ut to be one of the bad ones!

"But no--it burned away merrily enough, and came down, and down, and
down, nearer and nearer to the powder! The young officer never moved a
muscle, but stood looking steadily at the general, and the general at
him. At last, the red spark got close to the metal of the shell; and
then I shut my eyes, and prayed God to receive my soul.

"Just at that moment, I heard the man next me give a quick gasp, as if
he had just come up from a plunge under water; and I opened my eyes
again just in time to see the fuse _out_, and the young officer letting
drop the shell at the general's feet, without a word.

"For a moment, the general stood stock still, looking as if he didn't
quite know whether to knock the young fellow down, or to hug him in his
arms like a son; but, at last, he held out his hand to him, saying:

"'Well, it's a true proverb, that every one meets his match some day;
and I've met mine to-day, there's no denying it. There's the St. George
for you, my boy, and right well you deserve it; for if I'm "the coolest
man in the regiment," you're the coolest in all Russia!'

"And so said all the rest, when the story got abroad; and the
commander-in-chief himself, the great Count Diebitsch, sent for the lad,
and said a few kind words to him that made his face flush up like a
young girl's. But in after days he became one of the best officers we
ever had; and I've seen him, with my own eyes, complimented by the
emperor himself, in presence of the whole army. And from that day forth,
the whole lot of us, officers and men alike, never spoke of him by any
other name but _Khladnokrovni_ ('the cool-blooded one')."

NOTE.--Two other versions of this story, differing somewhat in detail,
are current in the Russian army; but the one in the text is the more
probable, as well as the more generally received.

[Footnote 1: Indecipherable in original text.]

[Footnote 2: The highest Russian decoration.]

SKATING

BY THEODORE WINTHROP.

[Never before printed.]

A BOUNDING gallop is good
Over wide plains;
A wild free sail is good
'Mid gales and rains;
A dashing dance is good
Broad halls along,
Clasping and whirling on
Through the gay throng.
But better than these,
When the great lakes freeze,
By the clear sharp light
Of a starry night,
O'er the ice spinning
With a long free sweep,
Cutting and ringing
Forward we ke