The brothers looked long at the gems.
"Ah!" whis-pered the younger; "if our mother could only have such beautiful things!"
At last, how-ever, the casket was closed and carried care-ful-ly away.
"Is it true, Cor-ne-li-a, that you have no jewels?" asked her friend. "Is it true, as I have heard it whis-pered, that you are poor?"
"No, I am not poor," answered Cornelia, and as she spoke she drew her two boys to her side; "for here are my jewels. They are worth more than all your gems."
I am sure that the boys never forgot their mother's pride and love and care; and in after years, when they had become great men in Rome, they often thought of this scene in the garden. And the world still likes to hear the story of Cornelia's jewels.
ANDROCLUS AND THE LION.
In Rome there was once a poor slave whose name was An´dro-clus. His master was a cruel man, and so unkind to him that at last An-dro-clus ran away.
He hid himself in a wild wood for many days; but there was no food to be found, and he grew so weak and sick that he thought he should die. So one day he crept into a cave and lay down, and soon he was fast asleep.