16.

A PATRIOTIC CREED

BY EDGAR A. GUEST

To serve my country day by day
At any humble post I may;
To honor and respect her flag,
To live the traits of which I brag;
To be American in deed 5
As well as in my printed creed.

To stand for truth and honest toil,
To till my little patch of soil,
And keep in mind the debt I owe
To them who died that I might know 10
My country prosperous and free,
And passed this heritage to me.

I must always in trouble's hour
Be guided by the men in power;
For God and country I must live, 15
My best for God and country give;
No act of mine that men may scan
Must shame the name American.

To do my best, and play my part,
American in mind and heart; 20
To serve the flag and bravely stand
To guard the glory of my land;
To be American in deed,--
God grant me strength to keep this creed.

(From _Over Here_, copyrighted by Reilly & Lee Co.,
Publishers. Reproduced by permission.)

_FROM GREAT BOOKS_

_Only a few great books can be represented in this
small section of your Reader. The extracts are
offered in the firm belief that you will wish to
read further in the volumes from which they were
taken. Good books are like good friends; the better
you know them the better you like them; and they
stand ready always to give you genuine pleasure._

[Illustration: THE LISTS AT ASHBY

(_See following page_)]

THE LISTS AT ASHBY

BY SIR WALTER SCOTT

The following is the larger part of chapter eight
of Scott's _Ivanhoe_. The hero of the novel is a
Saxon knight, Wilfred of Ivanhoe, son of Cedric.
Ivanhoe is in love with his father's ward, Rowena,
but Cedric wishes her to marry a thick-headed Saxon
thane, or lord, called Athelstane. According to
Scott, the period was one of unrest. England had
come into the possession of the Normans, and the
native Saxons hated their new masters. Richard was
king. But since he had gone to the Holy Land as a
leader in one of the crusades, his brother, Prince