Suddenly, in the recitation room, where I am refreshing my accomplishments in some threatening lesson, I hear low murmurs and exclamations. Then a girl, very young and very pretty, catches the paper and whirls it overhead. With a laugh which tinkles through my ears to this day, she dances through the room and cries: "War's begun! _War's begun!_" An older girl utters a cry of horror, and puts her hand upon the little creature's thoughtless lips. "Oh, how _can_ you?" so I hear the older girl. "Hush, hush, _hush_!" THE TOUCHSTONE. BY ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON. The King was a man that stood well before the world; his smile was sweet as clover, but his soul withinsides was as little as a pea. He had two sons; and the younger son was a boy after his heart, but the elder was one whom he feared. It befell one morning that the drum sounded in the dun before it was yet day; and the King rode with his two sons, and a brave army behind them. They rode two hours, and came to the foot of a brown mountain that was very steep. "Where do we ride?" said the elder son. "Across this brown mountain," said the King, and smiled to himself. "My father knows what he is doing," said the younger son. And they rode two hours more, and came to the sides of a black river that was wondrous deep. "And where do we ride?" asked the elder son. "Over this black river," said the King, and smiled to himself. "My father knows what he is doing," said the younger son. And they rode all that day, and about the time of the sun-setting came to the side of a lake, where was a great dun. "It is here we ride," said the King; "to a King's house, and a priest's, and a house where you will learn much." At the gates of the dun, the King who was a priest met them, and he was a grave man, and beside him stood his daughter, and she was as fair as the morn, and one that smiled and looked down. "These are my two sons," said the first King. "And here is my daughter," said the King who was a priest. "She is a wonderful fine maid," said the first King, "and I like her manner of smiling." "They are wonderful well-grown lads," said the second, "and I like their gravity." And then the two Kings looked at each other, and said, "The thing may come about." And in the meanwhile the two lads looked upon the maid, and the one grew pale and the other red; and the maid looked upon the ground smiling. "Here is the maid that I shall marry," said the elder. "For I think she smiled upon me." But the younger plucked his father by the sleeve. "Father," said he, "a word in your ear. If I find favor in your sight, might not I wed this maid, for I think she smiles upon me?" "A word in yours," said the King his father. "Waiting is good hunting, and when the teeth are shut the tongue is at home." [Illustration: "HE WAS A GRAVE MAN, AND BESIDE HIM STOOD HIS DAUGHTER."]