ost many battles, fighting for the Scottish throne. At
length, he lay down disheartened on a heap of straw in an old hut.
While he was thinking over his troubles, he saw a spider trying to get
from one rafter to another. It failed many times, but at last
succeeded, and Bruce, taking courage at the insect's example, went on
fighting until he had secured his kingdom.

Sir Isaac Newton had on his table a pile of papers upon which were
written calculations that had taken him twenty years to make. One
evening, he left the room for a few minutes, and when he came back he
found that his little dog "Diamond" had overturned a candle and set
fire to the precious papers, of which nothing was left but a heap of
ashes. It was then that he cried, "Oh, Diamond! Diamond! thou little
knowest what mischief thou hast done!"

It is said that George Washington, when a boy, destroyed his father's
favorite cherry-tree, and, being asked about it, replied: "I cannot
tell a lie; I did it with my little hatchet."

Oliver Cromwell, when dispersing Parliament, saw the Speaker's mace
upon the table, and, pointing to it, said, "Take away that bauble!"

Just after Lord Nelson's great naval victory off Cape Trafalgar, as he
was dying from a wound received in the battle, he kept repeating the
words, "Thank Heaven, I have done my duty!"

Prince William, son of Henry II. of England, was drowned on his way
home from France. The king was so affected by his loss that "he never
smiled again."

[Fannie P. sends a complete and correct version. Willie H. Paul and
Bertha Paul straightened out all of the story except the part about
Lord Nelson. The versions sent by E.J. Smith, Charlie W. Jerome, Lulu
Way, and John N.L. Pierson, were correct, as far as they went, but they
explained only the parts that referred to King Alfred himself.]

* * * * *

Here is a little story sent to ST. NICHOLAS as a companion to "The
Story that Wouldn't be Told," in the November number:

THE STORY NOBODY KNEW.

Once there was a little story that nobody knew, and nobody could tell
it, because nobody knew it, and yet this little story wanted dearly to
be told. It used to wait about where people were telling stories, and
when a story was ended and the merry laugh went round, it would say to
itself, "Now they will certainly tell me," but they never did. So at
last this little story got quite low-spirited and wandered off by
itself out of the