parkled in the chains about her neck?

When the simple outdoor meal was over, a servant brought the casket from
the house. The lady opened it. Ah, how those jewels dazzled the eyes
of the wondering boys! There were ropes of pearls, white as milk, and
smooth as satin; heaps of shining rubies, red as the glowing coals;
sapphires as blue as the sky that summer day; and diamonds that flashed
and sparkled like the sunlight.

The brothers looked long at the gems. "Ah!" whispered the younger; "if
our mother could only have such beautiful things!"

At last, however, the casket was closed and carried carefully away.

"Is it true, Cornelia, that you have no jewels?" asked her friend. "Is
it true, as I have heard it whispered, that you are poor?"

"No, I am not poor," answered Cornelia, and as she spoke she drew her
two boys to her side; "for here are my jewels. They are worth more than
all your gems."

The boys never forgot their mother's pride and love and care; and in
after years, when they had become great men in Rome, they often thought
of this scene in the garden. And the world still likes to hear the story
of Cornelia's jewels.

QUEEN MARGARET AND THE ROBBERS

BY ALBERT F. BLAISDELL (ADAPTED)

One day when roses were in bloom, two noblemen came to angry words in
the Temple Gardens, by the side of the river Thames. In the midst of
their quarrel one of them plucked a white rose from a bush, and, turning
to those who were near him, said:--

"He who will stand by me in this quarrel, let him pluck a white rose
with me, and wear it in his hat."

Then the other gentleman tore a red rose from another bush, and said:--

"Let him who will stand by me pluck a red rose, and wear it as his
badge."

Now this quarrel led to a great civil war, which was called "The War of
the Roses," for every soldier wore a white or red rose in his helmet to
show to which side he belonged.

The leaders of the "Red Rose" sided with King Henry the Sixth and his
wife, Queen Margaret, who were fighting for the English throne. Many
great battles were fought, and wicked deeds were done in those dreadful
times.

In a battle at a place called Hexham, the king's party was beaten, and
Queen Margaret and her little son, the Prince of Wales, had to flee for
their lives. They had not gone far before they met a band of robbers,
who stopped the queen and stole all her rich jewels, and, holding a
drawn sword over her head, threatened to take her