justice, each star to signify the glory of the state it may represent, and the whole to be eloquent forever of a Union that must be "one and inseparable."

What precious associations cluster around our flag! Not alone have our fathers set up this banner in the 5 name of God over the well-won battlefields of the Revolution, and over the cities and towns which they rescued from despotic rule; but think where also their descendants have carried it, and raised it in conquest or protection! Through what clouds of dust and smoke 10 has it passed-what storms of shot and shell — what scenes of fire and blood! Not only at Saratoga, at Monmouth, and at Yorktown, but at Lundy's Lane and New Orleans, at Buena Vista and Chapultepec. It is the same glorious old flag which, inscribed with 15 the dying words of Lawrence, "Don't give up the ship!" Erie by Commodore

was hoisted on Lake Perry just on the eve of his great naval victory

the

same old flag which our great chieftain bore in triumph to the proud city of the Aztecs and planted upon the 20 heights of her national palace. Brave hands raised it above the eternal regions of ice in the arctic seas, and have set it up on the summits of the lofty mountains in the distant west.

Where has it not gone, the pride of its friends and 25 the terror of its foes? What countries and what seas has it not visited? Where has not the American citizen been able to stand beneath its guardian folds and defy the world? With what joy and exultation sea

men and tourists have gazed upon its stars and stripes, read in it the history of their nation's glory, received from it the full sense of security, and drawn from it the inspirations of patriotism! By it how many have 5 sworn fealty to their country!

What bursts of magnificent eloquence it has called forth from Webster and from Everett! What lyric strains of poetry from Drake and Holmes! How many heroes its folds have covered in death! How 10 many have lived for it, and how many have died for it! How many, living and dying, have said, in their enthusiastic devotion to its honor, like that young wounded sufferer in the streets of Baltimore, "Oh, the flag! the Stars and Stripes!" And wherever that flag 15 has gone it has been a herald of a better day; it has been the pledge of freedom, of justice, of order, of civilization, and of Christianity. Tyrants only have hated it, and the enemies of mankind alone have trampled it to the earth. All who sigh for the triumph 20 of truth and righteousness love and salute it.

THE AMERICAN FLAG.

JOSEPH RODMAN DRAKE.

JOSEPH RODMAN DRAKE was born in New York City, in 1795. He wrote a number of poems which gave promise of his gaining high rank as a poet; but he died at the age of twenty-four.

WHEN Freedom from her mountain height
Unfurled her standard to the air,

She fore the azure robe of night,
And set the stars of glory there;
She mingled with its gorgeous dyes
The milky baldric of the skies,
And striped its pure, celestial white
With streakings of the morning light;
Then from his mansion in the sun.
She called her eagle-bearer down,
And gave into his mighty hand
The symbol of her chosen land.

Flag of the brave, thy folds shall fly,
The sign of hope and triumph high!
When speaks the signal trumpet tone,
And the long line comes gleaming on
(Ere yet the life-blood, warm and wet,
Has dimmed the glistening bayonet)
Each soldier eye shall brightly turn
To where thy sky-born glories burn,
And as his springing steps advance,

Catch war and vengeance from the glance.
And when the cannon-mouthings loud
Heave in wild wreaths the battle-shroud,
And gory sabers rise and fall

Like shoots of flame on midnight's pall,
Then shall thy meteor glances glow,

And cowering foes shall sink beneath
Each gallant arm that strikes below
That lovely messenger of death.

Flag of the seas, on ocean wave
Thy stars shall glitter o'er the brave;
When death, careering on the gale,
Sweeps darkly round the bellied sail,
And frighted waves rush wildly back
Before the broadside's reeling rack,
Each dying wanderer of the sea

Shall look at once to Heaven and thee,
And smile to see thy splendors fly
In triumph o'er his closing eye.

Flag of the free heart's hope and home,
By angel hands to valor given,
Thy stars have lit the welkin dome,

And all thy hues were born in heaven.
Forever float that standard sheet!

Where breathes the foe, but falls before us, With Freedom's soil beneath our feet,

And Freedom's banner streaming o'er us?

DREAM-CHILDREN: A REVERIE.

CHARLES LAMB.

CHARLES LAMB was born in London on the 10th of February,

1775.

He was sent to school at Christ's Hospital when he was eight years old and remained there for seven years. Charles was a delicate, sensitive boy, and there

was little in the dull, hard life of this school to make him happy.

He was fortunate in having Coleridge for a companion, with whom he formed a lifelong friendship.

After leaving school Lamb held a clerkship for a short time, and then entered an accountant's office, where he remained for over thirty years.

A terrible sorrow shadowed his life. His sister Mary became violently insane and was placed in an

asylum. After the recovery of her health her brother obtained her release by promising to watch over and care for her.

When Lamb was twenty-one years old, Coleridge included four 20 of his sonnets in a collection called "Poems on Various Subjects." These were the first of Lamb's writings to appear in print. He afterwards published a number of poems and plays, and, in company with his sister, wrote the famous "Tales" founded on the Plays of Shakespeare.

When Lamb was about forty-five years old, he wrote a number of essays, signing himself "Elia," and it is upon these that his literary fame rests. They are delicate in fancy and sparkle with wit and humor. He died on the 27th of December, 1834.

25

CHILDREN love to listen to stories about their elders 30 when they were children; to stretch their imagination