making them quarrel about it.
2. The good old man, one day, called his sons around him.
He laid before them seven sticks, which were bound
together. He said, "I will pay a hundred dollars to the one
who can break this bundle."
3. Each one strained every nerve to break the bundle.
After a long but vain trial, they all said that it could not be
done.

116 ECLECTIC SERIES.
4. "And yet, my boys," said the father, "nothing is easier
to do." He then untied the bundle, and broke the sticks, one
by one, with perfect ease.

5. "Ah!" said his sons, "it is easy enough to do it so;
anybody could do it in that way."
6. Their father replied, "As it is with these sticks, so is it
with you, my sons. So

THIRD READER. 117
long as you hold fast together and aid each other, you will
prosper, and none can injure you.
7. "But if the bond of union be broken, it will happen to
you just as it has to these sticks, which lie here broken on the
ground."

Home, city, country, all are prosperous found,
When by the powerful link of union bound.