had said Lucy was rather better. Oh, how glad I was!

7. After a while she became well enough to ride out in our old hand-wagon.

8. All the time she had been ill, old Philip, who lives in a cottage close by, and who is too feeble to work, had come over to our house day by day to ask if he could do anything to help us, for he was very fond of our pretty Lucy.

9. So when she was well enough to ride out, old Philip was pleased to draw the wagon, and our mother was not afraid to trust her to his care.

10. Lucy loves the kind old man, and so do I. I love every one who is kind to my sisters and my dear mother. I wish I was old enough to help her.

1. Two children talked in the twilight,

With voices soft and low,

Said one, 'I'll be a sailor-lad,

With my boat ahoy! yo ho!

For sailors are most loved of all
In every happy home,

And tears of grief or gladness fall,
Just as they go or come.'

2. But the other child said sadly,
'Ah, do not go to sea,

Or in the dreary winter nights
What will become of me?
For if the wind began to blow,
Or thunder shook the sky,
Whilst you were in your boat, yo ho!
What could I do but cry?'

3. Then he said, 'I'll be a soldier,
With a delightful gun,

And I'll come home with a wooden leg,
As heroes have often done.'

She screams at that, and prays and begs,
While tears-half anger-start,
'Don't talk about your wooden legs,
Unless you'd break my heart!'

4. He answered her rather proudly,
'If so, what can I be,

If I must not have a wooden leg,
And must not go to sea?

How could the Queen sleep sound at night,
Safe from the scum and dregs,

If English boys refused to fight
For fear of wooden legs?'

5. She hung her head repentingly,
And trying to be good,

But still her hand stroked tenderly
The leg of flesh and blood!
And with her rosy lips she kissed
His sturdy little knee,

And sighed, 'Perhaps-if you insist—
You'd better go to sea!'

6. Then he flung his arms about her,
And joyously he spoke,

'But I've seen many honest tars
With legs of British oak!
Oh, darling, when I am a man,
With beard of shining black,

I'll be a hero if I can,

And you must not hold me back.'

7. So the children talked in the twilight
Of many a setting sun,

And she'd stroke his chin and clap her hands
That the beard had not begun.

For though she meant to be brave and good
When he played a hero's part,

Yet oft the thought of the leg of wood
Lay heavy on her heart.

(By permission of Messrs. Isbister & Co.)

I. ABOUT one hundred years ago the Russians were fighting against the Poles, a brave people who live in a country called Poland. You may see it near the centre of the map of Europe.

2. The Russians brought large armies into the country, and laid it waste with fire and sword. At last they came to Warsaw, the capital city of Poland, and besieged it with their cannons and troops of soldiers.

3. The Poles defended their city very bravely, for they had made up their minds to perish rather than give themselves up to their enemies. Sometimes a party of Poles would march out of the city into the camp of the Russians, and kill many of them, though not without the loss of a large number of their own soldiers.

4. The Russians began to think they would not be able to capture Warsaw, when at last they thought of a plan by which they

might gain an entrance into the city. They put on the clothes of the Polish soldiers they had slain, which made them look like Poles. Then when the next party of soldiers marched out against them, the disguised Russians followed them as they retired towards the walls of the city.

5. They had spared the life of a poor Polish drummer-boy, and made him beat a Polish march as he went on in front of them. When they came near the city, some Polish soldiers ran to open the great gates to allow their friends, as they thought them, to enter.

6. But the little drummer-boy saw the danger. He knew there was but one way by which he might save the lives of his friends, and that was by the sacrifice of his own. At once he stopped playing, then, with all his might, he began to beat on his drum what is called the 'alarm.' The Polish soldiers understood it; they kept the gates closed; they began to fire upon the Russians with their guns and cannons, and they were obliged to retreat from the city.

7. Angry at the failure of their plan, they closed round the poor drummer-boy, and by the fierce thrusts of many swords he fell. But his friends were saved, and as he was