Search -
The brother's return, and other stories, by A.L.O.E.
The brother's return and other stories by ALOE Author:Charlotte Maria Tucker Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: Jero mti) ilte eroine. JARRY was a hero, if ever there was one!" cried Theodore Vassy, after he had been for some time silently looking at a print of the... more » prince who was afterwards so famous as Henry V. The print represented the well-known anecdote of Harry's trying on the crown of England by the sick-bed of his father. " I never admire that story much," observed Theodore's eldest sister Alice, raising her eyes from a volume which she had been reading. " A son finds, as hethinks, that his father has just died; and, instead of bursting into tears (like our good Queen when she gained a throne by the death of her uncle), Prince Harry's first thought is to try on the crown! I do not wonder," added Alice with a smile, " that when the poor sick king woke from his deathlike sleep, he was little pleased with his son." "But the son, if the story be true, made such a noble excuse for himself, that even his father was satisfied," said Theodore. "Harry had not tried on the crown because he was in the least hurry to wear it, but because—" Alice shook her head, laughing. " Harry's excuses may have been clever, but I am afraid that they were but false ones," said she; " for when he was once on the throne, one crown was not enough for King Harry: he must carry swordand fire into poor France, because he wanted to have two!" " Girls know nothing, understand nothing, about heroes," said Theodore in a tone of contempt. " Girls have been heroines," replied Alice with some animation. " In this very book which I have been reading— ' Memorials of Agnes Jones '—there is an anecdote of her courage when she was a child of but eight years old which might have done credit to a boy of ten, even if he bore the name of Theodore Vassy," added the elder sister gaily. Theodore prided him...« less