kept, specially for the use of the messengers. And the great buildings that I have mentioned are more than ten thousand in number, all richly furnished as I have told you. The thing is on a scale so costly and wonderful that it is hard to bring oneself to describe it.

But now I will tell you of another thing that I had forgotten, but which ought to be told while I am on this subject. You must know that by the Great Khan's orders there has been established between those post-houses at every interval of three miles a little fort with some forty houses round about it, in which live the people who act as the Emperor's foot

runners.

Every one of those runners wears a great wide belt, set all over with bells, so that as they run their bells are heard jingling a long way off. And, thus, on reaching the post the runner finds another man all ready to take his place, who instantly takes whatsoever he has in charge, and with it receives a slip of paper from the clerk who is always on hand for the purpose; and so the new man sets off and runs his three miles.

At the next station he finds his relief ready in like manner; and so the post proceeds, with a change at every three miles. And in this way the Emperor, who has an immense number of these runners, receives dispatches with news from places ten days' journey

off in one day and night; or, if need be, news from a hundred days' off in ten days and nights; and that is no small matter!

In fact, in the fruit season many a time fruit is gathered one morning in Cambaluc, and in the evening of the next day it reaches the Great Khan at Shang-tu, a distance of ten days' journey.

Moreover, there are also at those stations other men equipped similarly with girdles hung with bells, who are employed for expresses when there is call for great haste in sending dispatches to any governor of a province, or to give news when any baron has revolted, or in other such emergencies; and these men travel a good two hundred or three hundred miles in the day, and as much in the night.

I'll tell you how it stands. They take a horse from those at the station which are standing ready saddled, all fresh, and mount and go at full speed, as hard as they can ride, in fact. And when those at the next post hear the bells, they get ready another horse and a man equipped in the same way, and he takes the letter or whatever it be, and is off full speed to the third station, where again a fresh horse is found all ready, and so the dispatch speeds along from post to post, always at full gallop with regular change of horses.

And the speed at which they go is marvelous. By night, however, they cannot go as fast as by day, because they have to be accompanied by footmen

with torches, who could not keep up with them at

full speed.

Those men are highly prized. And each of them carries with him a tablet, in sign that he is bound on an important errand; so that if, perchance, his horse break down, or he meet with other mishap, whomsoever he may fall in with on the road, he is empowered to make him dismount and give up his horse. Nobody dares refuse in such a case; so that the courier hath always a good fresh nag to carry him.

-MARCO POLO.

Cambaluc': name given by Marco Polo to Peking in China.-require'ments: needs.—Khan (kän): a king, a chief.—equipped (ẽ kwipt'): furnished, fitted out.-courier (koo'ri-er): a messenger sent with haste.

A FOX TALE

When I ask children to tell me what they know about a fox, they almost always reply: "He is a little red beast, very cowardly and cunning: he kills hens, and has a very bushy tail."

This is all quite true; but Renard lives a very hard and extremely uncertain life; yet all the while is so dashing and gentlemanly, so quick and clever, that you must forgive him one or two faults.

He begins his life in a nice warm nest of hay, dry moss, and leaves, at the bottom of a deep burrow, generally in a sandy bank. His mother tends him, fondles

him, plays with him, as only a mother can; her one ambition being to keep him concealed from human sight. Once a man came by a particular burrow with his dog, hung about for some time near by, and then went away again. That night, Mother Fox took her little one up in her mouth by the nape of his neck, and set off to find a safer home. Hardly had she gone ten yards from her burrow when a dog jumped out of some bushes and gave chase.

Mother Fox flew like the wind over hill and dale, on and on, till her breath began to come in short, sharp gasps, and she felt she would soon have to turn and face her pursuer. But never once did she dream of dropping her little one and thereby saving herself; oh, no! cowardly as foxes are ever said to be, the mothers will always die fighting for their young.

Happily for this mother, however, a long stretch of bushes just then came in sight, and, summoning up all her strength, she made a last spurt, and crept into the thick of them. The dog followed for a short distance, but evidently found the thorns too sharp for his thick nose and long flapping ears, for he soon retired, leaving Mother Fox gasping, but triumphant, with her little one safe and sound.

She crept some way farther into the bushes to guard against pursuit, and there lay hidden till nightfall, when once more she stole stealthily out with her cub in her mouth, and made tracks for a hollow tree which

she knew of in the neighborhood. Reaching it in safety, she soon had a warm nest made in the tree trunk, where little Renard lay for weeks eating and sleeping by turns, till he grew into quite a respectable fox.

And what a merry little fellow he was! As playful as a kitten, and quite as active; running all round and over his poor patient mother, burying his face in the furry depths of her brush, or, if she refused him that huge enjoyment, flying round and round in a mad race after his own, till he looked for all the world like a woolly spinning top!

But life is not all play, even to little foxes, and young Renard was awakened every night by a poke in the back from his father, who wanted his company on all nightly expeditions; for, strange as it may seem to us, foxes have lessons at night and sleep through the day, instead of having lessons through the day and sleeping at night. And sometimes little Renard was good at his lessons, and sometimes he was not.

Very often, on catching sight of a pheasant or a partridge, instead of trailing his hind legs out behind him, as his father did, he would forget, and gallop straight at his prey, and yelp with excitement, expecting the bird to sit still and be caught! Not till the pheasant was whirring away high in the air would he remember that stealth and cunning alone will win a fox his daily bread.