English and French, and Washington entered the army. He was so faithful in all his duties that he was promoted and soon became a colonel.

Among his soldiers there were many men who were rough and profane. He was much displeased at the way in which the name of God was used by his officers and men. He never could forget God's commandment, "Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain, for he shall not be unpunished that taketh His name in vain."

He remembered also the words of our Lord, "I say

to you not to swear at all," and he determined that this wicked practice should be stopped. He ordered that any man who should swear or make use of an oath should receive twenty-five lashes. For a second offense he should be more severely punished.

Once he told his officers and men that they could have little hope of the blessing of Heaven if they insulted it by such impiety. "Add to this," said he, "it is a vice so low and mean that any man of sense detests and despises it."

Years after this, Washington once invited all of his officers to dine with him in New York. They were talking quietly and pleasantly when one man distinctly uttered an oath. Washington dropped his knife and fork as if he had been shot. "I

thought," said he, sadly, "that I had invited only gentlemen to dine with me."

This then, boys and girls, was the hero who sat under the old elm tree in Cambridge that July day. This was the one whom the army could follow and whom the people could trust. He had come to serve his country in her need.

Through defeat or success, he kept steadily to the path of duty, never doubting nor wavering for a

WASHINGTON IN COMMAND OF THE ARMY.

moment. In God he trusted, and thus was he led forward to a glorious victory, the patriot of patriots, the Father of his country, beloved by America and honored by all the world.

If in his boyhood some good angel had whispered to him of the splendid service he was to perform for his country, he could hardly have made a better preparation. He was honest, brave, truthful, obedient, never a bully nor a boaster.

As a man he was a real leader, strong, full of courage, never a grumbler nor a shirker, never trying to get the best of others but thinking only of his country's good.

In his unselfishness, in truth and in justice, he is a model for us all. The boys and girls of America can never be untrue to their country while they love and honor the splendid story of George Washington. "First in war, first in peace and first in the hearts of his countrymen."

Land of our birth, we pledge to thee
Our love and toil in the years to be,
When we are grown and take our place
As men and women with our race.

KIPLING.

LITTLE BROWN HANDS

HEY drive home the cows from the pasture,
Up through the long, shady lane,

Where the quail whistles loud in the wheat
fields

That are yellow with ripening grain.

They toss the new hay in the meadow,
They gather the elder blooms white,
They find where the dusky grapes purple
In the soft-tinted October light.

They wave from the tall rocking tree top,
Where the oriole's hammock nest swings;
And at night they are folded in slumber
By a song that a fond mother sings.

Those who toil bravely are strongest,
The humble and poor become great,
And so from these brown-handed children

Shall grow mighty rulers of state.

The of the author and statesman,
pen
The noble and wise of the land,

The sword and the chisel and palette
Shall be held in the little brown hand.

M. H. KROUT.