combat. She was creeping along, as if to renew the attack, when the keeper thought he would get on the clephant's back, and commanded him to place him there. This the sagacious animal did, with a single toss of his trunk. 6. The tigress was exasperated at seeing the man thus put out of her reach. She drew back and made another spring at him, but the elephant caught her midway and hurled her with great force against the wall. Bruised and humbled, she gave up the fight after this, and slunk back quietly into her cage, without doing any more mischief. LVIII. - BETTER THAN THAT. 1. THE Emperor Joseph of Austria was fond of amusing himself among his people with adventures where he was not rec ́ognized. One day he drove out into the country about Vienna in a simple carriage, attended only by a servant without livery."1 2. The emperor was clad in a plain riding-coat, which was buttoned up to the chin; and he appeared like some citizen of ordinary rank. As he was driving back to the city, it came on to rain; and just at that moment a footpassenger, who was walking in the same direction, called out to him to stop, which Joseph did at once. 3. "Sir," said the man, who was a sergeant in the army, "would it be too much of a favor for you to give me a place by your side? It would oblige me greatly, and would save my wetting my new uniform, which I put on to-day for the first time." 4. "We will save your uniform from a wetting, then, my brave fellow," said Joseph; "come and take a seat here by my side. Where are you from?"-"Ah!" said the sergeant, taking his place in the carriage, "I have just returned from the house of a game-keeper, one of my friends, where I made a superb breakfast." 5. 'What did you have so good to eat?"-"Guess." "How do I know? Some soup, perhaps, and a glass of beer."—"Ah, indeed! some soup! Better than that.""Some chopped cabbage?"-"Better than that."—“ A loin of veal?"-"Better than that." a 6. "O, come, now! I cannot guess. I give it up," said the emperor.-"What think you," said the sergeant, "what think you, my good sir, of a pheasant, pheasant, shot on the emperor's own preserves? ""Shot on the emperor's preserves! It must have been all the better for that.". "To be sure it was." 7. As they approached the city, and the rain continued to fall, Joseph asked his companion in what street he lodged, and where he wished to be set down. "My dear sir, it is asking too much,- I am afraid of abusing your kindness," said the sergeant." No, no," said Joseph; "the name of your street?" 8. The sergeant told him where he lodged, and, at the same time, begged to know the name of him to whom he was indebted for so much kindness. "In your turn, guess," said Joseph.-"You look like a military man," replied the sergeant; "are you a lieutenant?" "Better than that," said the emperor. "A 9. "Are you a captain? "Better than that."colonel, perhaps?"-"Better than that."-"A general ?" -"Better than that.". "What! you are not a field-marshal?" said the sergeant, in amazement. "Better than that."-"Ah! your majesty's pardon! You are the emperor?""The same," said Joseph. 10. The sergeant was quite confounded, and begged the emperor to stop, and let him get out of the carriage. "No, no!" said Joseph; "after having eaten my pheasant, you shall not get rid of me so easily. I mean that you shall not quit me except at your own door." And there the poor soldier got out. From the French. 1. SING for the oak-tree, the monarch of the wood; 2. The oak-tree was an acorn once, and fell upon the earth; And sun and showers nourished it, and gave the oak-tree birth 3. The winds came and the rain fell; the gusty tempest blew; 4. Four centuries grows the oak-tree, nor does its verdure fail; 5. The oak-tree of the forest both east and west shall fly; Mary Howitt. 40 1. In the middle of the fourteenth century, with the help of the newly-invented compass, 10 some Spaniards ventured out from the shore of Spain into the Atlantic Ocean further than they had ever been before, and discovered the Canary Islands; but they did not venture to go further over the ocean. 2. Fifty years after this,. a Portuguese captain sailed along the coast of Africa, and got far enough to see a great headland, which he thought must be the end of it. This he called the Cape of Storms, because of the dreadful tempests he met with there. But when he came back to Portugal, the king told him he ought rather to have called the headland the Cape of Good Hope, for there was now good hope that the way to India was found. 3. These things set many persons to thinking about discovering new countries; but no one thought so much to the purpose as a man named Christopher Columbus, an Italian. He believed that the earth was round, and suspended in air without any support except the law of God; and that, could we set out from a certain point, and travel in one direction, we should, in time, arrive at that same point again. Take an orange, and let your finger travel over it in one direction, and you will see what I mean. 4. Columbus thought a long time, without saying much, about the shape of the earth, and the reasons there were for thinking that, by going out into the Atlantic Ocean, and sailing on towards the west, he should come to land. When he felt quite sure, he began to speak of his plan, and try and get some one to send him out in a ship to prove that he was right. 5. First he went to his native city of Gen'o-a; but there he got no encouragement. Then he applied to the King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella of Spain; but they kept him five years waiting for an answer, and when the answer came it was a refusal. 6. A number of learned men had consulted about the plan of Columbus, and had decided that it was all nonsense. One said that if there had been anything to discover, the ancients would have discovered it; another, that if Columbus sailed so far over the round globe, and got down to the bottom of the watery hill, he would never get up again. 7. Poor Columbus! Many and bitter were the disappointments he had to encounter. Long and wearily did he have to wait and hope, and then have his hope deferred. Some persons called him foolish; others said he was mad. Boys, who had heard their parents talk about him, used to 66 jeer at him in the streets, and call him the man with the wild scheme in his brain. 8. Should it ever be your lot in life to be misunder stood and laughed at for holding to a sincere conviction, or doing what you believe to be your duty, remember what the great Columbus had to endure, and let the thought brace you to a more heroic resolution to bear and to forbear. LXI. THE DISCOVERY OF AMERICA. PART II. 1. THERE was a good and intelligent man, named Juan, who was the prior of a convent not far from the little seaport of Palos, in Spain. He listened to the reasoning of Columbus, and became persuaded that he was right, not withstanding so many people discredited him. 2. Juan watched a favorable opportunity, and talked to Queen Isabella till she became of his opinion. She resolved that Columbus should have his way; and, as money was needed for the purpose, she pledged her own jewels; and on the third of August, 1492, three little vessels were seen leaving the coast of Spain, under the command of Columbus, to cross the untried expanse of waters which we now call the Atlantic Ocean, in search of a new world. 3. The crews of the ships were terrified when they lost sight of the last land, and found themselves sailing on and on towards the west, and that there was still nothing to be seen around them but sky and water. But when day after day and week after week passed, and no signs of the promised land appeared, they grew angry and mutinous, and threatened Columbus that if he did not turn back they would throw him overboard. 4. Most likely these men would have carried out their threat, but that they thought they would not know how to get back without him. Day and night, almost all the time, he stood upon the deck, with his sounding-lead in his hand, |