hall, and when Samuel Morse came upon the stage, how the
audience rose and cheered! He was led to a table on which had been
placed the first telegraph register ever used. In some clever way this
had been joined to every telegraph wire in America and to those in
foreign lands. Mr. Morse put his fingers on the keys, and after thanking
his friends for their gift, spelled out, with his own dots and dashes,
his farewell greeting; it was this--Glory to God in the highest, and on
earth peace, good will toward men!

When Jedediah Morse wrote his geographies of the United States, he
little thought the small boy Samuel, who tried so hard not to disturb
him, would one day bind all the countries on the globe together!

WILLIAM HICKLING PRESCOTT

George Washington was a daring soldier himself and of course noticed how
other men behaved on a battlefield. He liked a man who had plenty of
courage--a real hero. There was a certain Colonel Prescott who fought at
the battle of Bunker Hill whom Washington admired. He always spoke of
him as Prescott, the brave.

Colonel Prescott had a grandson, William Hickling Prescott, who was
never in a battle in his life and did not know the least thing about
soldiering, but he deserved the same title his grandfather
won--"Prescott, the brave"--as you will see.

William was born in Salem, in 1796. His father, a lawyer who afterwards
became a famous judge, was a rich man, so William and his younger
brothers and sisters had a beautiful home; and as his mother was a
laughing, joyous woman, the little Prescotts had a happy childhood.

William was much petted by his parents. His mother taught him to read
and write, but when he was very small he went to school to a lady who
loved her pupils so well that she never allowed people to call her a
school-teacher--she said she was a school-_mother_. Between his pleasant
study hours with Miss Higginson, this school-mother, and his merry play
hours at home, the days were never quite long enough for William.

When he was seven, he was placed in a private school taught by Master
Knapp. And there he was asked to study rather more than he liked. He had
loved story books almost from his cradle, and what he read was very real
to him. Sometimes, when he was only a tiny boy, he felt so sure the
goblins, fairies, and giants of which he had been reading might suddenly
appear, unless his mother were at hand to banish them, that he would
follow her from room to roo