To France and Germany, you know;
To London I should go and stay
Perhaps a night or so, and day
Oh! please excuse this little sigh,
But I do wish that I could fly.
“A Nature Study.” By Muriel G. Evans, Honor Member. See note, page 91
MY FAVORITE EPISODE IN AMERICAN HISTORY.
By Frieda G. Carty (Age 14).
When Washington was preparing to march upon Princeton, there lived, just outside of Trenton, a woman named Jinnie Waglum.
She happened to be visiting a friend at the True American Inn, at which Washington was stopping, when she heard of a great difficulty which stood in the way of the march upon Princeton. Washington and his men could not go by the highways, for if they did they would he observed by the enemy, and no one in the army Was sufficiently familiar with the country to conduct them by any other route. Hearing this, Mrs. Waglum sent to Washington, saying that she knew the country very well, and that she would gladly guide his army. Washington was overjoyed, and accepted her services.
So she mounted her horse, and it was not long before she was at the head of the army, riding toward Princeton, It was a singular sight, the whole army of brave soldiers, headed by the patriotic woman, wending its way through woods and across meadows.
They reached Princeton, and the next day the battle took place.
A MOONLIGHT PLEASURE SAIL.
By Harriet Ruth Fox (age 14).
(Silver Badge.)
And the inky waves were glist’ning in the mystic tranquil light,
While on either side the Highlands, in majestic silence, rose,
And their huge, dark forms seemed sleeping in a calm, serene repose.
To the south the gleaming Archer drew his bow of silver bright,
And the myriad twinkling starlights journeying toward the western sky
Showed the deep black mountains blacker as they passed their summits high,
As the guardian of the highlands, placed his silent watch to keeps
At his feet flowed magic water, and he touched on elfin strand,
For the precinets that he guarded all were those of fairyland.
With the bluebells all a-ringing in the forest and the glade,
And I heard the tiny plashing of the lite culprit fay,
Going forth to do his penance ere the breaking of the day.
For the tiny elf returning from his journey in the sky;
And from out the wooded hillside shone the twinkling spark of light
Of his little flame-wood lantern, kindled by a comet bright.
Lingered for one fleetinginstant, and then vanished from the stream,
All the crickets stopped their chirping, and the bluebells all were still,
And the fairy song was silent as we left th’ enchanted hill.
MY FAVORITE EPISODE IN AMERICAN HISTORY—LINCOLN-AND-DOUGLAS DEBATE.
By Maude King (age 13).
Probably the most important historical event of the nineteenth century was the Civil War, and it is not an exaggeration to say that the Lincoln-and-Donglas debate did more than any other agency to mark the way for the “subversion of slavery.” It consisted of a series of discussions, beginning at Chicago in July, and lasting until late in October. In our great daily newspapers these speeches were printed, and were so widely read that the whole American people were in a state of excitement.
It was a grand spectacle to see these speakers addressing from five to ten thousand people in the open air.
Each was conscious that he was not speaking to his hearers alone, but to the whole nation, There was no hall in Illinois large enough to welcome the vast crowds which gathered. Nature alone could afford