hings, and having taken
the blocks out, he proceeded to lay Trip therein. His body just filled
the box, as if it were made on purpose; and having nailed on the lid,
they proceeded with it to the foot of the garden. They were not long in
digging a grave, and soon the remains of Trip were decently interred. As
the last shovel-full of dirt was thrown on, Nat gave utterance to a part
of a declamation which he had spoken in school two weeks before. The
portion he repeated was as follows:

"Not a drum was heard, nor a funeral note,
As his corse to the ramparts we hurried;
Not a soldier discharged his farewell shot,
O'er the grave where our hero we buried.

"Slowly and sadly we laid him down,
From the field of his fame fresh and gory,
We carved not a line, we raised not a stone,
But left him alone with his glory."

Frank smiled for the first time since Trip was kicked down the
precipice, and said,

"Nat, you are always getting off your oratory; and I really think the
occasion deserves a burst of eloquence. Poor Trip will never play hy-spy
again; our good times with him are over."

"There, now I must hurry home to supper," said Nat, "mother will be
waiting; so good-night till Monday."

Away he bounded homeward, and was just in season for his supper. After a
thorough washing of face and hands, he sat down to the table with as
keen an appetite as he ever had, his afternoon excursion having given
him a good relish for food. The conversation naturally turned upon the
fate of Trip, and the whole account of the tragedy was gone over again,
with such comments thereon as each one was disposed to make.

"I have a very difficult lesson in arithmetic to dig out to-night for
Monday," said Nat, as he rose from the table.

"Perhaps you will not be called upon to recite the lesson," replied his
mother.

"Any scholar who gets rid of reciting a lesson which this teacher gives
him must be one of the favorites," said Nat, not being the least
suspicious that his mother was going to communicate any thing
unpleasant. "For one, I want to recite it, after I have mastered it, and
I know that I _can_ master it. At any rate, I shall not give up beat
until I have tried."

"Then you mean to belong to the 'try company' a while longer?"
interrupted his mother.

"Yes, mother; the teacher read us some capital verses the other day on
'I'll try,' and she told a number of stories to illustrate what had been
accomplished by