A Third Class Reader Author:George Stillman Hillard 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: gate of the grave, and return to their homes. The third, of whom in life he took least heed, is represented by his good works. They attend him to the throne of t... more »he Judge; they precede him, plead for him, and find mercy and grace for him. tt—TAMERLANE AND THE ANT. Tamerlane, the scourge and terror of Asia, owed his power and success mainly to his energy and resolution ; which were qualities so marked in him that he was called by the name of the Iron. As great results often flow from trivial causes, so this monarch was accustomed to trace the origin of these traits in himself to the following incident. " In one of my first battles," said he, " fortune was against me; I was obliged to flee for my life, and conceal myself for many hours in the ruins of a deserted building. The fear of falling into the hands of my enemies, and the bitter reflection that, by this defeat, I had lost all the fruits of my former victories, weighed heavily upon my spirit. I became discouraged, and resolved to abandon all my enterprises. In this state of mind my attention was drawn to an ant, which was trying to drag up a small elevation a grain of wheat many times bigger than itself. The little creature would often get very near the top, and then fall back again. Sixty-nine unsuccessful attempts did I count; but the seventieth carried the grain to the desired point. This example gave me new courage ; and I drew from the circumstance a lesson which has often been of service to me," chapter{Section 4m.—THE KHAN AND THE DERVIS. A Tartar khan was once riding with his nobles on a hunting party. On the way he met with a dervis,t who proclaimed with a loud voice that he would give some good advice to any one who would bestow upon him a hundred pieces of gold. The khan was curious, and asked the der...« less