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Show HOW I V AX WON IVAN was a poor boy, but a very ambitious one. His father was a blacksmith, and when the great lords would come by In their armor to have their steeds shod, Ivan would sit by the forge and gaze in wonder at their handsome array. One day Lord Raymond rode up with his beautiful daughter accompanying accom-panying him on a pony. Ivan admired ad-mired the young girl as she sat waiting wait-ing for her father's horse to be shod. "Have you heard the news, father?" asked Ivan's mother of her husband the next morning at breakfast. "Lord Raymond was last night called to the war by our king, and at noon today he and his 000 men will ride forth." i "But who will defend the castle if j old Earl Edmond comes against It In j the lord's absence?" asked the father. ' "I think there is small fear of that," j replied the wife: j So at uoon the long line of prancing steeds, headed by the lord, rode down the road and was soon lost to sight. One September afternoon Ivan walked to the summit of a hill, from which he could see the surrounding country for miles. A flickering light caught his eye. There was a long procession pro-cession of men winding across the valley, and all were clad in glittering armor. They were keeping close to the shadow of the woods, but when they crossed the sunlit path their swords flashed back the light brightly. At the head rode a huge man on a black horse and nearby another carried car-ried a banner on which was a black eagle. "It Is old Earl Edmond!" exclaimed '"an. "He Is coming to attack the lord's cnstle In the absence of the owner." Then far below Ivan noticed that not far from the cnstle was a large bridge, and below it rushed a mighty river. "The earl will camp on this side of the big bridge this evening in the woods," said the boy aloud. "And by morning will come over to take the castle. If the timbers holding it can be cut through tonight the wicked men will fall into the river." With this he ran to his father's shop and got an ax. Within an hour he was at the bridge and had run to the other side, near the castle. Selecting Se-lecting one of the big, strong posts which upheld the weight, he began to cut, and for two hours he kept at the work. At last the beam was easily broken in two parts. He then took the other post, and after three long hours of hewing and resting, he managed man-aged to also sever that The bridge would now fall apart were anyone to walk on It- But by placing several planks over the hole Ivan made It look as if nothing had been done. At dawn he heard the tramp of men. The heavy horses trotted on to the bridge, while Ivan hid In the bushes at the far end. At the head still rode Earl Edmond on his black charger. He neared the side leading to the casUe. " His horse came over the plank, it gave way and down steed and rider plunged into the river. The soldiers behind him could not stop their horses, and hundreds hun-dreds tumbled Into the water after their leader. Suddenly the sound of a bugle shrilled on the air and Ivan saw coming com-ing toward him along the river bank the same Lord Raymond who liad marched away two months before. Ivan told the lord bow he had defeated de-feated the wicked earl and how the castle was now saved from any attack by the enemy. "Well done, my lad 1" cried the lord. "You have done better than I could have with all my men. You must come to Uie castle and be part of my guard, so when you are a man you can be a knight." So Ivan took up his abode at the castle. Years afterward, when he was married to Adele and reigning over the surrounding land, he had a great pillar of stone erected at the bridge to mar the spot where one ax defeated defeat-ed hundreds of men. (Copyright.) |
