If you will remember after whom Wednesday was named, you will not leave out the d in spelling it.

Do not forget that the days of the week are always written with capital letters.

Composition. Learn by heart and write from memory the old rhyme :

Monday's child is fair of face,

Tuesday's child is full of grace,

Wednesday's child is merry and glad,

Thursday's child is sour and sad,

Friday's child is loving and giving,

Saturday's child must work for his living,

But the child that is born on the Sabbath day,

Is blithe, and bonny, and good, and gay.

Sentence Study. ·

Thor was a god. He was a god of the Northern people. He was the god of thunder.

These sentences are. too short and abrupt to read smoothly. By combining the three into one, we have all the ideas and a better sounding sentence: "Thor was the Northern god of thunder."

Written Exercise. Combine the following groups into sen

tences:

1. He was the son of Odin. He lived in Asgard. Asgard was the home of the gods. 2. Once he went upon a journey. He went to Giants' Home. This was a dreadful land. 3. The journey was a long one. They crossed the sea. They had to make their way over great mountains. 4. Finally, they came to the city of the giants. The city had a wall about it. The great gates were closed. 5. Thor went into a great hall. There was a table in the hall. Stone thrones stood about the table. A giant sat on every throne.

Word Study."The giant said to Thor, 'When you get to our city, don't make much of yourself."" What letter is omitted where the apostrophe is used? Don't is a contraction of do not, and should be used only where do not might properly be used. We sometimes

hear people say, "He don't," but that is wrong, because we should "He do not." The correct form is "He does not," or "He

not say, doesn't."

When you are sure that you have these sentences correctly written, read them over and over until they sound familiar.

Write ten sentences, using doesn't properly.

18

HOW THOR WENT TO THE LAND OF GIANTS (Concluded)

It was now Thor's turn, and all the company looked eagerly at him, while the king asked by what wonderful feat he chose to distinguish himself.

"I will try a drinking match with any of you," Thor said shortly; for, to tell the truth, he cared not to per- 5 form anything very worthy in the company in which he found himself.

King Utgard appeared pleased with his choice, and when the giants had resumed their seats in the hall, he ordered one of his servants to bring in his drinking cup, 10 which it was his custom to make his guests drain at a draught.

"There!" he said, handing it to Thor, "we call it well drunk if a person empties it at a single draught. Some,

indeed, take two to it; but the very weakest can manage it in three."

Thor looked into the cup; it appeared to him long, but not so very large after all, and, being thirsty, he put 5 it to his lips, and thought to make short work of it, and empty it at one good, hearty pull. He drank, and put the cup down again; but instead of being empty, it was now just so full that it could be moved without spilling.

"Ha! ha! You are keeping all your strength for the 10 second pull, I see," said Utgard, looking in. Without answering, Thor lifted the cup again and drank with all his might till his breath failed; but when he put down the cup, the liquor had only sunk down a little from the brim.

15

"If you mean to take three draughts to it," said Utgard, "you are really leaving yourself a very unfair share for the last time. Look to yourself, Thor, for if you do not acquit yourself better in other feats, we shall not think so much of you here as they say the gods do in 20 Asgard."

At this speech Thor felt angry, and seizing the cup again, he drank a third time, deeper and longer than he had yet done; but when he looked into the cup, he saw that a very small part only of its contents had 25 disappeared. Wearied and disappointed, he put the cup down, and said he would try no more to empty it.

"It is pretty plain," said the King, looking round on

the company, "that Thor is by no means the kind of man we always supposed him to be.'

66

Nay," said Thor, "I am willing to try another feat, and you yourselves shall choose what it shall be."

"Well," said the King, "there is a game at which our 5 children are used to play. A short time ago I dare not have named it to Thor; but now I am curious to see how he will bear himself in it. It is merely to lift my cat from the ground -a childish amusement truly."

As he spoke a large gray cat sprang into the hall, and 10 Thor, stooping forward, put his hand under it to lift it up. He tried gently at first; but by degrees he put forth all his strength, tugging and straining as he had never done before; but the utmost he could do was to raise one of the cat's paws a little way from the ground.

"It's just as I thought," said King Utgard, looking round with a smile; "but we are all willing to allow that the cat is large, and Thor but a little fellow."

"Little as you think me," cried Thor, "who is there who will dare to wrestle with me in my anger

?"

"In truth," said the King, "I don't think there is any one here who would choose to wrestle with you; but, if wrestle you must, I will call in that old crone, Elli. She has, in her time, laid low many a better man than Thor has shown himself to be."

The crone came. She was old, withered, and toothless, and Thor shrank from the thought of wrestling with

15

20

25

her; but he had no choice.

She threw her arms round

him, and drew him toward the ground, and the harder he tried to free himself, the tighter grew her grasp. They struggled long. Thor strove bravely, but a strange feel5ing of weakness and weariness came over him, and at length he tottered and fell down on one knee before her. At this sight all the giants laughed aloud, and Utgard, coming up, desired the old woman to leave the hall, and proclaimed that the trials were over. No one of his fol10 lowers would now contend with Thor, he said, and night was approaching. He then invited Thor and his companions to sit down at the table, and spend the night with him as his guests. Thor, though feeling somewhat perplexed and mortified, accepted his invitation courteously, and 15 showed, by his agreeable behavior during the evening, that he knew how to bear being conquered with a good grace.

In the morning, when Thor and his companions were leaving the city, the King himself accompanied them without the gates; and Thor, looking steadily at him 20 when he turned to bid him farewell, perceived, for the first time, that he was the very same Giant Skrymir with whom he had met in the forest.

"Come now, Thor," said the giant, with a strange sort of smile on his face, "tell me truly, before you go, how 25 you think your journey has turned out, and whether or

not I was right in saying that you would meet with better men than yourself in Giants' Home."