"I have had that honor, Colonel," answered the grenadier.

"What possessed you to try to do such a thing, Grenadier?"

"The honor of France was at stake."

The colonel looked at La Tour d'Auvergne with admiration. Then raising his hat he said, "Grenadier, I salute you. You are the bravest of the brave.”

Under a flag of truce, La Tour d'Auvergne returned to his army with the honors of a conqueror, the thirty muskets borne before him. The Austrian colonel wrote a message to the French commander, telling of La Tour d'Auvergne's brave service.

Napoleon would have given the hero high honors, but he refused them all. By the emperor's special order, however, he was called the First Grenadier of France, and by that title he was known by both friends and foes.

La Tour d'Auvergne: lä toor' dō-vārñ'.—besiege (bē-sēj′): to surround with an armed force.—ammunition (ăm-mū-nish' ŭn): powder, shot, etc. used to load guns of any kind.-těl'èscōpe: a long tube in which there are certain kinds of glasses that make distant objects look near.-gărʼrison: a body of soldiers doing duty in a fort.-flag of truce a white flag which shows that all fighting must stop while it is flying.-withdraw: retreat.—grenadier (grĕn-ȧ-dēr'): a kind of soldier.

THE MOCK TURTLE

The man who wrote this story wrote several books which have been enjoyed by many thousands of children. The book from which this story is taken is called "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland," and tells about a little girl named Alice who ran after a white rabbit whom she saw running through the fields. He was talking to himself, and seemed to be in a great hurry. When he disappeared in a hole, Alice, following him, fell for a long distance and landed in Wonderland, a very strange place inhabited by all kinds of queer creatures that could talk. At the time this story begins, Alice is on the sea-shore of Wonderland talking to a Mock Turtle and a Gryphon.

The Mock Turtle sighed deeply, and drew the back of one flapper across his eye. He looked at Alice, and tried to speak, but for a minute or two, sobs choked his voice.

"Same as if he had a bone in his throat," said the Gryphon and set to work shaking him and punching him in the back. At last the Mock Turtle recovered his voice, and with tears running down his cheeks went on again:

"You may not have lived much under the sea." "I haven't," said Alice.

"And perhaps you were never introduced to a lobster," said the Mock Turtle.

"I once tasted-" said Alice, but checked herself, and said, "No, never."

"So you have no idea what a delightful thing a lobster quadrille is!"

"No, indeed," said Alice. "What sort of a dance is it?"

Why," said the Gryphon, "you first form into a line along the sea-shore-__""

'Two lines," cried the Mock Turtle. "Seals, turtles and so on. Then, when you have cleared the jellyfish out of the way

66

That generally takes some time," interrupted the Gryphon.

"You advance twice-""

"Each with a lobster as a partner!" cried the Gryphon.

"Of course," said the Mock Turtle, "advance twice, set to partners

"Change lobsters, and retire in the same order," said the Gryphon.

"Then, you know," the Mock Turtle went on, “you throw thethe"

"The lobsters!" shouted the Gryphon, with a bound in the air.

"As far out to sea as you can

"Swim after them!" screamed the Gryphon.

"Turn a somersault in the sea!" cried the Mock Turtle, capering wildly about.

66

Change lobsters again!" yelled the Gryphon. "Back to land again, and that's all the first figure," said the Mock Turtle, suddenly dropping his voice. And the two creatures, who had been jumping

about like mad things all this time, sat down again very quietly and sadly, and looked at Alice.

"It must be a very pretty dance," said Alice timidly.

"Would you like to see a little of it?" asked the Mock Turtle.

"Very much indeed," said Alice.

"Come, let's try the first figure!" said the Mock Turtle to the Gryphon. "We can do it without the lobsters, you know. Which shall sing?"

"Oh, you sing," said the Gryphon, "I've forgotten the words."

So they began solemnly dancing round and round Alice, every now and then treading on her toes when

they passed too close, and waving their forepaws to mark the time, while the Mock Turtle sang this, very slowly and sadly:

"Will you walk a little faster," said a whiting to a snail, "There's a porpoise close behind us, and he's treading on my tail.

See how eagerly the lobsters and the turtles all advance!

They are waiting on the shingle-will you come and join the dance?

"You can really have no notion how delightful it will be

When they take us up and throw us, with the lobster out to sea!"

But the snail replied, "Too far, too far!" and gave a look askance.

Said he thanked the whiting kindly, but he would not join the dance.

"What matters it how far we go?" his scaly friend replied, "There is another shore, you know, upon the other side.

The farther off from England the nearer is to France; Then turn not pale, beloved snail, but come and join the dance."

"Thank you, it is a very interesting dance to watch," said Alice, feeling very glad that it was over at last: "and I do so like that curious song about the whiting."

"Oh, as to the whiting," said the Mock Turtle, "you've seen them, of course?"

"I believe so," said Alice. "They have their tails in their mouths, and they are all over crumbs."