she laughed again. She thought of the instructions of her old teacher. She was not falling, but following his rules. One instant she flung apart her arms as if summoning the assistance of the wind. Then, folding 5 those strong little arms across her breast, she settled to the long swooping flight which a swallow dares when it sails in perfect grace across the summer sky. There was a shout of admiration from the crowd. 10 As she shot past the pink, leaving the other colors far behind, the young Count rose and doffed his hat. Katinka saw it and her pulses beat with rapture. She felt the keen intoxication of success. Her yellow hair stood out like a halo about the 15 childish face. Shouts of "Hurrah for the green!" heard on every side, filled her with ecstasy. All alone, the others vainly following, she reached the turning point, round which she swooped with such a graceful curve that the applause rose to a whirl- 20 wind of sound. She veered past the blue flag, which marked the half distance of the race, and came back toward the Count's sleigh with a movement easy and swift. The Count himself had not received a more en- 25 thusiastic greeting than was given to her as she came skimming along, like the very swift spirit of the ice. As she drew near the Count's sleigh, stationed at the goal, she turned her face upward to receive the smile she had coveted. 5 The Count not only smiled; he beckoned to her with his hand, and while the crowd yelled itself hoarse, Katinka passed the goal and won the race. Then, with a gentle turn, and with no sign of breathlessness or fatigue, she floated quietly on to 10 where the Count awaited her. But just before she reached the sleigh there was a sudden movement in front of the horses, and a little toddling girl ran unsteadily across the ice toward her, while a startlingly familiar voice cried 15 out: "Katinka! Katinka! Sister Kat! Me knewed you. Trudchen said you was a boy, but me saw you putting on Joost's clothes." Katinka's brain went round. There were two guardians of the fête standing beside the Count's 20 sleigh. "Ach!" exclaimed one of the men; "the child is a girl!" Flulin's babbling chatter, as she hung about her sister's waist, left no room for mistake as to this fact. Katinka, completely awed by the situation, said nothing. She held Flulin by the 25 hand and allowed the men to draw them nearer to the Count, who signed to them to approach. 66 "Your Highness," said one of the guardians, we have discovered that this racer is a girl." "A girl!" cried the Count. "Then, by St. Christopher, she should teach the lads! How is this?" he added, turning to Katinka. Katinka's only answer was a timid lifting of her lids. The crowd, seeing her in conversation with the Count, and not knowing what happened, began again its shouts of: "The green! Hurrah for the green!" The Count, as he looked toward the spectators, caught sight of one of the posters placed on a house near by. He raised his hand for silence. 10 "The race is declared to be for contestants between the ages of ten and thirteen," he an- 15 nounced. "The sex of the racer is not mentioned, as you see. I think I give the unanimous decision of the crowd when I say that the purse is hers. Take it, my gallant girl," he added, holding out the coveted trophy; "you have won it not only 20 fairly but gloriously. May you do as well in every race that awaits you in life." The band struck up a gay, triumphant air, and the voices of the people rose once more in enthusiastic cries of "The green! the green! Three 25 cheers for the green! Flushed with victory, Katinka lifted Flulin in her arms and, with the precious purse clasped tight, was making her way through the crowd when she heard a pitiful little sound and Trudchen clutched 5 her arm. 66 "O Katinka! forgive me," she sobbed. "It was all my fault. Mother was asleep and Flulin promised to be good if I would bring her, but she ran away from me when she saw you, and I dared 10 not follow." “Trudchen, you did very, very wrong," said Katinka, trying hard to be stern. "You ought not to have come. But how can I be anything but good to you when the Count has been so good 15 to me?" Thus ended the memorable race by which Katinka won the means of keeping all her dear ones in comfort. incentive: spur. unparalleled unequaled.—exultant: proud. florin: the Dutch florin was worth forty cents.-musing: thinking. — quay: a wharf. suppressed: hidden. fealty: loyalty. sumptuous: costly. - ecstasy: delight. INCIDENT OF THE FRENCH CAMP ROBERT BROWNING ROBERT BROWNING (1812-1889), an English poet who alone disputes with Tennyson the first place among Victorian poets, was born at Camberwell, a suburb of London, and was educated at London University. In his fourteenth year he picked up, in a bookstore in London, a copy of Shelley's poems. He was so fas- 5 cinated by the beauty of Shelley's lines that he was led to become a poet himself. In his twenty-first year he published Pauline, his first long poem. This was followed, in 1835, by Paracelsus, a poem of singular beauty as well as of singular defects. From that date until his death, fifty-four years later, his vigorous pen 10 was seldom at rest. In 1846 he married a fellow-poet, Elizabeth Barrett, whose fame at that time was greater than his own. They made their home in the beautiful Italian city of Florence, and there, happy in their art and happy in their love, they lived until Mrs. Brown- 15 ing's death in 1861. Then Browning returned to England to live. Browning is at his best in his shorter poems. Many of these are poetic gems, rare in beauty and vigor. Next to Tennyson, we hardly know of another English poet who can be compared with Browning. — E. P. Whipple. You know we French stormed Ratisbon: A mile or so away, On a little mound, Napoleon Stood on our storming-day; As if to balance the prone brow Oppressive with its mind. 20 |