,
Last service for your lord:
I ask a soldier's grave, good knights;
I'll dig it with my sword.
My horse's reins tie fast to yours--
A friend on either hand--
Then ride straight on to where you see
The English archers stand."

They kissed their King most tenderly,
Then three as one they went
Down to the field of certain death
With proud and glad content.
They cut a path to where Prince Charles,
The King's son, stood at bay:
'Twas spirits, and not flesh and blood,
For honor fought that day.

The three white plumes above the gloom
Gleamed like a snowy wing;
Victors and vanquished paused to watch
The blind Bohemian King.
Pierced oft by arrows, stained with blood,
The Soldan's plumes still wave,
Until Bohemia's sword had cut
Honor's unsullied grave.

Next day, when English heralds sought
Over the fatal field
Trampled lilies and flags of France,
They found upon his shield
The blind old King of Bohemia,
Son and friends by his side;
But torn and stained the snowy plumes
That long had been his pride.

Then said the Black Prince over him,
"O knight, the bravest, best,
Thy plumes are dyed in hero's blood--
Henceforth they are my crest!"
And still they wave o'er England's crown,
And teach the young and brave,
When all is lost but honor, then
Valor digs Honor's grave.

FOOTNOTES:

[1] _Froissart's Chronicle_, vol. i., p. 164.

[Illustration: JANUARY.]

[Illustration: FEBRUARY.]

[Illustration: MARCH.]

[Illustration: APRIL.]

[Illustration: MAY.]

[Illustration: JUNE.]

[Illustration: JULY.]

[Illustration: AUGUST.]

[Illustration: SEPTEMBER.]

[Illustration: OCTOBER.]

[Illustration: NOVEMBER.]

[Illustration: DECEMBER.]

THE MONTHS.--BY KATE GREENAWAY.

SUMAC HUNTING.

BY J. ESTEN COOKE.

Anybody visiting the valley of Virginia in the autumn will be sure to
notice, after sunset, all along the slopes of the Blue Ridge Mountains,
little glimmering lights like stars. These are the fires in front of the
small tents of the sumac hunters, who, after gathering sumac all day
long, are laughing and talking with their wives and children as they eat
their suppers before lying down to sleep.

Sumac is a very pretty plant or shrub which grows a few feet high only,
and has beautiful blood-red leaves springing from a delicate shoot, or
bough. The stalk is smooth,