“My friend,” began the commander, “I can scarcely speak, but you know praise comes from the heart and not from the lips. You have saved the fleet from certain destruction and have preserved the lives of many of your countrymen. No reward is too great for you. Ask what you will and it shall be granted.”

Hervé Riel’s blue eyes danced with merriment as he said, “Now that my work is over I would like, if I may have it, one whole day to visit my wife, whom I call ‘Beautiful Aurora,’ and who lives just a little way from Saint Malo. That is all I want. May I go?”

You can imagine whether or not his request was granted.

Now, do you know, that brave act was forgotten; Hervé Riel was forgotten for many centuries. No monument was erected to his memory; there seemed nothing to keep the patriotic man alive in the hearts of his countrymen. But one day, not so many years ago, Robert Browning, the great English poet, heard the story, and he was so moved by the heroic deed and the quiet humor of the man, that he wrote a fine, manly poem and called it Hervé Riel, so that it should remain as a monument to the patriotism and character of the simple French sailor.

If the children are older and studying history, we would give more of an idea of the place, and of the occasion and show what the effect of saving the ship really was. The poem is an excellent one, but most children do not care for it till they have heard the story and have studied the text. Then they are delighted with it and will read it again and again. It has been many years since the writer of this first read Hervé Riel, but he has never wearied of it and cannot read it now without a thrill of admiration for the hero and for Browning’s monument.

When you tell the story, do not try to tell it as this has been told. Use your words, select for emphasis the parts that appeal to you and give the children just the ideas that you have conceived.

Other classics that will make just as good subjects for story telling are in every volume of Journeys. The following list contains only a few of them. By adapting them to the age of the young listeners, almost any of them may be made suitable for almost any age:

Volume I,page 79.Little Red Riding Hood.
Volume I,page 101.Silver Locks and the Three Bears.
Volume I,page 134.The Dog in the Manger.
Volume I,page 431.Baucis and Philemon.
Volume I,page 456.The Story of Joseph.
Volume II,page 111.The Punishment of Loki.
Volume II,page 448.The Story of Esther.
Volume II,page 387.What the Old Man Does Is Always Right.
Volume III,page 436.Robin Hood.
Volume IV,page 192.The Pine-Tree Shillings.
Volume IV,page 274.David.
Volume IV,page 383.The Wooden Horse.
Volume V,page 130.Balin and Balan.
Volume V,page 237.The Passing of Arthur.
Volume VI,page 143.Ruth.