, or Protestants, made no difference; for Margaret always
said, "They are all orphans alike." And just think, dears, that
splendid, wise will was signed with a cross instead of a name, for
Margaret had never learned to read or write!

When the people of New Orleans knew that Margaret was dead, they said,
"She was a mother to the motherless; she was a friend to those who had
no friends; she had wisdom greater than schools can teach; we will not
let her memory go from us." So they made a statue of her, just as she
used to look, sitting in her own office door, or driving in her own
little cart. And there it stands to-day, in memory of the great love
and the great power of plain Margaret Haughery, of New Orleans.

THE DAGDA'S HARP[1]

[1] The facts from which this story was constructed are found in the
legend as given in Ireland's Story, Johnston and Spencer (Houghton,
Mifflin, & Co.).

You know, dears, in the old countries there are many fine stories about
things which happened so very long ago that nobody knows exactly how
much of them is true. Ireland is like that. It is so old that even as
long ago as four thousand years it had people who dug in the mines, and
knew how to weave cloth and to make beautiful ornaments out of gold,
and who could fight and make laws; but we do not know just where they
came from, nor exactly how they lived. These people left us some
splendid stories about their kings, their fights, and their beautiful
women; but it all happened such a long time ago that the stories are
mixtures of things that really happened and what people said about
them, and we don't know just which is which. The stories are called
LEGENDS. One of the prettiest legends is the story I am going to tell
you about the Dagda's harp.

It is said that there were two quite different kinds of people in
Ireland: one set of people with long dark hair and dark eyes, called
Fomorians--they carried long slender spears made of golden bronze when
they fought--and another race of people who were golden-haired and
blue-eyed, and who carried short, blunt, heavy spears of dull metal.

The golden-haired people had a great chieftain who was also a kind of
high priest, who was called the Dagda. And this Dagda had a wonderful
magic harp. The harp was beautiful to look upon, mighty in size, made
of rare wood, and ornamented with gold and jewels; and it had wonderful
music in its strings, which only the Dagda could call out. W