Listening to him, Blue Bonnet lost all her early prejudice against the clever lad, and responding to the unbounded enthusiasm and the true orator's ring in the boyish voice, thrilled warmly to the spirit of the lines: HYMN OF THE ALAMO "Arise! Man the wall--our clarion blast Now sounds its final reveille,-- This dawning morn must be the last Our fated band shall ever see. To life, but not to hope, farewell; Yon trumpet's clang and cannon's peal, And storming shout and clash of steel Is _ours_,--but not our country's knell. Welcome the Spartan's death! 'Tis no despairing strife-- We fall, we die--but our expiring breath Is freedom's breath of life! "Here, on this new Thermopylae, Our monument shall tower on high, And 'Alamo' hereafter be On bloodier fields the battle-cry!" Thus Travis from the rampart cried; And when his warriors saw the foe Like whelming billows surge below,-- At once each dauntless heart replied: "Welcome the Spartan's death! 'Tis no despairing strife-- We fall--but our expiring breath Is freedom's breath of life!" As Sandy resumed his seat amid a hush that was a greater tribute than applause, Blue Bonnet turned to Knight with glowing eyes. "And to think those brave fellows did all that for Texas! Aren't you proud to belong to this state?" "You'd better believe I am!" "We've had some heroes in Massachusetts," Alec reminded them. "And they were all _Americans_--and so are we." Knight's bigger way of looking at the matter settled what threatened to grow into an argument. "That Sandy boy's a wonder," Blue Bonnet exclaimed. "I take back every uncomplimentary remark I ever made about him. Appearances are so deceiving." "'All that glitters isn't gold,'" said Knight, looking like his uncle as he gravely quoted this ancient maxim. "It's a pity it isn't,--Sandy would be a millionaire with that hair of his!" Blue Bonnet laughed. "I mean 'handsome is as handsome does,'" said Knight, "--that isn't quite so dangerous a quotation. I expect to see Sandy President some day, or at least a senator." "Can't you imagine the newspaper headings: 'Senator Red-top of Texas'--?" laughed Blue Bonnet. "He's hoping to go East to college this fall," Knight remarked more seriously. "It's queer," said Alec, "how all the Western boys long to go East and all the Eastern fellows think they're just made if they can come West. I'd like to trade him my chance at Harvard for his health and strength." "Can't you arrange that trifling exchange for Alec?" Blue Bonnet asked Knight. He shook his head. "Sandy won't take anybody's chances,--he's the sort that makes his own." "Some of us aren't allowed to."