a cuirass, a piece of defensive armor, covering
the body from neck to girdle, and combining a breastplate and a back
piece. The First Empire was the Empire of France under Napoleon I,
1804-1814.

267, 1. Mac Mahon. The Marshal of France during the War of 1870.

269, 1. Mayence. The German town of Mainz, where one of the strongest
German fortresses is located.

273, 1. Invalides. The Hotel des Invalides is an establishment in Paris
where French veterans are maintained at the expense of the state. Part
of the building is a great military museum where trophies of war are
exhibited. Among them are German guns captured in the World War.
Napoleon is buried in the Dome des Invalides, a chapel in this
building.

274, 1. The Tuileries. The palace of the French kings in Paris.

275, 1. Uhlans. Prussian cavalrymen.

* * * * *

SELMA LAGERLOeF (Page 276)

Selma Lagerloef, who was born in Stockholm, Sweden, in 1858, is the
Swedish idol in literature. She has had a series of honors such as
rarely have fallen to the lot of a woman novelist, the climax of which
has been the winning of the Nobel prize.[C] This enrolls her in a small
group of authors of cosmopolitan interest--writers who belong to the
whole world. Yet she is a woman who aspires to no prominence. She is
modest, retiring, and unconscious of self.

[C] The Nobel prizes are prizes given for the encouragement of men and
women who work for the interests of humanity, and were established by
the will of Alfred B. Nobel (1833-1896), the inventor of dynamite, who
left his entire estate for this purpose. They are awarded yearly by the
Academy of Sweden, for what is regarded as the most important work
during the year in physics, chemistry, medicine or physiology,
idealistic literature, and service in the interests of peace. The
prizes, averaging $40,000 each, were first awarded in 1901.

No other Swedish writer of any period has so faithfully mirrored the
soul of the Swedish people as has Selma Lagerloef, nor has any other
writer been so worshipped by her people. In her native province her
work has sunk deep into the hearts of the people. The places and
characters she has described have become so intimately associated with
her stories and legends that the real names are constantly being
confused with the fictitious ones she has given them in her _Wonderful
Adventures of Nils_ and _Goesta Berling_. Everywhere in Sweden one finds
postal