oon as school was out.

"Frank," said Nat, "will you speak 'ALEXANDER THE GREAT AND A
ROBBER' with me?"

"Yes, if the teacher is willing. Which part will you take?"

"The 'robber,' if you are willing to be great Alexander."

Frank agreed to the proposition, and as the dialogue was in Pierpont's
First Class Book, which was used in school, they turned to it, and
showed it to the teacher before he left the school-house. It was
arranged that they should speak it on the next day, provided they could
commit it in so short a time.

"Going to speak a dialogue to-morrow," said Nat to his mother, as he
went into the house.

"What are you going to speak?"

"Alexander the Great and a Robber," replied Nat. "And I shall be the
robber, and Frank will be Alexander."

"Why do you choose to be the robber?" inquired his mother. "I hope you
have no inclination that way."

"I like that part," replied Nat, "because the robber shows that the king
is as much of a robber as himself. The king looks down upon him with
scorn, and calls him a robber; and then the robber tells the king that
he has made war upon people, and robbed them of their property, homes,
and wives and children, so that he is a worse robber than himself. The
king hardly knows what to say, and the last thing the robber says to him
is, 'I believe neither you nor I shall ever atone to the world for half
the mischief we have done it.' Then the king orders his chains to be
taken off, and says, 'Are we then so much alike? Alexander like a
robber?'"

"That is a very good reason, I think, for liking that part," said his
mother. "Many people do not stop to think that the great can be guilty
of crimes. They honor a king or president whether he has any principle
or not."

"That is what I like to see exposed in the dialogue," said Nat. "It is
just as bad for a king to rob a person of all he has, in war, as it is
for a robber to do it at midnight."

Nat always felt strongly upon this point. He very early learned that
rich men, and those occupying posts of honor, were thought more of by
many people, whether they were deserving or not, and it seemed to him
wrong. He thought that one good boy ought to stand just as high as
another, though his parents were poor and humble, and that every man
should bear the guilt of his own deeds whether he be king or servant.
Out of this feeling grew his interest in the aforesaid dialogue, and he
was willing to take the place of the robber for