"'Well, it's a true proverb, that every one meets his match some day; and I've met mine to-day, there's no denying it. There's the St. George for you, my boy, and right well you deserve it; for if I'm "the coolest man in the regiment," you're the coolest in all Russia!' "And so said all the rest, when the story got abroad; and the commander-in-chief himself, the great Count Diebitsch, sent for the lad, and said a few kind words to him that made his face flush up like a young girl's. But in after days he became one of the best officers we ever had; and I've seen him, with my own eyes, complimented by the emperor himself, in presence of the whole army. And from that day forth, the whole lot of us, officers and men alike, never spoke of him by any other name but _Khladnokrovni_ ('the cool-blooded one')." NOTE.--Two other versions of this story, differing somewhat in detail, are current in the Russian army; but the one in the text is the more probable, as well as the more generally received. [Footnote 1: Indecipherable in original text.] [Footnote 2: The highest Russian decoration.] SKATING BY THEODORE WINTHROP. [Never before printed.] A BOUNDING gallop is good Over wide plains; A wild free sail is good 'Mid gales and rains; A dashing dance is good Broad halls along, Clasping and whirling on Through the gay throng. But better than these, When the great lakes freeze, By the clear sharp light Of a starry night, O'er the ice spinning With a long free sweep, Cutting and ringing Forward we keep! On 'round and around, With a sharp clear sound, To fly like a fish in the sea!-- Ah, this is the sport for me! THREE SMART LITTLE FOXES. There were once three little foxes who lived in a hole in a bank. It was a large, comfortable hole, and these three little foxes (two of them were brothers and one was a sister) could lie down and put their heads out of the hole, and see what was going on in the neighborhood. One afternoon one of the brother foxes slipped out by himself for a little walk, and when he came back he called the other two, and said: "Oh, come here! I will show you something, and tell you all about it." So they all lay down close together, and looked out of the hole. "Now then," said the brother fox who had been out, "you see that fence down there?" "Oh yes," said his brother and sister. "Well, on the other side of that fence is a splendid chicken-yard. I went down there and saw it myself. I peeped through the fence. And in that yard there is a row of chicken-coops, all with chickens in." "Oh!" said the others. They began to feel hungry already.