storming shout and clash of steel
Is _ours_,--but not our country's knell.
Welcome the Spartan's death!
'Tis no despairing strife--
We fall, we die--but our expiring breath
Is freedom's breath of life!

"Here, on this new Thermopylae,
Our monument shall tower on high,
And 'Alamo' hereafter be
On bloodier fields the battle-cry!"
Thus Travis from the rampart cried;
And when his warriors saw the foe
Like whelming billows surge below,--
At once each dauntless heart replied:
"Welcome the Spartan's death!
'Tis no despairing strife--
We fall--but our expiring breath
Is freedom's breath of life!"

As Sandy resumed his seat amid a hush that was a greater tribute than
applause, Blue Bonnet turned to Knight with glowing eyes.

"And to think those brave fellows did all that for Texas! Aren't you
proud to belong to this state?"

"You'd better believe I am!"

"We've had some heroes in Massachusetts," Alec reminded them.

"And they were all _Americans_--and so are we." Knight's bigger way of
looking at the matter settled what threatened to grow into an
argument.

"That Sandy boy's a wonder," Blue Bonnet exclaimed. "I take back every
uncomplimentary remark I ever made about him. Appearances are so
deceiving."

"'All that glitters isn't gold,'" said Knight, looking like his uncle
as he gravely quoted this ancient maxim.

"It's a pity it isn't,--Sandy would be a millionaire with that hair of
his!" Blue Bonnet laughed.

"I mean 'handsome is as handsome does,'" said Knight, "--that isn't
quite so dangerous a quotation. I expect to see Sandy President some
day, or at least a senator."

"Can't you imagine the newspaper headings: 'Senator Red-top of
Texas'--?" laughed Blue Bonnet.

"He's hoping to go East to college this fall," Knight remarked more
seriously.

"It's queer," said Alec, "how all the Western boys long to go East and
all the Eastern fellows think they're just made if they can come
West. I'd like to trade him my chance at Harvard for his health and
strength."

"Can't you arrange that trifling exchange for Alec?" Blue Bonnet asked
Knight.

He shook his head. "Sandy won't take anybody's chances,--he's the sort
that makes his own."

"Some of us aren't allowed to."

Alec's voice had suddenly grown moody, and Blue Bonnet thought it time
to change the subj