The Maccabaean

[FE is published in editions of several volumes, (seven, more or less) and each period of life forms one. You must penetrate the first to its very end, before you can place it away, and begin the second.—

Boyhood is issued in a volume of its own, and in the last chapter you ought to find dreams of a noble manhood, which ore born in the soul of the boy. These dreams are always lacking in the sharpness of reality, and therefore, they are as free, and as glorious, and as powerful, as the boy's imagination can make them.

Grieve with those who are compelled to read finis to boyhood's volume, before this dream .enters their soul. Grieve with those who end boyhood before they have become enthusiasts. Grieve with those who enter manhood and lack the afflatus to hope.

Before Aleck was given the cue to enter the world of stern reality, (volume two), when he was thirteen or less, he would speak of his career, and Joey and he discussed careers, as if they were an entrance into an inner room, as if a career were enrolling oneself in another school. Writers were always speaknig of the careers of boys. There were advertisements in the weeklies, offering openings to boys. Any boy possessed of the proper qualifications, could easily earn his way through college, by selling this or that magazine. Any boy with the proper qualifications, could easily earn a fair livelihood by selling stamps or buying them for collectors. But Joey and Aleck put little trust in these offers, for to them it seemed as if there was but one career in the world worth fighting for, worth dreaming about. That was their own, and there could be no other career for any boy. They knew what they were going to do.

When they read the Three Guardsmen, they were going to the swashbucklers, with swords on hips and King's commissions in their ipockets. (A King's commission meant a ticket or license to enter the great melodrama of life in which there are no penalties).

Then there was Midshipman Easy, with his "Heave-ho, my hearties," and "Belay" and they were going to be sailors. They turned back to Oliver Optic to read his description of boats, and the way to manage them. They read of Captains Kidd and Snarleyyow and the Flying Dutchman and they wore the colors of Commodore Perry. They were going to be sailors; but they never went further than manipulating a row-boat.

Then they became admirers of Robin Hood, and that was a career that had no limitations. Robin Hood was the real hero of "Ivanhoe," he was the man whos aim was deadly; with due respect to his rights he courageously defied the King, and in spite of that defiance, was eventually pardoned. That was a career for wou! Your whole life was spent taking from the rich and giving to the poor; rescuing imprisoned damsels and living on venison. The boys wandered whether venison was Kosher. That was always the trouble. Whenever they hit upon a career, the question as to whether they could secure Kosher food, was the most perplexing and soon it was evident that to be Robin Hood, and to live in the woods and to shoot deer, was not meant for a Jewish boy, for shooting deer made the venison Trefa, and you could not slaughter a deer first and then shoot it.

Nevertheless, one season Aleck and Joey- as they grew older, they were drawn closer to each other —finally decided that they