me, back over the frontiers.

[Illustration]

LXXXVII

PORUS SAVED BY HIS ELEPHANT

King Porus, in a battle with Alexander the Great, being severely
wounded, fell from the back of his elephant. The Macedonian soldiers,
supposing him dead, pushed forward, in order to rob him of his rich
clothing and accoutrements; but the faithful elephant, standing over the
body of its master, boldly drove back every one who dared to come near,
and while the enemy stood at bay, took the bleeding Porus up with his
trunk, and placed him again on his back.

The troops of Porus came by this time to his relief, and the king was
saved; but the elephant died of the wounds which it had so bravely
received in the heroic defense of its master.

[Illustration]

LXXXVIII

A HUMANE SOCIETY

A large colony of rooks had lived for many years in a grove on the banks
of a river. One quiet evening the idle birds amused themselves with
chasing one another through endless mazes, and in their flight they made
the air sound with many discordant noises. In the midst of this play, it
unfortunately happened that one of the rooks, by a sudden turn, struck
his head against the wing of another. The wounded bird instantly fell
into the river. A general cry of distress followed. The birds hovered
with every expression of anxiety over their distressed companion.

Encouraged by their sympathy, and perhaps by the language of counsel
known to themselves, he sprang into the air, and by one strong effort
reached the point of a rock that projected into the river. The joy
became loud and universal; but, alas! it was soon changed into notes of
sorrow, for the poor, wounded bird, in trying to fly toward his nest,
dropped again into the river, and was drowned.

[Illustration]

LXXXIX

A MOTHER WATCHING HER YOUNG

The following singular instance of the far-sighted watchfulness of the
mother turkey over her young is told by a French priest. "I have heard,"
he says, "a mother turkey, when at the head of her brood, send forth the
most hideous scream, without being able to see any cause for it. Her
young ones, however, the moment the warning was given, hid under the
bushes, the grass, or whatever else seemed to offer shelter or
protection. They even stretched themselves at full length on the ground,
and lay as motionless as if dead.

In the meantime, the mother, with her eyes directed upward, kept up her
cries and screaming as before. On