the right way to pray is gazing at a crucifix. On page 51 cf the same little book we have this cut and lesson:

We have in this illustration the crucifix over the bed, and the image of the Virgin Mary, with the girl kneeling before it; and then the prayer, "She is asking her to be her mother, now and forever," is calculated to teach all pupils who use the book to kneel before an image of Mary, and to pray and trust in her. It is not for me to condemn, only to chronicle this, that, even centuries from the present time, those who succeed us may be informed concerning these things. I write for the instruction. of future generations. Let us take another lesson from the same "Reader":

sweet

"We are very sad when our friends die, and it is painful to see those we love laid in the cold ground, but it is very to think about the death of those who die as Alice did. She I could not remember the time she had not prayed to Our Blessed Mother, and she was so devoted to her that when taken very sick she had no fear of death... She

had a dear little altar at her bedside, with a crucifix given her by her kind confessor, Father Keenan, and a pretty white statue of the Blessed Virgin upon it. One evening at sunset dear little Alice had just finished saying her beads, when she asked her mother to change her pillow and smooth her hair. Please send for Father Keenan.

She saw Our Holy Mother with the Divine Child in her arms, waiting to take her home. The priest came and little Alice received Our Blessed Lord into her heart, and was anointed; then she fell asleep in death like a lily closing its petals at nightfall."

I will detain the reader with but a single lesson more, taken from the "Second Reader," entitled "The Confession":

"1. I do not know why it is that so many little girls and boys have a horror of going to the confession. Surely they must forget that confession is like a plank thrown into the scatothe drowning mariner, that is the only means whereby we can obtain forgiveness of sin committed after baptism.

2. If our dear Lord and Saviour had not established this sacrament in his great compas

sion, I do not know what we should have done. Now, I once heard of a little girl who was so dreadfully afraid

of going to confession that she quite fainted away when she found herself in the confessional. On the preceding page is a picture of her, with her sister by her side trying to encourage her.

"3. Do you know why that little girl was so horrified at the thought of confession? Why, because her father and mother had been so negligent of their duty as to allow their children to grow up to the age of ten or twelve years before they sent them to confession. If they had been sent earlier they would have had no such dread of confessing their sins.

4. If you ask one of the silly little people why they are so much afraid, the answer will perhaps be, "Why, how can I tell my sins to the priest? Who knows but he may speak of them to somebody else?' Foolish little girl or boy, have you never heard that one of the saints suffered martyrdom rather than reveal what had been told him in confession?

"5. A wicked emperor, who suspected his wife of a great crime, wished to have her confessor tell whether she was guilty or not, but the saint replied that no priest could speak to any one of what was told him in confession, and that he could not even tell whether the empress was innocent or not.

6. Hearing this, the tyrant was so enraged that he ordered the holy man to be thrown into the Muldaw, which was the name of the sea near his palace. It was done accordingly, and the good St. John Nepomucine went cheerfully to death rather than disclose the secret of confession. And so it is to-day. The ministers appointed by Jesus Christ to reconcile the sinner with him are never known, never have been known, to tell what they hear in confession."

CHAPTER III.

THE NORSE DISCOVERIES.

1. TURNING now to the narrative before me, it is all important that I should insert in this place a chapter or two on the discovery of America, and more particularly of that part of America included within the boundaries of British America. In my unabridged history of the Dominion of Canada I have given, at considerable length, an account of the discovery of America by the Norsemen, the Spaniards, the French, and the English. In this work it will be expedient only to note some of the principal landmarks in the same narrative. Some time in 1877, a Toronto (Ont.) journal, in reviewing some of the earlier numbers of my previous history, indulged in some remarks intended to be humorous, criticising my account of the Norse discovery of America, and went so far as to volunteer the information to its readers that the author of the history of Canada had mistaken fable for fact. In this instance, however, the editor, and not the author, was in error. There is still a vast amount of scepticism, especially in the United States and Canada, concerning Norse literature, and many people of considerable scholarship fall into the mistake of regarding the tales of the sagas as mere traditions, or fables, unworthy the least degree of confidence; but light is rapidly breaking over this problem, and beneath its generating power Norse literature is growing some grand historical fruit, and none, perhaps, more interesting than that regarding the discovery of America.

2. A few people, mostly of Norse extraction, rush to the extreme fallacy of claiming the authenticity of the early American explorations by the Norsemen to mean something detrimental to the glory of Columbus. This idea should not be tolerated for a single minute. There is nothing in all the Norse expeditions, granting even all that the most enthusiastic Norwegian claims for them, which can take one jewel from the bright crown of Columbus. The only connection they can possibly have with the great explorer is to indicate that knowledge, industriously and honorably acquired, rather than intuition or revelation, guided him in his westward voyages of discovery. For my own part, I believe that recent historical

research has sufficiently shown Columbus to have been in possession of what knowledge the Norsemen could give him before his final resolution to explore the West was unalterably formed.

3. The Norsemen were the descendants of a branch of the Gothic race that in early times emigrated from Asia and travelled north-west and settled in what is now the central part of Norway. They were, in early times, an exceedingly bold and independent people. The rulers of England are descendants of the Norsemen. At an early date they became renowned in all Europe for their feats of navigation; but their enterprising voyages were by no means confined to Europe. In the year 860 they discovered and settled in Iceland, establishing on this island a Republic which flourished about four hundred years. Not long after the settlement of the island it contained a population of 50,000, and became the key, in connection with Greenland, to unlock the secret of the western continents. These bold Norsemen, pushing their course westward, settled in Greenland, and, in an adventurous voyage, sighted the shores of America.

4. But let us glance at the chain of events, link after link, in this account of the discovery of America by the Norsemen. In the year 986, a bold adventurer, named Erik the Red, moved from Iceland to Greenland, that wretched land which he had miscalled by that name, to induce emigration. He was accompanied by numerous friends, among whom was an Icelander, named Herjulf; the latter had a son named Bjarne, a man of great enterprise, the owner of a ship, and a large fortune. He was on a voyage to Norway when his father moved to Greenland, and on his return he resolved to follow him without unloading his ship. His men were eager to accompany him; so away they sailed and soon lost sight of Iceland. But the wind failed. Subsequently a north wind and a heavy fog set in, and they knew not whither they were drifting. This condition of the weather continued many days, during which the alarmed crew drifted far out into the sea, to the south-west. At length the sun appeared, the storm subsided, and, lo! in the horizon, not many leagues distant, they beheld the well-defined outlines of an unknown land, the continent of North America. Approaching nearer, they saw that it was without mountains, and covered with wood. Bjarne was satisfied that this was not Greenland, he knew that he was too far to the south; so he left the land on the larboard side, and sailed northward for two