1102
AUTUMN LEAVES.
"Come little leaves," said the wind one day,
"Come o'er the meadows with me and play;
Put on your dress of red and gold,
Summer is gone, and the days grow cold."
Soon as the leaves heard the wind's loud call
Down they came fluttering, one and all;
Over the brown fields they danced and flew,
Singing the soft little songs that they knew.
Dancing and whirling the little leaves went,
Winter had called them, and they were content.
Soon fast asleep in their earthly beds,
The snow laid a coverlet over their heads.
1103
GENERAL LEE'S REPLY.
After the Civil War many offers of places of honor and fame came to General Robert E. Lee. He refused them all, says Thomas Nelson Page, in his biography of the soldier. The only position which he finally did accept, was the presidency of Washington College,—now Washington and Lee University, at Lexington, Virginia, with a small salary.
On one of these occasions, Lee was approached with the tender of the presidency of an insurance company, at a salary of fifty thousand dollars a year. He declined it, saying that it was work with which he was not familiar.
"But, general," said the representative of the insurance company, "you will not be expected to do any work. What we wish, is the use of your name."
