Of all the birds that swim the air I'd rather be the swallow; And, summer days, when days were fair, I'd follow, follow, follow The hurrying clouds across the sky, And with the singing winds I'd fly. My eager wings would need no rest If I were but a swallow; I'd scale the highest mountain crest And sound the deepest hollow. No forest could my path-way hide; No ocean plain should be too wide. I'd find the sources of the Nile, I'd see the Sandwich Islands, And Chimborazo's granite pile, And Scotland's rugged Highlands; I'd skim the sands of Timbuctoo; Constantinople's mosques I'd view. I'd fly among the isles of Greece, The pride of great Apollo, And circle round the bay of Nice, If I were but a swallow, And view the sunny fields of France, The vineyards merry with the dance. I'd see my shadow in the Rhine Dart swiftly like an arrow, And catch the breath of eglantine Along the banks of Yarrow; I'd roam the world and never tire, If I could have my heart's desire! THE WILD MUSTANG. BY CHARLES BARNARD. All the horses we see in the streets, or along the country roads, are tame. Such a thing as a real wild horse is hardly to be found anywhere, save in certain places in Texas, California, and parts of South America. Elsewhere, the horse is tame enough, and no one can remember, neither is it told in any history or story book, when or where men first tamed him and put a bit in his mouth. A long, long time ago, all the horses were wild, but no one knows when that could have been, for, as long as men can remember, they have had tame horses, dogs, cats, elephants, camels and cattle. Now, the curious part of this is that there are wild horses both in North and South America at this day. They do not belong to any one in particular, and run wild, without saddle or bridle, all the year round. Yet they are not descendants of the original wild horses, for there was a time when their fathers were good cavalry horses, and belonged to the Spanish armies that invaded Mexico and Peru. When Europeans discovered the two continents on this side of the world, such a thing as a horse was totally unknown to the people living here, and, when they saw the Spanish cavalry, they thought the horses and riders some new kind of animal. Seeing the horses champ their brass bits, the people thought they were eating gold. So they brought lumps of gold to see them eat it. The soldiers slyly put the gold in their pockets, and said the horses had eaten it up, and the natives were simple enough to believe this wonderful story.