the sake of the pleasure
of "showing up" the king. It was this kind of feeling that caused him to
sympathize, even when a boy, with objects of distress and suffering,--to
look with pity upon those who experienced misfortune, or suffered
reproach unjustly. It was not strange that he became a professed
Democrat in his youth, as we shall see; for how could such a democratic
little fellow be other than a true Jeffersonian Democrat?

Nat's part of the dialogue was committed on that evening before eight
o'clock. He could commit a piece very quick, for he learned any thing
easily. He could repeat many of the lessons of his reading book, word
for word. His class had read them over a number of times, so that he
could repeat them readily. At the appointed time, on the next afternoon,
both Nat and Frank were ready to perform.

"I have the pleasure this afternoon," said the teacher, "to announce a
dialogue by two of the boys who volunteered yesterday. Now if they shall
say it without being prompted, you will all concede that they have done
nobly to commit it so quickly Let us have it perfectly still. The title
of the dialogue is 'Alexander the Great and a Robber.' Now boys, we are
ready."

Frank commenced in a loud, pompous, defiant tone, that was really
Alexander-like. It was evident from the time he uttered the first
sentence that, if he could not be "Alexander the Great," he could be
Alexander the Little.

Nat responded, and performed his part with an earnestness of soul, a
power of imitation, and a degree of eloquence that surprised the
teacher. The scholars were not so much surprised because they had heard
him before, but it was the first time the teacher had seen him perform.

"Very well done," said the teacher, as they took their seats. "There
could not be much improvement upon that. You may repeat the dialogue at
the spelling-school on Friday evening; and I hope both of you will have
declamations next week."

"_I_ will, sir," said Nat.

The teacher found a reluctance among the boys to speak, and one of them
said to him,

"If I could speak as well as Nat, I would do it."

This remark caused him to think that Nat's superiority in these
rhetorical exercises might dishearten some of his pupils; and the next
time he introduced the subject to the school, he took occasion to
remark,

"Some of our best orators were very poor speakers when they began to
declaim in boyhood. It is not certain that a lad who does not acqui