Paul Revere.

HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW.

TWO PERSIAN SCHOOLBOYS.

[Illustration]

"Wake, Otanes, wake, the Magi are singing the morning hymn to Mithras.
Quick, or we shall be late at the exercises, and father promised, if
we did well, we should go to the chase with him to-day."

"And perhaps shoot a lion. What a feather in our caps that would be!
Is it pleasant?"

Smerdis pulled open the shutters that closed the windows, and the
first rays of the sun sparkled on the trees and fountains of a
beautiful garden beyond whose lofty walls appeared the dwellings and
towers of a mighty city. Already the low roar of its traffic reached
them while hurrying on their clothes to join their companions in the
spacious grounds where they were trained in wrestling, throwing blocks
of wood at each other to acquire agility in dodging the missiles,
the skilful use of the bow, and various other exercises for the
development of bodily strength and grace.

A few minutes later the two brothers, Smerdis and Otanes, with scores
of other lads, ranging in age from seven to fourteen years, were
assembled in a vast playground, surrounded on all sides by a lofty
wall.

The playground of a large boarding-school?

It almost might be called so, but the pupils of this boarding-school
were educated free of expense to their parents, and it received
only the sons of the highest nobles in the land. This playground
was attached to the palace of Darius, King of Persia, who reigned
twenty-four hundred years ago, and these chosen boys had been taken
from their homes, as they reached the age of six years, to be reared
"at his gate," as the language of the country expressed it.

Otanes and Smerdis were sons of one of the highest officers of the
court, the "ear of the king," or, as he would now be called, the
Minister of Police. Handsome little fellows of eleven and twelve,
with blue eyes, fair complexions, and curling yellow locks, their long
training in all sorts of physical exercises had made them stronger
and hardier than most lads of their age in our time. Though reared
in a palace, at one of the most splendid courts the world has ever
seen, the boys were expected to endure the hardships of the poorest
laborer's children. Instead of the gold and silver bedsteads used by
the nobles, they were obliged to sleep on the floor; if the court was
at Babylon, they were forced to make long marches under the burning
sun of Asia, and if, to escape t