A WELL there is in the west country,
And a clearer one never was seen;
There is not a wife in the west country
But has heard of the Well of St. Keyne.

An oak and an elm-tree stand beside,
And behind doth an ash-tree grow,
And a willow from the bank above

Drops to the water below.

A traveller came to the Well of St. Keyne;

Joyfully he drew nigh,

For from cock-crow he had been travelling,

And there was not a cloud in the sky.

He drank of the water so cool and clear,
For thirsty and hot was he,

And he sat down upon the bank

Under the willow-tree.

There came a man from the house hard by
At the Well to fill his pail;

On the Well-side he rested it,
And he bade the stranger hail.

"Now art thou a bachelor, stranger?" quoth he, "For an if thou hast a wife,

The happiest draught thou hast drunk this day
That ever thou didst in thy life.

"Or has thy good woman, if one thou hast,
Ever here in Cornwall been?

For an if she have, I'll venture my life

She has drunk of the Well of St. Keyne."

"I have left a good woman who never was here," The stranger he made reply;

"But that my draught should be the better for that, I pray you tell me why.”

"St. Keyne," quoth the Cornishman," many a time Drank of this crystal Well,

And before the Angel summoned her

She laid on the water a spell.

"If the Husband of this gifted Well
Shall drink before his Wife,

A happy man henceforth is he,

For he shall be master for life.

"But if the Wife should drink it first,
God help the Husband then!"

The stranger stoopt to the Well of St. Keyne,
And drank of the water again.

"You drank of the Well, I warrant, betimes?"
He to the Cornishman said;

But the Cornishman smiled as the stranger spake,
And sheepishly shook his head.

"I hastened as soon as the wedding was done,
And left my wife in the porch;

But i' faith she had been wiser than me

For she took a bottle to Church."

HOW THE ROMANS CONQUERED BRITAIN.

THE first people who lived in the Isle of Britain of whom we really know anything were the Celts, that is to say, the Irish and the Welsh; and the first people of whom we know anything in that part of the island which is called England were the Welsh or Britons. But we know very little of the times when the Welsh lived in Britain as their own land, before the Romans conquered them. There are a great many strange stories told about their history, but nothing was written about these things till hundreds of years after the times when they were said to have happened. Therefore we cannot really believe anything that is told us about them.

The time when we first begin really to know anything about Britain is between fifty and sixty years before the birth of our Lord Jesus Christ. At that time the greatest people in the world were the Romans. These were originally the people of the city of Rome in Italy. They were not so bold at sea as the Phoenicians, nor were they so clever and learned a people as the Greeks. They could not build such fine temples, or carve such beautiful statues, or make such eloquent speeches and poems as the Greeks could; but they were the best soldiers and the wisest law-makers that the world ever saw. Thus they were able gradually to conquer, first

all Italy, and then nearly all the world that they knew of, that is, all the countries round about the Mediterranean Sea. The people of Italy they gradually admitted to the same rights as themselves, so that at the time of which I am speaking, every Italian was reckoned as a Roman; but the lands out of Italy they made into Provinces, and the people of those lands were their subjects. There was no King in Rome, but the people of the Provinces had to obey the laws made by the Senate and People of Rome, and were governed by the magistrates whom the Romans sent to rule over them.

At this time the Roman governor in Gaul-that is, roughly, the country that we now know as France and Belgium-was named Caius Julius Cæsar. He is one of the most famous men in the whole history of the world. In many things he was a very bad man, and he thought more of his own greatness than of the good of his country; but there was much in him which made men love him, and as a soldier and a ruler hardly any man has ever been greater. Before his time the Roman Province of Gaul was only a small part of the country; Cæsar gradually conquered all Gaul, and he next wished to conquer Britain also, as it was so near Gaul, with only a narrow arm of the sea between them. He twice came over to Britain with his army, but he only visited the southern part of the island, and he cannot be said to have conquered any part of it. Britain did not become a Roman Province, nor did Cæsar leave any Roman governor or Roman soldiers