s had
to walk under it on his way to school. He thought the great fingers
would grab him some day. Then he thought he would never get home
again. He even thought that his other pair of shoes would be put away
till his little brother grew big enough to wear them.

But the big wooden hand never caught him.

Here are some verses that Doctor Holmes wrote about a very old man:--

"My grand-mam-ma has said--
Poor old lady, she is dead
Long ago--
That he had a Roman nose,
And his cheek was like a rose
In the snow.

"But now his nose is thin,
And it rests upon his chin
Like a staff;
And a crook is in his back,
And a mel-an-chol-y crack
In his laugh.

"I know it is a sin
For me to sit and grin
At him here;
But the old three-cor-nered hat,
And the breeches, and all that,
Are so queer!

"And if I should live to be
The last leaf upon the tree
In the spring,
Let them smile, as I do now,
At the old for-sak-en bough
Where I cling."

[Illustration]

DANIEL WEBSTER AND HIS BROTHER.

Dan-iel Web-ster was a great states-man. As a little boy he was called
"Little Black Dan." When he grew larger, he was thin and
sickly-looking. But he had large, dark eyes. People called him
"All Eyes."

He was very fond of his brother E-ze-ki-el. E-ze-ki-el was a little
older than Dan-iel. Both the boys had fine minds. They wanted to go to
college. But their father was poor.

Dan-iel had not much strength for work on the farm. So little "All
Eyes" was sent to school, and then to college. E-ze-ki-el staid at
home, and worked on the farm.

While Daniel was at school, he was unhappy to think that Ezekiel could
not go to college also. He went home on a visit. He talked to Ezekiel
about going to college. The brothers talked about it all night. The
next day Daniel talked to his father about it. The father said he was
too poor to send both of his sons to college. He said he would lose
all his little property if he tried to send Ezekiel to college. But he
said, that, if their mother and sisters were willing to be poor, he
would send the other son to college.

So the mother and sisters were asked. It seemed hard to risk the loss
of all they had. It seemed hard not to give Ezekiel a chance. They all
shed tears over it.

The boys promised to take care of their mother and sis