was on the same ship with me, and I had the care of him during the whole voyage. He was young then, and we soon became friends. We had many a jolly romp together, and I often slept with him in his cage.

“Well, it's very strange," said the keeper. "He has always been very cross to me, and I never go near him without something with which to defend myself."

"If you had been kind to him, he would not have grown so cross," said the sailor. "The way to govern animals is to be gentle and loving. They soon learn to know their friends, just as you learn to know yours."

Then the sailor again took the lion's paw in his hand and shook it, and the lion rubbed his nose against the sailor's face.

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Good-by, Hero, old friend! I must leave you now, but next month I will come to see you again. Be a good lion, and remember me.”

The lion watched him eagerly until he was out of sight, and then, with a downcast look, took his accustomed place in the cage. The keeper had learned a lesson, but he was never able to win the friendship of the poor animal that he had mistreated.

EXPRESSION: Pronounce these words correctly: me någ'er ie, dān'ger ous, vis'i tors, gov'ern, ea'ger ly, ac cus'tomed. Observe the two sounds of g.

him, and not far away, were green mountains; behind him was the city which he had left an hour before.

The man's face was very sad, and he rode slowly as though lost in deep thought.

Suddenly he heard the sound of a galloping horse coming far behind him. Then he thought he heard a

voice calling. But he did not look around; he did not so much as raise his head. "It's only some farmer hurrying home from the city," he thought; and he rode slowly onward.

Then the voice of

The sounds drew rapidly nearer. the horseman could be plainly heard. "Halt! halt! Christopher Columbus. I have news for you.”

The gray-haired man, hearing his name called, drew up by the roadside and looked around. "Well, well, my friend Santangel," he said, "what news can you bring to me that is not bad news?"

The horseman was beside him in a moment. "I bring you the best news in the world," he said. "Come back with me to the city. I have seen Queen Isabella, and she bids you come back."

"Why should she wish me to come back?" answered Columbus. "I have now been seven years in Spain, trying to induce the king and queen to aid me — and all to no purpose. They only call me a crazy dreamer, and the people laugh at me because I wish to prove that the earth is round. I am now on my way to France, where I shall find a more liberal king and a wiser people."

"You must go no farther," said Santangel. "The queen promises to aid you. She believes that you are right, and she says that she will fit out some

ships for your use, even though she may have to sell her jewels to pay for them."

"Are you speaking the truth, Santangel?"

"Most surely," answered his friend. "Come! Let us hasten back, as the queen commands."

Without another word, Columbus turned and rode back by the side of his friend. His mind was filled with thoughts of the past.

He remembered how, when a little boy, he had stood by the seashore and watched the ships coming into port from far-away lands. He remembered how the sailors had told him wonderful stories of the sea, and how he himself had afterwards become a sailor and had visited strange countries and distant islands.

Then he thought of the time when he had first come to Spain. How even wise men had laughed at him when he declared that the earth is round! How they laughed again when he said that he would sail across the western ocean and prove that he was right!

He thought of the seven years of waiting. Then he turned to his friend, Santangel, and said, "All my life I have held to the idea that the earth is round. Indeed, I know it is round; and now with the queen's help, I am sure that I shall prove it."

WORD STUDY: Sant an'gel, Is a běl'là, i de'a.

II. A FAMOUS VOYAGE

On a day in August there was a great stir in the little seaport town of Palos. Three ships had been provided for Columbus, and they were now ready to begin their voyage into the unknown western ocean. They were small vessels, and of the hundred sailors on board, nearly all were being forced to go by order of the king. Among the people who stood on shore and watched the ships sail away, there were few who expected ever to see them again.

"Think of it," said some. "Here are a hundred men sent to destruction only to please the crazy whims of that fellow who says that the earth is round."

"Surely enough!" said others. "If he is right and they sail down to the lower side of the earth, how can they ever get back? Can ships sail up hill?"

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Right or wrong, it is very foolish business," said they all. Then they slowly returned to their homes grumbling and weeping and saying all sorts of things.

On and on, into the great unknown ocean, sailed the three little ships. They stopped a few days at the Canary Islands, and then pushed boldly westward where no other vessels had ever dared to venture.

For sixty days they held on their course. They were two thousand three hundred miles from Spain,