beautiful to see. What should such dainty natures do under such an indignity but leap as from death? us. Forward they sprang as with one impulse, and forward leaped the car. Past question every experience is serviceable to Where got Ben-Hur the large hand and mighty grip which helped him now so well? Where but from the oar with which so long he fought the sea? And what was the spring of the floor under his feet to the dizzy eccentric lurch with which in the old time the trembling ship yielded to the beat of staggering billows, drunk with their power? So he kept his place, and gave the four free rein, and called to them in soothing voice, trying merely to guide them round the dangerous turn; and before the fever of the people began to abate, he had back the mastery. Nor that only on approaching the first goal he was again side by side with Messala, bearing with him the sympathy and admiration of every one not a Roman. So clearly was the feeling shown, so vigorous its manifestation, that Messala, with all his boldness, felt it unsafe to trifle further. : As the cars whirled around the goal, Esther caught sight of Ben-Hur's facea little pale, a little higher raised, otherwise calm, even placid. Immediately a man climbed on the entablature at the west end of the division wall, and took down one of the conical wooden balls. A dolphin on the east entablature was taken down at the same time. In like manner, the second ball and second dolphin disappeared. And then the third ball and third dolphin. Three rounds concluded: still Messala held the inside position; still Ben-Hur moved with him side by side; still the other competitors followed as before. The contest began to have the appearance of one of the double races which became so popular in Rome during the latter Cæsarean period-Messala and Ben-Hur in the first, the Corinthian, Sidonian, and Byzantine in the second. Meantime the ushers succeeded in returning the multitude to their seats, though the clamor continued to run the rounds, keeping, as it were, even pace with the rivals in the course below. In the fifth round the Sidonian succeeded in getting a place outside of Ben-Hur, but lost it directly. The sixth round was entered upon with out change of relative position. Gradually the speed had been quickened—gradually the blood of the competitors warmed with the work. Men and beasts seemed to know alike that the final crisis was near, bringing the time for the winner to assert himself. The interest which from the beginning had centred chiefly in the struggle between the Roman and the Jew, with an intense and general sympathy for the latter, was fast changing to anxiety on his account. On all the benches the spectators bent forward motionless, except as their faces turned following the contestants. Ilderim quit combing his beard, and Esther forgot her fears. "A hundred sestertii on the Jew!' cried Sanballat to the Romans under the consul's awning. There was no reply. "A talent-or five talents, or ten; choose ye! He shook his tablets at them defiantly. "I will take thy sestertii," answered a Roman youth, preparing to write. 66 Do not so," interposed a friend. "Why?" 66 Messala hath reached his utmost speed. See him lean over his chariotrim, the reins loose as flying ribbons. Look then at the Jew." The first one looked. "By Hercules!" he replied, his countenance falling. "The dog_throws all his weight on the bits. I see, I see! If the gods help not our friend he will be run away with by the Israelite. No, not yet. Look! Jove with us, Jove with us!" The cry, swelled by every Latin tongue, shook the velaria over the consul's head. If it were true that Messala had attained his utmost speed, the effort was with effect; slowly but certainly he was beginning to forge ahead. His horses were running with their heads low down; from the balcony their bodies appeared actually to skim the earth; their nostrils showed blood-red in expansion; their eyes seemed straining in their sockets. Certainly the good steeds were doing their best. How long could they keep the pace? It was but the commencement of the sixth round. On they dashed. As they neared the second goal Ben-Hur turned in behind the Roman's car. The joy of the Messala faction reached its bound: they screamed and howled and tossed their colors; and Sanballat filled his tablets with wagers of their tendering. Malluch, in the lower gallery over the Gate of Triumph, found it hard to keep his cheer. He had cherished the vague hint dropped to him by Ben-Hur of something to happen in the turning of the western pillars. It was the fifth round, yet the something had not come; and he had said to himself the sixth will bring it; but, lo! Ben-Hur was hardly holding a place at the tail of his enemy's car. Over in the east end Simonides' party held their peace. The merchant's head was bent low. Ilderim tugged at his beard and dropped his brows till there was nothing of his eyes but an occasional sparkle of light. Esther scarcely breathed. Iras alone appeared glad. Along the home-stretch-sixth roundMessala leading, and next him Ben-Hur, and so close it was the old story: "First flew Eumelus on Pheretian steeds; With those of Tros bold Diomed succeeds; Close on Eumelus' back they puff the wind, And seem just mounting on his ear behind; Full on his neck he feels the sultry breeze, And hovering o'er, their stretching shadow sees." Thus to the first goal and round it. Messala, fearful of losing his place, hugged the stony wall with perilous clasp; a foot to the left, and he had been dashed to pieces; yet, when the turn was finished, no man, looking at the wheel-tracks of the two cars, could have said here went Messala, there the Jew. They left but one trace behind them. As they whirled by, Esther saw Ben-Hur's face again, and it was whiter than before. Simonides, shrewder than Esther, said to Ilderim the moment the rivals turned into the course: "I am no judge, good sheik, if Ben-Hur be not about to execute some design. His face hath that look." To which Ilderim answered: "Saw you how clean they were and fresh? By the splendor of God, friend, they have not been running! But now watch!" One ball and one dolphin remained on the entablatures, and all the people drew a long breath, for the beginning of the end was at hand. First the Sidonian gave the scourge to his four, and, smarting with fear and pain, they dashed desperately forward, promising for a brief time to go to the front. The effort ended in promise. Next the Byzantine and Corinthian each made the trial with the like result, after which they were practically out of the race. Thereupon, with a readiness perfectly explicable, all the factions except the Romans joined hope in Ben-Hur and openly indulged their feeling. "Ben-Hur! Ben-Hur!" they shouted, and the blent voices of the many rolled overwhelmingly against the consular stand. From the benches above him as he passed the favor descended in fierce injunctions. "Speed thee, Jew!" "Take the wall now.' "On! Loose the Arabs! Give them rein and scourge !" "Let him not have the turn on thee again. Now or never!" Over the balustrade they stooped low, stretching their hands imploringly to him. Either he did not hear, or could not do better, for half-way round the course, and he was still following; at the second goal even still no change. And now, to make the turn, Messala began to draw in his left-hand steeds, an act which necessarily slackened their speed. His spirit was high; more than one altar was richer of his vows; the Roman genius was still president. On the three pillars only six hundred feet away were fame, increase of fortune, promotion and a triumph ineffably sweetened by hate, all in store for him! That moment Malluch, in the gallery, saw Ben-Hur lean forward over his Arabs and give them the reins. Out flew the many-folded lash in his hand; over the backs of the startled steeds it writhed and hissed, and hissed and writhed again and again; and though it fell not there were both sting and menace in its quick report; and as the man passed thus from quiet to resistless action, his face suf fused, his eyes gleaming, along the reins he seemed to flash his will; and instantly not one, but the four as one, answered with a leap that landed them alongside the Roman's car. Messala, on the perilous edge of the goal, heard, but dared not look to see what the awakening portended. From the people he received no sign. Above the noises of the race there was but one voice, and that was Ben-Hur's. In the old Aramaic, as the sheik himself, he | the fours, now under the abandoned cars. called to the Arabs. On, Atair! On, Rigel! What, Antares! dost thou linger now? Good horse-oho, Aldebaran! I hear them singing in the tents. I hear the children singing and the women-singing of the stars, of Atair, Antares, Rigel, Aldebaran, victory!-and the song will never end. Well done! Home to-morrow, under the black tent home! On, Antares! The tribe is waiting for us, and the master is waiting! 'Tis done! 'tis done! Ha, ha! We have overthrown the proud. The hand that smote us is in the dust. Ours the glory! Ha, ha!-steady! The work is done-soho! Rest!" There had never been anything of the kind more simple, seldom anything so in stantaneous. He was still; they thought him dead; but far the greater number followed Ben-Hur in his career. They had not seen the cunning touch of the reins by which, turning a little to the left, he caught Messala's wheel with the iron-shod point of his axle and crushed it; but they had seen the transformation of the man, and themselves felt the heat and glow of his spirit, the heroic resolution, the maddening energy of action with which by look, word, and gesture, he so suddenly inspired his Arabs. And such running! It was rather the long leaping of lions in harness; but for the lumbering chariot it seemed the four were flying. When the Byzantine and the Corinthian were half-way down the course Ben-Hur turned the first goal. And the race was WON! The consul arose, the people shouted themselves hoarse, the editor came down from his seat and crowned the victors. The fortunate man among the boxers was a low-browed, yellow-haired Saxon, of such brutalized face as to attract a second look from Ben-Hur, who recognized a teacher with whom he himself had been a favorite at Rome. From him the young Jew looked up and beheld Simonides and his party on the balcony. They waved their hands to him. Esther kept her seat, but Iras arose and gave him a smile and a wave of her hand-favors not the less intoxicating to him because we know, O reader, they would haye fallen to Messala had he been the victor. At the moment chosen for the dash, Messala was moving in a circle round the goal. To pass him Ben-Hur had to cross the track, and good strategy required the movement to be in a forward direction, that is on a like circle limited to the least possible increase. The thousands on the benches understood it all: they saw the signal given the magnificent response; the four close outside Messala's outer wheel, Ben-Hur's inner wheel behind the other's car- -all this they saw. Then they heard a crash loud enough to send a thrill through the Circus, and, quicker than thought, out over the course a spray of shining white and yellow flinders flew. Down on its right side toppled the bed of the Roman's chariot. There was a rebound as of the axle hitting the hard earth; another and another; then the car went to pieces, and Messala, entangled in the reins, pitched forward headlong. To increase the horror of the sight by making death certain, the Sidonian, who had the wall next behind, could not stop or turn out. Into the wreck full speed he drove; WOODMAN, SPARE THAT TREE. then over the Roman, and into the latter's four, all mad with fear. Presently out of the turmoil, the fighting of horses, the resound of blows, the murky cloud of dust and sand, he crawled in time to see the Corinthian and Byzantine go on down the course after Ben-Hur, who had not been an instant delayed. The people arose, and leaped upon the benches, and shouted, and screamed. Those who looked that way caught glimpses of Messala, now under the trampling of The procession was then formed, and, 'midst the shouting of the multitude which had had its will, passed out of the Gate of Triumph. And the day was over. [George P. Morris was born in Pennsylvania in He was widely known as a journalist, but espe 1802. cially for the many excellent songs which he wrote, and Woodman, spare that tree! 'Twas my forefather's hand That old familiar tree, Whose glory and renown Are spread o'er land and sea, And wouldst thou hew it down? Woodman, forbear thy stroke! Cut not its earth-bound ties; O, spare that aged oak, Now towering to the skies! When but an idle boy I sought its grateful shade; In all their gushing joy Here too my sisters played. My mother kissed me here; My father pressed my handForgive this foolish tear, But let that old oak stand! My heart-strings round thee cling, Close as thy bark, old friend! Here shall the wild-bird sing, And still thy branches bend. Old tree! the storm still brave! And, woodman, leave the spot; While I've a hand to save, Thy ax shall harm it not. INTIMACY. [Mary Abigail Dodge ("Gail Hamilton," pseud.), an American author, born at Hamilton, Mass., in 1838. She began literary work by contributing to periodicals. She is the author of several volumes of essays: What Think ye of Christ (1877), and Our Common School System (1880). From Country Living and Thinking we extract.] There is no such thing as knowing a man intimately. Every soul is, for the greater part of its mortal life, isolated from every other. Whether it dwell in the Garden of Eden or the Desert of Sahara, it dwells alone. Not only do we jostle against the street-crowd unknowing and unknown, but we go out and come in, we lie down and rise up, with strangers. Jupiter and Neptune sweep the heavens not more unfamiliar to us than the worlds that circle our own hearth stone. 66 Day after day, and year after year, a person moves by your side; he sits at the same table; he reads the same books; he kneels in the same church. You know every hair of his head, every trick of his lips, every tone of his voice; you can tell him far off by his gait. Without seeing him, you recognize his step, his knock. his laugh. Know him?" "Yes, I have known him these twenty years. No, you don't know him. You know his gait, and hair, and voice. You know what preacher he hears, what ticket he voted, and what were his last year's expenses; but you don't know him. He sits quietly in his chair, but he is in the temple. You speak to him; his soul comes out into the vestibule to answer you, and returns--and the gates are shut; therein you cannot enter. You were discussing the state of the country; but when you ceased, he opened a postern-gate, went down a bank, and launched on a sea over whose waters you have no boat to sail, no star to guide. You have loved and reverenced him. He has been your concrete of truth and nobleness. Unwittingly you touch a secret spring, and a Blue-Beard chamber stands revealed. You give no sign; you meet and part as usual; but a Dead Sea rolls between you two forevermore. It must be so. Not even to the nearest and dearest can one unveil the secret place where his soul abideth, so that there shall be no more any winding ways or hidden chambers; but to your indifferent neighbor, what blind alleys, and deep caverns, and inaccessible mountains! To him who touches the electric chain wherewith you're darkly bound," your soul sends back an answering thrill. One little window is opened, and there is short parley. Your ships speak to each other now and then in welcome, though imperfect communication; but immediately you strike out again into the great shoreless sea, over which you must sail forever alone. You may shrink from the far-reaching solitudes of your heart, but no other foot than yours can tread them save those, "That eighteen hundred years ago, were nailed, For our advantage, to the bitter cross." Be thankful that it is so-that only His eye sees whose hand formed. If we could look in, we should be appalled at the vision. The worlds that glide around us are mysteries too high for us. We cannot attain to them. The naked soul is a sight too awful for man to look at and live.-Country Living and Country Thinking. THE STORY OF ALI BABA, AND THE FORTY THIEVES. [Arabian Nights' Entertainments, a well-known and very popular collection of Eastern tales, first made known to Europe by Anthony Galland, a French orientalist, under the title of Les Mille et Une Nuits (The Thousand and One Nights), 12 vols. (Paris, 1704-17). The work speedily became popular, and was translated into all the European tongues. Improved and more complete editions have since appeared. The known English translation is that by Edward William Lane, which was published in 1839, but which, though self. His whole substance consisted of three asses, which he used to drive to a neighboring forest, and loaded with wood, which he sold in the town, earning thereby a hard maintenance for his family. One day, when Ali Baba was in the forest, and had just cut wood enough to load his asses, he saw at a distance a cloud of dust, which seemed to approach toward him. He observed it attentively, and distinguished a large body of horsemen, As they drew near he began to apprehend they might be thieves; he therefore climbed a tree, from whence he could see all that passed without being discovered. The troop came directly to the spot where Ali Baba had taken shelter. He counted forty of them. They dismounted and fed their horses; then, taking off their portmanteaus, they arranged thembest-selves under the conduct of one who seemed to be their commander. They were in fact a gang of banditti, who made that place their rendezvous. The captain, traversing among the shrubs, said, Sesame (which is a kind of corn), open!" Immediately a door opened in an adjoining rock, when the captain and his troop went in, and the door shut again. highly appreciated by scholars and orientalists, has failed to supersede the older version in popularity. These tales had long existed in the East before they became known to Europeans. Several manuscript copies of the original Arabic text are known to exist, and four editions of it have been published. It is supposed they are of varied origin: the most beautiful and fanciful being Indian; the tender and sentimental love tales Persian; and the witty and humorous stories Arabian; but all have been altered and adapted to suit the tastes of the town populations of Arabia, to whom the stories were told. The story that forms the union of the tales is, that the Sultan Shahriar, exasperated by the faithlessness of his bride, made a law that every one of his future wives should be put to death the morning after marriage. At length, Sheherazade, the daughter of the grand vizier, by the charm of her stories, induced the sultan to defer her execution from day to day, till a thousand and one nights had passed away. By this time Sheherazade was the mother of three children, whom she led before the throne of her husband, and so induced him to spare her life. There have recently been two new editions of The Arabian Nights published in England-the first (Payne) newly translated from the Cairo edition, and the other, Sir Richard Burton's, from the Smyrna edition. Neither of these editions is fit for family reading. We therefore copy from Lane's edition.] In a town in Persia there lived two brothers, called Cassim and Ali Baba. Their father had left the little substance he had between them; but they were not equally fortunate. Cassim married a wife who had a large fortune, and became a wealthy and considerable merchant. Ali Baba married a woman as poor as him The thieves stayed some time within the rock; and Ali Baba, who feared he should be surprised if he attempted to escape, sat very patiently in the tree till they came out again. The captain came out first, and stood at the door till they had all passed him, when he said, "Shut, Sesame!" The door closed immediately. Every man then mounted his horse, and the captain, putting himself at their head, they rode off together. Ali Baba stayed in the tree as long as he could see the least trace of the dust they raised. He then descended, and bering the words the captain had used, he presently found out the door, and, rememsaid,Open, Sesame!" when the door flew wide open. He entered the cavern, which he found spacious, and well lighted from the top of the rock. The door shut after him, but as he knew how to open he was noways alarmed. He found in the cavern a great store of rich merchandise, and such an immense quantity of gold and silver as convinced him that the cavern must have been the repository of robbers for several generations. it He removed as many bags of gold close |