ng-point. It only meant a
distance of some fourteen miles in all, but it carried him to fame and
honour in half an hour, and the Government of his native country
(Brazil) had a gold medal struck to commemorate the event. Never before
had the power of navigating the skies been proved so thoroughly. But it
was not accomplished without several unsuccessful attempts. On one
occasion the engine stopped when the winning-post was only a few yards
away. Another time, the balloon lost gas through a faulty valve, and
some of the suspension wires slackened so much that they caught in the
whirling screw, which was beating itself into shreds. The traveller
instantly stopped the engine, and found himself the next moment drifting
dangerously near to the Eiffel Tower. It was safer under the
circumstances to let the ship sink, and a few minutes later, like a
vessel being driven on the rocks, the aeronaut's car crashed against the
roof of a large hotel, the framework of the air-ship lodging itself at
last over a deep courtyard, with its occupant in mid-air. From this
perilous position he was rescued by a party of firemen. In each of
these misadventures M. Santos Dumont reads some lesson for the
improvement of his ships, so that the day _may_ come when he will be
able to show us an aerial vessel in which even timid people might travel
without anxiety.

THE SLATE'S STORY.

Said the Pencil to the Slate,
'We've been strangers, sir, of late,
And 'tis many weeks, I fancy, since we met;
There was surely something wrong
To have parted us so long;
But _if_ I've heard the reason, I forget.'

Then the Slate looked blank, and said,
With a voice of pain and dread,
'Ah, yes! for days we've both been in disgrace,
For Master Johnny Scott
Shunned the lesson he had got,
And used us both to draw a funny face.'

'Now, of course, I needn't say
That such deeds will never pay--
A fact which Johnny realises now--
For the picture that he drew,
With a sunny smile or two,
Was rubbed out with a frown upon his brow.

'And the teacher said that day
We should both be put away
Till Johnny understood his duty plain,
And _that_ he now has done,
For I hear his laugh of fun:
The cloud has passed, and--here we are again!'

PUZZLERS FOR WISE HEADS.

16.--ANAGRAMS: NAMES OF FAMOUS MONARCHS.

1. A deer next; lag at her