[COMPENSATION.]
BY GEORGE COOPER.
For every leaf of green,
A golden leaf;
For every fading flower,
A ripened sheaf.
For every parching beam,
A drop of rain;
For every sunny day,
The stars again.
For every warring wave,
A pretty shell;
For every sound of woe,
A joyous bell.
For every passing care,
A mother's kiss:
And what could better be,
Dear child, than this?
[AN ANCIENT TRAVELLER.]
BY ELLA RODMAN CHURCH.
The oldest book of travels in Asia that has been preserved was written by Marco Polo, an Italian, who was born nearly two hundred and fifty years before his famous countryman Christopher Columbus discovered America.
The father and uncle of Marco, who were merchants in Venice, had already been to China, then called Cathay, and spent some years at the court of the Emperor Khubla Khan, who became their warm friend. On their return to Venice they had many wonderful stories to tell of the mysterious country they had explored, and the strange sights and adventures they had met with; and two years afterward they started again on their travels, with letters and presents for the Chinese monarch from Pope Gregory X. Marco, then a young man of twenty, went with them on this journey.