an send her! Bravo, my boy! We'll soon make a
man of you. You shall not be a weakling all your life as your father
has been, mind and body, for want of good strong machinery to work
with."

He was absent that evening. I hurried to bestow my boat neatly in the
boat-house. I locked the door, pocketed the key, and ran up the lawn,
thinking how pleased my father would be to hear of my adventure with
the sloop and its crew, and how he would make me sketch the sloop for
him, which I could do very fairly, and how he would laugh at my vain
attempts to convey to him the cheeks and the curls of Miss Betty.

A CHAPTER OF BUTTS.

[Illustration: "I'LL BUTT IT," SAID THE GOAT.

"WHAT! IT BUTTS AGAIN."

"I'LL GIVE IT A GOOD ONE, THIS TIME."

"PERHAPS I'D BETTER GET OUT OF ITS WAY."

BUT HE DIDN'T.]

THE LION-KILLER.

(_From the French of Duatyeff_.)

BY MARY WAGER FISHER.

People in Tunis, Africa,--at least, some of the older people,--often
talk of the wonderful exploits of a lion-killer who was famous there
forty years ago. The story is this, and is said to be entirely true:

The lion-killer was called "The Sicilian," because his native country
was Sicily; and he was known as "The Christian" among the people in
Tunis, who were mostly Arabs, and, consequently, Mohammedans. He was
also called "Hercules," because of his strength,--that being the name
of a strong demi-god of the ancient Greeks. He was not built like
Hercules, however; he was tall, but beautifully proportioned, and there
was nothing in his form that betrayed his powerful muscles. He
performed prodigies of strength with so much gracefulness and ease as
to astonish all who saw them.

He was a member of a traveling show company that visited Tunis,--very
much as menagerie and circus troupes go about this country now from
town to town. His part of the business was, not simply to do things
that would display his great strength, but also to represent scenes by
pantomime so that they would appear to the audience exactly as if the
real scenes were being performed before their very eyes. In one of
these scenes he showed the people how he had encountered and killed a
lion with a wooden club in the country of Damascus. This is the manner
in which he did it:

After a flourish of trumpets, the Sicilian came upon the stage, which
was arranged to represent a circle, or arena, and had three palm-trees
in the middle. He was handsomely dressed in a costume