. 70

One day, when I was at home during the Pentecostal vacation after a severe examination period, a copyist from the judge's office came to my mother and told her that for a certain sum he would reveal to her an official secret, which would save me from falling into the hands of the vengeful government. I am fairly sure I was liable to a reprimand or a slight 80 punishment, and that the shrewd copyist played on the fears of a Jewish mother who loved her boy and feared the law. Before I knew it I was on my way to America, the copyist promising to hold the secret till I should be safe across the border. Within three days of my leaving home I was on the big yam, the ship did act like a nutshell on the pottock, and I 90 wished many a time that I had left the parrot dreaming on his perch instead of waking him to prophesy for me so awful a fate.

When I went down for the first time into the steerage, no one said a word of cheer, no one waved farewell.

I left strangers standing on the receding wharf and I was among eleven hundred strangers. I was going to a land full of strangers, and when I reached my bunk in a dark, deep corner of the hold, something which felt like a cold, icy hand gripped my heart. When the ship left its mooring I felt as if my heartstrings were 10 breaking, and I stretched out my hands to the fast-receding shore, as if to grasp the loosened cables. I dimly felt what it meant, but I did not realize how new was the life which awaited me, or how completely I was being severed from my past and my former self.

It was a wonderful group which I gathered around me on that first 20 journey, and many of them are still my friends, although they have climbed out of the steerage and are traveling through life in cabins of various grades. Every steerage has someone who makes a clown of himself, who rejoices in playing pranks and does not become angry if the pranks are turned on him. This one had such a clown, who led a jolly 30 crew into all sorts of mischief, and out of it, and many a weary day passed less wearily because of his jollity. There were strange, awful hours when the waves came thundering over the deck and the wind played among the rigging, when the ship twisted and groaned in agony and we thought every moment was our last. After the storm there came calm and 40 sunny days when gulls circled the ship and rested upon the quiet deep, and a tiny shore bird, driven by the wind, sought shelter on the deck. In the distance sails glided into view and disappeared; a long line of smoke betrayed the presence of many boats whose routes were to converge at the great port. The pilot came on board

and we passed the Fire Ship, which guards the channel. Then the hours 50 grew heavy and the morrow loomed with its uncertainty.

It dawned, with its ozone-laden air and azure sky, and in the far distance that which looked like a cloud grew clear and remained immovable-land! Then the rapture of it struggled with the care and burden and rose triumphantly over them.

America! we were in the magic, holy 60 land-America! I have seen this rapture and felt it; I have rejoiced in it when others felt it, and I want all those to taste it who come and come again. Therefore, I have gone back and forth, and I should like to go unwearyingly on to guide men into this rapture and to interpret to them its meaning.

I should like the entrance into the 70 United States to be a poem to all who come, and not the horrible tragedy into which it often resolves itself when the first ecstasy is over. All the way across the sea I would make of every ship a school, with such fair comforts

as

men are entitled to, for their money.

I should like to teach them that they may enter without fear and so without uttering a lie, so that those at the gate might know that these newcomers are human, and treat them as such, so long as they conduct themselves properly.

I should like to teach the strangers that there is a fair reward for hard struggle and an honest living wage for an honest day's work. I should like to tell them that their health will 90 be guarded in mines and factories and that their bodies and souls have value to man and to God.

I should like to point to the Goddess of Liberty and say that she welcomes all who come in her name, and she guarantees freedom to all who obey