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| An old man named Daniel Baker, living near Lebanon, Iowa, was suspected by his neighbors of having murdered a peddler who had obtained permission to pass the night at his house. This was in 1853, when peddling was more common in the Wester... Read more of Present At A Hanging at Scary Stories.ca | Informational.ca Privacy |
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Famous StoriesThe Story Of CincinnatusThere was a man named Cin-cin-na'tus who lived on a little ... Diogenes The Wise Man At Cor-inth, in Greece, there lived a very wise man whose n... Arnold Winkelried A great army was marching into Swit-zer-land. If it should ... The Blind Men And The Elephant There were once six blind men who stood by the road-side ev... King Alfred And The Beggar At one time the Danes drove King Alfred from his kingdom, a... King Canute On The Seashore A hundred years or more after the time of Alfred the Great ... The Miller Of The Dee Once upon a time there lived on the banks of the River Dee ... Casabianca There was a great battle at sea. One could hear nothing but... The Ungrateful Soldier Here is another story of the bat-tle-field, and it is much ... Doctor Goldsmith There was once a kind man whose name was Oliver Gold-smith.... Sir Humphrey Gilbert More than three hundred years ago there lived in England a ... The Bell Of Atri A-tri is the name of a little town in It-a-ly. It is a very... Other Wise Men Of Gotham One day, news was brought to Gotham that the king was comin... The Sons Of William The Conqueror There was once a great king of England who was called Wil-l... A Laconic Answer Many miles beyond Rome there was a famous country which we ... The Ungrateful Guest Among the soldiers of King Philip there was a poor man who ... The Barmecide Feast There was once a rich old man who was called the Bar-me-cid... King John And The Abbot The 3 Questions. There was once a king of England whose... The Story Of William Tell The people of Swit-zer-land were not always free and happy ... Three Men Of Gotham There is a town in England called Go-tham, and many merry s... |
CASABIANCAThere was a great battle at sea. One could hear nothing but the roar of the big guns. The air was filled with black smoke. The water was strewn with broken masts and pieces of timber which the cannon balls had knocked from the ships. Many men had been killed, and many more had been wounded. The flag-ship had taken fire. The flames were breaking out from below. The deck was all ablaze. The men who were left alive made haste to launch a small boat. They leaped into it, and rowed swiftly away. Any other place was safer now than on board of that burning ship. There was powder in the hold. But the captain's son, young Ca-sa-bi-an'ca, still stood upon the deck. The flames were almost all around him now; but he would not stir from his post. His father had bidden him stand there, and he had been taught always to obey. He trusted in his father's word, and be-lieved that when the right time came he would tell him to go. He saw the men leap into the boat. He heard them call to him to come. He shook his head. "When father bids me, I will go," he said. And now the flames were leaping up the masts. The sails were all ablaze. The fire blew hot upon his cheek. It scorched his hair. It was before him, behind him, all around him. "O father!" he cried, "may I not go now? The men have all left the ship. Is it not time that we too should leave it?" He did not know that his father was lying in the burning cabin below, that a cannon ball had struck him dead at the very be-gin-ning of the fight. He listened to hear his answer. "Speak louder, father!" he cried. "I cannot hear what you say." Above the roaring of the flames, above the crashing of the falling spars, above the booming of the guns, he fancied that his father's voice came faintly to him through the scorching air. "I am here, father! Speak once again!" he gasped. But what is that? A great flash of light fills the air; clouds of smoke shoot quickly upward to the sky; and-- "Boom!" Oh, what a ter-rif-ic sound! Louder than thunder, louder than the roar of all the guns! The air quivers; the sea itself trembles; the sky is black. The blazing ship is seen no more. There was powder in the hold! * * * * * A long time ago a lady, whose name was Mrs. Hemans, wrote a poem about this brave boy Ca-sa-bi-an-ca. It is not a very well written poem, and yet everybody has read it, and thousands of people have learned it by heart. I doubt not but that some day you too will read it. It begins in this way:-- "The boy stood on the burning deck Whence all but him had fled; The flame that lit the battle's wreck Shone round him o'er the dead. "Yet beautiful and bright he stood, As born to rule the storm-- A creature of heroic blood, A proud though childlike form." Next: ANTONIO CANOVA Previous: WHITTINGTON AND HIS CAT
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