AN UNKNOWN HERO.

Deep down in a mine in Wardley Colliery, Newcastle, England, there is a brave boy who deserves to be called a hero. In a situation of sudden peril he used precautions which prevented a dreadful explosion, simply by behaving with courage and presence of mind.

He noticed that his lamp flared up, a sure sign of the presence of dangerous gas. Had he hastily rushed away, his light might have burst through the wire gauze which surrounds a miner's lamp, and setting fire to the gas, caused a heart-rending accident.

The lad did nothing so silly. When questioned by the Superintendent as to how he had found out that there was gas in the neighborhood where he was at work, he replied, "Because my lamp flared."

"And what did you do then?" asked the gentleman.

"I took my pricker, and pulled down the wick, but the lamp still flared."

"Well, my boy, and how did you manage then?"

"Why, I put the lamp inside my jacket, and covered it up tight, and the light went out."

Of course, the lamp could not burn without air.

To think of the right thing to do, and then promptly to do it, boys, that is what makes the difference between a common man and a hero.

This little fellow, whose name is not mentioned—Mick, or Ted, or Jack—has in him the making of a grand man, cool, resolute, and clever.

Fortunately there was an overseer near him, who, when, he heard from the lad about his lamp, went bravely through the gas, in total darkness, and set open a door, the closing of which had forced the gas into the main-ways of the mine.

All honor to them both.