"Well," said Harry, "I mean it is a noble word. At recess yesterday I was reading a book called 'Faithful unto the End.' It was all about the martyrs. They went through everything you can imagine - poverty and hunger, pain and torture; and they were faithful to the end."

"If you like the word so much," said his father, "why not take it for your device?"

"What do you mean, sir?"

"In olden times, when knights went out to battle, they wrote some word on their shield. That was their device. It was their war-cry in battle and their guide in peace."

"I should like to have one," said Harry. "Mine shall be 'Faithful in that which is least.'

Harry wrote down his device in his pocket-book and on slips for marks in his study books, and his older sister Mary painted it in pretty crimson letters for him to hang up in his own room.

All that was easy, but when he really began to try to become faithful he found it harder than he expected. He never knew before how many careless habits he had.

"I cannot learn all those dates!" he exclaimed one evening, throwing down his book. "I have studied them over and over for ever so long."

"Have you been thinking all the time about what you were doing?" asked his father.

"Yes, sir," said Harry at first, but then he added honestly, "I suppose I have been thinking about getting in the apples to-morrow."

So he took up the book again, thinking hard about each date what each one referred to and how it was related to each of the others; and soon he had them all by heart. Down went the book plump on the floor. He did not think of putting it away until the book-mark fluttered out. He picked it up. "Faithful in that which

is least," he read, and he put the book on the bookshelf.

One day during the winter vacation he started off to the woods to get some spruce cones for Mary, who was making picture frames for Christmas gifts. The wind had shaken down so many cones, that he soon filled his basket, and then he walked homeward by the railroad track, where there was less snow. Soon he saw something which made him stop short. A tree had blown down right across the track, and there was a curve in the road near by, so that there was danger that the engineer would not see the tree in time.

Harry tugged at it with all his strength, but could not move it an inch. Then he sat down on a bank to take breath and think what he would better do. He remembered that an express train came through every evening without stopping. Perhaps it might be coming now, and then what an awful accident might happen! It made him shudder and feel sick for a moment. What could he do? Hastily breaking off a long pine branch, he tied his white handkerchief to it, ran as far as the curve, where he could see a long way up the road, and stood there watching, ready to make a signal for the engineer to stop the train.

Now he began to hope that the train would come soon. He felt very hungry already. The wind blew down the long level road and drifted the snow over him. He ran up and down to keep warm, but in spite of all he could do, he grew very cold, and his feet ached severely.

"It must be dinner-time," he thought, "and we were going to have such a nice dinner! How dreadfully hungry I am! I cannot stay here, I am so cold, I shall freeze.' Just then he thought of his motto and of the old martyrs who were faithful unto the end.

"No, I won't go away," he said aloud. "I will be faithful." All the long, long afternoon did poor Harry

stay on the railroad track. His hands and feet were aching, and he was so hungry that he felt almost as if he should faint. He could not help crying sometimes, but he never thought again of leaving his post. He said now and then a little prayer: "O God, help me to be faithful.”

At last there was the distant rush of the evening train. There was the red light of the lantern on the locomotive coming afar off.

"Stop! stop!" shouted Harry, springing up and down and waving his signal. "Stop! stop!"

The engineer heard him; the train slackened its speed, and before it reached the curve it had nearly stopped. Harry told his story hastily and sank down almost insensible on the snow. Kind hands carried him into the nearest car and rubbed his half-frozen limbs by the fire and took him home.

His mother cried when she saw him, but all his father said was, "You have saved many lives to-day, my brave, faithful boy."

Read: "The Race with the Flood," in Baldwin's American Book of Golden Deeds, and "The Ride of Collins Graves," by John Boyle O'Reilly.

Graves was driving a milk wagon one day in May, 1874, when he was met by the gate-keeper, George Cheney, who told him that the dam which held back the waters of the Mill River had collapsed. Graves lashed his horse to a run and spread the warning all along the route. He only just escaped being drowned, but he saved the lives of hundreds of mill operatives.

MARCH: LOYALTY TO HONOR

Tell the story of "Sir Galahad," and illustrate it, if possible, with pictures. Show photographs of Watts's

picture of Sir Galahad, and of Abbey's series of pictures, "The Legend of the Holy Grail," in the Boston Public Library.

Tell stories of the Crusades. Dwell on the ideals of single-mindedness, purity, and courtesy. Read: “Sir Galahad," by Alfred Tennyson. Bring out the lines: "To me is given such hope I know not fear."

Questions: Could a loyal person have any faults? If he were still more loyal, would he overcome these faults? Is there any time when we have absolutely nothing to be loyal to? If so, give an example. Discuss the case of Robinson Crusoe.

A boy is told by his father that he will put him through college if he is first in his class at school the last year. The other boys know how much he wants to go to college, and deliberately do badly in their lessons in order that he may get ahead of them. Is this right or wrong on their part? Can it be well meant and at the same time wrong? Why did Sir Galahad say: "My strength is as the strength of ten, because my heart is pure"? What do you mean by the phrase, “singleminded"?

JOAN OF ARC1

Joan of Arc was born about the year 1412 at Domremy, a little village in France, in a house so close to the church that its garden overlooks the graveyard. Her father was a laborer. Every day Joan took the cows and sheep to pasture, and in the evening she helped her mother in spinning cloth.

One summer day when she was thirteen she thought she heard voices of angels telling her that she was

1 If possible, secure a copy of Joan of Arc, by Boutet de Monvel (Century Co.). The illustrations by the author are of wonderful beauty.

chosen to help the dauphin, (who is the crown-prince of France,) and to save him from his enemies, the English, who were conquering his land.

"But I am only a poor girl," said Joan. "God will help thee," answered the angel. Again and again these visions came to Joan, and when she was sixteen, her voices told her to go at once to help the king. At first, every one said that she was insane, but soon her neighbors began to believe in her and raised money to buy her a horse. Then she set out to find the dauphin. The little party who escorted her traveled by night and hid by day to avoid the English, and after twelve days she reached the king.

The king, to test her, dressed plainly and had one of the nobles wear his robes, but she came at once to the real king and said: "The King of Heaven sends word to you by me that you shall be crowned." Then she asked for soldiers, and at last they were granted to her. Joan led the army, singing a hymn. Although she was only a young girl, she was not afraid to fight, for she knew God was with her. Though she was often wounded, she never used her sword. Her banner was her only weapon. Once, at Orleans, an arrow was shot through her shoulder, but she pulled it out and went on fighting until the city was saved.

Then she escorted the king to be crowned in the great cathedral at Rheims. Joan stood behind the king with her banner, and when he was crowned she threw herself at his feet, weeping. "Oh! gentle king," she said, "now the will of God is accomplished." Then all the poor people gathered round, longing to have her bless their little children. She wanted to go and conquer Paris, the capital of France, but the king was too lazy to attack the English, and the plan failed.

At last Joan was captured by the Burgundians, who were allies of England. They sold her to the English