"Ha!" thought she, as she looked at it through the window, "cannot I prevent the sun rising?" At this she grew very angry, and she waked her husband, and said:

"Husband, go to the Fish and tell him I want to be lord of the sun and moon."

The Fisherman was half asleep, but the thought so scared him that he started and fell out of bed.

66

Alas, wife!" said he, "cannot you be content to be pope?"

66

No," said she, "I am very uneasy, and cannot bear to see the sun and moon rise without my leave. Go at once to the Fish."

Then the man went, quaking with fear; as he drew near the shore, a great storm arose, so that the trees and the rocks shook, the sky became black, the lightning flashed, the thunder rolled. The sea was one mass of black waves with a white crown of foam; and the Fisherman whispered:

"O man of the sea!
Come, listen to me,
For Alice my wife,

The plague of my life,

Hath sent me to beg a boon of thee."

"What does she want?"

"Ah!" said the Fisherman, "she wants to be lord. of the sun and moon."

"Go home," said the Fish, "to your ditch again." And there they live to this very day.

THE FOUNTAIN 1

JAMES RUSSELL LOWELL

INTO the sunshine,
Full of the light,
Leaping and flashing
From morn till night;

Into the moonlight,
Whiter than snow,
Waving so flower-like
When the winds blow;

Into the starlight

Rushing in spray,
Happy at midnight,

Happy by day;

Ever in motion,

Blithesome and cheery,
Still climbing heavenward,

Never aweary;

Glad of all weathers,

Still seeming best,
Upward or downward,

Motion thy rest;

1 From the Complete Poetical Works of James Russell Lowell,

copyright, 1896, by Houghton, Mifflin and Company.

Full of a nature

Nothing can tame, Changed every moment, Ever the same;

Ceaseless aspiring,

Ceaseless content,

Darkness or sunshine
Thy element;

Glorious fountain,

Let my heart be

Fresh, changeful, constant, Upward, like thee!

WILLIAM TELL1

HORACE E. SCUDDER

SWITZERLAND is a republic, like the United States, and the men who live among its mountains are a brave, free people. But long ago the Emperor of Austria claimed the land as a part of his empire, and sent a man named Gessler to rule the people in his stead.

Gessler was a tyrant. He wished to stand well with his master, the emperor, and he ruled the bold Swiss with a rod of iron. He had soldiers at his command, and he seemed able to do whatever he wished, but there was one thing he could not do: he could not make the proud people bow down to him when he came among them.

He was angry enough at this, and he cast about for some new way in which to make them feel his power. In those days, as now, every town had a public square called a market-place. Here the people flocked to buy and sell of each other. The men and women came down from the mountains with game and cheese and butter; they sold these things in the market, and bought goods which they could not make or grow in their mountain homes.

In the market-place of Altorf, a Swiss town, Gessler set up a tall pole, like a liberty pole. But on the top of this pole he placed his hat, and, just as in the city a gilt crown on some high point was the sign of 1 Copyright, 1900, by Horace E. Scudder.

the emperor's power, so this hat was to be the sign of Gessler's power. He bade that every Swiss man, woman, or child who passed by the pole should bow to the hat. In this way they were to show their respect for him.

From one of the mountain homes near Altorf there came into the market-place one day a tall, strong man named William Tell. He was a famous archer, for it was in the days before the mountaineers carried guns, and he was wont to shoot bears and wild goats and wolves with his bow and arrows.

He had with him his little son, and they walked across the market-place. But when they passed the pole, Tell never bent his head; he stood as straight as a mountain pine.

There were servants and spies of Gessler in the market-place, and they at once told the tyrant how Tell had defied him. Gessler commanded the Swiss to be brought before him, and he came, leading by the hand his little son.

"They tell me you shoot well," said the tyrant. "You shall not be punished. Instead you shall give me a sign of your skill. Your boy is no doubt made of the same stuff you are. Let him stand yonder a hundred paces off. Place an apple on his head, and do you stand here and pierce the apple with an arrow from your quiver."

All the people about turned pale with fear, and fathers who had their sons with them held them fast, as if Gessler meant to take them from them. But Tell looked Gessler full in the face, and drew two arrows from his quiver.

"Go yonder," he said to the lad, and he saw him led away by two servants of Gessler, who paced a