Goliath scorned the young David, and said he would feed his flesh to the birds and the beasts. Then he came on to where David stood. David took out his sling and fitted a smooth stone in it. He waited until Goliath was near enough for a good aim. Then he whirled his sling around his head and let go. The stone flew straight and hit Goliath in the forehead, and he fell down dead. David took his great knife and cut off the giant’s head and held it up for the Philistines to see. At this they were all so afraid that they all fled in great confusion.
THE SWISS WOOD CARVER
In which we see that physical infirmity is no bar to success.
Once upon a time there lived in Meringen, Switzerland, a crippled boy named Rubi. He had fallen down one of the small hills near his home and had hurt his hip, so that all his life he had to use crutches. But he was a brave boy, and did his best to help the family in their work.
His father was a guide in the great mountains, and his mother was a lace maker. Poor Rubi was too crippled to climb the mountains or to work in the valleys, and his father said: “Poor little Rubi! what will become of him and the mother if anything should happen to me?”
Rubi sat all day and watched the goats, and sometimes saw a chamois on a far cliff of the mountains. One day his mother brought him a toy goat carved out of wood that she had found in one of the shops of Meringen. Rubi looked at it and said:
“I can make a better goat than that.” So his mother bought him some tools and some wood and he began to carve animals. But his father did not know anything about it, for Rubi kept it a secret from him.