ing. He set the bravest to keep watch and ward in the tower, while he selected the most faithful priests to cleanse the sanctuary and to renew all that could be renewed. On the third anniversary of the day it had been first profaned, it was newly dedicated with songs and hymns of rejoicing. The temple and rock were strongly fortified, and this year and the next were the most prosperous in the life of the loyal-hearted Maccabeus.

3. The great enemy of the Jews, Antiochus Epiphanes, was in the mean time dying in Persia, and his son, Antiochus Eupator, was set upon the throne of Syria by Lysias, who brought a great army to reduce his subjects in Judea to obedience. The fight was again at Bethshura, near Bethlehem, and Lysias tried to take the fort that Judas had built to guard the road to Hebron. The Syrian force was made more terrible by thirty war elephants, each carrying a tower containing thirty-two men armed with darts and javelins. The whole host was spread over the mountain and in the valleys, so that it is said that their bright armor and their gold and silver shields made the mountain glisten like lamps of fire.

4. Judas pressed on to the attack, but was obliged after a hard fight to draw off and shut himself up in Jerusalem. Want of provisions had brought his men to great distress, when tidings came that an

other son of Antiochus Epiphanes had claimed the throne, and Lysias made peace with Judas, promising the Jews full liberty of worship, and left Palestine in peace.

5. This, however, did not last long. An army was again sent to subdue Judas, and a high priest appointed, who, though a Jew, favored heathen customs. This was the most disastrous thing that had happened to Judas, for Jerusalem was again lost. One more battle was gained by him, after which, finding how hard it was to make way against the Syrians, he sent to ask aid of the Roman power. But long before an answer could come, a Syrian army of twenty thousand had marched in against three thousand, which was all that Judas could then muster.

6. The hearts of his men failed before so unequal a conflict, and they gradually abandoned him till his three thousand were reduced to eight hundred, and even they would fain have persuaded him to retreat. But his heart was strong. "If our time be come," he said, "let us die manfully, and not stain our honor."

7. The battle was as sore as that which raged at Thermopylæ, and the end was the same. Judas and his eight hundred were not driven from the field, but they died upon it. Their work was

done. What is called the moral effect of such a

defeat goes further than many a victory. Those lives, sold so dearly, were the price of freedom for Judea.

8. Jonathan and Simon laid their brother in his father's tomb, and then ended the work that he had begun; and when Simon died, the Jews, once so trodden upon, were the most prosperous race in the East. The temple was raised from its ruins, and the exploits of the Maccabees had nerved the people to do or die in defence of the holy faith of their fathers.

1. Ventured, anniversary, dedicated, subjection, exploits. 2. What is meant by the "Holy City"? What weapons were used then in war? Explain "Judas pressed on," " was obliged to draw off," "the Roman power," "battle was sore," "moral effect."

XXV. SUMMER.

1. Winter is cold-hearted, spring is yea and nay, Autumn is a weathercock, blown every way: Summer days for me, when every leaf is on its tree,

2. And Robin's not a beggar, and Jenny Wren's a bride,

And the larks hang singing, singing over the wheat fields wide,

And the pendulum spider swings from side to side,

3. And blue-black beetles scurry round, and gnats fly in a host,

And furry caterpillars hasten that no time be lost,

And moths grow fat and thrive, and ladybirds arrive;

4. Before green apples blush, before green nuts sunbrown,

Why, one day in the country is worth a month in town

Is worth a day and a year

Of the dusty, musty, lag-last fashion
That days drone elsewhere.

1. Pendulum, scurry, caterpillars, gnats.

2. What is meant by "cold-hearted," "yea and nay," and "weathercock" in the first stanza? How is the activity of summer life described? What is the effect of the irregularity of the poem?

XXVI. THE WONDERS OF BEE LIFE.

1. Bees are sometimes called the heralds of civilization. No one knows how long bees have worked for man. The Bible often speaks of honey, and as far back as history extends we find that bees have been kept in hives as at present.

2. When our forefathers came to America they