Dian thrust the rifle through a hole in the side door of the barn.  At the same moment the bold Femmetia threw a stone which made the soldiers look round.  There was moonlight enough for them to see the muzzle of the gun coming through the door as though it were ready to fire at them.  They ran away in great haste, and left the chickens behind.

The silver plate and other valuable things were buried under the hearth in the house.  A lady in a neighboring house hid her gold coins in the middle of a great round ball of a pincushion.  Such ball pincushions were worn by some of the Dutch women at that time.  They hung them at their sides, tied by a bit of ribbon.  A party of English soldiers came into this lady’s house.  They were much amused to see this ball at the lady’s side.  One of them rudely cut the ribbon with his sword, and then the soldiers played ball with the cushion.  It was sent here and there about the room.  Twice it fell into the ashes.

The woman who owned it expected that it would be torn, and all her gold would spill out, but she went on with her work.  If she had shown any anxiety about the ball, the soldiers might have thought to look for her money in the cushion.  At last they gave it back to her, much-soiled, but holding its treasures safe.

A SCHOOL OF LONG AGO.

A hundred and fifty years ago there was a famous teacher among the German settlers in Pennsylvania who was known as “The Good Schoolmaster.”  His name was Christopher Dock.  He had two little country schools.  For three days he would teach at a little place called Skippack, and then for the next three days he would teach at Salford.

People said that the good schoolmaster never lost his temper.  There was a man who thought he would try to make him angry.  He said many harsh and abusive words to the teacher, and even cursed him.  But the only reply the teacher made was, “Friend, may the Lord have mercy on you.”

Other schoolmasters used to beat their scholars severely with whips and long switches.  But Schoolmaster Dock had found out a better way.

When a child came to school for the first time, the other scholars were made to give the new scholar a welcome by shaking hands with him, one after another.  Then the new boy or girl was told that this was not a harsh school, but a place for those who would behave.  And if a scholar were lazy, disobedient, or stubborn, the master would in the presence of the whole school pronounce him not fit for this school, but only for a school where children were flogged.  The new scholar was asked to promise to obey and to be diligent.  When he had made this promise, he was shown to a seat.

[Illustration.]

“Now,” the good master would say, when this was done, “who will take this new scholar and help him to learn?”

[Illustration.]