When Bedivere returned to the king, he found there two women of angelic guise who bore Arthur away and placed him in a barge, and together they floated away over the sea; and long was it prophesied in Britain, that when the land was worthy of such a king Arthur should again float over the sea to its shore.

-As Uncle Paul closed this marvellous story, Alfred insisted on his continuing, but little Edith was asleep, and he bore her up stairs to bed; when he came down he peeped over Arthur's shoulder, and saw him holding a pen over his sword, on which could be already read EXC

CHAPTER II.

Let the lost sword be for God."-ANCIENT PROVERB.

The next evening Uncle Paul was under an engagement made just eleven months and twenty-nine days before, to play Santa Claus for the children. If folks only knew it, greater love hath no man for children than that he enact Saint Nicholas for them. How little do the delighted, fluttering little hearts know of the heated, melting form of Uncle Paul under his great buffalo robes, or of the Pauline nostril smothered and scratched under an impenetrable vizor with great woolen whiskers! In this case our victim bore his martyrdom pretty well for a while; but at last the white feather was visible over his mask; for he stooped down and whispered to his nephews and his niece, who at once paused in their mad career, whilst the little neighbors who had been invited. grew instantly apprehensive of an impending catastrophe. What was it that the faint-hearted Santa Claus whispered? Why, these words: Wouldn't you like to hear something more about that sword?

Emotions were for a while in conflict; pros and cons beat violently against each other; but Santa Claus decided the question by vanishing through a key-hole and sending down presently, in his stead, Uncle Paul. The children were doubtful of him; they thought they had certainly seen the end of that sword when it disappeared under the waves, and they put the proposition to him in that form. Uncle Paul informed them that there were more things in heaven and earth than were dreamt of in their philosophy; and having now a large audience gathered about him he proceeded as follows:

Have you not seen in your Atlas, on the map of Europe, a great

red country in the South-east, called Austria? Well, this country with the hard names for its towns and rivers, has been, and perhaps is now, the worst on the face of the earth. I suppose the country itself was good enough, and the people had hearts, but they were under the rule, from 1200 years ago down, of the most wicked of families, called the House of Hapsburgh. Each descendant of this house seemed only trying to outstrip the evil which his predecessor had done. It was like that great Dragon of which you read in the story-books, which polluted the air with its breath and which demanded that a virgin should be given it every day for breakfast. The virgin in this case was a nation: the other great powers-Russia,' England and France-through fear, agreed to give it a young nation a day, and in this way Austria devoured Bavaria, Poland, Hungary, Silesia and Italy. The measure of its iniquity seemed full when Maria Theresa, by her blandishments and promises, gained the confidence of the Hungarians, only to fasten the evils of the Hapsburgh Dragon more fully about them. Alfred. Where was St. George then?

Uncle Paul.--Well asked! St. George came to fight the Dragon-only this time he was named Frederick the Great. His mission on earth was to punish the crimes of Austria; and after the most tremendous series of battles ever known, lasting about forty years, he humbled the House of Hapsburgh, which, in the person of Maria Theresa, knelt at his feet and sued for peace. Austria, the old Dragon, lives yet, but its fangs have been all drawn out, and it gets weaker and weaker.

Arthur.--But about Excalibur ?

Ah, yes, I'm coming to that. When it was known that Frederick the Prussian monarch had resolved to set himself front to front against Austria, the day before he marched into Bohemia at the head of a hundred thousand men to take Prague, a Bavarian peasant came to his door and earnestly desired to see the monarch. The courtiers and porters refused to admit so plainly dressed a boor, who had also a formidable, rusty old sword in his hand; but the man took his seat on the door and would not leave. Frederick, hearing some altercation, came to the door and found the peasant suffering indignities from his servants; sternly reproving the latter, he asked the peasant what he wished. The man held out the sword, and said, Sire, I am a poor man, and make a scanty living by fishing. One day, as we were drawing in our

nets, we found therein this old sword, which, though it be rusty, has some rich jewels in its hilt. And when I heard that a Savior had risen up to shield us from our oppressor, I traveled day and night to lay this sword at his feet." The king took the sword and proffered a reward to the peasant, but he would not receive it. He took the sword into his palace and examined it closely. On it he could only make out the letters EXCAL- What that meant, I leave you to guess. The king had the sword brightened up and made new, and placed it at his side. With him also it never failed! With it he conquered an immense kingdom; and though there are many things that may be said against Frederick the Great, it can never be denied that he built up the best and happiest kingdom which the world had ever seen. He had a noble idea of royalty it was he that said, "A king is only the first of subjects; that is, he should feel himself as much under a Higher Law, as his subjects are under his Law. When Peace came, he gave the corn which had been provided for the next campaign to feed the destitute; he abolished burthensome taxes on the people ; he lived as plainly as a peasant, stripped his palace of rich ornaments, and even wore threadbare garments, that the agriculture and industry of his nation might be advanced, and that there should be work and bread for all! He encouraged literature, and was an able writer himself; he allowed religious freedom throughout his dominions: a man could think what he pleased, and speak or print what he pleased, even though he spoke or wrote against the king himself. No need that such a king should ever fear his people's liberty!

What was done with Excalibur? Why, I will tell you. Frederick, having now established the nations on a basis of freer nationality, having conquered a European peace, looked over the Ocean and saw some brave colonies fighting against their oppressor as the nations which he had relieved had fought against Austria. He watched with interest, and then in various ways helped George Washington and his army to carry forward to a successful issue the American Revolution. And when our Revolution was over, and Washington, with the blessings of a free and happy people crowning his head with a coronet brighter than king ever knew, retired to Mount Vernon, Frederick the Great sent across the Atlantic his sword, and when it was placed in the hands of Washington it bore these words: From the oldest general in the

world to the greatest. So Excalibur, the sword which in the hand of its true king could carve iron, steel, and even despotism, was hung up in Washington's cabinet in Virginia.

CHAPTER III.

"That sword he [John Brown] held in his own hand during the whole of Monday."-COL. WASHINGTON'S TESTIMONY.

It was just one year after the above story or stories were told, that Uncle Paul again returned to Kenmore to spend the Christmas holidays-these last holidays. And scarcely were the greetings over, scarcely was the old man comfortably seated in his chair ere he began to ache for the children to ask him for another story! Now was this not strange in Uncle Paul? Were all his former evasions affectations, or was he getting garrulous, as old men sometimes will? However this might be, Uncle Paul was certainly fishing for a story-proposition, whilst the children looked askance at their parents, and steeled their tongues against asking for one.

N. B.-Mamma had said in the morning, "Children, remember, now, you are to let Uncle Paul have some peace, and must not climb over him and make him tell you a story as soon as he comes. Mind, now, the first that disobeys goes to bed!"’

But, ah, what proud triumph lighted up each little eye when the old gentleman, having thrown out hints in vain, at length burst out plainly with, "Arthur, wouldn't you like to hear more about EXCALIBUR ?"

A yell, a rush, and Uncle Paul's arms were folded about the youngsters, though now they were large enough to be consigned to ottomans, etc., about his feet, rather than to his somewhat failing knees. The paternal Edgarton was conservative, and suspected that Uncle Paul's story this time would not be altogether what he could desire. Uncle Paul glanced at him with a malicious artlessness, which sheathed a cunning twinkle, and proceeded. "Let's see, where did we leave Excalibur ?"

Arthur and Alfred (in chorus).-Hung up at Mount Vernon. Uncle Paul.-Ah, yes: well, it didn't stay there! Wouldn't you say, boys, that a sword which was sent into this world to fight for the weak against the strong, for the right against the wrong, a sword which could only be worthily wielded by such men as King Arthur, and Frederick the Great, and George Washington,

a sword which had twice come forth from the bottom of the sea to strike for freedom-would you not think, boys, that such a sword was a dangerous one to have in a neighborhood where innocent men and women were held in chains, their children taken from their hearts and sold, and where there were no knights to stand for them?

Yes? Well, so it turned out in this case. Washington, the Father of his country, could look with pride on that trusty Excalibur, for he loved freedom, and whilst living, treated the Africans which he had inherited with kindness; when dying, he set them all free! He thought he was leaving a nation which would follow his example; but, instead of that, they found that slaves could work well and sell well, and they stole more of them from their own land, and gave to the masters the control of our whole country. Then Excalibur began to get uneasy, and went a little way up, where it could be near and watch the meaner swords made to fasten chains, not to "carve" them asunder. The old Austrian Dragon seemed to have reäppeared in American SlaveryArthur (interrupting).—Uncle Paul, is there no Saint George in America?

Uncle Paul.-I'm not so sure that there was not, my boy. Let me tell you. There was an old man named John Brown, whose parents had brought him up amidst the free airs and the bountiful sunlight of nature, and taught him the simple faith of love to God and man. This old man studied the Holy Bible day and night, and resolved to live up to the best law of life that he could find in it. But one can not read such great sayings as are in that Book with their eyes or lips; the very light of the sun is not clear enough. to read it by; it takes a life to read it. So old John Brown lived what he knew he fed the hungry, clothed the naked, and ministered to the afflicted; and as he so lived by one rule, a light shone upon the next. One day he came to ponder deeply these two sen

tences in that Book:

"Whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them.” "Remember those who are in bonds as bound with them."

Then he called together his household, and said: "My wife, my daughters, and my sons, suppose that we were all this day held in bonds by a master who could tear us apart at any moment, who could make of us the victims of his own or others' lust, or make us servile instruments of his basest deeds: would we no