PERSEVERE AND PROSPER.

low, that it would not have awakened him,
if he had been asleep.

“No, Auntie, I am not at all sleepy.
Do not sing any more; you must be tired, I
am sure.” .

‘If you are not sleepy, you must tell me
how you left mamma and all the little ones,
and how papa is,—and all about the
journey.”

Arthur began to talk about these things ;
and he found that his Auntie was able to
understand a great many things that he
described as well as he could; because she
had not always been blind. She told him
a great deal more than he knew about the
Thames, and the times, long ago, when the
barbarous Danes used to come up that river
in their ships, and land on both banks,
carrying off the cattle, and sometimes the
rich people, that their friends might ransom
them. She explained how much mischief
these invaders did whenever they landed;
stealing the crops, and burning the houses ;

so that the poor Saxons began to be afraid
104