the uncertainty of bites, but principally because the trout brooks were all arranged lengthwise and ran over so much ground.

But no man liked to look at a string of trout better than he did, and he was willing to sit down in a sunny 5 place and talk about trout-fishing half a day at a time; and he would talk pleasantly and well too, though his wife might be continually interrupting him by a call for firewood.

I should not do justice to his own idea of himself if I 10 did not add that he was most respectably connected, and that he had a justifiable though feeble pride in his family. It helped his self-respect, which no ignoble circumstances could destroy.

He was, as must appear by this time, a most intelligent 15 man, and he was a well-informed man; that is to say, he read the weekly newspapers when he could get them, and he had the average country information about Beecher and Greeley and the Prussian war and the general prospect of the election campaigns. Indeed, he was warmly, 20 or rather lukewarmly, interested in politics.

He liked to talk about the inflated currency, and it seemed plain to him that his condition would somehow be improved if we could get to a specie basis. He was, in fact, a little troubled by the national debt; it seemed 25 to press on him somehow, while his own never did. He exhibited more animation over the affairs of the

government than he did over his own, an evidence at once of his disinterestedness and his patriotism.

I never saw a person with more correct notions on such a variety of subjects. He was perfectly willing that 5 churches (being himself a member) and Sunday schools and missionary enterprises should go on; in fact, I do not believe he ever opposed anything in his life. No one was more willing to vote town taxes and road repairs and schoolhouses than he. If you could call him spirited 10 at all, he was public-spirited.

And with all this he was never very well; he had, from boyhood, "enjoyed poor health." You would say he was not a man who would ever catch anything, not even an epidemic; but he was a person whom diseases would be 15 likely to overtake, even the slowest of slow fevers. And he wasn't a man to shake off anything. And yet sickness seemed to trouble him no more than poverty. He was not discontented; he never grumbled. I am not sure but he relished a "spell of sickness" in haying time. 20 I have never seen a man with less envy, or more cheerfulness, or so contented with as little reason for being so. The only drawback to his future is that rest beyond the grave will not be much change for him, and he has no works to follow him.

Abridged.

inflated currency: money not worth its face value. - works to follow him: see Revelation xiv. 13.

SWORD AND SCIMITER

WALTER SCOTT

NOTE. "The Talisman," one of the most interesting of Scott's novels, deals with the period of the crusades. Richard I, king of England, had gone to Palestine in company with other European leaders and a great army, to rescue Jerusalem and the Holy Sepulcher from the Eastern tribes. Here he met Saladin, the conqueror of Syria, and the two monarchs 5 exchanged civilities, as enemies often do in times of truce. The king was the guest of Saladin in a tent near the lists, where friendly combats were to be held; he wore his great two-handed sword, a broad, straight blade which stretched well-nigh from the shoulder to the heel of its wearer. He was accompanied by his devoted friend, the English baron De Vaux.

"Had I not," said Saladin, "seen this brand flaming in the front of battle, I had scarce believed that human arm could wield it. Might I request to see the Melech Ric strike one blow with it in peace, and in pure trial of strength?"

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"Willingly, noble Saladin," answered Richard; and, looking around for something whereon to exercise his strength, he saw a steel mace held by one of the attendants, the handle being of the same metal and about an inch and a half in diameter. This he placed 20 on a block of wood.

The anxiety of De Vaux for his master's honor led him to whisper in English: "For the blessed Virgin's sake, beware what you attempt, my liege! Your full strength is not yet returned - give no triumph to the infidel."

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"Peace, fool!" said Richard, standing firm on his ground and casting a fierce glance around; "thinkest thou that I can fail in his presence?"

The glittering broadsword, wielded by both his hands, 5 rose aloft to the king's left shoulder, circled round his head, descended with the sway of some terrific engine, and the bar of iron rolled on the ground in two pieces, as a woodsman would sever a sapling with a hedging bill.

"By the head of the Prophet, a most wonderful blow!” 10 said the soldan, critically examining the iron bar which had been cut asunder. "Something I would fain attempt; each land hath its exercises, and this may be new to the Melech Ric." So saying, he took from the floor a cushion of silk and down, and placed it upright on one end. 15 "Can thy weapon, my brother, sever that cushion?" he said to King Richard.

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"No, surely," replied the king; "no sword on earth, were it the Excalibur of King Arthur, can cut that which opposes no steady resistance to the blow."

"Mark, then," said Saladin; and, tucking up the sleeve of his gown, showed his arm, thin, indeed, and spare, but a mass of bone, brawn, and sinew. He unsheathed his scimiter, a curved and narrow blade, which glittered not like the swords of the Franks, but was, on the contrary, 25 of a dull blue color, marked with ten millions of meandering lines, which showed how anxiously the metal had been welded by the armorer.