r, and Gillon and Merron, his friends, his
chums. He'd seen them drag the hose in through that door,--there it was
now, a long, throbbing snake of it,--and they hadn't come out. Perhaps
they were dead. Yes, but perhaps they weren't. If they were alive, they
needed water now more than they ever needed anything before. And they
couldn't get water if he quit his engine.

Bill Brown pondered this a long time, perhaps four seconds; then he fell
to stoking in coal, and he screwed her up another notch, and he eased
her running parts with the oiler. Explosion or not, pain or not, alone
or not, he was going to stay and make that engine hum. He had done the
greatest thing a man can do,--had offered his life for his friends.

It is pleasant to know that this sacrifice was averted. A quarter of a
minute or so before the second and terrible explosion, Devanny and his
men came staggering from the building. Then it was that Merron fell, and
McArthur checked his fight to save him. Then it was, but not until
then, that Bill Brown left Engine 29 to her fate (she was crushed by the
falling walls), and ran for his life with his comrades. He had waited
for them, he had stood the great test.

COLUMBUS DAY

(OCTOBER 12)

COLUMBUS AND THE EGG

BY JAMES BALDWIN (ADAPTED) [8]

[Footnote 8: From Thirty More Famous Stories Retold. Copyright, 1903, by
American Book Company.]

One day Columbus was at a dinner which a Spanish gentleman had given
in his honor, and several persons were present who were jealous of the
great admiral's success. They were proud, conceited fellows, and they
very soon began to try to make Columbus uncomfortable.

"You have discovered strange lands beyond the seas," they said, "but
what of that? We do not see why there should be so much said about
it. Anybody can sail across the ocean; and anybody can coast along the
islands on the other side, just as you have done. It is the simplest
thing in the world."

Columbus made no answer; but after a while he took an egg from a dish
and said to the company:--

"Who among you, gentlemen, can make this egg stand on end?"

One by one those at the table tried the experiment. When the egg had
gone entirely around and none had succeeded, all said that it could not
be done.

Then Columbus took the egg and struck its small end gently upon the
table so as to break the shell a little. After that there was no trouble
in making it stand upright.

"Gentlemen," s