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180

St. Nicholas League

[Dec.

A REWARD FOR BEING BAD.

By Marjorie Vershoyle Betts (page 15).

“She laughs at me.” (see poem.)

I ‘m stupid—every one says so;And surely teacher ought to know:She said it, too.I can never can do sums or spell—The right way is so hard to tell,I think, don’t you?

When teacher asked, “New York, Irene?”I said, “My fav’rite magazineIs published there.”But teacher frowned and cried, “How bad!” Perhaps she wanted me to add,“In Union Square.”

I ’d know, though, if I were like Nell:She answers all her questions well,And never tries.She langhs at me and seldom worksAt things: just slips along, and shirks—And gets the prize.

But foot is where I always stay,No matter how I toil away;So I ’d be gladIf some one of their own accordWould kindly offer a rewardFor being bad!

Winners of prize badges should preserve them very carefully. If lost they cannot be replaced.

AN INCIDENT IN RUSSIAN HISTORY.

By Elizabeth Toof (age 13).

Peter the Great was born in 1672 and died in 1725. Though he lived in a very wild and romantic time, he did many things which were of lasting benefit to his country. One of these was to plan and build the first Russian boat, at Moscow.

Many years after its completion, when the Russian navy was established, this little vessel was taken a barge to St. Petersburg, where it was received with great ceremony.

The next day it was removed from the barge and rowed out into the bay, with the Emperor and several of the high officials on board. Not far away was the entire Russian feet, arranged in the form of a semicircle. So the little vessel went back and forth across the bay, and was saluted by the discharge of three hundred guns each time it approached the fleet, and heartily cheered by the crowd on the shore.

That night the Little Grandfather, as it was so significantly called, was put into the dock at St. Petersburg, where it remained for some time.

“Home again.” by Gladys E. Chamberlain, (Silver Badge.)

THE BEST REWARD.

By Catharine H. Straker (page 17).

In fairy tales the heroes allWere fair young princes, strong and tall,Who ’d free a princess they adored,And win her as their just reward.

In learning ’t is n’t weight or sizeThat makes the pupil win a prize;It ’s just the one that stands the testOf his exam, and does his best.

CROWN JEWELS OF RUSSIA.

By Ray Murray (age 13).

In the city of St. Petersburg, near the Alexander Column, stands the Winter Palace, one of the largest buildings in the world, and during the greater part of the year it is the residence of the Czar.

It is superbly situated, for close beside it rolls the river Neva, like flood of silver.

In one of the rooms of the Winter Palace, guarded night and day, are kept the crown jewels of Russia. It would be difficult to imagine anything more significent than the imperial crown. It is in the form of a dome, the summit of which consists of a cross of large diamonds resting on an immense ruby. This ruby, with its cross, is poised on arches of diamonds, whose bases rest upon a circle of twenty-eight other diamonds, that clasp the brow of the emperor, “The crown of the empress also contains no less than one hundred_ splendid diamonds, and is, perhaps, the most beautiful mass of these precious stones ever formed into a single ornament.