"I did it, Father, I did it," he said at the foot of the

steps.

"No," said Chad sturdily, "I did it myself.”

pike gate, turnpike.

var'let, servant to a knight.

JOHN FOX, JR.

vas'sals, slaves; servants.

un-seem'ly, unbecoming; improper.

JOHN FOX, JR. (1863- ) was born in Kentucky, and in many of his stories he gives charming descriptions of life in his native State. Among his works are "A Mountain Europa," "The Kentuckians,' "Crittenden," and "Blue Grass and Rhododendron." The story of the "Tournament" is taken, by permission, from his "Little Shepherd of Kingdom Come," copyrighted by Charles Scribner's Sons.

SONG IN MARCH

Now are the winds about us in their glee

Tossing the slender tree;

Whirling the sands about his furious car,

March cometh from afar;

Breaks the sealed magic of old Winter's dreams,

And rends his glassy streams;

Chafing with potent airs, he fiercely takes.

Their fetters from the lakes,

And, with a power by queenly Spring supplied,

Wakens the slumbering tide.

With a wild love he seeks young Summer's charms

And clasps her to his arms;

Lifting his shield between, he drives away

Old Winter from his prey ;—

The ancient tyrant whom he boldly braves
Goes howling to his caves;

And, to his northern realm compelled to fly,

Yields up his victory;

Melted are all his bands, o'erthrown his towers,

And March comes bringing flowers.

WILLIAM GILMORE SIMMS.

rends, bursts; splits open.

po'tent, strong; mighty.

WILLIAM GILMORE SIMMS (1806-70), poet and novelist, was born in Charleston, South Carolina. With Edgar Allan Poe he ranks first among Southern authors of the period before the Civil War. Young people find fascinating reading in his "The Yemassee," a story of Indian warfare in colonial Carolina, and also in his tales of Marmion, the "Swamp Fox," which appear under the titles "The Scout," "Katherine Walton," Woodcraft,' ," "The Forayers" and "Eutaw." His best short stories are entitled “The Wigwam and the Cabin, or Tales of the South." Among his well known poems are "Atalantis, a Tale of the Sea" and "Areytos, or Songs and Ballads of the South."

66

The arrangement of nouns according to cases and number is called the declension of nouns.

Write out the declension of caves and victory. Write sentences using the word tyrant in all its forms. Using one form in each sentence, how many sentences will you have to write?

A pronoun is a word used instead of a noun or name. It denotes a person or thing. Examples: they, you, it, I, my.

How does a pronoun differ from a noun?

MARDI-GRAS

It was Mardi-Gras night in New Orleans. Canal Street, as far as the eye could reach in either direction-out towards the river or back in the direction of the swamp lands—was a surging mass of people. The deep balconies, the galeries of the old French town, overhanging the banquettes on either side the way, were crowded beyond their strength, and many would have fallen but for the temporary support of heavy timbers put in for the occasion.

Above the heads of the crowds little street urchins, newsboys, beggars, gamins—white, black, yellow, brown, and all the shades between-sat perched like chattering sparrows on every available projection of lamp-post or tree, many even clinging about the tops of street-cars. Others, mounting the granite pedestal of Henry Clay's statue at the corner, steadied themselves by embracing the statesman's legs; while one or two of the more adventurous had even scaled his lofty figure and sat astride his broad bronze shoulders.

The occasional turning of the great electric searchlight in the Pickwick Club building revealed a rippling sea of happy smiling faces along the line of galeries opposite, all wearing, no matter what their race or condition, the holiday expression which showed them in touch with the Carnival spirit.

The great "Mystick Krewe" had already passed along the street and disappeared, but it would soon come again in another direction. Presently there was a restless movement on all the galeries-a concerted bending forward of bodies and inquiring questions: "Which way?" "Where?" "Who says so?"

"Oh, pshaw!" excitement."

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Nothing but some persons trying to raise an

But no! A sudden hurrying and scurrying, hither and thither, of the now loud-laughing and talking crowd afoot; now two or three mounted police slowly, carefully, clearing the way; and now a blaze of light! "Ah-h-h-h!" "Oh-h-h-h!" "Ah-h-h-h!" The exclamation passes like a great wave from

one gallery to another, until its echoes are drowned by the stirring music of the band.

The Krewe has come again. The first float passes; another, and yet another, and still they come, until-what is this? Bows, hand-kisses, a shower of candies-real French bonbons-from the merry maskers of a special car over the shoulders and into the laps of the children. And here they come again; and once more-dragées, marsh-mallows, "kisses," crystallized figs,

thrown backward this time for the float has passed, and still they fall with true aim into the hats and over the faces of the now merrily laughing and waving group.

Other candies were flying in other directions to other people or to anybody. Float followed float. The procession represented "The Five Senses," and it was from the fruit-laden float following in Ceres' train that the greatest shower of candies had come. The sense of taste had been elaborately illustrated by a profusion of such things as delight the palate.

While from one float animated mushrooms, asparagus, and common vegetables without number bowed and waved to admiring multitudes, on another were gleeful figs, waddling watermelons, frisking cantaloupes, and a rollicking lot of oranges, lemons, and smaller fruits.

Presently the procession was only a pillar of fire moving slowly out Canal Street, and soon that disappeared. It had been a gorgeous pageant, but Mardi Gras, the mad festival, excepting to such as followed the maskers into theatre and ball-room, was over-over for another year. And now for getting home.

RUTH MCENERY STUART.

[From "The Story of Babette," by Ruth McEnery Stuart. Copyright, 1894, by Harper & Brothers.]

Mar'di-Gras', "Shrove Tuesday,"

the last day of Carnival, a festival celebrated in New Orleans and in many foreign countries during the week before Lent. ban-quettes', sidewalks. tem'po-ra-ry, lasting only for a time.

scaled, climbed; clambered. Mys'tick Krewe', body-guard of the

king of the Carnival.

float, platform on wheels bearing a tableau of persons in a procession.

dra-gees', sugar plums.

Ce'res, goddess of grain and harvest.