All the Israelites and Philistines saw the boy make a quick motion with his sling, and heard a thud. The giant dropped his heavy spear, threw up his huge hands and fell, with a groan and a great clatter of armor, face downward on the ground. David’s first pebble had done the work. It had gone swift and straight through the eye-hole in Goliath’s brass helmet and sunk deep into his low, brutal forehead, killing him almost instantly. “And when the Philistines saw their champion was dead they arose and fled. The children of Israel returned from chasing after the Philistines, and they spoiled (looted) their tents.” [Illustration: DAVID PLAYING HIS HARP BEFORE KING SAUL. _From the painting by Schopin_] King Saul was so thankful that his own life had been saved, and that the people were spared from being slaves to the Philistines, that he made David come and live in his palace as a younger brother to his son, Jonathan. This prince was not jealous like David’s own brothers. David and Jonathan became such good friends that, though this happened nearly three thousand years ago, people say yet that two boys or men who are very friendly with each other are “like David and Jonathan.” After a time Saul and Jonathan were both killed in a battle with the Philistines. Then David became king of Israel. He proved to be one of the best of rulers. He wrote many of the Bible Psalms and played on his harp as he sang them. He planned to build a great house of worship for the God of Israel in Jerusalem, but, because he had been a man of war, he felt unworthy to do such sacred work. So he left the temple to be built by his son Solomon, the wisest king that ever ruled over Israel. HOMER, THE HERO POET OF ANCIENT GREECE Long, long ago, when the world was young, and before men began to write books, a kind of men called “bards” used to wander about the land of Greece, from town to town and from court to court, playing the harp and singing of the deeds of the heroes of Greece. As years went on there came to be very many such tales sung by the bards, and handed down from father to son. At last, there came a day when men learned to write. Then the person whom we call Homer, the earliest and greatest poet in the history of the world, gathered together these hero tales and wrote them in beautiful poetry. This work of collecting these scattered stories of the exploits and adventures of the [Illustration: HOMER, THE BLIND POET, WAS LED FROM PLACE TO PLACE BY A YOUNG BOY WHEN HE WENT TO SING HIS SONGS AND RECITE HIS WONDERFUL POEMS OF ANCIENT GREECE.] Greek gods and heroes and making them into one great hero poem, called an “epic,” was done nearly three thousand years ago.