“Sink or swim, live or die, survive or perish, I give my hand and my heart to this vote.” These words were declaimed in a clear, ringing voice from the platform of the Vernon High School. The speaker was a boy of fifteen, well-knit, and vigorous, with a frank, manly expression, and a prepossessing face. His dark chestnut hair waved slightly above a high, intellectual brow, and his attitude, as he faced his school-mates, was one of ease and unconscious grace. His eye flashed as he declaimed with appropriate emphasis the patriotic extract which commences in the well-known words quoted above. He had learned the orator’s secret,—to be in earnest,—and he carried his audience with him. When, at t…
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