In the great war between the Cavaliers and Roundheads, a brave officer of King Charles’ army was taken prisoner and shut up in a dungeon. His enemies were so angry with him that they ordered the jailer not to give him any food, so that he might be starved to death. The first day of his imprisonment a cat crept through the bars of his dungeon window and made friends with him. Every day the cat came to see him, and the poor prisoner, who was growing weaker and weaker from want of food, welcomed his visitor. At last, when he felt that he could not live another day, he saw the cat dragging something through the window. Presently he felt pussy rubbing herself against his legs. He put down his hand to stroke her and found something warm and soft lying on the ground. It was a pigeon that the cat had caught and brought to him. In some wonderful way she had discovered that he was being starved, and had done what she could to help him. When his jailer came in he showed him the bird, and begged him to cook it and let him eat it. The jailer did this, for though he had been ordered not to give his prisoner any food, he had not been told anything about cooking a bird that got to him by other means. Every day the cat brought a pigeon to her friend’s cell, and the jailer never refused to cook it. At last he was asked whether his prisoner was not dead yet. In reply he told the story of the cat’s devotion, and his masters’ hearts were so touched by it that they ordered him to let the prisoner have plenty of food. After a long imprisonment the man was released. You may be sure that he took care of the cat to which he owed so much, and which left the prison with him. STUDENT LIFE IN RUSSIA. Nowhere in the world is the student subject to such a strict, searching, and rigorous discipline as is the student in a Russian university. From his entrance into school the boy of ten or eleven years of age has to go through a long and tedious process of training, the nature of which tends more to fit him for army service than to fill the professor’s chair. In the preparatory class the boy is taught the names of the royal family in order, and the names of the entire dynasty in their rank and order. These he must know by heart. Next comes the way to render honor and salute all military officers should he meet them or speak about them. Here, also, he must learn by heart the Russian national anthem: “God Save the Czar.” Next come marching, and the various military commands. An account is kept of the physical developments of each boy, so that when he is sixteen years old it can be seen by his physical progress if he is fit for the army service. At this time the scholar receives a passport of “identification” and a book containing the rules and regulations which are to govern his life in the institution.