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like frightened sheep before them. At length they came even to the royal tent of Xerxes; and had he not left it at the first alarm, he would there have ended at once his life and expedition. The Greeks in an instant put all the guards to flight, and rushing on the tent, violently overturned it, and trampled under their feet all the costly furniture and vessels of gold which were used by the kings of Persia.

But now the morning began to appear, and the Persians, who had discovered the small number of their enemies, surrounded them on every side, and without daring to come to a close engagement, poured in their arrows and other weapons. The Greeks were wearied, and their number was already much diminished; nevertheless, Leonidas, who was yet alive, led on the intrepid few that yet remained to a fresh attack. Again he rushed upon the Persians, and pierced their thickest battalions as often as he could reach them. But bravery itself was vain against such inequality of numbers, and at every charge the Greek ranks grew thinner and thinner, till at length they were all destroyed without a single man having left his post, or turned his back upon the enemy.

Day.

103.-DAISIES AND BUTTERCUPS.

daf-fo-dils
lei-sure

sun-shin-y
un-con-scious

laugh-ter

mea-s-ure

Heigh ho! daisies and buttercups,

Fair yellow daffodils, stately and tall!

When the wind wakes, how they rock in the grasses,

And dance with the cuckoo-birds slender and

small!

Here's two bonny boys, and here's mother's own

lasses,

Eager to gather them all.

Heigh ho! daisies and buttercups!

Mother shall thread them a daisy-chain; Sing them a song of the pretty hedge-sparrow, That loved her brown little ones, loved them full fain;

Sing, "Heart, thou art wide, though the house be but narrow

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Sing once, and sing it again.

Heigh ho! daisies and buttercups,

Sweet wagging cowslips, they bend and they bow;

A ship sails afar over warm ocean waters,

And haply one musing doth stand at her prow, O bonny brown sons, and O sweet little daughters, Maybe he thinks on you now.

Heigh ho daisies and buttercups,

Fair yellow daffodils, stately and tall—

A sunshiny world full of laughter and leisure, And fresh hearts unconscious of sorrow and thrall!

Send down on their pleasure smiles passing its

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M. de la Tude, who was cruelly confined for thirty-five years in the Bastile and other prisons, succeeded in taming rats. For a long time he had been very much tormented by a crowd of rats who came hunting for food, and living in his straw. "Sometimes," says he, "when I was asleep, they ran across my face; and more than once, by biting me severely, they gave me great pain. I was unable to get rid of them, so I resolved to tame them. The dungeon in which I was confined in the Bastile had a loophole two and a half feet above the floor. In the inside it was two feet long, and about eighteen inches wide; but it gradually got smaller to the outer side, so that there it was only about eighteen inches wide. From this loophole I derived the

only air and light I was permitted to enjoy : the stone which formed the base of it served me also for chair and table. One day, when I was at this loophole, I saw a large rat appear. I called him to me; he looked at me without showing any fear. I gently threw him a piece of bread, taking care not to frighten him away by a violent action. He approached, took the bread, went to a little distance to eat it, and appeared to ask for a second piece. I flung him another, but at a less distance; a third, nearer still, and so on by degrees. This continued as long as I had bread to give him; for, after satisfying his appetite, he carried off to a hole the fragments he had not devoured. The following day he came again. I treated him with the same generosity, and added even a morsel of meat, which he appeared to like better than the bread, for this time he eat in my presence, which before he had not done. The third day he became sufficiently familiar to take what I offered him from my fingers.

I have no idea where his dwelling-place was before, but he appeared inclined to change it, to approach nearer to me. He discovered a hole on one side of the window, and fixed his abode in it. On the fifth day, for the first time, he came to sleep there. Next day he brought another rat to his hole, a female one. She was much more timid than the other, only coming out of the hole by degrees, and seizing what I threw half-way to her. At last she ventured to take what I offered her from my hand. Some time

after, a third rat appeared, who was much less. ceremonious than my first acquaintances. After his second visit, he considered himself one of the family, and made himself so perfectly at home that he resolved to introduce his comrades. The next day he came accompanied by two others, who in the course of a week brought five more; and thus in less than a fortnight our family circle consisted of ten large rats and myself. I gave each of them names, which they learned to distinguish. When I called them, they came. They became so tame they allowed me to scratch their necks, and appeared pleased when I did so; but they never would permit me to touch them on the back. With these simple and innocent occupations I contrived for two years to divert my mind from constantly brooding on my own miseries." Adapted from "Chambers' Miscellany."

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It ought to be noticed that in the last year of the reign of Charles II. began a great change in the police of London, a change which has perhaps added as much to the happiness of the great body of the people as revolutions of much greater fame.

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