5. Then the youth, letting him go forward a little, still keeping the reins in his hand, and stroking him gently when he found him growing eager and fiery, let fall his upper garment softly, and with one nimble leap securely mounted him. When he was seated, by little and little he drew in the bridle, and curbed him without either striking or spurring him. Presently, when he found him free from all rebelliousness, and only impatient for the course, he let him go at full speed, inciting him now with a commanding voice, and urging him also with his heel.

6. Philip and his friends looked on at first in silence and anxiety for the result, till, seeing Alexander turn at the end of his career, and come back rejoicing and triumphant for what he had performed, they all burst out into acclamations of applause. His father, shedding tears, it is said, for joy, kissed him as he came down from his horse, and in his transport exclaimed, "Oh, my son, look thee out a kingdom worthy of thyself, for Macedonia is too small for thee!"

7. After this, considering his son to be of a temper easy to be led to duty by reason, but by no means to be compelled, Philip always endeavored to persuade him rather than to command or force him. He saw that the instruction of his son was too difficult and important to be wholly trusted to the ordinary masters in music and poetry, and that it required, in the words of Sophocles, "The rudder's guidance and the curb's restraint."

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8. He therefore sent for Aristotle, the most learned philosopher of his time, and rewarded him with a munificence becoming the care he took to teach his son.

Alexander gained from him not only moral and political knowledge, but was also instructed in those more profound branches of science which they did not communicate to common scholars.

Plutarch.

THE STAR-SPANGLED BANNER.

1. O! SAY, can you see, by the dawn's early light, What so proudly we hailed at the twilight's

last gleaming;

Whose broad stripes and bright stars, through the perilous fight,

O'er the ramparts we watched, were so gallantly streaming?

And the rockets' red glare, the bombs bursting

in air,

Gave proof through the night that our flag was
still there.

O! say, does that star-spangled banner yet wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the

brave?

2. On the shore, dimly seen through the mists of

the deep,

Where the foe's haughty host in dread silence

reposes,

What is that which the breeze o'er the towering

steep

As it fitfully blows, half conceals, half discloses ?

Now it catches the gleam of the morning's first beam;

Its full glory reflected now shines on the stream: 'Tis the star-spangled banner, O, long may it wave O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave.

3. And where is the band who so vauntingly swore, 'Mid the havoc of war and the battle's con

fusion

A home and a country they'd leave us no more;
Their blood hath washed out their foul foot-

steps' pollution;

No refuge could save the hireling and slave
From the terror of flight, or the gloom of the

grave;

And the star-spangled banner in triumph doth

wave

O'er the land of the free and the home of the

brave.

4. O! thus be it ever, when freemen shall stand Between our loved home and the war's deso

lation;

Blessed with victory and peace, may the heavenrescued land

Praise the Power that hath made and pre

served us a nation!

Then conquer we must, for our cause it is just,
And this be our motto, "In God is our trust;"
And the star-spangled banner in triumph shall

wave

O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave.

Francis Scott Key.

TOM BROWN AT RUGBY.

1. WITHIN a few moments of their entry, all the boys who slept in dormitory Number 4 had come up. The little fellows went quietly to their own beds, and began undressing and talking to one another in whispers; while the elders, amongst whom was Tom, sat chatting about on one another's beds with their jackets and waistcoats off. Poor little Arthur was overwhelmed with the novelty of his position. The idea of sleeping in the room with strange boys had clearly never crossed his mind before, and was as painful as it was strange to him. He could hardly bear to take his jacket off; however, presently, with an effort, off it came, and then he paused and looked at Tom, who was sitting at the bottom of his bed, talking and laughing.

2. "Please, Brown," he whispered, “may I wash my hands?"

"Of course, if you like," said Tom, staring;

"that's your washstand under the window. You'll have to go down for more water in the morning if you use it all.” And on he went with his talk, while Arthur stole timidly from between the beds out to his washstand and began his ablutions, thereby drawing for a moment on himself the attention of the room.

3. On went the talk and laughter. Arthur finished his washing and undressing, and put on his nightgown. He then looked round more nervously than ever. Two or three of the little boys were already in bed, sitting up with their chins on their knees. The light burned clear, the noise went on. It was a trying moment for the poor little lonely boy; however, this time he did not ask Tom what he might or might not do, but dropped on his knees by his bedside, as he had done every day from his childhood, to open his heart to Him who heareth the cry and beareth the sorrows of the tender child and the agony of the strong man.

4. Tom was sitting at the bottom of his bed, unlacing his boots, so that his back was toward Arthur, and he didn't see what had happened, and looked up in wonder at the sudden silence. Then two or three boys laughed and sneered, and a big, brutal fellow who was standing in the middle of the room, picked up a slipper and shied it at the kneeling boy, calling him a sniveling young shaver. Then Tom saw the whole, and the next moment the boot he had just pulled off flew straight at the