Half a dozen boys

by Anna Chapin Ray

Rob's somewhat mixed assortment of facts was listened to with a profound attention that was most gratifying. Ted, as the last speaker, came forward with a smile of calm assurance, before his name was called. Unrolling his manuscript, which proved to be a single strip of paper about three inches wide and four feet long, he bowed cheerfully to the audience, and began his theme.

"NAPOLEON BONAPARTE.

"Napoleon Bonaparte was born in 1768, and died in May, 1821. He was born in Corsica, and was sometimes called; 'the ogre of Corsica,' after he was dead, and they dared to. He was a very great general and a very bad man, but he did a few good things. When he was eleven years old, he began going to a military school, and when he was twenty-eight he was put at the head of forty thousand men, and he began to beat the enemy right off. In two years, he had won eighteen pitch battles. The way he came to have such a good position was because at Toulon, in a siege, he was the only man who could point the guns right to have them go into the city. That made him famous. Well, he conquered Italy and Sardinia and Austria and Egypt. But that wasn't enough for him, so he came home for a little while, and went into politics. He made himself first consul of France when he was only twenty-nine. Five years later, in 1804, he made the pope crown him emperor. Then he went on conquering countries, and putting his own relations on the throne—they didn't have any civil-service reform then—till he had most everything but England and Russia in the family. And at home he made a few good laws, and straightened out things where the revolution had mixed them up. But in 1812 he made an expedition to Russia, and there he was beaten. Then, till 1814, he had ever so many defeats, and finally was arrested and sent to Elba. He was there about a year, and then ran away and came back to France. When he came, the king they had put on the throne ran away, and all his old soldiers came back to him. But on June 17th, 1815, they fought the battle of Waterloo. Napoleon was beaten and captured and carried clear down to St. Helena, where they kept an eye on him till he died; and I say it served him right."

While Teddy was reading, Bess had seated herself at the piano. When he finished, she played the opening bars of "Fair Harvard," as the boys rose, joined hands, and made a low bow to the audience. Then they began to sing.

"Dear friends, now this evening you've seen our I.I.,
And we leave you to judge of its work.
Of its many good times we will tell by and by;
For as pills under sugar coats lurk,
We must each do our work, ere we share in the play,
For such does our club make its rule;
And many's the lesson we learn day by day,
In this jolliest kind of a school.

We have wandered o'er many a subject ere this,
And our six months have been full well spent;
We no longer sit down and talk nonsense and fun,
For on learning we're all of us bent,
So we solemnly talk of the pagans and worms,
Of minerals, planets, and snakes.
We speak of the glory of Washington's fame,
Of cormorants, Zulus, and lakes.

But we all have a wish to impart from our store;
To improve those around us is kind;
So we've called you together, and made you a feast
Of crumbs from each overstocked mind.
And now, our dear friends, we thank you indeed,
Your attention has been most polite.
Six months from this time we'll invite you again;
In the mean time, we wish you good-night."

CHAPTER XVII.
ROB ASSISTS AT AN IMPORTANT INTERVIEW.

Another month had passed, and it was the day after Thanksgiving. The feast day had been a merry one, for Mrs. Atkinson had invited the Carter household, Fuzz and all, to dine with her, and the fun had been prolonged until late in the evening. The next day, as was usually the case after any unwonted dissipation, Fred was ill with a severe nervous headache, the only trace left of his illness of the year before. By carefully regulating his habits, Bess had generally succeeded in avoiding them, but the excitement of the day before had been too much for him; and soon after breakfast, he had gone up to the sofa in his room, where Bess had been busy with him all the morning.