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the right and truth which must and will at last be triumphant. One evening he already lay in bed; but the curtains were not yet drawn close, and the light streamed in upon him: he had taken the book with him to bed, because he wanted to finish the story of Solon.

5. And his thoughts lifted and carried him away marvelously, and it seemed to him that his bed became a ship, careering onward with swelling sails. Did he dream? or what was happening to him? It glided onward over the rolling waters and the great ocean of time, and he heard the voice of Solon. In a strange tongue, and yet intelligible to him, he heard the Danish motto, "With law the land is ruled."

6. And the Genius of the human race stood in the humble room and bent down over the bed, and printed a kiss on the boy's forehead. Be thou strong in frame, and strong in the battle of life! With the truth in thy breast fly thou toward the land of truth!"

7. The elder brother was not yet in bed; he stood at the window, gazing out at the mists that rose from the meadows. They were not elves dancing there, as the old nurse had told him; he knew better; they were vapors warmer than the air, and consequently mounted. A shooting stargleamed athwart the sky, and the thoughts of the boy were roused from the mists of the earth to the shining meteor. The stars of heaven twinkled, and the

golden threads seemed to hang from them down upon the earth.

8. "Fly with me," it sang and sounded in the boy's heart, and the mighty Genius, swifter than the bird, than the arrow, than anything that flies with earthly means, carried him aloft to the region where rays stretching from star to star bind the heavenly bodies to each other our earth involved in thin air-the cities on the surface seemed quite close together, and through the sphere it sounded: "What is near, what is far, when the mighty Genius of mind lifts them up?"

9. And again the boy stood at the window and gazed forth, and the younger brother lay in his bed, and their mother called them by their names, "Anders Sandoe" and "Hans Christian!"

Denmark knows them-the world knows them -the two brothers Oersted.*

Hans Christian Andersen.

* Hans Christian Oersted was born in the year 1777, and his brother, Anders Sandoe, was born the year following. Their father was a pharmacist. The elder brother became one of the most famous of scientific men. He found out through his studies that electricity and magnetism were the same, and he wrote books about such things, as well as stories and poems. His brother was made Prime Minister of Denmark after he had become a lawyer and had held several public offices. He also wrote many valuable books.

HOME, SWEET HOME.

I. 'MID pleasures and palaces though we may

roam,

Be it ever so humble, there's no place like

home!

A charm from the skies seems to hallow us

there,

Which, seek through the world, is ne'er met with elsewhere.

Home, home, sweet home!

There's no place like home!

2. An exile from home, splendor dazzles in vain : Ah, give me my lowly thatched cottage again! The birds singing sweetly that come at my

call

Give me them, and that peace of mind dearer than all.

Home, home, sweet home!

There's no place like home!

John Howard Payne.

GOD THE FATHER.

I. THE sun does not shine for a few trees and flowers, but for the wide world's joy. The lonely pine on the mountain-top waves its somber boughs,

and cries, "Thou art my sun!" And the little meadow-violet lifts up its cup of blue, and whispers with its perfumed breath, "Thou art my sun!" And the grain in a thousand fields rustles in the wind and makes answer, "Thou art my sun!"

2. So God sits effulgent in heaven not for a favored few, but for the universe of life; and there is no creature so poor or so low that he may not look up with childlike confidence and say, "My Father, thou art mine!"

Henry Ward Beecher.

THE CHILD-MUSICIAN.

1. HE had played for his lordship's levee,
He had played for her ladyship's whim,
Till the poor little head was heavy,

And the poor little brain would swim.

2. And the face grew peaked and eerie,

And the large eyes strange and bright;
And they said too late-" He is weary!
He shall rest, for at least to-night!"

3. But at dawn when the birds were waking,
As they watched in the silent room,
With the sound of a strained chord breaking,
A something snapped in the gloom.

4. 'Twas the string of his violoncello,

And they heard him stir in his bed"Make room for a tired little fellow,

Kind God!" was the last he said.

Austin Dobson.

THE FINDING OF THE GOLDEN
FLEECE.

I. THE bars of the gates fell down, and the brazen doors flew wide, and Medeia, the witch. maiden, and the heroes ran forward and hurried through the poison wood, among the dark stems of the mighty beeches, guided by the gleam of the golden fleece, until they saw it hanging on one vast tree in the midst. And Jason, the leader of the heroes, would have sprung to seize it; but Medeia held him back, and pointed shuddering to the treefoot, where the mighty serpent lay coiled in and out among the roots, with a body like a mountainpine. His coils stretched many a fathom, spangled with bronze and gold; and half of him they could see, but no more; for the rest lay in the darkness far beyond.

2. And when he saw them coming, he lifted up his head and watched them with his small, bright eyes, and flashed his forked tongue, and roared like the fire among the woodlands, till the forest tossed and groaned. For his cry shook the trees

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