company of torch-bearers entered. Then, the children took up their
place at the head of the coffin and began again to sing. The bearers
lifted the coffin. The King and Faith and the two Princes followed;
after them the peasants from the village, then the chief nobles and the
people, and in this order the coffin was carried to the place of the
dead.

In the course of years the wise Pakronus died, and Yestergold became
King. He made his brother Prime Minister. And the two brothers became
really what their father called them when boys--"Captains of the Golden
Age." In everything that was for the good of the people, they took the
lead. They were Captains in every battle with sin and misery. What
Goldenday did for the plague-stricken village, they strove to do for
the whole kingdom. Their Sister Faith gave herself to the building and
care of schools and hospitals. And the time in which those three lived
is described in all the histories of that kingdom as a Golden Age.

It is told by travelers who have visited the Royal city, that a statue
of the Prince Goldenday stands above the old gateway of the Abbey, and
that there are written below it the words:

"TO-DAY IF YE WILL HEAR HIS VOICE."




THE MERCHANT OF VENICE.

AS TOLD BY MARY SEYMOUR.