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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of School Reading by Grades, by James Baldwin
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: School Reading by Grades
+ Sixth Year
+
+Author: James Baldwin
+
+Release Date: July 26, 2011 [EBook #36864]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: UTF-8
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SCHOOL READING BY GRADES ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Larry B. Harrison and the Online Distributed
+Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+ SCHOOL READING BY GRADES
+
+ _SIXTH YEAR_
+
+ BY
+ JAMES BALDWIN
+
+ [Illustration]
+
+ NEW YORK CINCINNATI CHICAGO
+ AMERICAN BOOK COMPANY
+
+
+
+
+ COPYRIGHT, 1897, BY
+ AMERICAN BOOK COMPANY.
+
+ SCH. READ. SIXTH YEAR.
+ W. P. 12
+
+
+
+
+PREFACE.
+
+
+The pupil who is in his sixth year at school should be able to read
+quite well. He should be able to pronounce at sight and without
+hesitation all new or unusual words; and when reading aloud, his tones
+should be so clear, his enunciation so faultless, and his manner so
+agreeable that his hearers shall listen with pleasure and shall have a
+ready understanding of whatever is being read. He is now prepared to
+devote more and more attention to literary criticism--that is, to the
+study of the peculiarities of style which distinguish any selection,
+the passages which are remarkable for their beauty, their truth, or
+their adaptation to the particular purpose for which they were
+written. The habit should be cultivated of looking for and enjoying
+the admirable qualities of any literary production, and particularly
+of such productions as are generally recognized as the classics of our
+language. While learning to distinguish between good literature and
+that sort of writing which, properly speaking, is not literature at
+all, the pupil's acquaintance with books is enlarged and extended. He
+learns to know what are the best books and why they are so considered;
+and he acquires some knowledge of the lives of the best authors and of
+the circumstances under which certain of their works were produced.
+
+The present volume is designed to aid the learner in the acquisition
+of all these ends. The selections are of a highly interesting
+character, and illustrate almost every variety of English composition.
+To assist in their comprehension, many of the selections are
+introduced or followed by brief historical or bibliographical notes.
+Hints also are given as to collateral, or supplementary readings on a
+variety of subjects. To assist the pupil still further to enlarge his
+acquaintance with books and authors, additional notes, literary and
+biographical, are given in the appendix; here also may be found
+several pages of brief notes explanatory of difficult passages,
+unusual expressions, and historical references, such as might
+otherwise be stumbling stones in the way of the learner. The numerous
+portraits of authors is another important feature designed to add to
+the interest and beauty of the book, and to assist the pupil to a more
+intimate acquaintance with the makers of our literature. Most of the
+full-page pictures are reproductions of famous paintings, and these,
+while serving as illustrations of the text which they accompany, are
+designed to introduce the learner to some of the masters of art also,
+and perform the more important office of cultivating and enlarging his
+æsthetic tastes and sympathies.
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS.
+
+
+ PAGE
+
+ Two Ways of Telling a Story _Jean Ingelow_ 7
+
+ The Death of the Flowers _William Cullen Bryant_ 18
+
+ The Great Volcanic Eruption _J. T. Van Gestel_ 20
+
+ The Return of Columbus _Washington Irving_ 25
+
+ What the Sunbeams do _Arabella B. Buckley_ 29
+
+ Horatius at the Bridge _Thomas Babington Macaulay_ 32
+
+ How Sir Francis Drake sailed
+ round the World _James A. Froude_ 44
+
+ A Brave Rescue and a Rough Ride _Richard D. Blackmore_ 51
+
+ The Glory of God _From the Psalms of David_ 65
+
+ The Battle of Bannockburn _Sir Walter Scott_ 66
+
+ The Soldier's Dream _Thomas Campbell_ 75
+
+ Lord Ullin's Daughter _Thomas Campbell_ 76
+
+ Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata 78
+
+ The Story of Tempe Wick _Frank R. Stockton_ 83
+
+ Life in Norman England _W. F. Collier_ 89
+
+ The Romance of the Swan's Nest _Elizabeth Barrett Browning_ 98
+
+ A Patriarch of the Olden Time _From the "Book of Job"_ 102
+
+ How Cortés entered the City of
+ Mexico _William H. Prescott_ 104
+
+ The Skylark _James Hogg_ 112
+
+ The Mystery of the Tadpole _George Henry Lewes_ 113
+
+ The Glove and the Lions _Leigh Hunt_ 119
+
+ True Growth _Ben Jonson_ 120
+
+ The Shipwreck _Charles Dickens_ 121
+
+ The Happy Valley _Dr. Samuel Johnson_ 135
+
+ The Pass of Killiecrankie _W. E. Aytoun_ 138
+
+ Summer Rain _Henry Ward Beecher_ 143
+
+ Life in the Backwoods _William Dean Howells_ 146
+
+ How they besieged the Town _Charles Reade_ 153
+
+ Lochinvar _Sir Walter Scott_ 163
+
+ On a Tropical River _Charles Kingsley_ 165
+
+ The Flag of Our Country _Robert C. Winthrop_ 173
+
+ The High Tide on the Coast of
+ Lincolnshire, 1571 _Jean Ingelow_ 175
+
+ The Story of Thomas Becket
+
+ I. His Life _Anonymous_ 181
+
+ II. His Death _Arthur Penrhyn Stanley_ 185
+
+ The Pilgrims (1620) _Edward Everett_ 192
+
+ The Landing of the Pilgrims _Felicia Hemans_ 195
+
+ Patriotism _William Cowper_ 196
+
+ The Robin _Charles Conrad Abbott_ 197
+
+ Motions of Birds _Gilbert White_ 200
+
+ Origin of Rivers _John Tyndall_ 202
+
+ Address at the Dedication of
+ Gettysburg Cemetery _Abraham Lincoln_ 205
+
+ The American Flag _Joseph Rodman Drake_ 206
+
+ The Last Fight in the Coliseum,
+ A.D. 404 _Charlotte M. Yonge_ 208
+
+ The Passing of Arthur _Alfred Tennyson_ 216
+
+ THE PRINCIPLES OF GOOD READING 225
+
+ AUTHORS AND BOOKS 228
+
+ EXPLANATORY NOTES 235
+
+
+FULL-PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS.
+
+ ARTIST
+
+ Columbus at Barcelona _R. Balaca_ 24
+
+ The Defense of the Bridge _A. I. Keller_ 37
+
+ Ruins of a Norman Castle _From a photograph_ 90
+
+ The Lions _Rosa Bonheur_ 118
+
+ The Shipwreck _A. Marlon_ 129
+
+ Canterbury Cathedral _From a photograph_ 187
+
+ The Departure of the Mayflower _A. W. Bayes_ 194
+
+ The Last Prayer--Christian
+ Martyrs in the Coliseum _J. L. Gerome_ 212
+
+
+PORTRAITS OF AUTHORS.
+
+ Washington Irving Title-page
+
+ Thomas Babington Macaulay 32
+
+ James Anthony Froude 50
+
+ Thomas Campbell 76
+
+ Frank R. Stockton 83
+
+ Elizabeth Barrett Browning 98
+
+ William H. Prescott 104
+
+ George Henry Lewes 113
+
+ Leigh Hunt 119
+
+ Charles Dickens 121
+
+ Dr. Samuel Johnson 135
+
+ Henry Ward Beecher 143
+
+ William Dean Howells 146
+
+ Charles Reade 153
+
+ Charles Kingsley 165
+
+ Jean Ingelow 175
+
+ Arthur Penrhyn Stanley 191
+
+ Edward Everett 192
+
+ John Tyndall 202
+
+ Abraham Lincoln 205
+
+ Joseph Rodman Drake 206
+
+ Charlotte M. Yonge 208
+
+ Acknowledgments are due to the following persons for their
+ courteous permission to use valuable selections from their works:
+ Dr. Charles C. Abbott for the essay on "The Robin"; Mr. William
+ Dean Howells for his sketch of "Life in the Backwoods"; The J. B.
+ Lippincott Company for the selections from Prescott's "Conquest of
+ Mexico" and Abbott's "Birdland Echoes"; and Mr. Frank R. Stockton
+ for "The Story of Tempe Wicke."
+
+
+
+
+SCHOOL READING.
+
+SIXTH YEAR.
+
+
+
+
+TWO WAYS OF TELLING A STORY.
+
+
+I.
+
+Who is this? A careless little midshipman, idling about in a great
+city, with his pockets full of money.
+
+He is waiting for the coach: it comes up presently, and he gets on the
+top of it, and looks about him.
+
+They soon leave the chimney pots behind them; his eyes wander with
+delight over the harvest fields, he smells the honeysuckle in the
+hedgerow, and he wishes he was down among the hazel bushes, that he
+might strip them of the milky nuts; then he sees a great wain piled up
+with barley, and he wishes he was seated on the top of it; then they
+go through a little wood, and he likes to see the checkered shadows of
+the trees lying across the white road; and then a squirrel runs up a
+bough, and he can not forbear to whoop and halloo, though he can not
+chase it to its nest.
+
+The other passengers are delighted with his simplicity and childlike
+glee; and they encourage him to talk to them about the sea and ships,
+especially Her Majesty's ship "The Asp," wherein he has the honor to
+sail. In the jargon of the sea, he describes her many perfections,
+and enlarges on her peculiar advantages; he then confides to them how
+a certain middy, having been ordered to the masthead as a punishment,
+had seen, while sitting on the topmast crosstrees, something
+uncommonly like the sea serpent--but, finding this hint received with
+incredulous smiles, he begins to tell them how he hopes that, some
+day, he shall be promoted to have charge of the poop. The passengers
+hope he will have that honor; they have no doubt he deserves it. His
+cheeks flush with pleasure to hear them say so, and he little thinks
+that they have no notion in what "that honor" may happen to consist.
+
+The coach stops: the little midshipman, with his hands in his pockets,
+sits rattling his money, and singing. There is a poor woman standing
+by the door of the village inn; she looks careworn, and well she may,
+for, in the spring, her husband went up to the city to seek for work.
+He got work, and she was expecting soon to join him there, when alas!
+a fellow-workman wrote her word how he had met with an accident, how
+he was very ill and wanted his wife to come and nurse him. But she has
+two young children, and is destitute; she must walk up all the way,
+and she is sick at heart when she thinks that perhaps he may die among
+strangers before she can reach him.
+
+She does not think of begging, but seeing the boy's eyes attracted to
+her, she makes him a courtesy, and he withdraws his hand and throws
+her down a sovereign. She looks at it with incredulous joy, and then
+she looks at him.
+
+"It's all right," he says, and the coach starts again, while, full of
+gratitude, she hires a cart to take her across the country to the
+railway, that the next night she may sit by the bedside of her sick
+husband.
+
+The midshipman knows nothing about that; and he never will know.
+
+The passengers go on talking--the little midshipman has told them who
+he is, and where he is going; but there is one man who has never
+joined in the conversation; he is dark-looking and restless; he sits
+apart; he has seen the glitter of the falling coin, and now he watches
+the boy more narrowly than before.
+
+He is a strong man, resolute and determined; the boy with the pockets
+full of money will be no match for him. The midshipman has told the
+other passengers that his father's house is the parsonage at Y----;
+the coach goes within five miles of it, and he means to get down at
+the nearest point, and walk, or rather run over to his home, through
+the great wood.
+
+The man decides to get down too, and go through the wood; he will rob
+the little midshipman; perhaps, if he cries out or struggles, he will
+do worse. The boy, he thinks, will have no chance against him; it is
+quite impossible that he can escape; the way is lonely, and the sun
+will be down.
+
+No. There seems indeed little chance of escape; the half-fledged bird
+just fluttering down from its nest has no more chance against the
+keen-eyed hawk, than the little light-hearted sailor boy will have
+against him--at least so thinks the man as he makes his plans.
+
+
+II.
+
+The coach reaches the village where the boy is to alight. He wishes
+the other passengers "good evening," and runs lightly down between the
+scattered houses. The man has got down also, and is following.
+
+The path lies through the village churchyard; there is evening
+service, and the door is wide open, for it is warm. The little
+midshipman stops by the door, looks in, and listens. The clergyman has
+just risen, and is giving out his text. Thirteen months have past
+since the boy was within a house of prayer; and a feeling of pleasure
+and awe induces him to stand still and listen.
+
+"Are not two sparrows [he hears] sold for a farthing? and one of them
+shall not fall on the ground without your Father. But the very hairs
+of your head are all numbered. Fear ye not, therefore, ye are of more
+value than many sparrows."
+
+He hears the opening sentences of the sermon; and then he remembers
+his home, and comes softly out of the porch, full of a calm and
+serious pleasure. The clergyman has reminded him of his father, and
+his careless heart is now filled with the echoes of his voice and of
+his prayers. He thinks on what the clergyman said, of the care of our
+heavenly Father for us; he remembers how, when he left home, his
+father prayed that he might be preserved through every danger; he does
+not remember any particular danger that he has been exposed to,
+excepting in the great storm; but he is grateful that he has come home
+in safety, and he hopes whenever he shall be in danger, which he
+supposes he shall be some day--he hopes, that then the providence of
+God will watch over him, and protect him. And so he presses onward to
+the entrance of the wood.
+
+The man is there before him. He has pushed himself into the thicket,
+and cut a heavy club; he suffers the boy to go on before, and then he
+comes out and follows him. It is too light at present for his deed of
+darkness and too near the entrance of the wood, but he knows that
+shortly the path will branch off into two, and the right one for the
+boy to take will be dark and lonely.
+
+But what prompts the little midshipman, when not fifty yards from the
+branching of the path, to break into a sudden run? It is not fear, for
+he never dreams of danger. Some sudden impulse, or some wild wish for
+home, makes him dash off suddenly, with a whoop and a bound. On he
+goes, as if running a race; the path bends, and the man loses sight of
+him. "But I shall have him yet," he thinks; "he can not keep this pace
+up long."
+
+The boy has nearly reached the place where the path divides, when he
+startles a young white owl that can scarcely fly, and it goes whirring
+along, close to the ground, before him. He gains upon it; another
+moment, and it will be his. Now it gets the start again; they come to
+the branching of the paths, and the bird goes down the wrong one. The
+temptation to follow is too strong to be resisted; he knows that
+somewhere, deep in the wood, there is a cross track by which he can
+get into the path he has left; if only he runs a little faster, he
+shall be at home nearly as soon.
+
+On he rushes; the path takes a bend, and he is just out of sight when
+his pursuer comes where the paths divide. The boy has turned to the
+right; the man takes the left, and the faster they both run the
+farther they are asunder.
+
+The white owl still leads him on; the path gets darker and narrower;
+at last he finds that he has missed it altogether, and his feet are on
+the soft ground. He flounders about among the trees, vexed with
+himself, and panting after his race. At last he finds another track,
+and pushes on as fast as he can. He has lost his way--but he keeps
+bearing to the left; and, though it is now dark, he thinks that he
+must reach the main path sooner or later.
+
+He does not know this part of the wood, but he runs on. O, little
+midshipman! why did you chase that owl? If you had kept in the path
+with the dark man behind you, there was a chance that you might have
+outrun him; or, if he had overtaken you, some passing wayfarer might
+have heard your cries, and come to save you. Now you are running on
+straight to your death, for the forest water is deep and black at the
+bottom of this hill. O, that the moon might come out and show it to you!
+
+The moon is under a thick canopy of heavy black clouds; and there is
+not a star to glitter on the water and make it visible. The fern is
+soft under his feet as he runs and slips down the sloping hill. At
+last he strikes his foot against a stone, stumbles, and falls. Two
+minutes more and he will roll into the black water.
+
+"Heyday!" cries the boy, "what's this? Oh, how it tears my hands! Oh,
+this thorn bush! Oh, my arms! I can't get free!" He struggles and
+pants. "All this comes of leaving the path," he says; "I shouldn't
+have cared for rolling down if it hadn't been for this bush. The fern
+was soft enough. I'll never stray in a wood at night again. There,
+free at last! And my jacket nearly torn off my back!"
+
+With a good deal of patience, and a great many scratches, he gets free
+of the thorn which had arrested his progress, when his feet were
+within a yard of the water, manages to scramble up the bank, and makes
+the best of his way through the wood.
+
+And now, as the clouds move slowly onward, the moon shows her face on
+the black surface of the water; and the little white owl comes and
+hoots, and flutters over it like a wandering snowdrift. But the boy is
+deep in the wood again, and knows nothing of the danger from which he
+has escaped.
+
+
+III.
+
+All this time the dark passenger follows the main track, and believes
+that his prey is before him. At last he hears a crashing of dead
+boughs, and presently the little midshipman's voice not fifty yards
+before him. Yes, it is too true; the boy is in the cross track. He
+will pass the cottage in the wood directly, and after that his pursuer
+will come upon him.
+
+The boy bounds into the path; but, as he passes the cottage, he is so
+thirsty that he thinks he must ask the people if they will sell him a
+cup of tea.
+
+He enters without ceremony. "Tea?" says the woodman, who is sitting at
+his supper. "No, we have no tea; but perhaps my wife can give thee a
+drink of milk. Come in." So he comes in, and shuts the door; and,
+while he sits waiting for the milk, footsteps pass. They are the
+footsteps of his pursuer, who goes on with the club in his hand, and
+is angry and impatient that he has not yet come up with him.
+
+The woman goes to her little dairy for the milk, and the boy thinks
+she is a long time. He drinks it, thanks her, and takes his leave.
+
+Fast and fast the man runs on, and, as fast as he can, the boy runs
+after him. It is very dark, but there is a yellow streak in the sky,
+where the moon is plowing up a furrowed mass of gray cloud, and one or
+two stars are blinking through the branches of the trees.
+
+Fast the boy follows, and fast the man runs on, with his weapon in his
+hand. Suddenly he hears the joyish whoop--not before, but behind him.
+He stops and listens breathlessly. Yes, it is so. He pushes himself
+into the thicket, and raises his club to strike when the boy shall pass.
+
+On he comes, running lightly, with his hands in his pockets. A sound
+strikes at the same instant on the ears of both; and the boy turns
+back from the very jaws of death to listen. It is the sound of wheels,
+and it draws rapidly nearer. A man comes up, driving a little gig.
+
+"Halloa?" he says, in a loud, cheerful voice. "What! benighted,
+youngster?"
+
+"Oh, is it you, Mr. Davis?" says the boy; "no, I am not benighted; or,
+at any rate, I know my way out of the wood."
+
+The man draws farther back among the shrubs. "Why, bless the boy," he
+hears the farmer say, "to think of our meeting in this way. The parson
+told me he was in hopes of seeing thee some day this week. I'll give
+thee a lift. This is a lonely place to be in this time o' night."
+
+"Lonely!" says the boy, laughing. "I don't mind that; and if you know
+the way, it's as safe as the quarter-deck."
+
+So he gets into the farmer's gig, and is once more out of reach of the
+pursuer. But the man knows that the farmer's house is a quarter of a
+mile nearer than the parsonage, and in that quarter of a mile there is
+still a chance of committing the robbery. He determines still to make
+the attempt, and cuts across the wood with such rapid strides that he
+reaches the farmer's gate just as the gig drives up to it.
+
+"Well, thank you, farmer," says the midshipman, as he prepares to get
+down.
+
+"I wish you good night, gentlemen," says the man, when he passes.
+
+"Good night, friend," the farmer replies. "I say, my boy, it's a dark
+night enough; but I have a mind to drive you on to the parsonage, and
+hear the rest of this long tale of yours about the sea serpent."
+
+The little wheels go on again. They pass the man; and he stands still
+in the road to listen till the sound dies away. Then he flings his
+club into the hedge, and goes back. His evil purposes have all been
+frustrated--the thoughtless boy, without knowing anything about it,
+has baffled him at every turn.
+
+
+IV.
+
+And now the little midshipman is at home--the joyful meeting has taken
+place; and when they have all admired his growth, and measured his
+height on the window frame, and seen him eat his supper, they begin to
+question him about his adventures, more for the pleasure of hearing
+him talk than any curiosity.
+
+"Adventures!" says the boy, seated between his father and mother on a
+sofa. "Why, mother, I wrote you an account of the voyage, and there's
+nothing else to tell. Nothing happened to-day--at least nothing
+particular."
+
+"Did you come by the coach we told you of?" asks his father.
+
+"Oh, yes, papa; and when we had got about twenty miles, there came up
+a beggar, while we changed horses, and I threw down, as I thought, a
+shilling, but, as it fell, I saw it was a sovereign. She was very
+honest, and showed me what it was, but I didn't take it back, for you
+know, it's a long time since I gave anything to anybody."
+
+"Very true, my boy," his mother answers; "but you should not be
+careless with your money.
+
+"I suppose you got down at the crossroads?" says his elder brother.
+
+"Yes, and went through the wood. I should have been here sooner if I
+hadn't lost my way there."
+
+"Lost your way!" says his mother, alarmed. "My dear boy, you should
+not have left the path at dusk."
+
+"Oh, mother," says the little midshipman, with a smile, "you're always
+thinking we're in danger. If you could see me sometimes sitting at the
+jib-boom end, or across the main topmast crosstrees, you _would_ be
+frightened. But what danger can there be in a wood?"
+
+"Well, my boy," she answers, "I don't wish to be over-anxious, and to
+make my children uncomfortable by my fears. What did you stray from
+the path for?"
+
+"Only to chase a little owl, mother; but I didn't catch her after all.
+I got a roll down a bank, and caught my jacket against a thorn bush,
+which was rather unlucky. Ah! three large holes I see in my sleeve.
+And so I scrambled up again, and got into the path, and stopped at the
+cottage for some milk. What a time the woman kept me, to be sure! But
+very soon Mr. Davis drove up in his gig, and he brought me on to the
+gate."
+
+"And so this story being brought to a close," his father says, "we
+find that you had no adventures at all!"
+
+"No, papa, nothing happened; nothing particular, I mean."
+
+Nothing particular! If they could have known, they would have thought
+lightly in comparison of the dangers of "the jib-boom end, and the
+main topmast crosstrees." But they did not know, any more than we do,
+of the dangers that hourly beset us. Some few dangers we are aware of,
+and we do what we can to provide against them; but, for the greater
+portion, "our eyes are held that we can not see." We walk securely
+under His guidance, without whom "not a sparrow falleth to the
+ground!" and when we have had escapes that the angels have wondered
+at, we come home and say, perhaps, that "nothing has happened; at
+least nothing particular."
+
+ --_Jean Ingelow._
+
+
+
+
+THE DEATH OF THE FLOWERS.
+
+
+ The melancholy days are come, the saddest of the year,
+ Of wailing winds, and naked woods, and meadows brown and sere.
+ Heaped in the hollows of the grove, the autumn leaves lie dead;
+ They rustle to the eddying gust, and to the rabbit's tread.
+ The robin and the wren are flown, and from the shrubs the jay,
+ And from the wood-top calls the crow through all the gloomy day.
+
+ Where are the flowers, the fair young flowers, that lately sprang
+ and stood
+ In brighter light and softer airs, a beauteous sisterhood?
+ Alas! they all are in their graves; the gentle race of flowers
+ Are lying in their lowly beds, with the fair and good of ours.
+ The rain is falling where they lie, but the cold November rain
+ Calls not from out the gloomy earth the lovely ones again.
+
+ The windflower and the violet, they perished long ago,
+ And the brier rose and the orchis died amid the summer glow;
+ But on the hill the goldenrod, and the aster in the wood,
+ And the yellow sunflower by the brook in autumn beauty stood,
+ Till fell the frost from the clear, cold heaven, as falls the plague
+ on men,
+ And the brightness of their smile was gone, from upland, glade, and
+ glen.
+
+ And now, when comes the calm, mild day, as still such days will
+ come,
+ To call the squirrel and the bee from out their winter home;
+ When the sound of dropping nuts is heard, though all the trees are
+ still,
+ And twinkle in the smoky light the waters of the rill,
+ The south wind searches for the flowers whose fragrance late he
+ bore,
+ And sighs to find them in the wood and by the stream no more.
+
+ And then I think of one who in her youthful beauty died,
+ The fair, meek blossom that grew up and faded by my side.
+ In the cold, moist earth we laid her, when the forests cast the
+ leaf,
+ And we wept that one so lovely should have a life so brief:
+ Yet not unmeet it was that one like that young friend of ours,
+ So gentle and so beautiful, should perish with the flowers.
+
+
+
+
+THE GREAT VOLCANIC ERUPTION.
+
+
+In 1883 the most destructive volcanic eruption ever known occurred in
+the Straits of Sunda and the neighboring islands. The trouble began on
+Sunday morning, the 13th of May. Java, Sumatra, and Borneo were
+convulsed by earthquakes. The surface of the earth rocked, houses
+tumbled down, and big trees were shaken to the ground. Earthquakes are
+no rarity in those islands, but this earthquake showed no signs of
+ceasing. The earth quivered constantly, and from its depths there
+seemed to rise strange sounds and hollow explosions.
+
+On Thursday there came a telegram from Anjer, ninety miles away, on
+the northwest coast of Java, intimating that a volcano had broken out
+at Krakatoa island, about thirty miles west of Anjer, in Sunda Strait.
+I was requested by the Dutch government to go to the scene of action
+and take scientific observations, and by four o'clock that afternoon I
+started with a party on board a special steamer from Batavia.
+
+As we rounded the northern extremity of Java, we saw ascending from
+Krakatoa, still fifty miles away, an immense column of smoke. Its
+appearance changed as we approached. First it looked like flame, then it
+appeared to be steam, and finally it had the appearance of a pillar of
+fire inside one of white fleecy wool. The diameter of this pillar of
+fire and smoke was, I should think, at least one and a half miles. All
+the while we heard that sullen, thunderous roar which had been a feature
+of this disturbance ever since Sunday, and was now becoming louder.
+
+We remained on deck all night and watched. The din increased till we
+could with difficulty hear one another's voices. Dawn approached, and
+when the rays of the sun fell on the shores of Krakatoa, we saw them
+reflected from what we thought was a river, and we resolved to steam
+into its mouth and disembark.
+
+When we came to within three quarters of a mile of the shore, we
+discovered that what we supposed to be a river was a torrent of molten
+sulphur. The smell almost overpowered us. We steamed away to the
+windward, and made for the other side of the island.
+
+This island, though volcanic, had up till now been quiet for at least
+a century. It was eight or ten miles long and four wide, and was
+covered with forests of fine mahogany and rosewood trees. It was
+inhabited by a few fishermen, but we found no signs of these people.
+The land, down to the water's edge, was covered with powdered pumice
+stone, which rained down from the clouds around the great column of
+fire. Everything with life had already disappeared from the landscape,
+which was covered with a steaming mass of stones and ashes.
+
+Several of us landed and began walking towards the volcano. We sank
+deep in the soft pumice, which blistered our feet with its heat. I
+climbed painfully upwards toward the crater, in order to measure it
+with my sextant; but in a short time the heat melted the mercury off
+the mirror of the instrument. I was then half a mile from the crater.
+
+As I was returning to the shore, I saw the bottom of each footstep I
+had made on my way up glowing red with the heat from beneath. We
+photographed the scene from the deck of the steamer, where the fire
+hose was kept playing constantly, wetting the rigging and everything
+about the ship to prevent her from taking fire.
+
+The steamer then returned to Batavia, and I went to reside at Anjer.
+From my villa on the hillside a mile inland, I could see Krakatoa,
+thirty miles away, belching out its never-ending eruption. We supposed
+that it would go on till it burned itself out, and that then it would
+become quiet again. But in this we were mistaken.
+
+On Sunday morning, the 12th of August, nearly three months later, I
+was sitting on the veranda of my house taking my morning cup of tea. I
+saw the fishing boats lying at anchor in the bay, the fishermen
+themselves being on shore at rest. As my gaze rested on the boats, I
+suddenly became aware that they were all beginning to move rapidly in
+one direction. Then in an instant, to my intense surprise, they all
+disappeared.
+
+I ran farther up the hillside to get a better view, and looked far out
+to sea. Instantly a great glare of fire right in the midst of the sea
+caught my eye. All the way across the bay and the strait, in a line of
+flame reaching to Krakatoa itself, the bottom of the sea seemed to
+have cracked open so that the subterraneous fires were belching forth.
+On either side the waters were pouring into this gulf with a
+tremendous noise, but the fire was not extinguished.
+
+The hissing roar brought out the people of Anjer in excited crowds. My
+eyes were turned away for a moment as I beckoned to some one, and
+during that moment came a terrible, deafening explosion. It stunned
+me; and when I was able again to turn my eyes toward the bay, I could
+see nothing. The whole scene was shrouded in darkness, from amid which
+came cries and groans, the creaking of breaking beams in the houses,
+and, above all, the roar of the breakers on the shore. The city of
+Anjer, with its sixty thousand people, had been engulfed!
+
+I afterwards found that the water was one hundred feet deep where the
+city of Anjer had been, and that the coast line had moved one and a
+half miles inland. A big island in the strait had been split in two,
+with a wide passage between its parts. An island to the northwest of
+Krakatoa had wholly disappeared. The air was filled with minute
+particles of dust, which after some weeks spread even to Europe and
+America. What the causes of such a tremendous convulsion may have
+been, it is quite impossible accurately to say.
+
+ * * * * *
+
+The foregoing narrative was written by J. T. Van Gestel, who was at
+the time residing in the island of Java. Compare his description of
+this event with those of the eruption of Vesuvius and the destruction
+of Pompeii, given in "School Reading by Grades--Fifth Year." Read also
+the younger Pliny's description of the eruption of Vesuvius. It may be
+found in Church and Brodribb's translation of selections from Pliny's
+Letters. Other interesting readings about volcanoes may be found in
+"Volcanoes, Past and Present," by Edward Hull, and in "Volcanoes and
+Earthquakes," by Dr. George Hartwig.
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration:
+
+ From the Painting by R. Balaca. Engraved by Robert Varley.
+
+ Columbus at Barcelona.
+]
+
+THE RETURN OF COLUMBUS.
+
+
+The fame of the discovery made by Columbus had resounded throughout
+the nation, and, as his route lay through several of the finest and
+most populous provinces of Spain, his journey appeared like the
+progress of a sovereign. Wherever he passed, the country poured forth
+its inhabitants, who lined the road and thronged the villages. The
+streets, windows, and balconies of the towns were filled with eager
+spectators, who rent the air with acclamations. His journey was
+continually impeded by the multitude pressing to gain a sight of him
+and of the Indians, who were regarded with as much astonishment as if
+they had been natives of another planet. It was impossible to satisfy
+the craving curiosity which assailed himself and his attendants at
+every stage with innumerable questions; popular rumor, as usual, had
+exaggerated the truth, and had filled the newly found country with all
+kinds of wonders.
+
+About the middle of April Columbus arrived at Barcelona, where every
+preparation had been made to give him a solemn and magnificent
+reception. The beauty and serenity of the weather in that genial
+season and favored climate contributed to give splendor to this
+memorable ceremony. As he drew near the place, many of the more
+youthful courtiers and hidalgos, together with a vast concourse of the
+populace, came forth to meet and welcome him. His entrance into this
+noble city has been compared to one of those triumphs which the Romans
+were accustomed to decree to conquerors. First were paraded the
+Indians, painted according to their savage fashion, and decorated with
+their national ornaments of gold; after these were borne various kinds
+of live parrots, together with stuffed birds and animals of unknown
+species, and rare plants supposed to be of precious qualities; while
+great care was taken to make a conspicuous display of Indian coronets,
+bracelets, and other decorations of gold, which might give an idea of
+the wealth of the newly discovered regions. After this followed
+Columbus on horseback, surrounded by a brilliant cavalcade of Spanish
+chivalry. The streets were almost impassable from the countless
+multitude; the windows and balconies were crowded with the fair; the
+very roofs were covered with spectators. It seemed as if the public
+eye could not be sated with gazing on these trophies of an unknown
+world, or on the remarkable man by whom it had been discovered. There
+was a sublimity in this event that mingled a solemn feeling with the
+public joy. It was looked upon as a vast and signal dispensation of
+Providence in reward for the piety of the monarchs; and the majestic
+and venerable appearance of the discoverer, so different from the
+youth and buoyancy generally expected from roving enterprise, seemed
+in harmony with the grandeur and dignity of his achievement.
+
+To receive him with suitable pomp and distinction, the sovereigns had
+ordered their throne to be placed in public, under a rich canopy of
+brocade of gold, in a vast and splendid saloon. Here the king and
+queen awaited his arrival, seated in state, with the Prince Juan
+beside them, and attended by the dignitaries of their court, and the
+principal nobility of Castile, Valencia, Catalonia, and Aragon, all
+impatient to behold the man who had conferred so incalculable a
+benefit upon the nation. At length Columbus entered the hall,
+surrounded by a brilliant crowd of cavaliers, among whom, says Las
+Casas, he was conspicuous for his stately and commanding person,
+which, with his countenance rendered venerable by his gray hairs, gave
+him the august appearance of a senator of Rome. A modest smile lighted
+up his features, showing that he enjoyed the state and glory in which
+he came; and certainly nothing could be more deeply moving to a mind
+inflamed by noble ambition, and conscious of having greatly deserved,
+than these testimonials of the admiration and gratitude of a nation,
+or rather of a world. As Columbus approached, the sovereigns rose, as
+if receiving a person of the highest rank. Bending his knees, he
+offered to kiss their hands; but there was some hesitation on their
+part to permit this act of homage. Raising him in the most gracious
+manner, they ordered him to seat himself in their presence; a rare
+honor in this proud and punctilious court.
+
+At their request, he now gave an account of the most striking events
+of his voyage, and a description of the islands discovered. He
+displayed specimens of unknown birds and other animals; of rare plants
+of medicinal and aromatic virtues; of native gold in dust, in crude
+masses, or labored into barbaric ornaments; and, above all, the
+natives of these countries, who were objects of intense and
+inexhaustible interest. All these he pronounced mere harbingers of
+greater discoveries yet to be made, which would add realms of
+incalculable wealth to the dominions of their majesties, and whole
+nations of proselytes to the true faith.
+
+When he had finished, the sovereigns sank on their knees, and, raising
+their clasped hands to heaven, their eyes filled with tears of joy and
+gratitude, poured forth thanks and praises to God for so great a
+providence; all present followed their example; a deep and solemn
+enthusiasm pervaded that splendid assembly, and prevented all common
+acclamations of triumph. The anthem _Te Deum laudamus_, chanted by the
+choir of the royal chapel, with the accompaniment of instruments, rose
+in full body of sacred harmony, bearing up as it were the feelings and
+thoughts of the auditors to heaven, "so that" says the venerable Las
+Casas, "it seemed as if in that hour they communicated with celestial
+delights." Such was the solemn and pious manner in which the brilliant
+court of Spain celebrated this sublime event; offering up a grateful
+tribute of melody and praise, and giving glory to God for the
+discovery of another world.
+
+ * * * * *
+
+This description of the reception of the great discoverer after his
+return from his first voyage, is from Washington Irving's famous book
+entitled "The Life and Voyages of Columbus." Other readings on the
+same subject are to be found in Prescott's "Ferdinand and Isabella,"
+Kingston's "Notable Voyagers," Mrs. Bolton's "Famous Voyagers,"
+Saunders' "Story of the Discovery of the New World," and McMaster's
+"School History of the United States."
+
+
+
+
+WHAT THE SUNBEAMS DO.
+
+
+What work do the sunbeams do for us? They do two things,--they give us
+light and heat. It is by means of them alone that we see anything.
+
+When the room was dark you could not distinguish the table, the chairs,
+or even the walls of the room. Why? Because they had no light waves to
+send to your eye. But as the sunbeams began to pour in at the window,
+the waves played upon the things in the room; and when they hit them
+they bounded off them back to your eye, as a wave of the sea bounds back
+from a rock, and strikes against a passing boat. Then, when they fell
+upon your eye, they entered it, and excited the retina and the nerves;
+and the image of the chair or the table was carried to your brain.
+
+Some substances send back hardly any waves of light, but let them all
+pass through them. A pane of clear glass, for instance, lets nearly
+all the light waves pass through it; and therefore you often can not
+see the glass, because no light messengers come back to you from it.
+Thus people have sometimes walked up against a glass door, and broken
+it, not seeing it was there.
+
+Those substances are transparent, which, for some reason unknown to
+us, allow the ether waves to pass through them. In clear glass, all
+the light waves pass through; while in a white wall the larger part of
+the rays are reflected back to the eye. Into polished shining metal
+the waves hardly enter at all, but are thrown back from the surface;
+and so a steel knife or a silver spoon is very bright, and is clearly
+seen. Quicksilver is put at the back of looking-glasses because it
+reflects so many waves.
+
+The reflected light waves not only make us see things, but they make
+us see them in different colors. Imagine a sunbeam playing on a leaf:
+part of its waves bound straight back from it to our eye, and make us
+see the surface of the leaf; but the rest go right into the leaf
+itself, and there some of them are used up and kept prisoners. The
+red, orange, yellow, blue, indigo, and violet waves are all useful to
+the leaf, and it does not let them go again. But it can not absorb the
+green waves, and so it throws them back; and they travel to your eye,
+and make you see a green color. So, when you say a leaf is green, you
+mean that the leaf does not want the green waves of the sunbeam, but
+sends them back to you. In the same way the scarlet geranium rejects
+the red waves; a white tablecloth sends back nearly the whole of the
+waves, and a black coat scarcely any.
+
+Is it not strange that there is really no such thing as color in the
+leaf, the table, the coat, or the geranium; that we see them of
+different colors because they send back only certain-colored waves to
+our eye?
+
+So far we have spoken only of light; but hold your hand in the sun,
+and feel the heat of the sunbeams, and then consider if the waves of
+heat do not do work also. There are many waves in a sunbeam which move
+too slowly to make us see light when they hit our eye; but we can feel
+them as heat, though we cannot see them as light.
+
+The simplest way of feeling heat waves is to hold a warm flatiron near
+your face. You know that no light comes from it, yet you can feel the
+heat waves beating violently against your face.
+
+Now, there are many of these dark heat rays in a sunbeam, and it is
+they that do most of the work in the world. It is the heat waves that
+make the air hot and light, and so cause it to rise, and make winds
+and air currents; and these again give rise to ocean currents. It is
+these dark rays, again, that strike upon the land, and give it the
+warmth which enables plants to grow. It is they also that keep up the
+warmth in our own bodies, both by coming to us directly from the sun,
+and also in a very roundabout way through plants.
+
+Coal is made of plants, and the heat it gives out is the heat these
+plants once took in. Think how much work is done by burning coal. Not
+only are our houses warmed by coal fires and lighted by coal gas, but
+our steam engines work entirely by water which has been turned into
+steam by the heat of coal fires; and our steamboats travel all over
+the world by means of the same power.
+
+In the same way the oil of our lamps comes either from olives, which
+grow on trees, or from coal and the remains of plants in the earth.
+Even our tallow candles are made of mutton fat, and sheep eat grass;
+and so, turn which way we will, we find that the light and heat on our
+earth, whether it comes from fires, or candles, or lamps, or gas, is
+equally the work of those waves of ether coming from the sun, which
+make what we call a sunbeam.
+
+ --_From "The Fairy Land of Science," by Arabella B. Buckley._
+
+
+
+
+HORATIUS AT THE BRIDGE.
+
+
+Tarquin the Proud was the seventh and last king of Rome. Such were his
+acts of tyranny, and such the crimes of his son, "the false Sextus,"
+that the people rose in rebellion, and, in the year 509 B.C., drove
+him and his family away from Rome and declared that they would have no
+more kings. The Tarquins took refuge among the Etruscans, whose
+country bordered Rome on the north. They made a treaty of friendship
+with Porsena, the king of Clusium, and induced him to raise a large
+army for the purpose of forcing the Romans to allow them to return to
+power. A battle was fought, and the Romans being defeated were obliged
+to flee across the wooden bridge which spanned the Tiber at Rome. To
+prevent Porsena from entering the city, the Roman Consul ordered that
+the bridge should be destroyed.
+
+[Illustration: Thomas Babington Macaulay.]
+
+The story of the manner in which this was done is told by Lord
+Macaulay in his "Lays of Ancient Rome," a collection of heroic ballads
+relating to the times of the kings and the early consuls. The author
+speaks, not in his own person, but in the person of an ancient
+minstrel who is supposed to have lived about one hundred years after
+the event, and who therefore knew only what a Roman citizen of that
+time could have known.
+
+ But the Consul's brow was sad,
+ And the Consul's speech was low,
+ And darkly looked he at the wall,
+ And darkly at the foe.
+ "Their van will be upon us
+ Before the bridge goes down;
+ And if they once may win the bridge,
+ What hope to save the town?"
+
+ Then out spake brave Horatius,
+ The captain of the gate:
+ "To every man upon this Earth
+ Death cometh soon or late;
+ And how can man die better
+ Than facing fearful odds,
+ For the ashes of his fathers,
+ And the temples of his gods?
+
+ "Hew down the bridge, Sir Consul,
+ With all the speed ye may;
+ I, with two more to help me,
+ Will hold the foe in play.
+ In yon strait path a thousand
+ May well be stopped by three;
+ Now, who will stand on either hand,
+ And keep the bridge with me?"
+
+ Then out spake Spurius Lartius,--
+ A Ramnian proud was he:
+ "Lo, I will stand at thy right hand,
+ And keep the bridge with thee."
+ And out spake strong Herminius,--
+ Of Titian blood was he:
+ "I will abide on thy left side,
+ And keep the bridge with thee."
+
+ "Horatius," quoth the Consul,
+ "As thou say'st, so let it be."
+ And straight against that great array
+ Forth went the dauntless Three.
+
+ Meanwhile the Tuscan army,
+ Right glorious to behold,
+ Came flashing back the noonday light,
+ Rank behind rank, like surges bright
+ Of a broad sea of gold.
+ Four hundred trumpets sounded
+ A peal of warlike glee,
+ As that great host, with measured tread,
+ And spears advanced, and ensigns spread,
+ Rolled slowly towards the bridge's head,
+ Where stood the dauntless Three.
+
+ The Three stood calm and silent,
+ And looked upon the foes,
+ And a great shout of laughter
+ From all the vanguard rose.
+ And forth three chiefs came spurring
+ Before that deep array;
+ To earth they sprang, their swords they drew
+ And lifted high their shields, and flew
+ To win the narrow way.
+
+ Annus from green Tifernum,
+ Lord of the Hill of Vines;
+ And Seius, whose eight hundred slaves
+ Sicken in Ilva's mines;
+ And Picus, long to Clusium
+ Vassal in peace and war,
+ Who led to fight his Umbrian powers
+ From that gray crag where, girt with towers,
+ The fortress of Nequinum lowers
+ O'er the pale waves of Nar.
+
+ Stout Lartius hurled down Annus
+ Into the stream beneath:
+ Herminius struck at Seius,
+ And clove him to the teeth:
+ At Picus brave Horatius
+ Darted one fiery thrust;
+ And the proud Umbrian's gilded arms
+ Clashed in the bloody dust.
+
+ And now no sound of laughter
+ Was heard among the foes.
+ A wild and wrathful clamor
+ From all the vanguard rose.
+ Six spears' length from the entrance
+ Halted that mighty mass,
+ And for a space no man came forth
+ To win the narrow pass.
+
+ But hark! the cry is Astur:
+ And lo! the ranks divide;
+ And the great Lord of Luna
+ Comes with his stately stride.
+ Upon his ample shoulders
+ Clangs loud the fourfold shield,
+ And in his hand he shakes the brand
+ Which none but he can wield.
+
+ He smiled on those bold Romans
+ A smile serene and high;
+ He eyed the flinching Tuscans,
+ And scorn was in his eye.
+ Quoth he, "The she-wolf's litter
+ Stand savagely at bay:
+ But will ye dare to follow,
+ If Astur clears the way?"
+
+ Then whirling up his broadsword
+ With both hands to the height,
+ He rushed against Horatius,
+ And smote with all his might.
+ With shield and blade Horatius
+ Right deftly turned the blow.
+ The blow, though turned, came yet too nigh;
+ It missed his helm, but gashed his thigh:
+ The Tuscans raised a joyful cry
+ To see the red blood flow.
+
+[Illustration:
+
+ Drawn by A. I. Keller. Engraved by Robert Varley.
+
+ The Defense of the Bridge.
+]
+
+ He reeled, and on Herminius
+ He leaned one breathing space;
+ Then, like a wild cat mad with wounds,
+ Sprang right at Astur's face.
+ Through teeth and skull and helmet,
+ So fierce a thrust he sped,
+ The good sword stood a handbreadth out
+ Behind the Tuscan's head!
+
+ And the great Lord of Luna
+ Fell at that deadly stroke,
+ As falls on Mount Alvernus
+ A thunder-smitten oak.
+ Far o'er the crashing forest
+ The giant arms lie spread;
+ And the pale augurs, muttering low,
+ Gaze on the blasted head.
+
+ Then all Etruria's noblest
+ Felt their hearts sink to see
+ On the earth the bloody corpses,
+ In the path the dauntless Three:
+ And, from the ghastly entrance
+ Where those bold Romans stood,
+ All shrank, like boys who unaware,
+ Ranging the woods to start a hare,
+ Come to the mouth of the dark lair,
+ Where, growling low, a fierce old bear
+ Lies amidst bones and blood.
+
+ Yet one man for one moment
+ Stood out before the crowd;
+ Well known was he to all the Three,
+ And they gave him greeting loud:
+ "Now welcome, welcome, Sextus!
+ Now welcome to thy home!
+ Why dost thou stay and turn away?
+ Here lies the road to Rome."
+
+ Thrice looked he at the city;
+ Thrice looked he at the dead;
+ And thrice came on in fury,
+ And thrice turned back in dread:
+ And, white with fear and hatred,
+ Scowled at the narrow way
+ Where, wallowing in a pool of blood,
+ The bravest Tuscans lay.
+
+ But meanwhile ax and lever
+ Have manfully been plied,
+ And now the bridge hangs tottering
+ Above the boiling tide.
+ "Come back, come back, Horatius!"
+ Loud cried the Fathers all.
+ "Back, Lartius! Back, Herminius!
+ Back, ere the ruin fall!"
+
+ Back darted Spurius Lartius;
+ Herminius darted back;
+ And, as they passed, beneath their feet
+ They felt the timbers crack.
+ But when they turned their faces,
+ And on the farther shore
+ Saw brave Horatius stand alone,
+ They would have crossed once more.
+
+ But with a crash like thunder
+ Fell every loosened beam,
+ And, like a dam, the mighty wreck
+ Lay right athwart the stream:
+ And a long shout of triumph
+ Rose from the walls of Rome,
+ As to the highest turret tops
+ Was splashed the yellow-foam.
+
+ Alone stood brave Horatius,
+ But constant still in mind;
+ Thrice thirty thousand foes before,
+ And the broad flood behind.
+ "Down with him!" cried false Sextus,
+ With a smile on his pale face.
+ "Now, yield thee!" cried Lars Porsena,
+ "Now yield thee to our grace."
+
+ Round turned he, as not deigning
+ Those craven ranks to see;
+ Naught spake he to Lars Porsena,
+ To Sextus naught spake he;
+ But he saw on Palatinus
+ The white porch of his home;
+ And he spake to the noble river
+ That rolls by the tower of Rome:
+
+ "O, Tiber! Father Tiber!
+ To whom the Romans pray,
+ A Roman's life, a Roman's arms,
+ Take thou in charge this day!"
+ So he spake, and speaking sheathed
+ The good sword by his side,
+ And with his harness on his back,
+ Plunged headlong in the tide.
+
+ No sound of joy or sorrow
+ Was heard from either bank;
+ But friends and foes, in dumb surprise,
+ With parted lips and straining eyes,
+ Stood gazing where he sank:
+ And when above the surges
+ They saw his crest appear,
+ All Rome sent forth a rapturous cry,
+ And even the ranks of Tuscany
+ Could scarce forbear to cheer.
+
+ But fiercely ran the current,
+ Swollen high by months of rain:
+ And fast his blood was flowing;
+ And he was sore in pain,
+ And heavy with his armor,
+ And spent with changing blows:
+ And oft they thought him sinking,
+ But still again he rose.
+
+ "Curse on him!" quoth false Sextus,
+ "Will not the villain drown?
+ But for this stay, ere close of day
+ We should have sacked the town!"--
+ "Heaven help him!" quoth Lars Porsena,
+ "And bring him safe to shore;
+ For such a gallant feat of arms
+ Was never seen before."
+
+ And now he feels the bottom;
+ Now on dry earth he stands;
+ Now round him throng the Fathers,
+ To press his gory hands;
+ And now with shouts and clapping,
+ And noise of weeping loud,
+ He enters through the River Gate,
+ Borne by the joyous crowd.
+
+ They gave him of the corn land,
+ That was of public right,
+ As much as two strong oxen
+ Could plow from morn till night;
+ And they made a molten image,
+ And set it up on high,
+ And there it stands unto this day
+ To witness if I lie.
+
+ And still his name sounds stirring
+ Unto the men of Rome,
+ As the trumpet-blast that cries to them
+ To charge the Volscians home.
+ And mothers pray to Juno
+ For boys with hearts as bold
+ As his who kept the bridge so well
+ In the brave days of old.
+
+ And in the nights of winter
+ When the cold north winds blow,
+ And the long howling of the wolves
+ Is heard amidst the snow;
+ When round the lonely cottage
+ Roars loud the tempest's din,
+ And the good logs of Algidus
+ Roar louder yet within;
+
+ When the oldest cask is opened,
+ And the largest lamp is lit;
+ When the chestnuts glow in the embers,
+ And the kid turns on the spit;
+ When young and old in circle
+ Around the firebrands close;
+ When the girls are weaving baskets,
+ And the lads are shaping bows;
+
+ When the goodman mends his armor,
+ And trims his helmet's plume;
+ When the goodwife's shuttle merrily
+ Goes flashing through the loom;
+ With weeping and with laughter
+ Still is the story told,
+ How well Horatius kept the bridge
+ In the brave days of old.
+
+
+
+
+HOW SIR FRANCIS DRAKE SAILED ROUND THE WORLD.
+
+
+The ships which the Spaniards used on the Pacific were usually built
+on the spot. But Magellan was known to have gone by the Horn, and
+where a Portuguese could go an Englishman could go. Drake proposed to
+try. The vessels in which he was preparing to tempt fortune seem
+preposterously small. The "Pelican," or "Golden Hind," which belonged
+to Drake himself, was but 120 tons, at best no larger than a modern
+racing yawl, though perhaps no racing yawl was ever better equipped
+for the work which she had to do. The next, the "Elizabeth" of London,
+was said to be eighty tons; a small pinnace of twelve tons, in which
+we should hardly risk a summer cruise round the Land's End, with two
+sloops or frigates of fifty and thirty tons, made the rest. The
+"Elizabeth" was commanded by Captain Winter, a queen's officer, and
+perhaps a son of the old admiral.
+
+[Illustration: Sir Francis Drake.]
+
+We may credit Drake with knowing what he was about. He and his
+comrades were carrying their lives in their hands. If they were taken
+they would be inevitably hanged. Their safety depended on speed of
+sailing, and specially on the power of working fast to windward,
+which the heavy square-rigged ships could not do. The crews all told
+were one hundred and sixty men and boys.
+
+On November 15th, 1577, the "Pelican" and her consorts sailed out of
+Plymouth Sound. The elements frowned on their start. On the second day
+they were caught in a winter gale. The "Pelican" sprung her mainmast,
+and they put back to refit and repair. Before the middle of December
+all was again in order. The weather mended, and with a fair wind and
+smooth water they made a fast run down the coast to the Cape de Verde
+Islands. There taking up the northeast Trades, they struck across the
+Atlantic. They passed the mouth of the Plate River, finding to their
+astonishment fresh water at the ship's side in fifty-four fathoms. On
+June 20th they reached Port St. Julian on the coast of Patagonia.
+
+It was now midwinter, the stormiest season of the year, and they
+remained for six weeks in Port St. Julian. They burnt the twelve-ton
+pinnace, as too small for the work they had now before them, and there
+remained only the "Pelican," the "Elizabeth," and the "Marigold." In
+cold, wild weather they weighed at last, and on August 20th made the
+opening of Magellan's Straits. The passage is seventy miles long,
+tortuous and dangerous. They had no charts. Icy mountains overhung
+them on either side; heavy snow fell below. They brought up
+occasionally at an island to rest the men, and let them kill a few
+seals and penguins to give them fresh food. Everything they saw was
+new, wild, and wonderful.
+
+Having to feel their way, they were three weeks in getting through.
+They had counted on reaching the Pacific that the worst of their work
+was over, and that they could run north at once into warmer and calmer
+latitudes. The peaceful ocean, when they entered it, proved the
+stormiest they had ever sailed on. A fierce westerly gale drove them
+six hundred miles to the southeast outside the Horn. The "Marigold"
+went down in the tremendous encounter. Captain Winter in the
+"Elizabeth" made his way back into Magellan's Straits. There he lay
+for three weeks, lighting fires nightly to show Drake where he was;
+but no Drake appeared. They had agreed, if separated, to meet on the
+coast in the latitude of Valparaiso; but Winter was chicken-hearted,
+and sore, we are told, "against the mariners' will," when the three
+weeks were out, he sailed away for England, where he reported that all
+the ships were lost but the "Pelican," and that the "Pelican" was
+probably lost too.
+
+Drake had believed better of Winter, and had not expected to be so
+deserted. He had himself taken refuge among the islands which form the
+Cape, waiting for the spring and milder weather. He used the time in
+making surveys, and observing the habits of the native Patagonians.
+The days lengthened, and the sea smoothed at last. He then sailed for
+Valparaiso, hoping to meet Winter there, as he had arranged. At
+Valparaiso there was no Winter, but there was in the port instead a
+great galleon just come in from Peru. The galleon's crew took him for
+a Spaniard, hoisted their colors, and beat their drums. The "Pelican"
+shot alongside. The English sailors in high spirits leaped on board.
+No life was taken; Drake never hurt man if he could help it. The crew
+jumped overboard, and swam ashore. The prize was examined. Four
+hundred pounds' weight of gold was found in her, besides other plunder.
+
+Drake went on next to Tarapaca, where silver from the Andes mines was
+shipped for Panama. At Tarapaca there was the same unconsciousness of
+danger. The silver bars lay piled on the quay, the muleteers who had
+brought them were sleeping peacefully in the sunshine at their side.
+The muleteers were left to their slumbers. The bars were lifted into
+the English boats. A train of mules or llamas came in at that moment
+with a second load as rich as the first. This, too, went into the
+"Pelican's" hold. The bullion taken at Tarapaca was worth nearly half
+a million ducats.
+
+Still there was no news of Winter. Drake began to realize that he was
+now entirely alone, and had only himself and his own crew to depend
+on. There was nothing to do but to go through with it, danger adding
+to the interest. Arica was the next point visited. Half a hundred
+blocks of silver were picked up at Arica. After Arica came Lima, the
+chief depot of all, where the grandest haul was looked for. At Lima,
+alas! they were just too late. Twelve great hulks lay anchored there.
+The sails were unbent, the men were ashore. They contained nothing but
+some chests of reels and a few bales of silk and linen. But a
+thirteenth, called the "Cacafuego," had sailed a few days before for
+the Isthmus with the whole produce of the Lima mines for the season.
+Her ballast was silver, her cargo gold and emeralds and rubies.
+
+Drake deliberately cut the cables of the ships in the roads, that they
+might drive ashore and be unable to follow him. The "Pelican" spread her
+wings, and sped away in pursuit. He would know the "Cacafuego," so he
+learned at Lima, by the peculiar cut of her sails. The first man who
+caught sight of her was promised a gold chain for his reward. A sail was
+seen on the second day. It was not the chase, but it was worth stopping
+for. Eighty pounds' weight of gold was found, and a great gold crucifix,
+set with emeralds said to be as large as pigeons' eggs.
+
+We learn from the Spanish accounts that the Viceroy of Lima, as soon
+as he recovered from his astonishment, dispatched ships in pursuit.
+They came up with the last plundered vessel, heard terrible tales of
+the rovers' strength, and went back for a larger force. The "Pelican"
+meanwhile went along upon her course for eight hundred miles. At
+length, off Quito, and close under the shore, the "Cacafuego's"
+peculiar sails were sighted, and the gold chain was claimed. There she
+was, going lazily along a few miles ahead. Care was needed in
+approaching her. If she guessed the "Pelican's" character she would
+run in upon the land, and they would lose her. It was afternoon. The
+sun was still above the horizon, and Drake meant to wait till night,
+when the breeze would be off the shore, as in the tropics it always is.
+
+The "Pelican" sailed two feet to the "Cacafuego's" one. Drake filled his
+empty wine skins with water and trailed them astern to stop his way. The
+chase supposed that she was followed by some heavily-loaded trader,
+and, wishing for company on a lonely voyage, she slackened sail, and
+waited for him to come up. At length the sun went down into the ocean,
+the rosy light faded from off the snows of the Andes; and when both
+ships had become invisible from the shore, the skins were hauled in, the
+night wind rose, and the water began to ripple under the "Pelican's"
+bows. The "Cacafuego" was swiftly overtaken, and when within a cable's
+length a voice hailed her to put her head into the wind. The Spanish
+commander, not understanding so strange an order, held on his course. A
+broadside brought down his mainyard, and a flight of arrows rattled on
+his deck. He was himself wounded. In a few minutes he was a prisoner,
+and the ship and her precious freight were in the corsair's power. The
+wreck was cut away; the ship was cleared; a prize crew was put on board.
+Both vessels turned their heads to the sea. At daybreak no land was to
+be seen, and the examination of the prize began. The full value was
+never acknowledged. The invoice, if there was one, was destroyed. The
+accurate figures were known only to Drake and Queen Elizabeth. A
+published schedule acknowledged to twenty tons of silver bullion,
+thirteen chests of silver coins, and a hundredweight of gold, but there
+were gold nuggets beside in indefinite quantity, and "a great store" of
+pearls, emeralds, and diamonds.
+
+Drake, we are told, was greatly satisfied. He thought it prudent to
+stay in the neighborhood no longer than necessary. He went north with
+all sail set, taking his prize along with him. The master, San Juan de
+Anton, was removed on board the "Pelican," to have his wound attended
+to. He remained as Drake's guest for a week, and sent in a report of
+what he observed to the Spanish government. One at least of Drake's
+party spoke excellent Spanish. This person took San Juan over the
+ship. She showed signs, San Juan said, of rough service, but was still
+in fine condition, with ample arms, spare rope, mattocks, carpenters'
+tools of all descriptions. There were eighty-five men on board all
+told, fifty of them men of war, the rest young fellows, ship boys, and
+the like. Drake himself was treated with great reverence; a sentinel
+stood always at his cabin door. He dined alone with music.
+
+[Illustration: James Anthony Froude.]
+
+The "Pelican" met with many other adventures, and at last sailed for
+home. Sweeping in fine clear weather round the Cape of Good Hope, she
+touched once for water at Sierra Leone, and finally sailed in triumph
+into Plymouth Harbor.
+
+English sympathy with an extraordinary exploit is always irresistible.
+Shouts of applause rang through the country; and Elizabeth, every bit
+of her an English-woman, felt with her subjects. She sent for Drake to
+London, made him tell his story over and over again, and was never
+weary of listening to him.
+
+ --_From "English Seamen in the Sixteenth Century,"
+ by James Anthony Froude._
+
+
+
+
+A BRAVE RESCUE AND A ROUGH RIDE.
+
+
+It happened upon a November evening (when I was about fifteen years
+old, and outgrowing my strength very rapidly, my sister Annie being
+turned thirteen, and a deal of rain having fallen, and all the troughs
+in the yard being flooded, and the bark from the wood ricks washed
+down the gutter, and even our watershoot growing brown) that the ducks
+in the barnyard made a terrible quacking, instead of marching off to
+their pen, one behind another. Thereupon Annie and I ran out to see
+what might be the sense of it. There were thirteen ducks, and ten
+lily-white (as the fashion of ducks then was), not, I mean,
+twenty-three in all, but ten white and three brown-striped ones; and
+without being nice about their color, they all quacked very movingly.
+They pushed their gold-colored bills here and there (yet dirty, as
+gold is apt to be), and they jumped on the triangles of their feet,
+and sounded out of their nostrils; and some of the overexcited ones
+ran along low on the ground, quacking grievously, with their bills
+snapping and bending, and the roof of their mouths exhibited.
+
+Annie began to cry "dilly, dilly, einy, einy, ducksey," according to
+the burden of a tune they seem to have accepted as the national ducks'
+anthem; but instead of being soothed by it, they only quacked three
+times as hard, and ran round till we were giddy. And then they shook
+their tails all together, and looked grave, and went round and round
+again.
+
+Now, I am uncommonly fond of ducks, whether roystering, roosting, or
+roasted; and it is a fine sight to behold them walk, paddling one after
+another, with their toes out, like soldiers drilling, and their little
+eyes cocked all ways at once, and the way that they dib with their
+bills, and dabble, and throw up their heads and enjoy something, and
+then tell the others about it. Therefore, I knew at once, by the way
+they were carrying on, that there must be something or other gone wholly
+amiss in the duck world. Sister Annie perceived it, too, but with a
+greater quickness; for she counted them like a good duck wife, and could
+only tell thirteen of them, when she knew there ought to be fourteen.
+
+And so we began to search about, and the ducks ran to lead us aright,
+having come that far to fetch us; and when we got down to the foot of
+the courtyard where the two great ash trees stand by the side of the
+little water, we found good reason for the urgence and melancholy of
+the duck birds. Lo! the old white drake, the father of all, a bird of
+high manners and chivalry, always the last to help himself from the
+pan of barley meal, and the first to show fight to a dog or cock
+intruding upon his family, this fine fellow, and a pillar of the
+state, was now in a sad predicament, yet quacking very stoutly.
+
+For the brook, wherewith he had been familiar from his callow
+childhood, and wherein he was wont to quest for water newts, and
+tadpoles, and caddice worms, and other game, this brook, which
+afforded him very often scanty space to dabble in, and sometimes
+starved the cresses, was now coming down in a great brown flood, as if
+the banks never belonged to it. The foaming of it, and the noise, and
+the cresting of the corners, and the up and down, like the wave of the
+sea, were enough to frighten any duck, though bred upon stormy waters,
+which our ducks never had been.
+
+There is always a hurdle six feet long and four and a half in depth,
+swung by a chain at either end from an oak laid across the channel.
+And the use of this hurdle is to keep our kine at milking time from
+straying away there drinking (for in truth they are very dainty) and
+to fence strange cattle, or Farmer Snowe's horses, from coming along
+the bed of the brook unknown, to steal our substance.
+
+But now this hurdle, which hung in the summer a foot above the
+trickle, would have been dipped more than two feet deep but for the
+power against it. For the torrent came down so vehemently that the
+chains in full stretch were creaking, and the hurdle buffeted almost
+flat, and thatched (so to say), with the drift stuff, was going seesaw
+with a sulky splash on the dirty red comb of the waters.
+
+But saddest to see was between two bars, where a fog was of rushes,
+and flood wood, and wild celery, and dead crow's-foot. For there was
+our venerable mallard jammed in by the joint of his shoulder, speaking
+aloud as he rose and fell, with his topknot full of water, unable to
+comprehend it, with his tail washed far away from him, but often
+compelled to be silent, being ducked very harshly against his will by
+the choking fall to of the hurdle.
+
+For a moment I could not help laughing; because, being borne high up
+and dry by a tumult of the torrent, he gave me a look from his one
+little eye (having lost one in fight with a turkey cock), a gaze of
+appealing sorrow, and then a loud quack to second it. But the quack
+came out of time, I suppose, for his throat got filled with water, as
+the hurdle carried him back again. And then there was scarcely the
+screw of his tail to be seen until he swung up again, and left small
+doubt, by the way he spluttered, and failed to quack, and hung down
+his poor crest, but what he must drown in another minute, and frogs
+triumph over his body.
+
+Annie was crying and wringing her hands, and I was about to rush into
+the water, although I liked not the look of it, but hoped to hold on
+by the hurdle, when a man on horseback came suddenly round the corner
+of the great ash hedge on the other side of the stream, and his
+horse's feet were in the water.
+
+"Ho, there," he cried, "get thee back, boy! The flood will carry thee
+down like a straw. I will do it for thee, and no trouble."
+
+With that he leaned forward, and spoke to his mare--she was just of
+the tint of a strawberry, a young thing, very beautiful--and she
+arched up her neck, as misliking the job; yet, trusting him, would
+attempt it. She entered the flood, with her dainty fore legs sloped
+further and further in front of her, and her delicate ears pricked
+forward, and the size of her great eyes increasing; but he kept her
+straight in the turbid rush, by the pressure of his knee on her.
+
+Then she looked back, and wondered at him, as the force of the torrent
+grew stronger, but he bade her go on; and on she went, and it foamed
+up over her shoulders; and she tossed up her lip and scorned it, for
+now her courage was waking.
+
+Then, as the rush of it swept her away, and she struck with her
+forefeet down the stream, he leaned from his saddle in a manner which
+I never could have thought possible, and caught up old Tom with his
+left hand, and set him between his hostlers, and smiled at his faint
+quack of gratitude. In a moment all three were carried down stream,
+and the rider lay flat on his horse, and tossed the hurdle clear from
+him, and made for the bend of smooth water.
+
+They landed some thirty or forty yards lower, in the midst of our
+kitchen garden, where the winter cabbage was; but though Annie and I
+crept in through the hedge, and were full of our thanks and admiring
+him, he would answer us never a word until he had spoken in full to
+the mare, as if explaining the whole to her.
+
+"Sweetheart, I know thou couldst have leaped it," he said, as he
+patted her cheek, being on the ground by this time, and she was
+nudging up to him, with the water pattering off from her; "but I had
+good reason, Winnie dear, for making thee go through it."
+
+She answered him kindly with her soft eyes, and sniffed at him very
+lovingly, and they understood one another. Then he took from his
+waistcoat two peppercorns, and made the old drake swallow them, and
+tried him softly on his legs, where the leading gap in the hedge was.
+
+Old Tom stood up quite bravely, and clapped his wings, and shook off
+the wet from his tail feathers; and then away into the courtyard, and
+his family gathered around him, and they all made a noise in their
+throats, and stood up, and put their bills together, to thank God for
+his great deliverance.
+
+Having taken all this trouble, and watched the end of that adventure,
+the gentleman turned round to us with a pleasant smile on his face, as
+if he were lightly amused with himself; and we came up and looked at
+him. He was rather short, about John Fry's height, or maybe a little
+taller, but very strongly built and springy, as his gait at every step
+showed plainly, although his legs were bowed with much riding, and he
+looked as if he lived on horseback.
+
+To a boy like me he seemed very old, being over twenty, and well found
+in beard; but he was not more than four and twenty, fresh and ruddy
+looking, with a short nose and keen blue eyes, and a merry, waggish
+jerk about him, as if the world were not in earnest. Yet he had a
+sharp, stern way, like the crack of a pistol, if anything misliked
+him; and we knew (for children see such things) that it was safer to
+tickle than buffet him.
+
+"Well, young ones, what be gaping at?" He gave pretty Annie a chuck on
+the chin, and took me all in without winking.
+
+"Your mare," said I, standing stoutly up, being a tall boy now; "I
+never saw such a beauty, sir. Will you let me have a ride on her?"
+
+"Think thou couldst ride her, lad? She will have no burden but mine.
+Thou couldst never ride her! Tut! I would be loath to kill thee."
+
+"Ride her!" I cried, with the bravest scorn, for she looked so kind and
+gentle; "there never was horse upon Exmoor but I could tackle in half an
+hour. Only I never ride upon saddle. Take those leathers off of her."
+
+He looked at me with a dry little whistle, and thrust his hands into
+his pockets, and so grinned that I could not stand it. And Annie laid
+hold of me in such a way that I was almost mad with her. And he
+laughed, and approved her for doing so. And the worst of all was--he
+said nothing.
+
+"Get away, Annie. Do you think I'm a fool, good sir? Only trust me
+with her, and I will not override her."
+
+"For that I will go bail, my son. She is liker to override thee. But
+the ground is soft to fall upon, after all this rain. Now come out
+into the yard, young man, for the sake of your mother's cabbages. And
+the mellow straw bed will be softer for thee, since pride must have
+its fall. I am thy mother's cousin, boy, and I'm going up to the
+house. Tom Faggus is my name, as everybody knows, and this is my young
+mare, Winnie."
+
+What a fool I must have been not to know it at once! Tom Faggus, the
+great highwayman, and his young blood mare, the strawberry. Already
+her fame was noised abroad, nearly as much as her master's, and my
+longing to ride her grew tenfold, but fear came at the back of it. Not
+that I had the smallest fear of what the mare could do to me, by fair
+play and horse trickery, but that the glory of sitting upon her seemed
+to be too great for me; especially as there were rumors abroad that
+she was not a mare, after all, but a witch.
+
+However, she looked like a filly all over, and wonderfully beautiful
+with her supple stride, and soft slope of shoulder, and glossy coat
+beaded with water, and prominent eyes full of docile fire. Whether this
+came from her Eastern blood of the Arabs newly imported, and whether the
+cream color, mixed with our bay, led to that bright strawberry tint, is
+certainly more than I can decide, being chiefly acquaint with farm
+horses. And these are of any color and form; you never can count what
+they will be, and are lucky to get four legs to them.
+
+Mr. Faggus gave his mare a wink, and she walked demurely after him, a
+bright young thing, flowing over with life, yet dropping her soul to a
+higher one, and led by love to anything, as the manner is of such
+creatures, when they know what is the best for them. Then Winnie trod
+lightly upon the straw, because it had soft muck under it, and her
+delicate feet came back again.
+
+"Up for it still, boy, be ye?" Tom Faggus stopped, and the mare
+stopped there; and they looked at me provokingly.
+
+"Is she able to leap, sir? There is good take-off on this side of the
+brook."
+
+Mr. Faggus laughed very quietly, turning round to Winnie so that she
+might enter into it. And she, for her part, seemed to know exactly
+where the fun lay.
+
+"Good tumble off, you mean, my boy. Well, there can be small harm to
+thee. I am akin to thy family, and know the substance of their skulls."
+
+"Let me get up," said I, waxing wroth, for reasons I can not tell
+you, because they are too manifold; "take off your saddlebag things. I
+will try not to squeeze her ribs in, unless she plays nonsense with me."
+
+Then Mr. Faggus was up on his mettle at this proud speech of mine, and
+John Fry was running up all the while, and Bill Dadds, and half a
+dozen others. Tom Faggus gave one glance around, and then dropped all
+regard for me. The high repute of his mare was at stake, and what was
+my life compared to it? Through my defiance, and stupid ways, here was
+I in a duello, and my legs not come to their strength yet, and my arms
+as limp as herring.
+
+Something of this occurred to him, even in his wrath with me, for he
+spoke very softly to the filly, who now could scarce subdue herself;
+but she drew in her nostrils, and breathed to his breath, and did all
+she could to answer him.
+
+"Not too hard, my dear," he said; "let him gently down on the mixen.
+That will be quite enough." Then he turned the saddle off, and I was
+up in a moment. She began at first so easily, and pricked her ears so
+lovingly, and minced about as if pleased to find so light a weight
+upon her, that I thought she knew I could ride a little, and feared to
+show any capers. "Gee wugg, Polly!" cried I, for all the men were now
+looking on, being then at the leaving-off time; "gee wugg, Polly, and
+show what thou be'est made of." With that I plugged my heels into her,
+and Billy Dadds flung his hat up.
+
+Nevertheless, she outraged not, though her eyes were frightening Annie,
+and John Fry took a pick to keep him safe; but she curbed to and fro
+with her strong forearms rising like springs ingathered, waiting and
+quivering grievously, and beginning to sweat about it. Then her master
+gave a shrill, clear whistle, when her ears were bent toward him, and I
+felt her form beneath me gathering up like whalebone, and her hind legs
+coming under her, and I knew that I was in for it.
+
+First she reared upright in the air, and struck me full on the nose
+with her comb, till I bled worse than Robin Snell made me; and then
+down with her fore feet deep in the straw, and with her hind feet
+going to heaven. Finding me stick to her still like wax, for my mettle
+was up as hers was, away she flew with me swifter than ever I went
+before, or since, I trow.
+
+She drove full head at the cob wall--"Oh, Jack, slip off!" screamed
+Annie--then she turned like light, when I thought to crush her, and
+ground my left knee against it. "Dear me!" I cried, for my breeches were
+broken, and short words went the farthest--"if you kill me, you shall
+die with me." Then she took the courtyard gate at a leap, knocking my
+words between my teeth, and then right over a quickset hedge, as if the
+sky were a breath to her; and away for the water meadows, while I lay on
+her neck like a child and wished I had never been born.
+
+Straight away, all in the front of the wind, and scattering clouds
+around her, all I know of the speed we made was the frightful flash of
+her shoulders, and her mane like trees in a tempest. I felt the earth
+under us rushing away, and the air left far behind us, and my breath
+came and went, and I prayed to God, and was sorry to be so late of it.
+
+All the long swift while, without power of thought, I clung to her
+crest and shoulders, and was proud of holding on so long, though sure
+of being beaten. Then in her fury at feeling me still, she rushed at
+another device for it, and leaped the wide water-trough sideways
+across, to and fro, till no breath was left in me. The hazel boughs
+took me too hard in the face, and the tall dog-briers got hold of me,
+and the ache of my back was like crimping a fish, till I longed to
+give it up, thoroughly beaten, and lie there and die in the cresses.
+
+But there came a shrill whistle from up the home hill, where the
+people had hurried to watch us, and the mare stopped as if with a
+bullet, then set off for home with the speed of a swallow, and going
+as smoothly and silently. I never had dreamed of such delicate motion,
+fluent, and graceful, and ambient, soft as the breeze flitting over
+the flowers, but swift as the summer lightning.
+
+I sat up again, but my strength was all spent, and no time left to
+recover it; and though she rose at our gate like a bird, I tumbled off
+into the soft mud.
+
+"Well done, lad," Mr. Faggus said, good-naturedly; for all were now
+gathered round me, as I rose from the ground, somewhat tottering, and
+miry, and crest-fallen, but otherwise none the worse (having fallen
+upon my head, which is of uncommon substance); "not at all bad work,
+my boy; we may teach you to ride by and by, I see; I thought not to
+see you stick on so long--"
+
+"I should have stuck on much longer, sir, if her sides had not been
+wet. She was so slippery--"
+
+"Boy, thou art right. She hath given many the slip. Ha! ha! Vex not,
+Jack, that I laugh at thee. She is like a sweetheart to me, and better
+than any of them be. It would have gone to my heart if thou hadst
+conquered. None but I can ride my Winnie mare."
+
+"Foul shame to thee, then, Tom Faggus," cried mother, coming up
+suddenly, and speaking so that all were amazed, having never seen her
+wrathful, "to put my boy, my boy, across her, as if his life were no
+more than thine! A man would have taken thy mad horse and thee, and
+flung them both into a horse pond--ay, and what's more, I'll have it
+done now, if a hair of his head is injured. Oh, my boy, my boy! Put up
+the other arm, Johnny." All the time mother was scolding so, she was
+feeling me and wiping me; while Faggus tried to look greatly ashamed,
+having sense of the ways of women.
+
+"Only look at his jacket, mother!" cried Annie; "and a shilling's
+worth gone from his smallclothes!"
+
+"What care I for his clothes, thou goose? Take that, and heed thine own
+a bit." And mother gave Annie a slap which sent her swinging up against
+Mr. Faggus, and he caught her, and kissed and protected her; and she
+looked at him very nicely, with great tears in her soft blue eyes.
+
+"Oh, fie upon thee, fie upon thee," cried mother (being yet more vexed
+with him, because she had beaten Annie); "after all we have done for
+thee, and saved thy worthless neck--and to try to kill my son for me!
+Never more shall horse of thine enter stable here, since these be thy
+returns to me. Small thanks to you, John Fry, I say; much you care for
+your master's son!"
+
+"Well, missus, what could us do?" began John; "Jan wudd goo, now
+wudd't her, Jem? And how was us--"
+
+"Jan, indeed! Master John, if you please, to a lad of his years and
+stature. And now, Tom Faggus, be off, if you please, and think
+yourself lucky to go so."
+
+Everybody looked at mother, to hear her talk like that, knowing how
+quiet she was day by day, and how pleasant to be cheated. And the men
+began to shoulder their shovels, both so as to be away from her, and
+to go and tell their wives of it. Winnie, too, was looking at her,
+being pointed at so much, and wondering if she had done amiss. And
+then she came to me, and trembled, and stooped her head, and asked my
+pardon, if she had been too proud with me.
+
+"Winnie shall stop here to-night," said I, for Tom Faggus still said
+never a word all the while, but began to buckle his things on.
+"Mother, I tell you Winnie shall stop; else I will go away with her. I
+never knew what it was, till now, to ride a horse worth riding."
+
+"Young man," said Tom Faggus, still preparing sternly to depart, "you
+know more about a horse than any man on Exmoor. Your mother may well
+be proud of you, but she need have had no fear. As if I, Tom Faggus,
+your father's cousin--and the only thing I am proud of--would ever
+have let you mount my mare, which dukes and princes have vainly
+sought, except for the courage in your eyes, and the look of your
+father about you. I knew you could ride when I saw you, and rarely
+you have conquered. But women don't understand us."
+
+With that he fetched a heavy sigh, and feebly got upon Winnie's back,
+and she came to say farewell to me. He lifted his hat to my mother
+with a glance of sorrow, but never a word, and to me he said: "Open
+the gate, Cousin John, if you please. You have beaten her so, that she
+cannot leap it, poor thing."
+
+But, before he was truly gone out of our yard, my mother came softly
+after him, with her afternoon apron across her eyes, and one hand
+ready to offer him. Nevertheless, he made as if he had not seen her,
+though he let his horse go slowly. "Stop, Cousin Tom," my mother said,
+"a word with you before you go."
+
+ * * * * *
+
+"Lorna Doone," by Richard Blackmore, from which this extract is taken,
+is justly regarded as one of the few really great romances written in
+the latter part of the nineteenth century. It is a story of the times
+of Charles II., and culminates about the time of the rebellion of
+Monmouth in 1685. The narrative is supposed to be related by a sturdy
+farmer of Exmoor, named John Ridd, who is the hero of the tale. The
+main part of the action centers round the deeds of a band of outlaws
+called the Doones, who had established themselves in a narrow valley
+of Exmoor, from whence they levied tribute upon their neighbors and
+bade defiance to the officers of the law. The quaint and homely style
+in which the story is written wins the admiration of all readers, and
+gives to the work an indefinable charm.
+
+
+
+
+THE GLORY OF GOD.
+
+
+ The heavens declare the glory of God;
+ And the firmament sheweth his handywork.
+ Day unto day uttereth speech,
+ And night unto night sheweth knowledge,
+ There is no speech nor language,
+ Where their voice is not heard.
+ Their line is gone out through all the earth,
+ And their words to the end of the world.
+ In them hath he set a tabernacle for the sun,
+ Which is as a bridegroom coming out of his chamber,
+ And rejoiceth as a strong man to run a race.
+ His going forth is from the end of the heaven,
+ And his circuit unto the ends of it:
+ And there is nothing hid from the heat thereof.
+ The law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul;
+ The testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple;
+ The statutes of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart;
+ The commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes;
+ The fear of the Lord is clean, enduring forever;
+ The judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether.
+ More to be desired are they than gold; yea than much fine gold;
+ Sweeter also than honey and the honeycomb.
+ Moreover by them is thy servant warned;
+ And in keeping of them there is great reward.
+ Who can understand his errors?
+ Cleanse thou me from secret faults.
+ Keep back thy servant also from presumptuous sins;
+ Let them not have dominion over me:
+ Then shall I be upright, and I shall be
+ Innocent from the great transgression.
+ Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart,
+ Be acceptable in thy sight,
+ O Lord, my strength, and my redeemer.
+
+ --_From the Psalms of David._
+
+
+
+
+THE BATTLE OF BANNOCKBURN.
+
+
+The Battle of Bannockburn, in Scotland, was one of the most famous in
+history. It was fought June 24th, 1314, between Robert Bruce of
+Scotland and Edward II. of England. The army of Bruce consisted of
+30,000 men; that of Edward of 100,000, of whom 52,000 were archers.
+The story of the battle is thus described by Sir Walter Scott in his
+"Tales of a Grandfather":
+
+ Now when Sir Philip Mowbray, the governor of Stirling, came to
+ London, to tell the King, that Stirling, the last Scottish town of
+ importance which remained in possession of the English, was to be
+ surrendered if it were not relieved by force of arms before
+ midsummer, then all the English nobles called out, it would be a
+ sin and shame to permit the fair conquest which Edward the First
+ had made, to be forfeited to the Scots for want of fighting. It
+ was, therefore, resolved, that the King should go himself to
+ Scotland, with as great forces as he could possibly muster.
+
+ King Edward the Second, therefore, assembled one of the greatest
+ armies which a King of England ever commanded. There were troops
+ brought from all his dominions. Many brave soldiers from the
+ French provinces which the King of England possessed in
+ France,--many Irish, many Welsh,--and all the great English nobles
+ and barons, with their followers, were assembled in one great army.
+
+ King Robert the Bruce summoned all his nobles and barons to join
+ him, when he heard of the great preparations which the King of
+ England was making. They were not so numerous as the English by many
+ thousand men. In fact, his whole army did not very much exceed
+ thirty thousand, and they were much worse armed than the wealthy
+ Englishmen; but then, Robert, who was at their head, was one of the
+ most expert generals of the time; and the officers he had under him,
+ were his brother Edward, his nephew Randolph, his faithful follower
+ the Douglas, and other brave and experienced leaders, who commanded
+ the same men that had been accustomed to fight and gain victories
+ under every disadvantage of situation and numbers.
+
+ The King, on his part, studied how he might supply, by address and
+ stratagem, what he wanted in numbers and strength. He knew the
+ superiority of the English, both in their heavy-armed cavalry,
+ which were much better mounted and armed than that of the Scots,
+ and in their archers, who were better trained than any others in
+ the world. Both these advantages he resolved to provide against.
+ With this purpose, he led his army down into a plain near
+ Stirling, called the Park, near which, and beneath it, the English
+ army must needs pass through a boggy country, broken with water
+ courses, while the Scots occupied hard dry ground. He then caused
+ all the ground upon the front of his line of battle, where cavalry
+ were likely to act, to be dug full of holes, about as deep as a
+ man's knee. They were filled with light brushwood, and the turf
+ was laid on the top, so that it appeared a plain field, while in
+ reality it was all full of these pits as a honeycomb is of holes.
+ He also, it is said, caused steel spikes, called calthrops, to be
+ scattered up and down in the plain, where the English cavalry were
+ most likely to advance, trusting in that manner to lame and
+ destroy their horses.
+
+ When the Scottish army was drawn up, the line stretched north and
+ south. On the south, it was terminated by the banks of the brook
+ called Bannockburn, which are so rocky, that no troops could attack
+ them there. On the left, the Scottish line extended near to the town
+ of Stirling. Bruce reviewed his troops very carefully; all the
+ useless servants, drivers of carts, and such like, of whom there
+ were very many, he ordered to go behind a height, afterwards, in
+ memory of the event, called the Gillies' hill, that is, the
+ Servants' hill. He then spoke to the soldiers, and expressed his
+ determination to gain the victory, or to lose his life on the field
+ of battle. He desired that all those who did not propose to fight to
+ the last, should leave the field before the battle began, and that
+ none should remain except those who were determined to take the
+ issue of victory or death, as God should send it.
+
+ When the main body of his army was thus placed in order, the King
+ posted Randolph, with a body of horse, near to the Church of St.
+ Ninian's, commanding him to use the utmost diligence to prevent
+ any succors from being thrown into Stirling Castle. He then
+ dispatched James of Douglas, and Sir Robert Keith, the Mareschal
+ of the Scottish army, in order that they might survey, as nearly
+ as they could, the English force, which was now approaching from
+ Falkirk. They returned with information, that the approach of that
+ vast host was one of the most beautiful and terrible sights which
+ could be seen,--that the whole country seemed covered with men at
+ arms on horse and foot,--that the number of standards, banners,
+ and pennons (all flags of different kinds) made so gallant a show,
+ that the bravest and most numerous host in Christendom might be
+ alarmed to see King Edward moving against them.
+
+ It was upon the twenty-third of June (1314) the King of Scotland
+ heard the news, that the English army were approaching Stirling.
+ He drew out his army, therefore, in the order which he had before
+ resolved on. After a short time, Bruce, who was looking out
+ anxiously for the enemy, saw a body of English cavalry trying to
+ get into Stirling from the eastward. This was the Lord Clifford,
+ who, with a chosen body of eight hundred horse had been detached
+ to relieve the castle.
+
+ "See, Randolph," said the King to his nephew, "there is a rose
+ fallen from your chaplet." By this he meant that Randolph had lost
+ some honor, by suffering the enemy to pass where he had been
+ stationed to hinder them. Randolph made no reply, but rushed
+ against Clifford with little more than half his number. The Scots
+ were on foot. The English turned to charge them with their lances,
+ and Randolph drew up his men in close order to receive the onset.
+ He seemed to be in so much danger, that Douglas asked leave of the
+ King to go and assist him. The King refused him permission.
+
+ "Let Randolph," he said, "redeem his own fault; I can not break
+ the order of battle for his sake." Still the danger appeared
+ greater, and the English horse seemed entirely to encompass the
+ small handful of Scottish infantry. "So please you," said Douglas
+ to the King, "my heart will not suffer me to stand idle and see
+ Randolph perish--I must go to his assistance." He rode off
+ accordingly; but long before they had reached the place of combat,
+ they saw the English horses galloping off, many with empty saddles.
+
+ "Halt!" said Douglas to his men, "Randolph has gained the day;
+ since we were not soon enough to help him in the battle, do not
+ let us lessen his glory by approaching the field." Now, that was
+ nobly done; especially as Douglas and Randolph were always
+ contending which should rise highest in the good opinion of the
+ King and the nation.
+
+ The van of the English army now came in sight, and a number of
+ their bravest knights drew near to see what the Scots were doing.
+ They saw King Robert dressed in his armor, and distinguished by a
+ gold crown, which he wore over his helmet. He was not mounted on
+ his great war horse, because he did not expect to fight that
+ evening. But he rode on a little pony up and down the ranks of his
+ army, putting his men in order, and carried in his hand a short
+ battle ax made of steel. When the King saw the English horsemen
+ draw near, he advanced a little before his own men, that he might
+ look at them more nearly.
+
+ There was a knight among the English, called Sir Henry de Bohun,
+ who thought this would be a good opportunity to gain great fame to
+ himself, and put an end to the war, by killing King Robert. The
+ King being poorly mounted, and having no lance, Bohun galloped on
+ him suddenly and furiously, thinking, with his long spear, and his
+ tall powerful horse, easily to bear him down to the ground. King
+ Robert saw him, and permitted him to come very near, then suddenly
+ turned his pony a little to one side, so that Sir Henry missed him
+ with the lance point, and was in the act of being carried past him
+ by the career of his horse. But as he passed, King Robert rose up
+ in his stirrups, and struck Sir Henry on the head with his battle
+ ax so terrible a blow, that it broke to pieces his iron helmet as
+ if it had been a nutshell, and hurled him from his saddle. He was
+ dead before he reached the ground. This gallant action was blamed
+ by the Scottish leaders, who thought Bruce ought not to have
+ exposed himself to so much danger, when the safety of the whole
+ army depended on him. The King only kept looking at his weapon,
+ which was injured by the force of the blow, and said, "I have
+ broken my good battle ax."
+
+ The next morning, being the twenty-fourth of June, at break of day,
+ the battle began in terrible earnest. The English as they advanced
+ saw the Scots getting into line. The Abbot of Inchaffray walked
+ through their ranks barefooted, and exhorted them to fight for their
+ freedom. They kneeled down as he passed, and prayed to heaven for
+ victory. King Edward, who saw this, called out, "They kneel
+ down--they are asking forgiveness." "Yes," said a celebrated English
+ baron, called Ingelram de Umphraville, "but they ask it from God,
+ not from us--these men will conquer, or die upon the field."
+
+ The English King ordered his men to begin the battle. The archers
+ then bent their bows, and began to shoot so closely together, that
+ the arrows fell like flakes of snow on a Christmas day. But Bruce,
+ as I told you before, was prepared for them. He had in readiness a
+ body of men at arms well mounted, who rode at full gallop among the
+ archers, and as they had no weapons save their bows and arrows,
+ which they could not use when they were attacked hand to hand, they
+ were cut down in great numbers, and thrown into total confusion.
+
+ The fine English cavalry then advanced to support their archers,
+ and to attack the Scottish line. But coming over the ground, which
+ was dug full of pits, the horses fell into these holes, and the
+ riders lay tumbling about, without any means of defense, and
+ unable to rise, from the weight of their armor. The Englishmen
+ began to fall into general disorder; and the Scottish King,
+ bringing up more of his forces, attacked and pressed them still
+ more closely.
+
+ On a sudden, while the battle was obstinately maintained on both
+ sides, an event happened which decided the victory. The servants
+ and attendants on the Scottish camp had, as I told you, been sent
+ behind the army to a place afterwards called the Gillies' hill.
+ But when they saw that their masters were likely to gain the day,
+ they rushed from their place of concealment with such weapons as
+ they could get, that they might have their share in the victory
+ and in the spoil. The English, seeing them come suddenly over the
+ hill, mistook this disorderly rabble for a new army coming up to
+ sustain the Scots, and, losing all heart, began to shift every man
+ for himself. Edward himself left the field as fast as he could
+ ride. A valiant knight, Sir Giles de Argentine, attended the King
+ till he got him out of the press of the combat. But he would
+ retreat no farther. "It is not my custom," he said, "to fly." With
+ that he took leave of the King, set spurs to horse, and calling
+ out his war cry of Argentine! Argentine! he rushed into the
+ thickest of the Scottish ranks, and was killed.
+
+ Edward first fled to Stirling Castle, and entreated admittance;
+ but Sir Philip Mowbray, the governor, reminded the fugitive
+ sovereign that he was obliged to surrender the castle next day, so
+ Edward was fain to fly through the Torwood, closely pursued by
+ Douglas with a body of cavalry. An odd circumstance happened
+ during the chase, which showed how loosely some of the Scottish
+ barons of that day held their political opinions: As Douglas was
+ riding furiously after Edward, he met a Scottish knight, Sir
+ Laurence Abernethy, with twenty horse. Sir Laurence had hitherto
+ owned the English interest, and was bringing this band of
+ followers to serve King Edward's army. But learning from Douglas
+ that the English King was entirely defeated, he changed sides on
+ the spot, and was easily prevailed upon to join Douglas in
+ pursuing the unfortunate Edward, with the very followers whom he
+ had been leading to join his standard.
+
+ Douglas and Abernethy followed King Edward as far as Dunbar, where
+ the English had still a friend, in the governor, Patrick, Earl of
+ March. The Earl received Edward in his forlorn condition, and
+ furnished him with a fishing skiff, or small ship, in which he
+ escaped to England, having entirely lost his fine army, and a
+ great number of his bravest nobles.
+
+ The English never before or afterwards, whether in France or
+ Scotland, lost so dreadful a battle as that of Bannockburn, nor
+ did the Scots ever gain one of the same importance.
+
+Such is the story that is told by Sir Walter Scott in his "Tales of a
+Grandfather." It will be interesting now to read Burns's poem
+beginning, "Scots wha hae wi' Wallace bled," which we can easily
+imagine to be Bruce's address to his men at the beginning of the great
+fight. Read also Sir Walter Scott's metrical description of the
+battle, in the long poem entitled "The Lord of the Isles."
+
+
+
+
+THE SOLDIER'S DREAM.
+
+
+ Our bugles sang truce; for the night cloud had lowered,
+ And the sentinel stars set their watch in the sky;
+ And thousands had sunk on the ground overpowered--
+ The weary to sleep, and the wounded to die.
+
+ When reposing that night on my pallet of straw,
+ By the wolf-scaring fagot that guarded the slain,
+ At the dead of the night a sweet vision I saw,
+ And thrice ere the morning I dreamed it again.
+
+ Methought from the battlefield's dreadful array,
+ Far, far I had roamed on a desolate track;
+ 'Twas autumn--and sunshine arose on the way
+ To the home of my fathers, that welcomed me back.
+
+ I flew to the pleasant fields traversed so oft
+ In life's morning march, when my bosom was young;
+ I heard my own mountain goats bleating aloft,
+ And knew the sweet strain that the corn reapers sung.
+
+ Then pledged we the wine cup, and fondly I swore
+ From my home and my weeping friends never to part;
+ My little ones kissed me a thousand times o'er,
+ And my wife sobbed aloud in her fulness of heart.
+
+ "Stay, stay with us!--rest; thou art weary and worn!"
+ And fain was their war-broken soldier to stay;
+ But sorrow returned with the dawning of morn,
+ And the voice in my dreaming ear melted away!
+
+ --_Thomas Campbell._
+
+
+
+
+LORD ULLIN'S DAUGHTER.
+
+
+ A chieftain, to the Highlands bound,
+ Cries, "Boatman, do not tarry!
+ And I'll give thee a silver pound
+ To row us o'er the ferry."
+
+ "Now who be ye, would cross Lochgyle,
+ This dark and stormy water?"
+ "Oh, I'm the chief of Ulva's isle,
+ And this Lord Ullin's daughter.
+
+[Illustration: Thomas Campbell.]
+
+ "And fast before her father's men
+ Three days we've fled together;
+ For should he find us in the glen,
+ My blood would stain the heather.
+
+ "His horsemen hard behind us ride:
+ Should they our steps discover,
+ Then who will cheer my bonny bride
+ When they have slain her lover?"
+
+ Out spoke the hardy Highland wight:
+ "I'll go, my chief: I'm ready
+ It is not for your silver bright,
+ But for your winsome lady;
+
+ "And, by my word, the bonny bird
+ In danger shall not tarry;
+ So, though the waves are raging white,
+ I'll row you o'er the ferry."
+
+ By this the storm grew loud apace;
+ The water wraith was shrieking;
+ And in the scowl of heaven each face
+ Grew dark as they were speaking.
+
+ But still, as wilder blew the wind,
+ And as the night grew drearer,
+ Adown the glen rode arméd men;
+ Their trampling sounded nearer.
+
+ "Oh haste thee, haste," the lady cries,
+ "Though tempests round us gather,
+ I'll meet the raging of the skies,
+ But not an angry father."
+
+ The boat has left a stormy land,
+ A stormy sea before her,
+ When, oh, too strong for human hand,
+ The tempest gathered o'er her.
+
+ And still they rowed amidst the roar
+ Of waters fast prevailing.
+ Lord Ullin reached that fatal shore:
+ His wrath was changed to wailing;
+
+ For, sore dismayed, through storm and shade,
+ His child he did discover:
+ One lovely hand she stretch'd for aid,
+ And one was round her lover.
+
+ "Come back! come back!" he cried in grief,
+ "Across this stormy water;
+ And I'll forgive your Highland chief,
+ My daughter! oh, my daughter!"
+
+ 'Twas vain! The loud waves lashed the shore,
+ Return or aid preventing:
+ The waters wild went o'er his child,
+ And he was left lamenting.
+
+ --_Thomas Campbell._
+
+
+
+
+BEETHOVEN'S MOONLIGHT SONATA.
+
+
+Among the great musical composers of modern times there have been few
+who rank with Ludwig van Beethoven. This famous man was born in Bonn,
+Germany, in 1770; he died at Vienna in 1827. It may be truthfully said
+that the works of Beethoven created a new epoch in the history and
+development of music, and his compositions lose none of their
+popularity as the years go by.
+
+Beethoven's life was a sad one. He was alone in the world, deaf, and the
+object of unkind treatment by those who should have been his friends.
+How nobly he rose above all petty annoyances, we can readily understand
+when we listen to the grand and solemn strains of his immortal music.
+The following story illustrates the kindliness of his nature and shows
+how some of his works seemed to be almost the result of inspiration.
+
+ * * * * *
+
+It happened at Bonn. One moonlight winter's evening I called upon
+Beethoven; for I wished him to take a walk, and afterwards sup with
+me. In passing through a dark, narrow street, he suddenly paused.
+"Hush!" he said, "what sound is that? It is from my Sonata in F. Hark!
+how well it is played!"
+
+[Illustration: Ludwig van Beethoven.]
+
+It was a little, mean dwelling, and we paused outside and listened.
+The player went on; but, in the midst of the finale, there was a
+sudden break; then the voice of sobbing. "I cannot play any more. It
+is so beautiful; it is utterly beyond my power to do it justice. Oh,
+what would I not give to go to the concert at Cologne!"
+
+"Ah! my sister," said her companion; "why create regrets when there is
+no remedy? We can scarcely pay our rent."
+
+"You are right, and yet I wish for once in my life to hear some really
+good music. But it is of no use."
+
+Beethoven looked at me. "Let us go in," he said.
+
+"Go in!" I exclaimed. "What can we go in for?"
+
+"I will play to her," he said, in an excited tone. "Here is
+feeling--genius--understanding! I will play to her, and she will
+understand it." And, before I could prevent him, his hand was upon
+the door. It opened, and we entered.
+
+A pale young man was sitting by the table, making shoes; and near him,
+leaning sorrowfully upon an old-fashioned piano, sat a young girl,
+with a profusion of light hair falling over her face.
+
+"Pardon me," said Beethoven, "but I heard music and was tempted to
+enter. I am a musician."
+
+The girl blushed, and the young man looked grave and somewhat annoyed.
+
+"I--I also overheard something of what you said," continued my friend.
+"You wish to hear--that is, you would like--that is--shall I play for
+you?"
+
+There was something so odd in the whole affair, and something so
+comical and pleasant in the manner of the speaker, that the spell was
+broken in a moment.
+
+"Thank you," said the shoemaker; "but our piano is so wretched, and we
+have no music."
+
+"No music!" echoed my friend; "how, then, does the young lady--" He
+paused, and colored; for, as he looked in the girl's face, he saw that
+she was blind. "I--I entreat your pardon," he stammered. "I had not
+perceived before. Then you play by ear? But where do you hear the
+music, since you frequent no concerts?"
+
+"We lived at Bruhl for two years, and while there, I used to hear a
+lady practicing near us. During the summer evenings her windows were
+generally open, and I walked to and fro outside to listen to her."
+
+She seemed so shy that Beethoven said no more, but seated himself
+quietly before the piano and began to play. He had no sooner struck
+the first chord than I knew what would follow. Never, during all the
+years I knew him, did I hear him play as he then played to that blind
+girl and her brother. He seemed to be inspired; and, from the instant
+that his fingers began to wander along the keys, the very tone of the
+instrument seemed to grow sweeter and more equal.
+
+The brother and sister were silent with wonder and rapture. The former
+laid aside his work; the latter, with her head bent slightly forward,
+and her hands pressed tightly over her breast, crouched down near the
+end of the piano, as if fearful lest even the beating of her heart
+should break the flow of those magical sounds.
+
+Suddenly the flame of the single candle wavered, sank, flickered, and
+went out. Beethoven paused, and I threw open the shutters, admitting a
+flood of brilliant moonlight. The room was almost as light as before,
+the moon's rays falling strongest upon the piano and player. His head
+dropped upon his breast; his hands rested upon his knees; he seemed
+absorbed in deep thought. He remained thus for some time. At length
+the young shoemaker rose and approached him eagerly.
+
+"Wonderful man!" he said, in a low tone. "Who and what are you?"
+
+"Listen!" said Beethoven, and he played the opening bars of the Sonata
+in F. A cry of recognition burst from them both, and exclaiming, "Then
+you are Beethoven!" they covered his hands with tears and kisses.
+
+He rose to go, but we held him back with entreaties. "Play to us once
+more--only once more!"
+
+He suffered himself to be led back to the instrument. The moon shone
+brightly in through the window, and lighted up his glorious, ragged
+head and massive figure. "I will improvise a Sonata to the Moonlight!"
+said he, looking up thoughtfully to the sky and stars. Then his hands
+dropped on the keys, and he began playing a sad and infinitely lovely
+movement, which crept gently over the instrument, like the calm flow
+of moonlight over the dark earth. This was followed by a wild, elfin
+passage in triple time--a sort of grotesque interlude, like the dance
+of sprites upon the lawn. Then came a swift agitato finale--a
+breathless, hurrying, trembling movement, descriptive of flight, and
+uncertainty, and vague impulsive terror, which carried us away on its
+rustling wings, and left us all in emotion and wonder.
+
+"Farewell to you!" said Beethoven, pushing back his chair, and turning
+toward the door--"farewell to you!"
+
+"You will come again?" asked they, in one breath.
+
+He paused and looked compassionately, almost tenderly, at the face of
+the blind girl.
+
+"Yes, yes," he said hurriedly, "I will come again, and give the young
+lady some lessons! Farewell! I will come again!"
+
+Their looks followed us in silence more eloquent than words till we
+were out of sight.
+
+"Let us make haste back," said Beethoven, "that I may write out that
+Sonata while I can yet remember it."
+
+We did so, and he sat over it until long past day dawn. And this was
+the origin of that Moonlight Sonata with which we are all so fondly
+acquainted.
+
+
+
+
+THE STORY OF TEMPE WICK.
+
+
+There are so many curious and unexpected things which may happen in time
+of war, especially to people who live in parts of a country where the
+enemy may be expected to come, or where the friendly army is already
+encamped, that it is impossible to guard against unpleasant occurrences;
+and it often happens that the only thing to be depended upon when an
+emergency arises, is presence of mind, and quickness of wit.
+
+[Illustration: Frank R. Stockton.]
+
+In these qualities, New Jersey girls have never shown themselves behind
+their sisters of other parts of the country, and a very good proof of
+this is shown by an incident which took place near Morristown during the
+time that the American army was quartered in that neighborhood.
+
+Not far from the town was a farm then known as Wick's farm, situated
+in a beautiful wooded country. The daughter of Mr. Wick, named Tempe
+(probably short for Temperance), was the owner of a very fine horse,
+and on this beautiful animal it was her delight to ride over the roads
+and through the woods of the surrounding country. She had been
+accustomed to horses since she was a child, and was not afraid to ride
+anywhere by herself.
+
+When she first began to canter over these hills and dales, it had been
+in times of peace, when there was nothing in this quiet country of
+which any one might be afraid; and now, although these were days of
+war, she felt no fear. There were soldiers not far away, but these she
+looked upon as her friends and protectors; for Washington and his army
+had encamped in that region to defend the country against the approach
+of the enemy. If any straggling Redcoats should feel a desire to come
+along the hills, they would be very apt to restrain their inclinations
+so long as they knew that that brave American army was encamped near by.
+
+So Miss Tempe Wick, fearing nothing, rode far and wide, as she had
+been in the habit of doing, and every day she and her good steed
+became better and better acquainted with each other.
+
+One fine afternoon, as Tempe was slowly riding homeward, within a mile
+of her house, she met half a dozen soldiers in Continental uniform,
+and two of them, stepping in front of her, called upon her to stop.
+When she had done so, one of them seized her bridle. She did not know
+the men; but still, as they belonged to Washington's army, who were
+her countrymen and friends, she saw no reason to be afraid, and asked
+them what they wanted.
+
+At first she received no answer, for they were very busily occupied in
+looking at her horse and expressing their satisfaction at the fine
+points of the animal. Tempe had had her horse praised before; but
+these men were looking at him, and talking about him, very much as if
+he were for sale and they were thinking of buying. Presently one of
+the men said to her that this was a very excellent horse that she was
+riding, and they wanted it. To this Tempe exclaimed, in great
+amazement, that it was her own horse, that she wanted him herself, and
+had no wish to dispose of him. Some of the soldiers laughed, and one
+of them told her that the troops were about to move, and that good
+horses were greatly needed, and that they had orders to levy upon the
+surrounding country and take horses wherever they could find them.
+
+Now was Tempe astonished beyond measure. If half a dozen British
+soldiers had surrounded her, and had declared that they intended to
+rob her of her horse, she would not have wondered at it, for they
+would have taken it as the property of an enemy. But that the soldiers
+of her own country, the men on whom she and all her friends and
+neighbors depended for protection and safety, should turn on her and
+rob her, as if they had been a set of marauding Hessians, was
+something she could scarcely comprehend. But it did not take her long
+to understand, that no matter who they were or what they
+were,--whether they thought they had a right to do what they
+threatened, or whether they had no regard for right and justice,--they
+were in earnest, and intended to take her horse. When this conviction
+flashed into the mind of Tempe Wick, there also flashed into it a
+determination to show these men that a Jersey girl had a will of her
+own, and that if they wanted her property, they would have to do a
+great deal more than simply to come to her and ask her to hand it over
+to them.
+
+After a little parley, during which the man who held her bridle let go
+of it, supposing she was about to dismount, she suddenly gave her
+spirited horse a sharp cut with the whip, dashed between two of the
+soldiers, and before they could comprehend what had happened she was
+off and away.
+
+As fast as they could run, the soldiers followed her, one or two of
+them firing their guns in the air, thinking to frighten her and make
+her stop; but, as though she had been a deer and her pursuers ordinary
+hunters, she swiftly sped away from them.
+
+But they did not give up the chase. Some of them knew where this girl
+lived, and were confident that when they reached her house, they would
+have the horse. If they had known it was such a fine animal, they
+would have come after it before. According to their belief, good
+horses should go into the army, and people who staid at home, and
+expected other people to fight for them, ought to be willing to do
+what they could to help in the good cause, and at least give their
+horses to the army.
+
+As Tempe sat upon her bounding steed, she knew very well that the
+soldiers could never catch her; but her heart sank within her as she
+thought of what would happen when they came to the farm and demanded
+her horse. Running away from them was only postponing her trouble for
+a little while, for there was no one about the place who could prevent
+those men from going to the barn and taking away the animal.
+
+It would be of no use to pass her house and ride on and on. Where
+should she go? She must come back sometime, and all the soldiers would
+have to do would be to halt at the farm, and wait until she returned.
+And even if she should take her horse into the wood and tie him to a
+tree, they would know by her coming back on foot that she had left him
+at no great distance, and they would be sure to follow his tracks and
+find him.
+
+As Tempe rode swiftly on, her thoughts galloped as fast as her horse,
+and before she reached the house she had come to a conclusion as to
+the best thing to be done. She did not ride toward the barn, but
+dashed through the gateway of the large yard, and sprang from her
+steed. As she turned in, she looked down the road; but the men were
+not in sight. What she was going to do was something which people
+never did, but it was the only thing she could think of, and she was a
+girl whose actions were as quick as her ideas were original. Without
+stopping an instant, she took her horse to the back door, and led him
+boldly into the house.
+
+This was not the sort of stable to which Tempe's horse or any other
+American horse was accustomed; but this animal knew his mistress, and
+where she led, he was willing to follow. If one of the farm hands had
+attempted to take the creature into the house, there would probably
+have been some rearing and plunging; but nothing of this kind happened
+as our Jersey girl, with her hand on her horse's bridle, led him
+quickly inside and closed the door behind him. As the story goes, she
+took him through the kitchen, and then into the parlor, without the
+slightest regard to the injury his shoes might do to the well-kept
+floor; and from the parlor she led him into a bedroom on the lower
+floor, which was usually used as a guest chamber, but which never
+before had such a guest as this.
+
+This room had but a single window, the shutters of which were kept
+closed when it was not in use, and there was no entrance to it except
+through the door which opened from the parlor. The door was quickly
+closed, and Tempe stood with her horse in the darkness.
+
+When the soldiers reached the farm they went to the barn. They
+examined the outhouses, visited the pasture fields, and made a
+thorough search, high and low, near and far; but no sign of a horse
+could they find. Of course, the notion that the animal was concealed
+in the house did not enter their minds, and the only way in which they
+could account for the total disappearance of the horse was, that Tempe
+had ridden off with him--where they knew not. We do not know how long
+they waited for the sight of a hungry horse coming home to his supper,
+but we do know that while there was the slightest danger of her dear
+horse being taken away from her, that animal remained a carefully
+attended guest in the spare room of the Wick house; and the tradition
+is, that he staid there three weeks. There Tempe waited on him as if
+he had been a visitor of high degree; and if she was afraid to go to
+the barn to bring him hay and oats, she doubtless gave him biscuit and
+soft bread,--dainties of which a horse is very fond, especially when
+they are brought to him by such a kind mistress as Tempe.
+
+When the cavalry moved away from their camp near Morristown, no one of
+them rode on that fine horse on which they had seen a girl gayly
+cantering, and which, when they had been about to put their hands upon
+it, had flown away, like a butterfly from under the straw hat of a
+schoolboy. When the troops were gone, the horse came out of the guest
+chamber and went back to his stall in the stable; and that room in
+which he passed so many quiet days, and the door through which the
+horse timidly stepped under the shadow of that hospitable roof, are
+still to be seen at the old Wick house, which stands now, as it stood
+then, with its shaded yard and the great willow tree behind it, on the
+pleasant country road by which we may drive from Morristown to Mendham
+by the way of Washington Corner.
+
+ --_From "Stories of New Jersey," by Frank R. Stockton._
+
+
+
+
+LIFE IN NORMAN ENGLAND.
+
+
+The tall frowning keep and solid walls of the great stone castles, in
+which the Norman barons lived, betokened an age of violence and
+suspicion. Beauty gave way to the needs of safety. Girdled with its
+green and slimy ditch, round the inner edge of which ran a parapeted
+wall pierced along the top with shot holes, stood the buildings,
+spreading often over many acres.
+
+[Illustration:
+
+ From a Photograph. Engraved by John Evans.
+
+ Ruins of a Norman Castle.
+]
+
+If an enemy managed to cross the moat and force the gateway, in spite
+of a portcullis crashing from above, and melted lead pouring in
+burning streams from the perforated top of the rounded arch, but
+little of his work was yet done; for the keep lifted its huge angular
+block of masonry within the inner bailey or courtyard, and from the
+narrow chinks in its ten-foot wall rained a sharp incessant shower of
+arrows, sweeping all approaches to the high and narrow stair, by which
+alone access could be had to its interior.
+
+These loopholes were the only windows, except in the topmost story,
+where the chieftain, like a vulture in his rocky nest, watched all the
+surrounding country. The day of splendid oriels had not yet come in
+castle architecture.
+
+Thus a baron in his keep could defy, and often did defy, the king upon
+his throne. Under his roof, eating daily at his board, lived a throng
+of armed retainers; and around his castle lay farms tilled by martial
+franklins, who at his call laid aside their implements of husbandry,
+took up the sword and spear, which they could wield with equal skill,
+and marched beneath his banner to the war.
+
+With robe ungirt and head uncovered each tenant had done homage and
+sworn an oath of fealty, placing his joined hands between those of the
+sitting baron, and humbly saying as he knelt, "I become your man from
+this day forward, of life and limb and of earthly worship; and unto you
+I shall be true and faithful, and bear to you faith for the tenements
+that I claim to hold of you, saving the faith that I owe unto our
+sovereign lord the king." A kiss from the baron completed the ceremony.
+
+The furniture of a Norman keep was not unlike that of an English
+house. There was richer ornament--more elaborate carving. A
+_faldestol_, the original of our arm-chair, spread its drapery and
+cushions for the chieftain in his lounging moods. His bed now boasted
+curtains and a roof, although, like the English lord, he still lay
+only upon straw. Chimneys tunneled the thick walls, and the cupboards
+glittered with glass and silver. Horn lanterns and the old spiked
+candlesticks lit up his evening hours, when the chessboard arrayed its
+clumsy men, carved out of walrus tusk, then commonly called
+whale's-bone. But the baron had an unpleasant trick of breaking the
+chessboard on his opponent's head, when he found himself checkmated;
+which somewhat marred said opponent's enjoyment of the game. Dice of
+horn and bone emptied many a purse in Norman England.
+
+[Illustration: Horn Lantern.]
+
+Dances and music whiled away the long winter nights; and on summer
+evenings the castle courtyards resounded with the noise of football,
+_kayles_ (a sort of ninepins), wrestling, boxing, leaping, and the
+fierce joys of the bull bait. But out of doors, when no fighting was
+on hand, the hound, the hawk, and the lance attracted the best
+energies and skill of the Norman gentleman.
+
+Rousing the forest game with dogs, they shot at it with barbed and
+feathered arrows. A field of ripening corn never turned the chase
+aside: it was one privilege of a feudal baron to ride as he pleased
+over his tenants' crops, and another to quarter his insolent hunting
+train in the farmhouses which pleased him best! The elaborate details
+of _woodcraft_ became an important part of a noble boy's education;
+for the numerous bugle calls and scientific dissection of a dead stag
+took many seasons to learn.
+
+After the Conquest, to kill a deer or own a hawk came more than ever
+to be regarded as the special privilege of the aristocracy. The hawk,
+daintily dressed, as befitted the companion of nobility, with his head
+wrapped in an embroidered hood, and a peal of silver bells tinkling
+from his rough legs, sat in state, bound with leathern jesses to the
+wrist, which was protected by a thick glove. The ladies and the clergy
+loved him. By many a mere the abbots ambled on their ponies over the
+swampy soil, and sweet shrill voices cheered the long-winged hawk, as
+he darted off in pursuit of the soaring quarry.
+
+[Illustration: The Hawk.]
+
+The author of "Ivanhoe" has made the tournament a picture familiar to
+all readers of romance. It therefore needs no long description here.
+It was held in honor of some great event--a coronation, wedding, or
+victory. Having practiced well during squirehood at the _quintain_,
+the knight, clad in full armor, with visor barred and the colors of
+his lady on crest and scarf, rode into the lists, for which some level
+green was chosen and surrounded with a palisade.
+
+For days before, his shield had been hanging in a neighboring church,
+as a sign of his intention to compete in this great game of chivalry.
+If any stain lay on his knighthood, a lady, by touching the suspended
+shield with a wand, could debar him from a share in the jousting. And
+if, when he had entered the lists he was rude to a lady, or broke in
+any way the etiquette of the tilt yard, he was beaten from the lists
+with the ashwood lances of the knights.
+
+[Illustration: The Knight.]
+
+The simple joust was the shock of two knights, who galloped with
+leveled spears at each other, aiming at breast or head, with the
+object either of unhorsing the antagonist, or, if he sat his charger
+well, of splintering the lance upon his helmet or his shield. The
+mellay hurled together, at the dropping of the prince's baton, two
+parties of knights, who hacked away at each other with ax and mace and
+sword, often gashing limbs and breaking bones in the wild excitement
+of the fray. Bright eyes glanced from the surrounding galleries upon
+the brutal sport; and when the victor, with broken plume, and battered
+armor, dragged his weary limbs to the footstool of the beauty who
+presided as Queen over the festival, her white hands decorated him
+with the meed of his achievements.
+
+The Normans probably dined at nine in the morning. When they rose they
+took a light meal; and ate something also after their day's work,
+immediately before going to bed. Goose and garlic formed a favorite
+dish. Their cookery was more elaborate, and, in comparison, more
+delicate, than the preparations for an English feed; but the character
+for temperance, which they brought with them from the Continent, soon
+vanished.
+
+The poorer classes hardly ever ate flesh, living principally on bread,
+butter, and cheese,--a social fact which seems to underlie that usage
+of our tongue by which the living animals in field or stall bore
+English names--ox, sheep, calf, pig, deer; while their flesh, promoted
+to Norman dishes, rejoiced in names of French origin--beef, mutton,
+veal, pork, venison. Round cakes, piously marked with a cross, piled
+the tables, on which pastry of various kinds also appeared. In good
+houses cups of glass held the wine, which was borne from the cellar
+below in jugs.
+
+Squatted around the door or on the stair leading to the Norman dining
+hall, was a crowd of beggars or lickers, who grew so insolent in the
+days of Rufus, that ushers, armed with rods, were posted outside to
+beat back the noisy throng, who thought little of snatching the dishes
+as the cooks carried them to table!
+
+The juggler, who under the Normans filled the place of the English
+gleeman, tumbled, sang, and balanced knives in the hall; or out in the
+bailey of an afternoon displayed the acquirements of his trained
+monkey or bear. The fool, too, clad in colored patchwork, cracked his
+ribald jokes and shook his cap and bells at the elbow of roaring
+barons, when the board was spread and the circles of the wine began.
+
+While knights hunted in the greenwood or tilted in the lists, and
+jugglers tumbled in the noisy hall, the monk in the quiet scriptorium
+compiled chronicles of passing events, copied valuable manuscripts,
+and painted rich borders and brilliant initials on every page. These
+illuminations form a valuable set of materials for our pictures of
+life in the Middle Ages.
+
+Monasteries served many useful purposes at the time of which I write.
+Besides their manifest value as centers of study and literary work,
+they gave alms to the poor, a supper and a bed to travelers; their
+tenants were better off and better treated than the tenants of the
+nobles; the monks could store grain, grow apples, and cultivate their
+flower beds with little risk of injury from war, because they had
+spiritual thunders at their call, which awed even the most reckless of
+the soldiery into a respect for sacred property.
+
+Splendid structures those monasteries generally were, since that vivid
+taste for architecture which the Norman possessed in a high degree,
+and which could not find room for its display in the naked strength of
+the solid keep, lavished its entire energy and grace upon buildings
+lying in the safe shadow of the Cross. Nor was architectural taste the
+only reason for their magnificence. Since they were nearly all erected
+as offerings to Heaven, the religion of the age impelled the pious
+builders to spare no cost in decorating the exterior with fretwork and
+sculpture of Caen stone, the interior with gilded cornices and windows
+of painted glass.
+
+As schools, too, the monasteries did no trifling service to society
+in the Middle Ages. In addition to their influence as great centers of
+learning, English law had enjoined every mass priest to keep a school
+in his parish church, where all the young committed to his care might
+be instructed. This custom continued long after the Norman Conquest.
+In the Trinity College Psalter we have a picture of a Norman school,
+where the pupils sit in a circular row around the master as he
+lectures to them from a long roll of manuscript. Two writers sit by
+the desk, busy with copies resembling that which the teacher holds.
+
+The youth of the middle classes, destined for the cloister or the
+merchant's stall, chiefly thronged these schools. The aristocracy
+cared little for book-learning. Very few indeed of the barons could
+read or write. But all could ride, fence, tilt, play, and carve
+extremely well; for to these accomplishments many years of pagehood
+and squirehood were given.
+
+ * * * * *
+
+The foregoing description of manners and customs during the age of
+feudalism has been adapted from a popular "History of England," by W.
+F. Collier. A much fuller description may be found in Knight's
+"History of England," and in Green's "Short History of the English
+People." The period described was in many respects the most romantic
+in the history of the world, and many delightful and instructive books
+have been written concerning it. Read Scott's "Ivanhoe" and "The
+Talisman." Reference may also be had to Pauli's "Pictures of Old
+England," and Jusserand's "English Wayfaring Life in the Middle Ages."
+
+
+
+
+THE ROMANCE OF THE SWAN'S NEST.
+
+[Illustration: Elizabeth Barrett Browning.]
+
+ "So the dreams depart,
+ So the fading phantoms flee,
+ And the sharp reality
+ Now must act its part."
+
+ --_Westwood's "Beads from a Rosary."_
+
+
+I.
+
+ Little Ellie sits alone
+ 'Mid the beeches of a meadow,
+ By a stream side on the grass,
+ And the trees are showering down
+ Doubles of their leaves in shadow,
+ On her shining hair and face.
+
+
+II.
+
+ She has thrown her bonnet by,
+ And her feet she has been dipping
+ In the shallow water's flow;
+ Now she holds them nakedly
+ In her hands, all sleek and dripping,
+ While she rocketh to and fro.
+
+
+III.
+
+ Little Ellie sits alone,
+ And the smile she softly uses
+ Fills the silence like a speech,
+ While she thinks what shall be done,
+ And the sweetest pleasure chooses
+ For her future within reach.
+
+
+IV.
+
+ Little Ellie in her smile
+ Chooses, "I will have a lover,
+ Riding on a steed of steeds:
+ He shall love me without guile,
+ And to _him_ I will discover
+ The swan's nest among the reeds.
+
+
+V.
+
+ "And the steed shall be red roan,
+ And the lover shall be noble,
+ With an eye that takes the breath.
+ And the lute he plays upon
+ Shall strike ladies into trouble,
+ As his sword strikes men to death.
+
+
+VI.
+
+ "And the steed it shall be shod
+ All in silver, housed in azure;
+ And the mane shall swim the wind;
+ And the hoofs along the sod
+ Shall flash onward, and keep measure,
+ Till the shepherds look behind.
+
+
+VII.
+
+ "But my lover will not prize
+ All the glory that he rides in,
+ When he gazes in my face.
+ He will say, 'O Love, thine eyes
+ Build the shrine my soul abides in,
+ And I kneel here for thy grace!'
+
+
+VIII.
+
+ "Then, aye, then he shall kneel low,
+ With the red-roan steed anear him,
+ Which shall seem to understand,
+ Till I answer, 'Rise and go!
+ For the world must love and fear him
+ Whom I gift with heart and hand.'
+
+
+IX.
+
+ "Then he will arise so pale,
+ I shall feel my own lips tremble
+ With a _yes_ I must not say:
+ Nathless maiden brave, 'Farewell,'
+ I will utter, and dissemble--
+ 'Light to-morrow with to-day!'
+
+
+X.
+
+ "Then he'll ride among the hills
+ To the wide world past the river,
+ There to put away all wrong,
+ To make straight distorted wills,
+ And to empty the broad quiver
+ Which the wicked bear along.
+
+
+XI.
+
+ "Three times shall a young foot page
+ Swim the stream, and climb the mountain,
+ And kneel down beside my feet:
+ 'Lo! my master sends this gage,
+ Lady, for thy pity's counting.
+ What wilt thou exchange for it?'
+
+
+XII.
+
+ "And the first time I will send
+ A white rosebud for a guerdon--
+ And the second time, a glove;
+ But the third time--I may bend
+ From my pride, and answer--'Pardon,
+ If he comes to take my love.'
+
+
+XIII.
+
+ "Then the young foot page will run--
+ Then my lover will ride faster,
+ Till he kneeleth at my knee:
+ 'I am a duke's eldest son!
+ Thousand serfs do call me master,--
+ But, O Love, I love but _thee_!'"...
+
+
+XIV.
+
+ Little Ellie, with her smile
+ Not yet ended, rose up gayly,
+ Tied the bonnet, donned the shoe,
+ And went homeward, round a mile,
+ Just to see, as she did daily,
+ What more eggs were with the two.
+
+
+XV.
+
+ Pushing through the elm-tree copse,
+ Winding up the stream, light-hearted,
+ Where the osier pathway leads,
+ Past the boughs she stoops, and stops.
+ Lo, the wild swan had deserted,
+ And a rat had gnawed the reeds!
+
+
+XVI.
+
+ Ellie went home sad and slow.
+ If she found the lover ever,
+ With his red-roan steed of steeds,
+ Sooth I know not; but I know
+ She could never show him--never,
+ That swan's nest among the reeds.
+
+ --_Elizabeth Barrett Browning._
+
+
+
+
+A PATRIARCH OF THE OLDEN TIME
+
+
+Oh that I were as in months past, as in the days when God preserved
+me; when his candle shined upon my head, and when by his light I
+walked through darkness; as I was in the days of my youth, when the
+secret of God was upon my tabernacle; when the Almighty was yet with
+me; when my children were about me; when I washed my steps with
+butter, and the rock poured me out rivers of oil.
+
+When the ear heard me, then it blessed me; and when the eye saw me, it
+gave witness to me: because I delivered the poor that cried, and the
+fatherless, and him that had none to help him. The blessing of him that
+was ready to perish came upon me; and I caused the widow's heart to sing
+for joy. I was eyes to the blind, and feet was I to the lame. I was a
+father to the poor; and the cause which I knew not, I searched out.
+
+Did not I weep for him that was in trouble? Was not my soul grieved
+for the poor? Let me be weighed in an even balance that God may know
+mine integrity. If I did despise the cause of my man servant or of my
+maid servant, when they contended with me, what then shall I do when
+God riseth up? and when he visiteth, what shall I answer him? Did not
+he that made me make him also?
+
+If I have withheld the poor from their desire, or have caused the eyes
+of the widow to fail, or have eaten my morsel myself alone, and the
+fatherless hath not eaten thereof; if I have seen any perish for want
+of clothing, or any poor without covering; if his loins have not
+blessed me, and if he were not warmed with the fleece of my sheep; if
+I have lifted up my hand against the fatherless, when I saw my help in
+the gate; then let mine arm fall from my shoulder blade, and mine arm
+be broken from the bone.
+
+If I rejoiced at the destruction of him that hated me, or lifted up
+myself when evil found him (neither have I suffered my mouth to sin,
+by wishing a curse to his soul. The stranger did not lodge in the
+street; but I opened my doors to the traveler). If my land cry against
+me, or the furrows likewise thereof complain; if I have eaten the
+fruits thereof without money, or have caused the owners thereof to
+lose their life: let thistles grow instead of wheat, and cockle
+instead of barley.
+
+ --_From the "Book of Job."_
+
+
+
+
+HOW CORTÉS ENTERED THE CITY OF MEXICO.
+
+[Illustration: William H. Prescott.]
+
+
+Mexico, when first discovered by Europeans, was inhabited by a
+civilized race called Aztecs. The conquest of that country and the
+subjugation of its people by the Spaniards under Hernando Cortés, in
+1518-21, was one of the most remarkable episodes in the history of the
+Western Continent. William H. Prescott, our American historian, in his
+"Conquest of Mexico," has told the story of that event in a manner so
+delightful that the whole narrative reads like a romance. His
+description of the entry of the Spaniards into the capital city of the
+Aztecs is as follows:--
+
+ It was the eighth of November, 1519, a conspicuous day in history,
+ as that on which the Europeans first set foot in the capital of
+ the Western World.
+
+ Cortés with his little body of horse formed a sort of advanced
+ guard to the army. Then came the Spanish infantry, who in a
+ summer's campaign had acquired the discipline and the
+ weather-beaten aspect of veterans. The baggage occupied the
+ center; and the rear was closed by the dark files of Tlascalan
+ warriors. The whole number must have fallen short of seven
+ thousand; of which fewer than four hundred were Spaniards.
+
+ Everywhere the conquerors beheld the evidence of a crowded and
+ thriving population, exceeding all they had yet seen. The temples
+ and principal buildings of the cities were covered with a hard
+ white stucco, which glistened like enamel in the level beams of
+ the morning. The margin of the lake was thickly gemmed with towns
+ and hamlets. The water was darkened by swarms of canoes filled
+ with Indians, who clambered up the sides of the causeway and gazed
+ with curious astonishment on the strangers. And here, also, they
+ beheld those fairy islands of flowers, overshadowed occasionally
+ by trees of considerable size, rising and falling with the gentle
+ undulation of the billows.
+
+ At the distance of half a league from the capital, they
+ encountered a solid work, or curtain of stone, which traversed the
+ dike. It was twelve feet high, was strengthened by towers at the
+ extremities, and in the center was a battlemented gateway, which
+ opened a passage to the troops.
+
+ Here they were met by several hundred Aztec chiefs, who came out
+ to announce the approach of Montezuma and to welcome the Spaniards
+ to his capital. They were dressed in the fanciful gala costume of
+ the country, with the _maxlatl_, or cotton sash, around their
+ loins, and a broad mantle of the same material, or of the
+ brilliant feather embroidery, flowing gracefully down their
+ shoulders. On their necks and arms they displayed collars and
+ bracelets of turquoise mosaic, with which delicate plumage was
+ curiously mingled, while their ears and underlips, and
+ occasionally their noses, were garnished with pendants formed of
+ precious stones, or crescents of fine gold.
+
+ As each cacique made the usual formal salutation of the country
+ separately to the general, the tedious ceremony delayed the march
+ more than an hour. After this the army experienced no further
+ interruption till it reached a bridge near the gates of the city.
+ It was built of wood, and was thrown across an opening of the
+ dike, which furnished an outlet to the waters when agitated by the
+ winds or swollen by a sudden influx in the rainy season. It was a
+ drawbridge; and the Spaniards, as they crossed it, felt how truly
+ they were committing themselves to the mercy of Montezuma, who, by
+ thus cutting off their communications with the country, might hold
+ them prisoners in his capital.
+
+ In the midst of these unpleasant reflections, they beheld the
+ glittering retinue of the emperor emerging from the great street
+ which led then, as it still does, through the heart of the city.
+ Amidst a crowd of Indian nobles, preceded by three officers of
+ state bearing golden wands, they saw the royal palanquin blazing
+ with burnished gold. It was borne on the shoulders of nobles, and
+ over it a canopy of gaudy feather work, powdered with jewels and
+ fringed with silver, was supported by four attendants of the same
+ rank. They were barefooted, and walked with a slow, measured pace,
+ and with eyes bent on the ground.
+
+ When the train had come within a convenient distance, it halted, and
+ Montezuma, descending from his litter, came forward, leaning on the
+ arms of the lords of Tezcuco and Iztapalapan, his nephew and
+ brother, both of whom had already been made known to the Spaniards.
+ As the monarch advanced under the canopy, the obsequious attendants
+ strewed the ground with cotton tapestry, that his imperial feet
+ might not be contaminated by the rude soil. His subjects of high and
+ low degree, who lined the sides of the causeway, bent forward with
+ their eyes fastened on the ground as he passed, and some of the
+ humbler class prostrated themselves before him.
+
+ Montezuma wore the girdle and ample square cloak, _tilmatli_, of his
+ nation. It was made of the finest cotton, with the embroidered ends
+ gathered in a knot round his neck. His feet were defended by sandals
+ having soles of gold, and the leathern thongs which bound them to
+ his ankles were embossed with the same metal. Both the cloak and
+ sandals were sprinkled with pearls and precious stones, among which
+ the emerald, and another green stone of high estimation among the
+ Aztecs, were conspicuous. On his head he wore no other ornament than
+ a _panache_ of plumes of the royal green, which floated down his
+ back, the badge of military, rather than of regal, rank.
+
+ He was at this time about forty years of age. His person was tall
+ and thin, but not ill made. His hair, which was black and
+ straight, was not very long; to wear it short was considered
+ unbecoming to persons of rank. His beard was thin; his complexion
+ somewhat paler than is often found in his dusky, or rather
+ copper-colored, race. His features, though serious in their
+ expression, did not wear the look of melancholy, indeed of
+ dejection, which characterizes his portrait, and which may well
+ have settled on them at a later period. He moved with dignity, and
+ his whole demeanor, tempered by an expression of benignity not to
+ have been anticipated from the reports circulated of his
+ character, was worthy of a great prince.
+
+ The army halted as he drew near. Cortés, dismounting, threw his
+ reins to a page, and supported by a few of the principal
+ cavaliers, advanced to meet him. The interview must have been one
+ of uncommon interest to both. In Montezuma, Cortés beheld the lord
+ of the broad realms he had traversed, whose magnificence and power
+ had been the burden of every tongue. In the Spaniard, on the other
+ hand, the Aztec prince saw the strange being whose history seemed
+ to be so mysteriously connected with his own; the predicted one of
+ his oracles, whose achievements proclaimed him something more than
+ human.
+
+ But whatever may have been the monarch's feelings, he so far
+ suppressed them as to receive his guest with princely courtesy,
+ and to express his satisfaction at personally seeing him in his
+ capital. Cortés responded by the most profound expressions of
+ respect, while he made ample acknowledgments for the substantial
+ proofs which the emperor had given the Spaniards of his
+ munificence. He then hung round Montezuma's neck a sparkling chain
+ of colored crystal, accompanying this with a movement as if to
+ embrace him, when he was restrained by the two Aztec lords,
+ shocked at the menaced profanation of the sacred person of their
+ master. After the interchange of these civilities, Montezuma
+ appointed his brother to conduct the Spaniards to their residence
+ in the capital, and, again entering his litter, was borne off
+ amidst prostrate crowds in the same state in which he had come.
+ The Spaniards quickly followed, and, with colors flying and music
+ playing, soon made their entrance into the southern quarter of
+ Tenochtitlan.
+
+ Here, again, they found fresh cause for admiration in the grandeur
+ of the city and the superior style of its architecture. The
+ dwellings of the poorer class were, indeed, chiefly of reeds and
+ mud. But the great avenue through which they were now marching was
+ lined with the houses of the nobles, who were encouraged by the
+ emperor to make the capital their residence. They were built of a
+ red porous stone drawn from quarries in the neighborhood, and,
+ though they rarely rose to a second story, often covered a large
+ space of ground. The flat roofs, _azoteas_, were protected by
+ stone parapets, so that every house was a fortress. Sometimes
+ these roofs resembled parterres of flowers, so thickly were they
+ covered with them, but more frequently these were cultivated in
+ broad terraced gardens, laid out between the edifices.
+ Occasionally a great square or market place intervened, surrounded
+ by its porticoes of stone and stucco; or a pyramidal temple reared
+ its colossal bulk, crowned with its tapering sanctuaries, and
+ altars blazing with inextinguishable fires. The great street
+ facing the southern causeway, unlike most others in the place, was
+ wide, and extended some miles in nearly a straight line, as before
+ noticed, through the center of the city. A spectator standing at
+ one end of it, as his eye ranged along the deep vista of temples,
+ terraces, and gardens, might clearly discern the other, with the
+ blue mountains in the distance, which, in the transparent
+ atmosphere of the table-land, seemed almost in contact with the
+ buildings.
+
+ But what most impressed the Spaniards was the throngs of people
+ who swarmed through the streets and on the canals, filling every
+ doorway and window and clustering on the roofs of the buildings.
+ "I well remember the spectacle," exclaims Bernal Diaz; "it seems
+ now, after so many years, as present to my mind as if it were but
+ yesterday." But what must have been the sensations of the Aztecs
+ themselves, as they looked on the portentous pageant! as they
+ heard, now for the first time, the well-cemented pavement ring
+ under the iron tramp of the horses,--the strange animals which
+ fear had clothed in such supernatural terrors: as they gazed on
+ the children of the East, revealing their celestial origin in
+ their fair complexions; saw the bright falchions and bonnets of
+ steel, a metal to them unknown, glancing like meteors in the sun,
+ while sounds of unearthly music--at least, such as their rude
+ instruments had never wakened--floated in the air?
+
+ [Illustration: Hernando Cortés.]
+
+ As they passed down the spacious street, the troops repeatedly
+ traversed bridges suspended above canals, along which they saw the
+ Indian barks gliding swiftly with their little cargoes of fruits
+ and vegetables for the markets of Tenochtitlan. At length they
+ halted before a broad area near the center of the city, where rose
+ the huge pyramidal pile dedicated to the patron war god of the
+ Aztecs, second only, in size as well as sanctity, to the temple of
+ Cholula, and covering the same ground now in part occupied by the
+ great cathedral of Mexico.
+
+ Facing the western gate of the inclosure of the temple, stood a
+ low range of stone buildings, spreading over a wide extent of
+ ground, the palace of Axayacatl, Montezuma's father, built by that
+ monarch about fifty years before. It was appropriated as the
+ barracks of the Spaniards. The emperor himself was in the
+ courtyard, waiting to receive them. Approaching Cortés, he took
+ from a vase of flowers, borne by one of his slaves, a massy
+ collar, in which the shell of a species of crawfish, much prized
+ by the Indians, was set in gold and connected by heavy links of
+ the same metal. From this chain depended eight ornaments, also of
+ gold, made in resemblance of the same shellfish, a span in length
+ each, and of delicate workmanship; for the Aztec goldsmiths were
+ confessed to have shown skill in their craft not inferior to their
+ brethren of Europe. Montezuma, as he hung the gorgeous collar
+ round the general's neck, said, "This palace belongs to you,
+ Malinche" (the epithet by which he always addressed him), "and
+ your brethren. Rest after your fatigues, for you have much need to
+ do so, and in a little while I will visit you again." So saying,
+ he withdrew with his attendants, evincing in this act a delicate
+ consideration not to have been expected in a barbarian.
+
+
+
+
+THE SKYLARK.
+
+
+ Bird of the wilderness,
+ Blithesome and cumberless,
+ Sweet be thy matin o'er moorland and lea!
+ Emblem of happiness,
+ Blest is thy dwelling place:
+ Oh to abide in the desert with thee!
+
+ Wild is thy lay, and loud,
+ Far in the downy cloud:
+ Love gives it energy, love gave it birth.
+ Where, on thy dewy wing,
+ Where art thou journeying?
+ Thy lay is in heaven, thy love is on earth.
+
+ O'er fell and fountain sheen,
+ O'er moor and mountain green,
+ O'er the red streamer that heralds the day,
+ Over the cloudlet dim,
+ Over the rainbow's rim,
+ Musical cherub, soar, singing, away!
+
+ Then, when the gloaming comes,
+ Low in the heather blooms
+ Sweet will thy welcome and bed of love be;
+ Emblem of happiness,
+ Blest is thy dwelling place:
+ Oh to abide in the desert with thee!
+
+ --_James Hogg._
+
+
+
+
+THE MYSTERY OF THE TADPOLE.
+
+
+A blade of grass is a mystery, if men would but distill it out. When my
+learned friend Dr. Syntax, glancing round my workroom, observed a vase
+full of tadpoles, he asked me in a tone of sniffling superiority: "Do
+you really mean to say you find any interest in those little beasts?"
+
+[Illustration: George Henry Lewes.]
+
+"As much as you find in books," I answered, with some energy.
+
+"H'm," grunted Syntax.
+
+Very absurd isn't it? But we all have our hobbies. I can pass a
+bookstall on which I perceive that the ignorance of the bookseller
+permits him to exhibit now and then rare editions of valuable books at
+almost no price at all. The sight gives me no thrill--it does not even
+cause me to slacken my pace.
+
+But I can't so easily pass a pond in which I see a shoal of tadpoles
+swimming about, as ignorant of their own value as the bookseller is of
+his books. I may walk on, but the sight has sent a slight electric
+shock through me.
+
+"Why, sir," I said to my learned friend, "there is more to me in the
+_tail_ of one of those tadpoles than in all the musty old volumes you
+so much delight to pick up. But I won't thrash your dog unless you
+thrash mine."
+
+"Why, what on earth can you do with the tail?"
+
+[Illustration: Tadpoles in different Stages of Development.]
+
+"Do with it? Study it, experiment on it, put it under the microscope,
+and day by day watch the growth of its various parts. At first it is
+little more than a mass of cells. Then I notice that these cells begin
+to take a definite shape, and blood vessels appear in them. Then the
+muscles begin to appear."
+
+"Very interesting, I dare say."
+
+"You don't seem to think so, by your tone. But look in this vase: here
+are several tadpoles with the most apologetic of tails--mere stumps,
+in fact. I cut them off nine days ago."
+
+"Will they grow again?"
+
+"Perfectly; for, although the frog dispenses with a tail almost as
+soon as he reaches the frog form, the tadpole needs his tail to swim
+with; and when by any accident he loses it, Nature kindly supplies him
+with another."
+
+"Yes, yes," added Syntax, glad to feel himself once more among things
+of which he knew something; "just like the lobster or the crab, you
+know. They tear off their legs and arms in a most reckless way, and
+yet they always grow new ones again."
+
+"Would you like to know what has become of the tails which I cut off
+from these fellows?"
+
+"Aren't they dead?"
+
+"Not at all. Alive and kicking."
+
+"Alive after nine days? Oh! oh!"
+
+"Here they are, in this glass. It is exactly nine days since they were
+cut off, and I have been watching them daily under the microscope. I
+assure you that I have seen them _grow_, not _larger_, indeed, but
+develop more and more, muscle fibers appearing each day where before
+there were none at all."
+
+"Come, now, you are trying to see what a fool you can make of me."
+
+"I am perfectly serious. The discovery is none of mine. It was made by
+M. Vulpian in Paris. He says that the tails live many days--as many as
+eighteen in one instance; but I have never kept mine alive more than
+eleven. He says, moreover, that they not only grow, as I have said,
+but that they seem to possess feeling, for they twist about with a
+rapid swimming movement when irritated."
+
+"Well, but I say, how _could_ they live when separated from the body?
+Our arms or legs don't live; the lobster's legs don't live."
+
+"Quite true. But in those cases we have limbs of a complex
+organization, which require a complex apparatus in order to sustain
+their life. They must have blood, the blood must circulate."
+
+"Stop, stop! I don't want to understand why our arms can't live apart
+from our bodies. They don't. The fact is enough for me. I want to know
+why the tail of a tadpole can live apart from the body."
+
+"It _can_. Is not the fact enough for you in that case also? Well, I
+was going to tell you the reason. The tail will live apart from the
+body only so long as it retains its early immature form. If you cut it
+off from a tadpole which is old enough to have lost its external gills
+a week or more, the tail will _not_ live more than three or four days.
+And every tail will die as soon as it reaches the point in its
+development which requires the circulation of the blood as a necessary
+condition."
+
+"But where does it get food?"
+
+"That is more than I can say. I don't know that it wants food. You
+know that reptiles can live without food a wonderful length of time."
+
+"Really, I begin to think there is more in these little beasts than I
+ever dreamed of. But it must take a great deal of study to get at
+these facts."
+
+"Not more than to get at any of the other open secrets of Nature. But,
+since you are interested, look at these tails as the tadpoles come
+bobbing against the side of the glass. Do you see how they are covered
+with little white spots?"
+
+"No."
+
+"Look closer. All over the tail there are tiny, cotton-like spots.
+Take a lens, if your eye isn't sharp enough. There, now you see them."
+
+"Yes; I see a sort of _fluff_ scattered about."
+
+"That fluff is an immense colony of parasites. Let us place the
+tadpole under the microscope, and you will see each spot turn out to
+be a multitude of elegant and active animals, having bodies not unlike
+a crystal goblet supported on an extremely long and flexible stem, and
+having round their rim or mouth a range of long, delicate hairs, the
+motion of which gives a wheel-like aspect, and makes an eddy in the
+water which brings food to the animal."
+
+"This is really interesting! How active they are! How they shrink up,
+and then, unwinding their twisted stems, expand again! What's the name
+of this thing?"
+
+"_Vorticella_. It may be found growing on water fleas, plants, decayed
+wood, or these tadpoles. People who study the animalcules are very
+fond of this Vorticella."
+
+"Well, I never could have believed such a patch of fluff could turn
+out a sight like this: I could watch it for an hour. But what are
+those small yellowish things sticking on the side of these parasites?"
+
+"Those, my dear Syntax, are also parasites."
+
+"What, parasites living on parasites?"
+
+"Why not? Nature is economical. Don't you live on beef, and mutton,
+and fish? Don't these beeves, muttons, and fishes live on vegetables
+and animals? Don't the vegetables and animals live on other organic
+matters? Eat and be eaten, is one law: live and let live, is another."
+
+[Illustration: The Tadpole's last Stage.]
+
+The learned Doctor remained thoughtful; then he screwed up one side of
+his face into the most frightful wrinkles, while with the eye of the
+other he resumed his examination of the Vorticella.
+
+ --_George Henry Lewes._
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration:
+
+ From the Painting by Rosa Bonheur. Engraved by Horace Baker.
+
+ The Lions.
+]
+
+THE GLOVE AND THE LIONS.
+
+
+ King Francis was a hearty king, and loved a royal sport,
+ And one day, as his lions fought, sat looking on the court;
+ The nobles filled the benches, with the ladies in their pride,
+ And 'mongst them sat the Count de Lorge, with one for whom he
+ sighed:
+ And truly 'twas a gallant thing to see that crowning show,--
+ Valor and love, and a king above, and the royal beasts below.
+
+[Illustration: Leigh Hunt.]
+
+ Ramped and roared the lions, with horrid laughing jaws;
+ They bit, they glared, gave blows like beams, a wind went with their
+ paws;
+ With wallowing might and stifled roar, they rolled on one another,
+ Till all the pit, with sand and mane, was in a thunderous smother;
+ The bloody foam above the bars came whisking through the air:
+ Said Francis, then, "Faith, gentlemen, we're better here than
+ there."
+
+ De Lorge's love o'erheard the king, a beauteous, lively dame,
+ With smiling lips and sharp bright eyes, which always seemed the
+ same;
+ She thought, "The Count, my lover, is brave as brave can be,
+ He surely would do wondrous things to show his love of me;
+ King, ladies, lovers, all look on; the occasion is divine;
+ I'll drop my glove, to prove his love; great glory will be mine."
+
+ She dropped her glove, to prove his love; then looked at him, and
+ smiled;
+ He bowed, and in a moment leaped among the lions wild:
+ The leap was quick, return was quick, he soon regained the place,
+ Then threw the glove, but not with love, right in the lady's face.
+ "In faith," cried Francis, "rightly done!" and he rose from where he
+ sat;
+ "No love," quoth he, "but vanity sets love a task like that."
+
+ --_Leigh Hunt._
+
+
+
+
+TRUE GROWTH.
+
+
+ It is not growing like a tree
+ In bulk, doth make man better be;
+ Or standing like an oak, three hundred year,
+ To fall a log at last, dry, bald, and sere;
+ A lily of a day
+ Is fairer far in May,
+ Although it fall and die that night--
+ It was the plant and flower of Light.
+ In small proportions we just beauties see;
+ And in short measures life may perfect be.
+
+ --_Ben Jonson._
+
+
+
+
+THE SHIPWRECK.
+
+
+I.
+
+Having made up my mind to go down to Yarmouth, I went round to the
+coach office and took the box seat on the mail. In the evening I
+started, by that conveyance, down the road.
+
+"Don't you think that a very remarkable sky?" I asked the coachman, in
+the first stage out of London. "I don't remember to have seen one like
+it."
+
+"Nor I--not equal to it," he replied. "That's wind, sir; there'll be
+mischief done at sea, I expect before long."
+
+[Illustration: Charles Dickens.]
+
+It was a murky confusion--here and there blotted with a color like the
+color of the smoke from damp fuel--of flying clouds tossed up into
+most remarkable heaps, suggesting greater heights in the clouds than
+there were depths below them to the bottom of the deepest hollows in
+the earth, through which the wild moon seemed to plunge headlong, as
+if, in a dread disturbance of the laws of nature, she had lost her way
+and were frightened. There had been wind all day; and it was rising
+then, with an extraordinary great sound. In another hour it had much
+increased, and the sky was more overcast, and it blew harder.
+
+But as the night advanced, the clouds closing in and densely
+overspreading the whole sky, then very dark, it came on to blow harder
+and harder. It still increased, until our horses could scarcely face
+the wind. Many times in the dark part of the night (it was then late
+in September, when the nights were not short) the leaders turned
+about, or came to a dead stop; and we were often in apprehension that
+the coach would be blown over.
+
+When the day broke, it blew harder and harder. I had been in Yarmouth
+when the seamen said it blew great guns, but I had never known the
+like of this, or anything approaching to it. We came to Ipswich--very
+late, having had to fight every inch of ground since we were ten miles
+out of London; and found a cluster of people in the market place, who
+had risen from their beds in the night, fearful of falling chimneys.
+Some of these, congregating about the innyard while we changed horses,
+told us of great sheets of lead having been ripped off a high church
+tower and flung into a by-street, which they then blocked up. Others
+had to tell of country people, coming in from neighboring villages,
+who had seen great trees lying torn out of the earth, and whole ricks
+scattered about the roads and fields. Still there was no abatement in
+the storm, but it blew harder.
+
+As we struggled on, nearer and nearer to the sea, from which the
+mighty wind was blowing dead on shore, its force became more and more
+terrific. Long before we saw the sea, its spray was on our lips, and
+showered salt rain upon us. The water was out, over miles and miles of
+the flat country adjacent to Yarmouth; and every sheet and puddle
+lashed its banks, and had its stress of little breakers setting
+heavily towards us. When we came within sight of the sea, the waves on
+the horizon, caught at intervals above the rolling abyss, were like
+glimpses of another shore with towers and buildings. When at last we
+got into the town, the people came out to their doors, all aslant, and
+with streaming hair, making a wonder of the mail that had come through
+such a night.
+
+I put up at the old inn, and went down to look at the sea, staggering
+along the street, which was strewn with sand and seaweed, and with
+flying blotches of sea foam; afraid of falling slates and tiles; and
+holding by people I met at angry corners. Coming near the beach, I
+saw, not only the boatmen, but half the people of the town, lurking
+behind buildings; some now and then braving the fury of the storm to
+look away to sea, and blown sheer out of their course in trying to get
+zigzag back.
+
+Joining these groups, I found bewailing women whose husbands were away
+in herring or oyster boats, which there was too much reason to think
+might have foundered before they could run in anywhere for safety.
+Grizzled old sailors were among the people, shaking their heads as
+they looked from water to sky, and muttering to one another;
+shipowners excited and uneasy; children huddling together, and peering
+into older faces; even stout mariners disturbed and anxious, leveling
+their glasses at the sea from behind places of shelter, as if they
+were surveying an enemy.
+
+The tremendous sea itself, when I could find sufficient pause to look
+at it, in the agitation of the blinding wind, the flying stones and
+sand, and the awful noise, confounded me. As the high watery walls
+came rolling in, and, at their highest, tumbled into surf, they looked
+as if the least would engulf the town. As the receding wave swept back
+with a hoarse roar, it seemed to scoop out caves in the beach, as if
+its purpose were to undermine the earth. When some white-headed
+billows thundered on, and dashed themselves to pieces before they
+reached the land, every fragment of the late whole seemed possessed by
+the full might of its wrath, rushing to be gathered to the composition
+of another monster. Undulating hills were changed to valleys,
+undulating valleys (with a storm bird sometimes skimming through them)
+were lifted up to hills; masses of water shivered and shook the beach
+with a booming sound; every shape tumultuously rolled on, as soon as
+made, to change its shape and place, and beat another shape and place
+away; the ideal shore on the horizon, with its towers and buildings,
+rose and fell; the clouds flew fast and thick; I seemed to see a
+rending and upheaving of all nature.
+
+Not finding my old friend, Ham, among the people whom this memorable
+wind--for it is still remembered down there as the greatest ever known
+to blow upon that coast--had brought together, I made my way to his
+house. It was shut; and as no one answered to my knocking, I went by
+back ways and by-lanes to the yard where he worked. I learned there
+that he had gone to Lowestoft, to meet some sudden exigency of ship
+repairing in which his skill was required; but that he would be back
+to-morrow morning in good time.
+
+I went back to the inn; and when I had washed and dressed, and tried
+to sleep, but in vain, it was five o'clock in the afternoon. I had not
+sat five minutes by the coffee-room fire, when the waiter, coming to
+stir it as an excuse for talking, told me that two colliers had gone
+down, with all hands, a few miles away; and that some other ships had
+been seen laboring hard in the Roads, and trying in great distress to
+keep off shore. "Mercy on them, and on all poor sailors," said he, "if
+we had another night like the last!"
+
+I was very much depressed in spirits, very solitary, and felt an
+uneasiness in Ham's not being there, disproportionate to the occasion.
+I was seriously affected, without knowing how much, by late events,
+and my exposure to the fierce wind had confused me. There was that
+jumble in my thoughts and recollections that I had lost the clear
+arrangement of time and distance. Thus, if I had gone out into the
+town, I should not have been surprised, I think, to encounter some one
+who I knew must be then in London. So to speak, there was in these
+respects a curious inattention in my mind. Yet it was busy, too, with
+all the remembrances the place naturally awakened, and they were
+particularly distinct and vivid.
+
+In this state, the waiter's dismal intelligence about the ships
+immediately connected itself, without any effort of my volition, with my
+uneasiness about Ham. I was persuaded that possibly he would attempt to
+return from Lowestoft by sea, and be lost. This grew so strong with me,
+that I resolved to go back to the yard before I took my dinner, and ask
+the boat builder if he thought his attempting to return by sea at all
+likely. If he gave me the least reason to think so, I would go over to
+Lowestoft and prevent it by bringing him with me.
+
+I hastily ordered my dinner, and went back to the yard. I was none too
+soon; for the boat builder, with a lantern in his hand, was locking
+the yard gate. He quite laughed when I asked him the question, and
+said there was no fear; no man in his senses, or out of them, would
+put off in such a gale of wind, least of all Ham Peggotty, who had
+been born to seafaring.
+
+I went back to the inn. The howl and roar, the rattling of the doors
+and windows, the rumbling in the chimneys, the apparent rocking of the
+very house that sheltered me, and the prodigious tumult of the sea,
+were more fearful than in the morning. But there was now a great
+darkness besides; and that invested the storm with new terrors, real
+and fanciful.
+
+I could not eat, I could not sit still, I could not continue steadfast
+in anything. Something within me, faintly answering to the storm
+without, tossed up the depths of my memory and made a tumult in them.
+Yet, in all the hurry of my thoughts, wild running with thundering
+sea, the storm and my uneasiness regarding Ham were always in the
+foreground.
+
+My dinner went away almost untasted, and I tried to refresh myself
+with a glass or two of wine. In vain. I fell into a dull slumber
+before the fire, without losing my consciousness either of the uproar
+out of doors or of the place in which I was. Both became overshadowed
+by a new undefinable horror; and when I awoke--or rather when I shook
+off the lethargy that bound me in my chair--my whole frame thrilled
+with objectless and unintelligible fear.
+
+I walked to and fro, tried to read an old gazetteer, listened to the
+awful noises; looked at faces, scenes, and figures in the fire. At
+length the steady ticking of the undisturbed clock on the wall
+tormented me to that degree that I resolved to go to bed.
+
+It was reassuring, on such a night, to be told that some of the inn
+servants had agreed together to sit up until morning. I went to bed,
+exceedingly weary and heavy; but on my lying down all such sensations
+vanished, as if by magic, and I was broad awake, with every sense
+refined.
+
+For hours I lay there, listening to the wind and water; imagining now
+that I heard shrieks out at sea, now that I distinctly heard the
+firing of signal guns, and now the fall of houses in the town. I got
+up several times and looked out, but could see nothing except the
+reflection in the window panes of the faint candle I had left burning,
+and of my own haggard face looking in at me from the black void.
+
+At length my restlessness attained to such a pitch, that I hurried on
+my clothes, and went downstairs. In the large kitchen, where I dimly
+saw bacon and ropes of onions hanging from the beams, the watchers
+were clustered together, in various attitudes, about a table,
+purposely moved away from the great chimney, and brought near the
+door. A pretty girl who had her ears stopped with her apron, and her
+eyes upon the door, screamed when I appeared, supposing me to be a
+spirit; but the others had more presence of mind, and were glad of an
+addition to their company. One man, referring to the topic they had
+been discussing, asked me whether I thought the souls of the collier
+crews who had gone down were out in the storm?
+
+I remained there, I dare say two hours. There was a dark gloom in my
+solitary chamber when I at length returned to it; but I was tired now,
+and, getting into bed again, fell off a tower and down a precipice
+into the depths of sleep. I have an impression that for a long time,
+though I dreamed of being elsewhere and in a variety of scenes, it was
+always blowing in my dream. At length I lost that feeble hold upon
+reality, and was engaged with two dear friends, but who they were I
+don't know, at the siege of some town in a roar of cannonading.
+
+
+II.
+
+The thunder of the cannon was so loud and incessant, that I could not
+hear something I much desired to hear, until I made a great exertion,
+and awoke. It was broad day--eight or nine o'clock; the storm raging,
+in lieu of the batteries; and some one knocking and calling at my door.
+
+"What is the matter?" I cried.
+
+"A wreck! close by!"
+
+I sprang out of bed, and asked what wreck?
+
+[Illustration:
+
+ From the Painting by A. Marlon. Carbon by Braun, Clement & Co.
+ Engraved by Walter Aikman.
+
+ The Shipwreck.
+]
+
+"A schooner, from Spain or Portugal, laden with fruit and wine. Make
+haste, sir, if you want to see her! Its thought she'll go to pieces
+every moment."
+
+The excited voice went clamoring along the staircase; and I wrapped
+myself in my clothes as quickly as I could, and ran into the street.
+Numbers of people were there before us, all running in one direction,
+to the beach. I ran the same way, outstripping a good many, and soon
+came facing the wild sea.
+
+The wind might by this time have lulled a little, though not more
+sensibly than if the cannonading I had dreamed of had been diminished
+by the silencing of half a dozen guns out of hundreds. But the sea,
+having upon it the additional agitation of the whole night, was
+infinitely more terrific than when I had seen it last. Every
+appearance it had then presented bore the expression of being
+_swelled_; and the height to which the breakers rose, and, looking
+over one another, bore one another down, and rolled in, in
+interminable hosts, was most appalling.
+
+In the difficulty of hearing anything but wind and waves, and in the
+crowd, and the unspeakable confusion, and my first breathless attempts
+to stand against the weather, I was so confused that I looked out to
+sea for the wreck, and saw nothing but the foaming heads of the great
+waves. A half-dressed boatman standing next me pointed with his bare
+arm (a tattooed arrow on it, pointing in the same direction) to the
+left. Then, O great Heaven, I saw it, close in upon us!
+
+One mast was broken short off, six or eight feet from the deck, and
+lay over the side, entangled in a maze of sail and rigging; and all
+that ruin, as the ship rolled and beat,--which she did without a
+moment's pause, and with a violence quite inconceivable,--beat the
+side as if it would stave it in. Some efforts were even then being
+made to cut this portion of the wreck away; for as the ship, which was
+broadside on, turned towards us in her rolling, I plainly descried her
+people at work with axes, especially one active figure, with long
+curling hair, conspicuous among the rest. But a great cry, which was
+audible even above the wind and water, rose from the shore at this
+moment: the sea, sweeping over the rolling wreck, made a clean breach,
+and carried men, spars, casks, planks, bulwarks, heaps of such toys,
+into the boiling surge.
+
+The second mast was yet standing, with the rags of a rent sail, and a
+wild confusion of broken cordage, flapping to and fro. The ship had
+struck once, the same boatman hoarsely said in my ear, and then lifted
+in and struck again. I understood him to add that she was parting
+amidships, and I could readily suppose so, for the rolling and beating
+were too tremendous for any human work to suffer long. As he spoke,
+there was another great cry of pity from the beach: four men arose
+with the wreck out of the deep, clinging to the rigging of the
+remaining mast; uppermost, the active figure with the curling hair.
+
+There was a bell on board; and as the ship rolled and dashed, like a
+desperate creature driven mad, now showing us the whole sweep of her
+deck, as she turned on her beam ends towards the shore, now nothing but
+her keel, as she sprung wildly over and turned towards the sea, the
+bell rang; and its sound, the knell of those unhappy men, was borne
+towards us on the wind. Again we lost her, and again she rose. Two men
+were gone. The agony on shore increased. Men groaned and clasped their
+hands; women shrieked, and turned away their faces. Some ran wildly up
+and down along the beach, crying for help where no help could be. I
+found myself one of these, frantically imploring a knot of sailors whom
+I knew, not to let those two lost creatures perish before our eyes.
+
+They were making out to me, in an agitated way, that the lifeboat had
+been bravely manned an hour ago, and could do nothing; and that as no
+man would be so desperate as to attempt to wade off with a rope, and
+establish a communication with the shore, there was nothing left to try;
+when I noticed that some new sensation moved the people on the beach,
+and saw them part, and Ham come breaking through them to the front.
+
+I ran to him, as well as I know, to repeat my appeal for help. But
+distracted though I was by a sight so new to me and terrible, the
+determination in his face, and his look out to sea, awoke me to a
+knowledge of his danger. I held him back with both arms, and implored
+the men with whom I had been speaking not to listen to him, not to do
+murder, not to let him stir from off that sand.
+
+Another cry arose from the shore; and, looking towards the wreck, we saw
+the cruel sail, with blow on blow, beat off the lower of the two men,
+and fly up in triumph round the active figure left alone upon the mast.
+
+Against such a sight, and against such determination as that of the
+calmly desperate man who was already accustomed to lead half the
+people present, I might as hopefully have intreated the wind. "Mas'r
+Davy," he said cheerily, grasping me by both hands, "if my time is
+come, 'tis come. If't an't, I'll bide it. Lord above bless you, and
+bless all! Mates, make me ready! I'm a going off!"
+
+I was swept away, but not unkindly, to some distance, where the people
+around me made me stay; urging, as I confusedly perceived, that he was
+bent on going, with help or without, and that I should endanger the
+precautions for his safety by troubling those with whom they rested. I
+don't know what I answered, or what they rejoined, but I saw hurry on
+the beach, and men running with ropes from a capstan that was there,
+and penetrating into a circle of figures that hid him from me. Then I
+saw him standing alone, in a seaman's frock and trowsers, a rope in
+his hand or slung to his wrist, another round his body; and several of
+the best men holding, at a little distance, to the latter, which he
+laid out himself, slack upon the shore, at his feet.
+
+The wreck, even to my unpracticed eye, was breaking up. I saw that she
+was parting in the middle, and that the life of the solitary man upon
+the mast hung by a thread. Still he clung to it.
+
+Ham watched the sea, standing alone, with the silence of suspended
+breath behind him, and the storm before, until there was a great
+retiring wave, when, with a backward glance at those who held the
+rope, which was made fast round his body, he dashed in after it, and
+in a moment was buffeting with the water--rising with the hills,
+falling with valleys, lost beneath the foam; then drawn again to land.
+They hauled in hastily.
+
+He was hurt. I saw blood on his face from where I stood; but he took
+no thought of that. He seemed hurriedly to give them some directions
+for leaving him more free, or so I judged from the motion of his
+arm--and was gone, as before.
+
+And now he made for the wreck--rising with the hills, falling with the
+valleys, lost beneath the rugged foam, borne in towards the shore,
+borne on towards the ship, striving hard and valiantly. The distance
+was nothing, but the power of the sea and wind made the strife deadly.
+
+At length he neared the wreck. He was so near that with one more of
+his vigorous strokes he would be clinging to it,--when a high, green,
+vast hillside of water, moving on shoreward from beyond the ship, he
+seemed to leap up into it with a mighty bound, and the ship was gone!
+
+Some eddying fragments I saw in the sea, as if a mere cask had been
+broken, in running to the spot where they were hauling in.
+Consternation was in every face. They drew him to my very
+feet--insensible, dead. He was carried to the nearest house; and, no
+one preventing me now, I remained near him, busy, while every means of
+restoration was tried; but he had been beaten to death by the great
+wave, and his generous heart was stilled for ever.
+
+ --_From "David Copperfield," by Charles Dickens._
+
+
+
+
+THE HAPPY VALLEY.
+
+
+The place which the wisdom or policy of antiquity had destined for the
+residence of the Abyssinian princes was a spacious valley in the
+kingdom of Amhara, surrounded on every side by mountains, of which the
+summits overhang the middle part. The only passage by which it could
+be entered was a cavern that passed under a rock, of which it has been
+long disputed whether it was the work of Nature or of human industry.
+
+[Illustration: Dr. Samuel Johnson.]
+
+The outlet of the cavern was concealed by a thick wood, and the mouth,
+which opened into the valley, was closed with gates of iron forged by
+the artificers of ancient days, so massy that no man could, without
+the help of engines, open or shut them.
+
+From the mountains, on every side, rivulets descended, that filled all
+the valley with verdure and fertility, and formed a lake in the
+middle, inhabited by fish of every species, and frequented by every
+fowl which Nature has taught to dip the wing in water. This lake
+discharged its superfluities by a stream, which entered a dark cleft
+of the mountain on the northern side, and fell, with dreadful noise,
+from precipice to precipice, till it was heard no more.
+
+The sides of the mountains were covered with trees. The banks of the
+brooks were diversified with flowers. Every blast shook spices from
+the rocks, and every month dropped fruits upon the ground. All animals
+that bite the grass or browse the shrub, whether wild or tame,
+wandered in this extensive circuit, secured from beasts of prey by the
+mountains which confined them.
+
+On one part were flocks and herds feeding in the pastures; on another,
+all the beasts of chase frisking in the lawns; the sprightly kid was
+bounding on the rocks, the subtle monkey frolicking in the trees, and
+the solemn elephant reposing in the shade. All the diversities of the
+world were brought together; the blessings of nature were collected,
+and its evils extracted and excluded.
+
+The valley, wide and fruitful, supplied its inhabitants with the
+necessaries of life; and all delights and superfluities were added at
+the annual visit which the Emperor paid his children, when the iron
+gate was opened to the sound of music, and during eight days every one
+that resided in the valley was required to propose whatever might
+contribute to make seclusion pleasant, to fill up the vacancies of
+attention, and lessen the tediousness of the time.
+
+Every desire was immediately granted. All the artificers of pleasure
+were called to gladden the festivity; the musicians exerted the power
+of harmony, and the dancers showed their activity before the princes,
+in hope that they should pass their lives in this blissful captivity,
+to which those only were admitted whose performance was thought
+capable of adding novelty to luxury.
+
+Such was the appearance of security and delight which this retirement
+afforded, that they to whom it was new always desired that it might be
+perpetual; and as those on whom the iron gate had once closed were
+never suffered to return, the effect of long experience could not be
+known. Thus every year produced new schemes of delight and new
+competitors for imprisonment.
+
+ * * * * *
+
+Dr. Samuel Johnson's "Rasselas, Prince of Abyssinia," from which this
+selection is taken, was first published in 1759. "The late Mr.
+Strahan, the printer, told me," says Boswell, "that Johnson wrote it,
+so that with the profits he might defray the expenses of his mother's
+funeral, and pay some little debts which she had left. He told Sir
+Joshua Reynolds that he composed it in the evenings of one week, sent
+it to the press in portions as it was written, and had never since
+read it over. None of his writings have been so extensively diffused
+over Europe, for it has been translated into most, if not all, of the
+modern languages. This tale, with all the charms of oriental imagery,
+and all the force and beauty of which the English language is capable,
+leads us through the most important scenes of human life, and shows us
+that this stage of our being is full of 'vanity and vexation of spirit.'"
+
+The peculiarities of style which distinguish all of Johnson's writings
+are well illustrated in this story. Notice the stately flow of
+high-sounding words; the dignified formality of many of the
+descriptive passages; and the richness and perfection which
+characterize the production as a whole.
+
+
+
+
+THE PASS OF KILLIECRANKIE.
+
+
+John Græme of Claverhouse, whose title of Viscount Dundee had been
+given him in reward for his cruelties to the Western Covenanters, was
+the instigator and leader of a revolt of the Highland clans against
+the government of William III. in Scotland. General Mackay, with his
+loyal Scotch regiments, was sent out to suppress the uprising. But as
+they climbed the pass of Killiecrankie, on the 27th of July, 1689,
+Dundee charged them at the head of three thousand clansmen, and swept
+them in headlong rout down the glen. His death in the moment of
+victory broke, however, the only bond which held the Highlanders
+together, and in a few weeks the host which had spread terror through
+the Lowlands melted helplessly away.
+
+The Græmes, or Grahams, were among the most noted of Scottish
+families, and included some of the most distinguished men of the
+country. Among them were Sir John the Græme, the faithful aid of Sir
+William Wallace, who fell in the battle of Falkirk, 1298, and the
+celebrated Marquis of Montrose, who died in 1650, and whose exploits
+are immortalized in Scott's "Legend of Montrose."
+
+In the following stirring verses from "The Lays of the Scottish
+Cavaliers," by W. E. Aytoun, the fight at Killiecrankie is described,
+presumably, by one of the adherents of Dundee. The title of the poem
+in its complete form is "The Burial March of Dundee." Our selection
+includes only so much as relates to the conflict in the pass.
+
+ On the heights of Killiecrankie
+ Yester-morn our army lay:
+ Slowly rose the mist in columns
+ From the river's broken way;
+ Hoarsely roared the swollen torrent,
+ And the pass was wrapt in gloom,
+ When the clansmen rose together
+ From their lair amidst the broom.
+ Then we belted on our tartans,
+ And our bonnets down we drew,
+ And we felt our broadswords' edges,
+ And we proved them to be true;
+ And we prayed the prayer of soldiers,
+ And we cried the gathering cry,
+ And we clasped the hands of kinsmen,
+ And we swore to do or die!
+ Then our leader rode before us
+ On his war horse black as night--
+ Well the Cameronian rebels
+ Knew that charger in the fight!--
+ And a cry of exultation
+ From the bearded warriors rose;
+ For we loved the house of Claver'se,
+ And we thought of good Montrose,
+ But he raised his hand for silence--
+ "Soldiers! I have sworn a vow:
+ Ere the evening star shall glisten
+ On Schehallion's lofty brow,
+ Either we shall rest in triumph,
+ Or another of the Græmes
+ Shall have died in battle harness
+ For his country and King James!
+ Think upon the Royal Martyr--
+ Think of what his race endure--
+ Think of him whom butchers murdered
+ On the field of Magus Muir:--
+ By his sacred blood I charge ye,
+ By the ruined hearth and shrine--
+ By the blighted hopes of Scotland,
+ By your injuries and mine--
+ Strike this day as if the anvil
+ Lay beneath your blows the while,
+ Be they Covenanting traitors,
+ Or the brood of false Argyle!
+ Strike! and drive the trembling rebels
+ Backwards o'er the stormy Forth;
+ Let them tell their pale Convention
+ How they fared within the North.
+ Let them tell that Highland honor
+ Is not to be bought or sold,
+ That we scorn their prince's anger
+ As we loathe his foreign gold.
+ Strike! and when the fight is over,
+ If ye look in vain for me,
+ Where the dead are lying thickest,
+ Search for him that was Dundee!"
+ Loudly then the hills reëchoed
+ With our answer to his call,
+ But a deeper echo sounded
+ In the bosoms of us all.
+ For the lands of wide Breadalbane
+ Not a man who heard him speak
+ Would that day have left the battle.
+ Burning eye and flushing cheek
+ Told the clansmen's fierce emotion,
+ And they harder drew their breath;
+ For their souls were strong within them,
+ Stronger than the grasp of death.
+ Soon we heard a challenge trumpet
+ Sounding in the pass below,
+ And the distant tramp of horses,
+ And the voices of the foe:
+ Down we crouched amid the bracken,
+ Till the Lowland ranks drew near,
+ Panting like the hounds in summer,
+ When they scent the stately deer.
+ From the dark defile emerging,
+ Next we saw the squadrons come,
+ Leslie's foot and Leven's troopers
+ Marching to the tuck of drum;
+ Through the scattered wood of birches,
+ O'er the broken ground and heath,
+ Wound the long battalion slowly,
+ Till they gained the field beneath;
+ Then we bounded from our covert.--
+ Judge how looked the Saxons then,
+ When they saw the rugged mountain
+ Start to life with armèd men!
+ Like a tempest down the ridges
+ Swept the hurricane of steel,
+ Rose the slogan of Macdonald,--
+ Flashed the broadsword of Lochiell!
+ Vainly sped the withering volley
+ 'Mongst the foremost of our band--
+ On we poured until we met them,
+ Foot to foot, and hand to hand.
+ Horse and man went down like driftwood
+ When the floods are black at Yule,
+ And their carcasses are whirling
+ In the Garry's deepest pool.
+ Horse and man went down before us--
+ Living foe there tarried none
+ On the field of Killiecrankie,
+ When that stubborn fight was done!
+ And the evening star was shining
+ On Schehallion's distant head,
+ When we wiped our bloody broadswords,
+ And returned to count the dead.
+ There we found him gashed and gory,
+ Stretched upon the cumbered plain,
+ As he told us where to seek him,
+ In the thickest of the slain.
+ And a smile was on his visage,
+ For within his dying ear
+ Pealed the joyful note of triumph,
+ And the clansmen's clamorous cheer:
+ So, amidst the battle's thunder,
+ Shot, and steel, and scorching flame,
+ In the glory of his manhood
+ Passed the spirit of the Græme!
+
+
+
+
+SUMMER RAIN.
+
+
+It is a long time since much rain fell. The ground is a little dry, the
+road is a good deal dusty. The garden bakes. Transplanted trees are
+thirsty. Wheels are shrinking and tires are looking dangerous. Men
+speculate on the clouds; they begin to calculate how long it will be, if
+no rain falls, before the potatoes will suffer; the oats, the grass, the
+corn--everything! To be sure, nothing is yet suffering; but then--
+
+[Illustration: Henry Ward Beecher.]
+
+Rain, rain, rain! All day, all night, steady raining. Will it never
+stop? The hay is out and spoiling. The rain washes the garden. All
+things have drunk their fill. The springs revive, the meadows are wet;
+the rivers run discolored with soil from every hill.
+
+Smoking cattle reek under the sheds. Hens, and fowl in general,
+shelter and plume. The sky is leaden. The clouds are full yet. The
+long fleece covers the mountains. The hills are capped in white. The
+air is full of moisture.
+
+The wind roars down the chimney. The birds are silent. No insects
+chirp. Closets smell moldy. The barometer is clogged. We thump it, but
+it will not get up. It seems to have an understanding with the
+weather. The trees drip, shoes are muddy, carriage and wagon are
+splashed with dirt. Paths are soft.
+
+So it is. When it is clear we want rain, and when it rains we wish it
+would shine. But after all, how lucky for grumblers that they are not
+allowed to meddle with the weather, and that it is put above their
+reach. What a scrambling, selfish, mischief-making time we should
+have, if men undertook to parcel out the seasons and the weather
+according to their several humors or interests!
+
+If one will but look for enjoyment, how much there is in every change
+of weather. The formation of clouds--the various signs and signals,
+the uncertain wheeling and marching of the fleecy cohorts, the shades
+of light and gray in the broken heavens--all have their pleasure to an
+observant eye. Then come the wind gust, the distant dark cloud, the
+occasional fiery streak shot down through it, the run and hurry of men
+whose work may suffer!
+
+Indeed, sir, your humble servant, even, was stirred up on the day
+after Fourth of July. The grass in the old orchard was not my best.
+Indeed, we grumbled at it considerably while it was yet standing. But
+being cut and the rain threatening it, one would have thought it gold
+by the nimble way in which we tried to save it!
+
+Blessed be horse rakes! Once, half a dozen men with half a dozen rakes
+would have gone whisking up and down, thrusting out and pulling in the
+long-handled rakes with slow and laborious progress. But no more of
+that. See friend Turner, mounted on the wheeled horse rake, riding
+about as if for pleasure. It is easy times when _men_ ride and
+_horses_ rake.
+
+Meanwhile, the clouds come bowling noiselessly through the air, and
+spit here and there a drop preliminary. Well, if one thing suffers,
+another gains! See how the leaves are washed; the grass drinks, even
+drinks; the garden drinks; everything drinks.
+
+It is our opinion that everything except man is laughing and
+rejoicing. Trees shake their leaves with a softer sound. Rocks look
+moist and soft, at least where the moss grows. Even the solitary old
+pine tree chords his harp, and sings soft and low melodies with
+plaintive undulations!
+
+A good summer storm is a rain of riches. If gold and silver rattled
+down from the clouds, they could hardly enrich the land so much as
+soft, long rains. Every drop is silver going to the mint. The roots
+are machinery, and, catching the willing drops, they array them,
+refine them, roll them, stamp them, and turn them out coined berries,
+apples, grains, and grasses!
+
+When the heavens send clouds and they bank up the horizon, be sure
+they have hidden gold in them. All the mountains of California are not
+so rich as are the soft mines of heaven, that send down treasures upon
+man without tasking him, and pour riches upon his field without spade
+or pickax--without his search or notice.
+
+Well, let it rain, then! No matter if the journey is delayed, the
+picnic spoiled, the visit adjourned. Blessed be rain--and rain in
+summer. And blessed be he who watereth the earth and enricheth it for
+man and beast.
+
+ --_Henry Ward Beecher._
+
+
+
+
+LIFE IN THE BACKWOODS.
+
+[Illustration: William Dean Howells.]
+
+
+It would not be easy to say where or when the first log cabin was built,
+but it is safe to say that it was somewhere in the English colonies of
+North America, and it is certain that it became the type of the
+settler's house throughout the whole middle west. It may be called the
+American house, the Western house, the Ohio house. Hardly any other
+house was built for a hundred years by the men who were clearing the
+land for the stately mansions of our day. As long as the primeval
+forests stood, the log cabin remained the woodsman's home; and not fifty
+years ago, I saw log cabins newly built in one of the richest and most
+prosperous regions of Ohio. They were, to be sure, log cabins of a finer
+pattern than the first settler reared. They were of logs handsomely
+shaped with the broadax; the joints between the logs were plastered with
+mortar; the chimney at the end was of stone; the roof was shingled, the
+windows were of glass, and the door was solid and well hung. But
+throughout that region there were many log cabins, mostly sunk to the
+uses of stables and corn cribs, of the kind that the borderers built in
+the times of the Indian War, from 1750 to 1800. They were framed of the
+round logs untouched by the ax except for the notches at the ends where
+they were fitted into one another; the chimney was of small sticks stuck
+together with mud, and was as frail as a barn swallow's nest; the walls
+were stuffed with moss, plastered with clay; the floor was of rough
+boards called puncheons, riven from the block with a heavy knife; the
+roof was of clapboards laid loosely on the rafters, and held in place
+with logs fastened athwart them.
+
+[Illustration: Log Cabin.]
+
+There is a delightful account of such a log cabin by John S. Williams,
+whose father settled in the woods of Belmont County in 1800. "Our
+cabin," he says, "had been raised, covered, part of the cracks
+chinked, and part of the floor laid, when we moved in on Christmas
+day. There had not been a stick cut except in building the cabin,
+which was so high from the ground that a bear, wolf, panther, or any
+animal less in size than a cow could enter without even a squeeze....
+The green ash puncheons had shrunk so as to leave cracks in the floor
+and doors from one to two inches wide. At both the doors we had high,
+unsteady, and sometimes icy steps, made by piling the logs cut out of
+the walls, for the doors and the window, if it could be called a
+window, when perhaps it was the largest spot in the top, bottom, or
+sides of the cabin where the wind could _not_ enter. It was made by
+sawing out a log, and placing sticks across and then by pasting an
+old newspaper over the hole, and applying hog's lard, we had a kind of
+glazing which shed a most beautiful and mellow light across the cabin
+when the sun shone on it. All other light entered at the doors,
+cracks, and chimneys. Our cabin was twenty-four by eighteen. The west
+end was occupied by two beds, the center of each side by a door.... On
+the opposite side of the window, made of clapboards, supported on pins
+driven into the walls, were our shelves. On these shelves my sister
+displayed in simple order, a host of pewter plates, and dishes and
+spoons, scoured and bright.... Our chimney occupied most of the east
+end; with pots and kettles opposite the window, under the shelves, a
+gun on hooks over the north door, four split-bottomed chairs, three
+three-legged stools, and a small eight by ten looking-glass sloped
+from the wall over a large towel and comb case.... We got a roof laid
+over head as soon as possible, but it was laid of loose clapboards
+split from a red-oak, and a cat might have shaken every board in our
+ceiling.... We made two kinds of furniture. One kind was of hickory
+bark, with the outside shaved off. This we would take off all around
+the tree, the size of which would determine the caliber of our box.
+Into one end we would place a flat piece of bark or puncheon, cut
+round to fit in the bark, which stood on end the same as when on the
+tree.... A much finer article was made of slippery-elm bark, shaved
+smooth, with the inside out, bent round and sewed together, where the
+end of the hoop or main bark lapped over.... This was the finest
+furniture in a lady's dressing room," and such a cabin and its
+appointments were splendor and luxury beside those of the very
+earliest pioneers, and many of the latest. The Williamses were
+Quakers, and the mother was recently from England; they were of far
+gentler breeding and finer tastes than most of their neighbors, who
+had been backwoodsmen for generations.
+
+When the first settlers broke the silence of the woods with the stroke
+of their axes, and hewed out a space for their cabins and their
+fields, they inclosed their homes with a high stockade of logs, for
+defense against the Indians; or if they built their cabins outside the
+wooden walls of their stronghold, they always expected to flee to it
+at the first alarm, and to stand siege within it.
+
+The Indians had no cannon, and the logs of the stockade were proof
+against their rifles; if a breach was made, there was still the
+blockhouse left, the citadel of every little fort. This was heavily
+built, and pierced with loopholes for the riflemen within, whose wives
+ran bullets for them at its mighty hearth, and who kept the savage foe
+from its sides by firing down upon them through the projecting timbers
+of its upper story. But in many a fearful siege the Indians set the
+roof ablaze with arrows wrapped in burning tow, and then the fight
+became desperate indeed. After the Indian war ended, the stockade was
+no longer needed, and the settlers had only the wild beasts to contend
+with, and those constant enemies of the poor in all ages and
+conditions,--hunger and cold.
+
+Winter after winter, the Williamses heard the wolves howling round
+them in the woods, and this music was familiar to the ears of all the
+Ohio pioneers, who trusted their rifles for both the safety and
+support of their families. They deadened the trees around them by
+girdling them with the ax, and planted the spaces between the leafless
+trunks with corn and beans and pumpkins. These were their necessaries,
+but they had an occasional luxury in the wild honey from the hollow of
+a bee tree when the bears had not got at it.
+
+In its season, there was an abundance of wild fruit, plums and
+cherries, haws and grapes, berries, and nuts of every kind, and the
+maples yielded all the sugar they chose to make from them. But it was
+long before they had, at any time, the profusion which our modern arts
+enable us to enjoy the whole year round, and in the hard beginnings
+the orchard and the garden were forgotten for the fields.
+
+When once the settler was housed against the weather, he had the
+conditions of a certain rude comfort indoors. If his cabin was not
+proof against the wind and rain or snow, its vast fireplace formed the
+means of heating, while the forest was an inexhaustible store of fuel.
+At first he dressed in the skins and pelts of the deer and fox and
+wolf, and his costume could have varied little from that of the red
+savage about him, for we often read how he mistook Indians for white
+men at first sight, and how the Indians in their turn mistook white
+men for their own people.
+
+The whole family went barefoot in the summer, but in winter the
+pioneer wore moccasins of buckskin, and buckskin leggins or trousers;
+his coat was a hunting shirt belted at the waist and fringed where it
+fell to his knees. It was of homespun, a mixture of wool and flax
+called linsey-woolsey, and out of this the dresses of his wife and
+daughters were made; the wool was shorn from the sheep which were so
+scarce that they were never killed for their flesh, except by the
+wolves, which were very fond of mutton, but had no use for wool.
+
+For a wedding dress a cotton check was thought superb, and it really
+cost a dollar a yard; silks, satins, laces, were unknown. A man never
+left his house without his rifle; the gun was a part of his dress, and
+in his belt he carried a hunting knife and a hatchet; on his head he
+wore a cap of squirrel skin, often with the plume-like tail dangling
+from it.
+
+The furniture of the cabins was, like the clothing of the pioneers,
+homemade. A bedstead was contrived by stretching poles from forked
+sticks driven into the ground, and laying clapboards across them; the
+bedclothes were bearskins. Stools, benches, and tables were roughed
+out with auger and broadax; the puncheon floor was left bare, and if
+the earth formed the floor, no rug ever replaced the grass which was
+its first carpet. The cabin had but one room where the whole of life
+went on by day; the father and mother slept there at night, and the
+children mounted to their chamber in the loft by means of a ladder.
+
+The food was what has been already named. The meat was venison, bear,
+raccoon, wild turkey, wild duck, and pheasant; the drink was water, or
+rye coffee, or whisky which the little stills everywhere supplied only
+too abundantly. Wheat bread was long unknown, and corn cakes of
+various makings and bakings supplied its place. The most delicious
+morsel of all was corn grated while still in the milk and fashioned
+into round cakes eaten hot from the clapboard before the fire, or from
+the mysterious depths of the Dutch oven, buried in coals and ashes on
+the hearth. There was soon a great flow of milk from the kine that
+multiplied in the woods and pastures, and there was sweetening enough
+from the maple tree and the bee tree, but salt was very scarce and
+very dear, and long journeys were made through the perilous woods to
+and from the licks, or salt springs, which the deer had discovered
+before the white man or red man knew them.
+
+The bees which hived their honey in the hollow trees were tame bees
+gone wild, and with the coming of the settlers, some of the wild
+things increased so much that they became a pest. Such were the crows
+which literally blackened the fields after the settlers plowed, and
+which the whole family had to fight from the corn when it was planted.
+Such were the rabbits, and such, above all, were the squirrels which
+overran the farms, and devoured every green thing till the people
+combined in great squirrel hunts and destroyed them by tens of
+thousands. The larger game had meanwhile disappeared. The buffalo and
+the elk went first; the deer followed, and the bear, and even the
+useless wolf. But long after these the poisonous reptiles lingered,
+the rattlesnake, the moccasin, and the yet deadlier copperhead; and it
+was only when the whole country was cleared that they ceased to be a
+very common danger.
+
+ --_From "Stories of Ohio," by William Dean Howells._
+
+
+
+
+HOW THEY BESIEGED THE TOWN.
+
+
+Charles Reade, in his great romance entitled "The Cloister and the
+Hearth," has not only presented us with a story of absorbing interest,
+but has given us a vivid and accurate view of manners and customs
+during one of the most interesting periods of history. The following
+extract is particularly interesting because of its vivid portrayal of
+the methods of warfare in vogue at that time. There was a rebellion in
+Flanders. More than one knight had broken his oath of fealty to the
+Duke of Burgundy, who was the ruler of that country, and some of the
+strongest castles were fortified by rebels. To subdue these
+dissatisfied spirits and to reduce the country again to subjection,
+Counts Anthony and Baldwyn of Burgundy had entered Flanders at the
+head of a considerable army and were carrying fire and sword among the
+enemies of the Duke. One of their exploits at this time is thus
+narrated by the novelist:--
+
+[Illustration: Charles Reade.]
+
+ One afternoon they came in sight of a strongly fortified town; and
+ a whisper went through the little army that this was a disaffected
+ place. But upon coming nearer they saw that the great gate stood
+ open, and the towers that flanked it on each side were manned
+ with a single sentinel apiece. So the advancing force somewhat
+ broke their array and marched carelessly.
+
+ When they were within a furlong, the drawbridge across the moat
+ rose slowly and creaking till it stood vertical against the fort;
+ and the very moment it settled, into this warlike attitude, down
+ rattled the portcullis at the gate, and the towers and curtains
+ bristled with lances and crossbows.
+
+ A stern hum ran through the front rank and spread to the rear.
+
+ "Halt!" cried their leader. The word went down the line, and they
+ halted. "Herald to the gate!"
+
+ A herald spurred out of the ranks, and halting twenty yards from
+ the gate, raised his bugle with his herald's flag hanging down
+ round it, and blew a summons. A tall figure in brazen armor
+ appeared over the gate. A few fiery words passed between him and
+ the herald, which were not audible; but their import was clear,
+ for the herald blew a single keen and threatening note at the
+ walls, and came galloping back with war in his face.
+
+ The leader moved out of the line to meet him, and their heads had
+ not been together two seconds ere he turned in his saddle and
+ shouted, "Pioneers, to the van!" and in a moment hedges were
+ leveled, and the force took the field and encamped just out of
+ shot from the walls; and away went mounted officers flying south,
+ east, and west, to the friendly towns, for catapults, palisades,
+ mantelets, raw hides, tar barrels, carpenters, provisions, and all
+ the materials for a siege.
+
+ The besiegers encamped a furlong from the walls, and made roads;
+ kept their pikemen in camp ready for an assault when practicable;
+ and sent forward their sappers, pioneers, catapultiers, and
+ crossbowmen. These opened a siege by filling the moat and mining,
+ or breaching the wall, etc. And as much of their work had to be
+ done under close fire of arrows, quarrels, bolts, stones, and
+ little rocks, the above artists "had need of a hundred eyes," and
+ acted in concert with a vigilance, and an amount of individual
+ intelligence, daring, and skill that made a siege very
+ interesting, and even amusing,--to lookers-on.
+
+ The first thing they did was to advance their carpenters behind
+ rolling mantelets, and to erect a stockade high and strong on the
+ very edge of the moat. Some lives were lost at this, but not many;
+ for a strong force of crossbowmen, including Denys, rolled their
+ mantelets[1] up and shot over the workmen's heads at every
+ besieged person who showed his nose, and at every loophole, arrow
+ slit, or other aperture, which commanded the particular spot the
+ carpenters happened to be upon. Covered by their condensed fire,
+ these soon raised a high palisade between them and the ordinary
+ missiles from the walls.
+
+ But the besieged expected this, and ran out at night their hoards
+ or wooden penthouses on the top of the curtains. The curtains were
+ built with square holes near the top to receive the beams that
+ supported these structures, the true defense of mediæval forts,
+ from which the besieged delivered their missiles with far more
+ freedom and variety of range than they could shoot through the
+ oblique but immovable loopholes of the curtain. On this the
+ besiegers brought up mangonels, and set them hurling huge stones
+ at these wood works and battering them to pieces. At the same time
+ they built a triangular wooden tower as high as the curtain, and
+ kept it ready for use, and just out of shot.
+
+ This was a terrible sight to the besieged. These wooden towers had
+ taken many a town. They began to mine underneath that part of the
+ moat the tower stood frowning at; and made other preparations to
+ give it a warm reception. The besiegers also mined, but at another
+ part, their object being to get under the square barbican and
+ throw it down. All this time Denys was behind his mantelet with
+ another arbalester, protecting the workmen and making some
+ excellent shots. These ended by earning him the esteem of an
+ unseen archer, who every now and then sent a winged compliment
+ quivering into his mantelet. One came and stuck within an inch of
+ the narrow slit through which Denys was squinting at the moment.
+
+ [Illustration: Hoard, or Penthouse.]
+
+ "Ha! ha!" cried he, "you shoot well, my friend. Come forth and
+ receive my congratulations! Shall merit, such as thine, hide its
+ head? Comrade, it is one of those Englishmen, with his half ell
+ shaft. I'll not die till I've had a shot at London wall."
+
+ On the side of the besieged was a figure that soon attracted great
+ notice by promenading under fire. It was a tall knight, clad in
+ complete brass, and carrying a light but prodigiously long lance,
+ with which he directed the movements of the besieged. And when any
+ disaster befell the besiegers, this tall knight and his long lance
+ were pretty sure to be concerned in it.
+
+ My young reader will say, "Why did not Denys shoot him?"
+
+ Denys did shoot him; every day of his life; other arbalesters shot
+ him; archers shot him. Everybody shot him. He was there to be
+ shot, apparently. But the abomination was, he did not mind being
+ shot. Nay, worse, he got at last so demoralized as not to seem to
+ know when he was shot. At last the besiegers got spiteful, and
+ would not waste any more good steel on him.
+
+ It was a bright day, clear, but not quite frosty. The efforts of
+ the besieging force were concentrated against a space of about two
+ hundred and fifty yards, containing two curtains and two towers,
+ one of which was the square barbican, the other had a pointed roof
+ that was built to overlap, and by this means a row of dangerous
+ crenelets between the roof and the masonry grinned down at the
+ nearer assailants, and looked not very unlike the grinders of a
+ modern frigate with each port nearly closed. The curtains were
+ overlapped with penthouses somewhat shattered by the mangonels,
+ and other slinging engines of the besiegers.
+
+ On the besiegers' edge of the moat was what seemed at first sight
+ a gigantic arsenal, longer than it was broad, peopled by human
+ ants, and full of busy, honest industry, and displaying all the
+ various mechanical science of the age in full operation. Here the
+ lever at work, there the winch and pulley, here the balance, there
+ the capstan. Everywhere heaps of stones, and piles of fascines,
+ mantelets, and rows of fire barrels. Mantelets rolling, the hammer
+ tapping all day, horses and carts in endless succession rattling
+ up with materials.
+
+ At the edge of the moat opposite the wooden tower, a strong
+ penthouse, which they called "a cat," might be seen stealing
+ towards the curtain, and gradually filling up the moat with
+ fascines and rubbish, which the workmen flung out at its mouth. It
+ was advanced by two sets of ropes passing round pulleys, and each
+ worked by a windlass at some distance from the cat. The knight
+ burnt the first cat by flinging blazing tar barrels on it. So the
+ besiegers made the roof of this one very steep, and covered it
+ with raw hides, and the tar barrels could not harm it.
+
+ And now the engineers proceeded to the unusual step of slinging
+ fifty-pound stones at an individual.
+
+ This catapult was a scientific, simple, and beautiful engine, and
+ very effective in vertical fire at the short ranges of the period.
+
+ Imagine a fir tree cut down, and set to turn round a horizontal
+ axis on lofty uprights, but not in equilibrium; three fourths of
+ the tree being on the hither side. At the shorter and thicker end
+ of the tree was fastened a weight of half a ton. This butt end
+ just before the discharge pointed towards the enemy. By means of a
+ powerful winch the long tapering portion of the tree was forced
+ down to the very ground, and fastened by a bolt; and the stone
+ placed in a sling attached to the tree's nose. But this process of
+ course raised the butt end with its huge weight high in the air,
+ and kept it there struggling in vain to come down. The bolt was
+ now drawn; then the short end swung furiously down, the long end
+ went as furiously up, and at its highest elevation flung the huge
+ stone out of the sling with a tremendous jerk. In this case the
+ huge mass so flung missed the knight, but came down near him on
+ the penthouse, and went through it like paper, making an awful gap
+ in roof and floor.
+
+ [Illustration: A Catapult.]
+
+ "Aha! a good shot!" cried Baldwyn of Burgundy.
+
+ The tall knight retired. The besiegers hooted him. He reappeared
+ on the platform of the barbican, his helmet being just visible
+ above the parapet. He seemed very busy, and soon an enormous
+ Turkish catapult made its appearance on the platform, and, aided
+ by the elevation at which it was planted, flung a twenty-pound
+ stone two hundred and forty yards in the air. The next stone
+ struck a horse that was bringing up a sheaf of arrows in a cart,
+ bowled the horse over dead like a rabbit, and split the cart. It
+ was then turned at the besiegers' wooden tower, supposed to be out
+ of shot. Sir Turk slung stones cut with sharp edges on purpose,
+ and struck it repeatedly, and broke it in several places. The
+ besiegers turned two of their slinging engines on this monster,
+ and kept constantly slinging smaller stones on to the platform of
+ the barbican, and killed two of the engineers. But the Turk
+ disdained to retort. He flung a forty-pound stone on to the
+ besiegers' great catapult, and hitting it in the neighborhood of
+ the axis, knocked the whole structure to pieces, and sent the
+ engineers skipping and yelling.
+
+ The next morning an unwelcome sight greeted the besieged. The cat
+ was covered with mattresses and raw hides, and fast filling up the
+ moat. The knight stoned it, but in vain; flung burning tar barrels
+ on it, but in vain. Then with his own hands he let down by a rope
+ a bag of burning sulphur and pitch, and stunk them out. But
+ Baldwyn, armed like a lobster, ran, and bounding on the roof, cut
+ the string, and the work went on. Then the knight sent fresh
+ engineers into the mine, and undermined the place and underpinned
+ it with beams, and covered the beams thickly with grease and tar.
+
+ At break of day the moat was filled, and the wooden tower began to
+ move on its wheels towards a part of the curtain on which two
+ catapults were already playing, to breach the hoards and clear the
+ way. There was something awful and magical in its approach without
+ visible agency, for it was driven by internal rollers worked by
+ leverage.
+
+ On the top was a platform, where stood the first assailing party
+ protected in front by the drawbridge of the turret, which stood
+ vertical till lowered on to the wall; but better protected by full
+ suits of armor. The besieged slung at the tower, and struck it
+ often, but in vain. It was well defended with mattresses and
+ hides, and presently was at the edge of the moat. The knight bade
+ fire the mine underneath it.
+
+ Then the Turkish engine flung a stone of half a hundredweight
+ right amongst the knights, and carried two away with it off the
+ tower on to the plain.
+
+ And now the besieging catapults flung blazing tar barrels, and fired
+ the hoards on both sides, and the assailants ran up the ladders
+ behind the tower, and lowered the drawbridge on to the battered
+ curtain, while the catapults in concert flung tar barrels, and fired
+ the adjoining works to dislodge the defenders. The armed men on the
+ platform sprang on the bridge, led by Baldwyn. The invulnerable
+ knight and his men at arms met them, and a fearful combat ensued, in
+ which many a figure was seen to fall headlong down off the narrow
+ bridge. But fresh besiegers kept swarming up behind the tower, and
+ the besieged were driven off the bridge.
+
+ Another minute, and the town would have been taken; but so well
+ had the firing of the mines been timed, that just at this instant
+ the underpinnings gave way, and the tower suddenly sank away from
+ the walls, tearing the drawbridge clear and pouring the soldiers
+ off it against the masonry and on to the dry moat.
+
+ The besieged uttered a fierce shout, and in a moment surrounded
+ Baldwyn and his fellows; but strange to say, offered them quarter.
+ While a party disarmed and disposed of these, others fired the
+ turret in fifty places with a sort of hand grenades. At this work
+ who so busy as the tall knight? He put fire bags on his long
+ spear, and thrust them into the doomed structure late so terrible.
+ To do this, he was obliged to stand on a projecting beam, holding
+ on by the hand of a pikeman to steady himself. This provoked
+ Denys; he ran out from his mantelet, hoping to escape notice in
+ the confusion, and leveling his crossbow missed the knight clean,
+ but sent his bolt into the brain of the pikeman, and the tall
+ knight fell heavily from the wall, lance and all.
+
+ The knight, his armor glittering in the morning sun, fell
+ headlong, but turning as he neared the water, struck it with a
+ slap that sounded a mile off.
+
+ None ever thought to see him again. But he fell at the edge of the
+ fascines, and his spear stuck into them under the water, and by a
+ mighty effort he got to the side, but could not get out. Anthony
+ sent a dozen knights with a white flag to take him prisoner. He
+ submitted like a lamb, but said nothing.
+
+[Footnote 1: For explanation of this and similar terms used in this
+selection, see the notes at the end of this book and especially the
+word "Castle" in Webster's International Dictionary.]
+
+
+
+
+LOCHINVAR.
+
+LADY HERON'S SONG.
+
+
+ Oh, young Lochinvar is come out of the west!
+ Through all the wide Border his steed was the best:
+ And, save his good broadsword, he weapons had none;
+ He rode all unarmed, and he rode all alone.
+ So faithful in love, and so dauntless in war,
+ There never was knight like the young Lochinvar.
+
+ He staid not for brake, and he stopped not for stone;
+ He swam the Esk river, where ford there was none;
+ But, ere he alighted at Netherby gate,
+ The bride had consented--the gallant came late;
+ For a laggard in love, and a dastard in war,
+ Was to wed the fair Ellen of brave Lochinvar.
+
+ So boldly he entered the Netherby hall,
+ Among bridesmen, and kinsmen, and brothers, and all.
+ Then spoke the bride's father, his hand on his sword,
+ (For the poor craven bridegroom said never a word),
+ "Oh, come ye in peace here, or come ye in war,
+ Or to dance at our bridal, young lord Lochinvar?"
+
+ "I long wooed your daughter--my suit you denied;
+ Love swells like the Solway, but ebbs like its tide;
+ And now I am come with this lost love of mine
+ To lead but one measure, drink one cup of wine.
+ There are maidens in Scotland more lovely by far,
+ That would gladly be bride to the young Lochinvar."
+
+ The bride kissed the goblet, the knight took it up;
+ He quaffed off the wine, and he threw down the cup;
+ She looked down to blush, and she looked up to sigh,
+ With a smile on her lips, and a tear in her eye.
+ He took her soft hand, ere her mother could bar--
+ "Now tread we a measure!" said young Lochinvar.
+
+ So stately his form, and so lovely her face,
+ That never a hall such a galliard did grace;
+ While her mother did fret, and her father did fume,
+ And the bridegroom stood dangling his bonnet and plume;
+ And the bridemaidens whispered, "'Twere better by far
+ To have matched our fair cousin with young Lochinvar."
+
+ One touch to her hand, and one word in her ear,
+ When they reached the hall door, and the charger stood near;
+ So light to the croup the fair lady he swung,
+ So light to the saddle before her he sprung!
+ "She is won! We are gone, over bank, bush, and scaur!
+ They'll have fleet steeds that follow!" quoth young Lochinvar.
+
+ There was mounting 'mong Græmes of the Netherby clan;
+ Forsters, Fenwicks, and Musgraves, they rode and they ran;
+ There was racing and chasing on Cannobie Lee,
+ But the lost bride of Netherby ne'er did they see.
+ So daring in love, and so dauntless in war,
+ Have you e'er heard of gallant like young Lochinvar?
+
+ --_From "Marmion," by Sir Walter Scott._
+
+
+
+
+ON A TROPICAL RIVER.
+
+
+"Westward Ho!" is a novel written by Rev. Charles Kingsley, and first
+published in 1855. It is a story of the times of Queen Elizabeth, of
+the threatened invasion of England by the Spanish Armada, and of wild
+adventure on the sea and in the forests of the New World. Several
+historical personages are made to appear in the story, such as Sir
+Walter Raleigh, Sir Francis Drake, Admiral Hawkins, and others. The
+hero is Amyas Leigh, "a Devonshire youth of great bodily strength, of
+lively affection and sweet temper, combined with a marked propensity
+to combat from his earliest years." Amyas and his companions had
+undertaken an expedition to discover the fabled golden city of Manoa,
+which was said to exist somewhere in the wilds of South America. They
+had been searching more than three years for this city when they
+reached the Meta River in canoes, and the following adventure occurred.
+
+[Illustration: Charles Kingsley.]
+
+ * * * * *
+
+For three hours or more Amyas Leigh and his companions paddled easily
+up the glassy and windless reaches, between two green
+flower-bespangled walls of forest, gay with innumerable birds and
+insects; while down from the branches which overhung the stream, long
+trailers hung to the water's edge, and seemed admiring in the clear
+mirror the images of their own gorgeous flowers. River, trees,
+flowers, birds, insects,--it was all a fairyland; but it was a
+colossal one; and yet the voyagers took little note of it.
+
+It was now to them an everyday occurrence to see trees full two
+hundred feet high one mass of yellow or purple blossom to the highest
+twigs, and every branch and stem one hanging garden of crimson and
+orange orchids or vanillas. Common to them were all the fantastic and
+enormous shapes with which Nature bedecks her robes beneath the fierce
+suns and fattening rains of the tropic forest. Common were forms and
+colors of bird, and fish, and butterfly, more strange and bright than
+ever opium eater dreamed.
+
+The long processions of monkeys, who kept pace with them along the
+tree tops, and proclaimed their wonder in every imaginable whistle and
+grunt and howl, had ceased to move their laughter, as much as the roar
+of the jaguar and the rustle of the boa had ceased to move their fear;
+and when a brilliant green and rose-colored fish, flat-bodied like a
+bream, flat-finned like a salmon, and sawtoothed like a shark, leaped
+clean on board of the canoe to escape the rush of a huge alligator
+(whose loathsome snout, ere he could stop, actually rattled against
+the canoe), Jack coolly picked up the fish and said:
+
+"He's four pound weight! If you catch fish for us like that, old
+fellow, just keep in our wake, and we'll give you the cleanings for
+your wages!"
+
+They paddled onward hour after hour, sheltering themselves as best
+they could under the shadow of the southern bank, while on their right
+hand the full sun glare lay upon the enormous wall of mimosas, figs,
+and laurels, which formed the northern forest, broken by the slender
+shafts of bamboo tufts, and decked with a thousand gaudy parasites;
+bank upon bank of gorgeous bloom piled upward to the sky, till where
+its outline cut the blue, flowers and leaves, too lofty to be
+distinguished by the eye, formed a broken rainbow of all hues
+quivering in the ascending streams of azure mist, until they seemed to
+melt and mingle with the very heavens.
+
+And as the sun rose higher and higher, a great stillness fell upon the
+forest. The jaguars and the monkeys had hidden themselves in the
+darkest depths of the woods. The birds' notes died out one by one; the
+very butterflies ceased their flitting over the tree tops, and slept
+with outspread wings upon the glossy leaves, undistinguishable from
+the flowers around them. Now and then a parrot swung and screamed at
+them from an overhanging bough; or a thirsty monkey slid lazily down a
+swinging vine to the surface of the stream, dipped up the water in his
+tiny hand, and started chattering back, as his eyes met those of some
+foul alligator peering upward through the clear depths below.
+
+In shaded nooks beneath the boughs, rabbits as large as sheep went
+paddling sleepily round and round, thrusting up their unwieldy heads
+among the blooms of the blue water lilies; while black and purple
+water hens ran up and down upon the rafts of floating leaves. The
+shining snout of a fresh-water dolphin rose slowly to the surface; a
+jet of spray whirred up; a rainbow hung upon it for a moment; and the
+black snout sank lazily again.
+
+Here and there, too, upon some shallow pebbly shore, scarlet
+flamingoes stood dreaming knee-deep on one leg; crested cranes pranced
+up and down, admiring their own finery; and irises and egrets dipped
+their bills under water in search of prey; but before noon, even those
+had slipped away, and there reigned a stillness which might be
+heard--a stillness in which, as Humboldt says: "If beyond the silence
+we listen for the faintest undertones, we detect a stifled, continuous
+hum of insects, which crowd the air close to the earth; a confused
+swarming murmur which hangs round every bush, in the cracked bark of
+trees, in the soil undermined by lizards and bees; a voice proclaiming
+to us that all Nature breathes, that under a thousand different forms
+life swarms in the gaping and dusty earth, as much as in the bosom of
+the waters, and in the air which breathes around."
+
+At last a soft and distant murmur, increasing gradually to a heavy
+roar, announced that they were nearing some cataract; till, turning a
+point where the alluvial soil rose into a low cliff fringed with
+delicate ferns, they came in full sight of a scene at which all
+paused--not with astonishment, but with something very like disgust.
+
+"Rapids again!" grumbled one. "I thought we had had enough of them on
+the Orinoco!"
+
+"We shall have to get out, and draw the canoes overland, I suppose!"
+
+"There's worse behind; don't you see the spray behind the palms?"
+
+"Stop grumbling, my masters, and don't cry out before you are hurt.
+Paddle right up to the largest of those islands, and let us look about
+us."
+
+In front of them was a snow-white bar of foam, some ten feet high,
+along which were ranged three or four islands of black rock. Each was
+crested with a knot of lofty palms, whose green tops stood out clear
+against the bright sky, while the lower half of their stems loomed
+hazy through a luminous veil of rainbowed mist. The banks right and
+left of the fall were so densely fringed with a low hedge of shrubs
+that landing seemed almost impossible; and their Indian guide,
+suddenly looking round him and whispering, bade them beware of
+savages, and pointed to a canoe which lay swinging in the eddies under
+the largest island, moored apparently to the root of some tree.
+
+"Silence, all!" cried Amyas, "and paddle up thither and seize the
+canoe. If there be an Indian on the island, we will have speech of
+him. But mind, and treat him friendly; and on your lives, neither
+strike nor shoot, even if he offers to fight."
+
+So, choosing a line of smooth backwater just in the wake of the
+island, they drove their canoes up by main force, and fastened them
+safely by the side of the Indian's, while Amyas, always the foremost,
+sprang boldly on shore, whispering to the Indian boy to follow him.
+
+Once on the island, Amyas felt sure enough that, if its wild tenant
+had not seen them approach, he certainly had not heard them, so
+deafening was the noise which filled his brain, and which seemed to
+make the very leaves upon the bushes quiver and the solid stone
+beneath his feet reel and ring. For two hundred yards and more above
+the fall, nothing met his eye but one white waste of raging foam, with
+here and there a transverse dike of rock, which hurled columns of
+spray and surges of beaded water high into the air,--strangely
+contrasting with the still and silent cliffs of green leaves which
+walled the river right and left, and more strangely still with the
+knots of enormous palms upon the islets, which reared their polished
+shafts a hundred feet into the air, straight and upright as masts,
+while their broad plumes and golden-clustered fruit slept in the
+sunshine far aloft, the image of the stateliest repose amid the
+wildest wrath of Nature.
+
+Ten yards farther, the cataract fell sheer in thunder; but a high
+fern-fringed rock turned its force away from the beach. Here, if
+anywhere, was the place to find the owner of the canoe. He leaped down
+upon the pebbles; and as he did so, a figure rose from behind a
+neighboring rock, and met him face to face. It was an Indian girl.
+
+He spoke first, in some Indian tongue, gently and smilingly, and made
+a half-step forward; but quick as light she caught up from the ground
+a bow, and held it fiercely toward him, fitted with the long arrow,
+with which, as he could see, she had been striking fish, for a line of
+twisted grass hung from its barbed head. Amyas stopped, laid down his
+own bow and sword, and made another step in advance, smiling still,
+and making all Indian signs of amity. But the arrow was still pointed
+straight at his breast, and he knew the mettle and strength of the
+forest nymphs well enough to stand still and call for the Indian boy.
+
+[Illustration: A figure rose from behind a neighboring rock.]
+
+The boy, who had been peering from above, leaped down to them in a
+moment; and began, as the safest method, groveling on his nose upon
+the pebbles, while he tried two or three dialects, one of which at
+last she seemed to understand, and answered in a tone of evident
+suspicion and anger.
+
+"What does she say?"
+
+"That you are a Spaniard and a robber because you have a beard."
+
+"Tell her that we are no Spaniards, but that we hate them, and are
+come across the great waters to help the Indians to kill them."
+
+The boy had no sooner spoken, than, nimble as a deer, the nymph had
+sprung up the rocks, and darted between the palm stems to her own
+canoe. Suddenly she caught sight of the English boats, and stopped
+with a cry of fear and rage.
+
+"Let her pass!" shouted Amyas, who had followed her closely. "Push
+your boats off, and let her pass. Boy, tell her to go on; they will
+not come near her."
+
+But she hesitated still, and with arrow drawn to the head, faced first
+on the boat's crew, and then on Amyas, till the Englishmen had shoved
+off full twenty yards.
+
+Then, leaping into her tiny piragua, she darted into the wildest whirl
+of the eddies, shooting along with vigorous strokes, while the English
+trembled as they saw the frail bark spinning and leaping amid the
+muzzles of the alligators and the huge dog-toothed trout. But, with
+the swiftness of an arrow, she reached the northern bank, drove her
+canoe among the bushes, and, leaping from it, darted into the bush,
+and vanished like a dream.
+
+ * * * * *
+
+The chief interest in the foregoing story lies, of course, in its
+faithful and glowing picture of scenery in the midst of a tropical
+forest. The learner should read it a second time and try to point out
+all the passages that are remarkable for their wealth of description.
+He should try to form in his mind an image of the sights and sounds
+that he would encounter in a voyage up the Meta River or any other of
+the tributaries of the Orinoco or the Amazon.
+
+
+
+
+THE FLAG OF OUR COUNTRY.
+
+
+I.
+
+There is the national flag. He must be cold indeed who can look upon
+its folds, rippling in the breeze, without pride of country. If he be
+in a foreign land, the flag is companionship and country itself, with
+all its endearments.
+
+Who, as he sees it, can think of a state merely? Whose eyes once
+fastened upon its radiant trophies, can fail to recognize the image of
+the whole nation? It has been called a "floating piece of poetry," and
+yet I know not if it have an intrinsic beauty beyond other ensigns.
+Its highest beauty is in what it symbolizes. It is because it
+represents all, that all gaze at it with delight and reverence.
+
+It is a piece of bunting lifted in the air; but it speaks sublimely,
+and every part has a voice. Its stripes of alternate red and white
+proclaim the original union of thirteen states to maintain the
+Declaration of Independence. Its stars of white on a field of blue
+proclaim that union of states constituting our national constellation,
+which receives a new star with every new state. The two together
+signify union past and present.
+
+The very colors have a language which was officially recognized by our
+fathers. White is for purity, red for valor, blue for justice; and
+altogether, bunting, stripes, stars, and colors, blazing in the sky,
+make the flag of our country to be cherished by all our hearts, to be
+upheld by all our hands.
+
+
+II.
+
+I have said enough and more than enough to manifest the spirit in
+which this flag is now committed to your charge. It is the national
+ensign, pure and simple, dearer to all hearts at this moment as we
+lift it to the gale, and see no other sign of hope upon the storm
+cloud which rolls and rattles above it, save that which is its own
+radiant hues--dearer, a thousand fold dearer to us all than ever it
+was before, while gilded by the sunshine of prosperity and playing
+with the zephyrs of peace. It will speak for itself far more
+eloquently than I can speak for it.
+
+Behold it! Listen to it! Every star has a tongue; every stripe is
+articulate. There is no speech nor language where their voices are not
+heard. There is magic in the web of it. It has an answer for every
+question of duty. It has a solution for every doubt and every
+perplexity. It has a word of good cheer for every hour of gloom or of
+despondency.
+
+Behold it! Listen to it! It speaks of earlier and of later struggles.
+It speaks of victories and sometimes of reverses, on the sea and on
+the land. It speaks of patriots and heroes among the living and among
+the dead; and of him, the first and greatest of them all, around whose
+consecrated ashes this unnatural and abhorrent strife has been so long
+raging. But, before all and above all other associations and
+memories,--whether of glorious men, or glorious deeds, or glorious
+places,--its voice is ever of Union and Liberty, of the Constitution
+and of the Laws.
+
+ --_Robert C. Winthrop._
+
+
+
+
+THE HIGH TIDE ON THE COAST OF LINCOLNSHIRE--1571.
+
+
+ The old mayor climbed the belfry tower,
+ The ringers ran by two, by three:--
+ "Pull, if ye never pulled before,
+ Good ringers, pull your best," quoth he.
+ "Play up, play up, O Boston bells!
+ Ply all your changes, all your swells;
+ Play up 'The Brides of Enderby'!"
+
+[Illustration: Jean Ingelow.]
+
+ Men say it was a stolen tide;
+ The Lord that sent it, he knows all;
+ But in mine ears doth still abide
+ The message that the bells let fall:
+ And there was naught of strange, beside
+ The flights of mews and peewits pied
+ By millions crouched on the old sea wall.
+
+ I sat and spun within the door,
+ My thread brake off, I raised mine eyes;
+ The level sun, like ruddy ore,
+ Lay sinking in the barren skies,
+ And dark against day's golden death
+ She moved where Lindis wandereth,
+ My son's fair wife, Elizabeth.
+
+ "Cusha! Cusha! Cusha!" calling,
+ Ere the early dews were falling,
+ Far away I heard her song.
+ "Cusha! Cusha!" all along,
+ Where the reedy Lindis floweth,
+ Floweth, floweth;
+ From the meads where melick groweth
+ Faintly came her milking song,
+
+ "Cusha! Cusha! Cusha!" calling,
+ "For the dews will soon be falling;
+ Leave your meadow grasses mellow,
+ Mellow, mellow;
+ Quit your cowslips, cowslips yellow;
+ Come up, Whitefoot, come up, Lightfoot;
+ Quit the stalks of parsley hollow,
+ Hollow, hollow;
+ Come up, Jetty, rise and follow,
+ From the clovers lift your head;
+ Come up, Whitefoot, come up, Lightfoot,
+ Come up, Jetty, rise and follow,
+ Jetty, to the milking shed."
+
+ If it be long, ay, long ago,
+ When I begin to think how long,
+ Again I hear the Lindis flow,
+ Swift as an arrow, sharp and strong;
+ And all the air, it seemeth me,
+ Is full of floating bells (saith she),
+ That ring the tune of Enderby.
+
+ All fresh the level pasture lay,
+ And not a shadow might be seen,
+ Save where full five good miles away
+ The steeple towered from out the green.
+ And lo! the great bell far and wide
+ Was heard in all the country side
+ That Saturday at eventide.
+
+ The swanherds where their sedges are
+ Moved on in sunset's golden breath,
+ The shepherd lads I heard afar,
+ And my son's wife, Elizabeth;
+ Till floating o'er the grassy sea
+ Came down that kindly message free,
+ The "Brides of Mavis Enderby."
+
+ Then some looked up into the sky,
+ And all along where Lindis flows
+ To where the goodly vessels lie,
+ And where the lordly steeple shows.
+ They said, "And why should this thing be?
+ What danger lowers by land or sea?
+ They ring the tune of Enderby!
+
+ "For evil news from Mablethorpe,
+ Of pirate galleys warping down;
+ For ships ashore beyond the scorpe,
+ They have not spared to wake the town:
+ But while the west is red to see,
+ And storms be none, and pirates flee,
+ Why ring 'The Brides of Enderby'?"
+
+ I looked without, and lo! my son
+ Came riding down with might and main;
+ He raised a shout as he drew on,
+ Till all the welkin rang again,
+ "Elizabeth! Elizabeth!"
+ (A sweeter woman ne'er drew breath
+ Than my son's wife, Elizabeth.)
+
+ "The old sea wall," he cried, "is down,
+ The rising tide comes on apace,
+ And boats adrift in yonder town
+ Go sailing up the market place."
+ He shook as one that looks on death:
+ "God save you, mother!" straight he saith,
+ "Where is my wife, Elizabeth?"
+
+ "Good son, where Lindis winds away,
+ With her two bairns I marked her long;
+ And ere yon bells began to play,
+ Afar I heard her milking song."
+ He looked across the grassy lea,
+ To right, to left, "Ho, Enderby!"
+ They rang "The Brides of Enderby!"
+
+ With that he cried and beat his breast;
+ For, lo! along the river's bed
+ A mighty eygre reared his crest,
+ And up the Lindis raging sped.
+ It swept with thunderous noises loud;
+ Shaped like a curling snow-white cloud,
+ Or like a demon in a shroud.
+
+ And rearing Lindis backward pressed
+ Shook all her trembling banks amain;
+ Then madly at the eygre's breast
+ Flung up her weltering walls again.
+ Then banks came down with ruin and rout--
+ Then beaten foam flew round about--
+ Then all the mighty floods were out.
+
+ So far, so fast the eygre drave,
+ The heart had hardly time to beat
+ Before a shallow seething wave
+ Sobbed in the grasses at our feet;
+ The feet had hardly time to flee
+ Before it brake against the knee,
+ And all the world was in the sea.
+
+ Upon the roof we sat that night,
+ The noise of bells went sweeping by;
+ I marked the lofty beacon light
+ Stream from the church tower, red and high--
+ A lurid mark and dread to see;
+ And awesome bells they were to me,
+ That in the dark rang "Enderby."
+
+ They rang the sailor lads to guide
+ From roof to roof who fearless rowed;
+ And I--my son was at my side,
+ And yet the ruddy beacon glowed;
+ And yet he moaned beneath his breath,
+ "Oh, come in life, or come in death!
+ Oh lost! my love Elizabeth."
+
+ And didst thou visit him no more?
+ Thou didst, thou didst, my daughter dear;
+ The waters laid thee at his door,
+ Ere yet the early dawn was clear.
+ Thy pretty bairns in fast embrace,
+ The lifted sun shone on thy face,
+ Down drifted to thy dwelling place.
+
+ That flow strewed wrecks about the grass,
+ That ebb swept out the flocks to sea;
+ A fatal ebb and flow, alas!
+ To many more than mine and me:
+ But each will mourn his own (she saith),
+ And sweeter woman ne'er drew breath
+ Than my son's wife, Elizabeth.
+
+ I shall never hear her more
+ By the reedy Lindis shore,
+ "Cusha! Cusha! Cusha!" calling,
+ Ere the early dews be falling;
+ I shall never hear her song,
+ "Cusha! Cusha!" all along
+ Where the sunny Lindis floweth,
+ Goeth, floweth;
+ From the meads where melick groweth,
+ Where the water winding down,
+ Onward floweth to the town.
+
+ I shall never see her more
+ Where the reeds and rushes quiver,
+ Shiver, quiver;
+ Stand beside the sobbing river,
+ Sobbing, throbbing, in its falling
+ To the sandy, lonesome shore;
+ I shall never hear her calling,
+ "Leave your meadow grasses mellow,
+ Mellow, mellow;
+ Quit your cowslips, cowslips yellow;
+ Come up, Whitefoot, come up, Lightfoot;
+ Quit your pipes of parsley hollow,
+ Hollow, hollow;
+ Come up, Lightfoot, rise and follow;
+ Lightfoot, Whitefoot,
+ From your clovers lift the head;
+ Come up, Jetty, follow, follow,
+ Jetty, to the milking shed."
+
+ --_Jean Ingelow._
+
+
+
+
+THE STORY OF THOMAS BECKET.
+
+
+I. HIS LIFE.
+
+Henry II. began his reign over England in the year 1154, and he was
+the mightiest king that had yet sat upon the throne. He had vast
+possessions. All England and nearly half of France were his, and he
+was well able to rule over them and keep them in order.
+
+He was a short, stout, reddish-haired man, with a face well-tanned by
+exposure to the wind and the sun. His legs were bowed by constant
+riding. Ever busy at something, he rarely sat down, except at meals;
+and there was plenty of work for him to do.
+
+In the early years of his reign his chief friend and servant was
+Thomas Becket, who was a clever and handsome man. He knew well how to
+please the king by sharing in his amusements, and by helping him in
+the great work of keeping order among his barons and knights.
+
+When Becket was a young man he was out hunting, one day, with his pet
+hawk upon his wrist. Riding carelessly along, he came to a narrow
+wooden bridge, which crossed a stream close to a mill. When in the
+middle of the bridge his horse stumbled, and Becket, horse, and hawk
+were thrown into the water.
+
+The horse at once swam to the bank. So did Becket, but, upon looking
+back, he saw his hawk struggling in the middle of the stream. Its
+straps had become entangled about its feet and wings, and the bird was
+helpless. Although the stream was running swiftly to the great
+mill-wheel, Becket turned round and swam back to save the hawk.
+
+By this time the current had carried him very near to the wheel, and
+in another moment both man and bird must have been crushed to death.
+But just then the miller saw the danger and stopped the mill. Becket
+climbed out of the water with the bird in his hand, seeming not at all
+frightened because of the danger which he had escaped. During his
+entire life he had many trials and was opposed by many enemies; but he
+faced them all as fearlessly as he had risked drowning in order to
+save his hawk.
+
+King Henry made Becket his chancellor, that is his chief minister, and
+gave him much wealth. Becket lived in great splendor in a fine palace.
+He was so hospitable that he kept an open table, at which all were
+free to come and feast when they chose. His clothes were the finest
+and gayest that could be made, and wherever he went he took with him
+troops of friends and servants.
+
+Once, when he was sent to France to settle a dispute with the French
+king, he traveled with such a large train of followers that the people
+were filled with wonder. We can picture the procession entering a
+quiet country town.
+
+"First came two hundred boys singing quaint songs or glees. Then
+followed great hounds with their keepers, behind whom were wagons
+guarded by fierce English mastiffs. One of the wagons was laden with
+beer to be given away to the people who might render any help on the
+road.
+
+"Then came twelve horses, upon each of which sat a monkey and a groom.
+After all these there followed a vast company of knights and squires
+and priests, riding two and two.
+
+"Last of all came Becket and a few friends, with whom he talked by the
+way." We can imagine the wonder of the French people at so fine, yet
+strange, a show. We can hear them exclaim, "What kind of a man must
+the king of England be, when his chancellor can travel in such state!"
+
+At this time the Church in England possessed great power and wealth.
+It was the safeguard that stood between the people and the greed and
+cruelty of their rulers. It was the protector of the poor, and the
+friend of the oppressed; and even the king was obliged to obey its
+commands.
+
+King Henry was jealous of the influence of the Church. He resolved
+that, having already reduced the power of the barons, he would now
+reduce the power of the Church. And among all his faithful men, who
+would be more likely to help him in such business than his friend
+Becket, who had hitherto been his ablest assistant in every undertaking?
+
+[Illustration: Thomas Becket. (From an Old Painting.)]
+
+It happened about this time that the Archbishop of Canterbury, the
+highest officer of the Church in England, died. This event was very
+pleasing to Henry, and through his influence the Pope appointed Thomas
+Becket to be the new archbishop.
+
+Becket had hitherto been faithful to Henry in all things, but he now
+felt that his first duty was to the Church, and he resolved to defend
+its rights, even though he should displease the king. He changed
+entirely the manner of his life. Instead of his splendid clothes, he
+wore a monk's dress and a hair shirt next to his skin. He tried, as
+people understood it in those times, to carry out the teachings of his
+Lord and Master; and every day he waited upon a number of poor men
+and washed their feet. Instead of gay knights only good and pious men
+sat at his table. He gave up his chancellorship, and told the king
+plainly that he would resist all attempts to take away the rights of
+the Church.
+
+Many were the quarrels after that between the king and the archbishop.
+At one time, in a fit of rage, Henry cried out: "I will not be
+preached at by you. Are you not the son of one of my clowns?"
+
+"It is true," replied the archbishop, "I am not descended from ancient
+kings, but neither was the blessed Peter to whom were given the keys
+of the kingdom of heaven."
+
+"But Peter," said the king, "died for his Lord."
+
+"And I, too, will die for my Lord," said Becket, "when the time shall
+come."
+
+And it was not long till the time did come. Upon hearing some hasty,
+angry words from the king, four knights set out to Canterbury,
+determined to kill Becket, and thus not only put an end to the long
+quarrel but win the king's favor for themselves.
+
+ --_Anonymous._
+
+
+II. HIS DEATH.
+
+The vespers had already begun, and the monks were singing the service
+in the choir, when two boys rushed up the nave, announcing, more by
+their terrified gestures than by their words, that the soldiers were
+bursting into the palace and monastery. Instantly the service was
+thrown into the utmost confusion; part remained at prayer, part fled
+into the numerous hiding places the vast fabric affords; and part
+went down the steps of the choir into the transept to meet the little
+band at the door.
+
+"Come in, come in!" exclaimed one of them. "Come in, and let us die
+together."
+
+The Archbishop continued to stand outside, and said: "Go and finish
+the service. So long as you keep in the entrance, I shall not come
+in." They fell back a few paces, and he stepped within the door, but,
+finding the whole place thronged with people, he paused on the
+threshold, and asked, "What is it that these people fear?" One general
+answer broke forth, "The armed men in the cloister." As he turned and
+said, "I shall go out to them," he heard the clash of arms behind. The
+knights had just forced their way into the cloister, and were now (as
+would appear from their being thus seen through the open door)
+advancing along its southern side. They were in mail, which covered
+their faces up to their eyes, and carried their swords drawn. Three
+had hatchets. Fitzurse, with the ax he had taken from the carpenters,
+was foremost, shouting as he came, "Here, here, king's men!"
+Immediately behind him followed Robert Fitzranulph, with three other
+knights; and a motley group--some their own followers, some from the
+town--with weapons, though not in armor, brought up the rear. At this
+sight, so unwonted in the peaceful cloisters of Canterbury, not
+probably beheld since the time when the monastery had been sacked by
+the Danes, the monks within, regardless of all remonstrances, shut the
+door of the cathedral, and proceeded to barricade it with iron bars. A
+loud knocking was heard from the band without, who, having vainly
+endeavored to prevent the entrance of the knights into the cloister,
+now rushed before them to take refuge in the church. Becket, who had
+stepped some paces into the cathedral, but was resisting the
+solicitations of those immediately about him to move up into the choir
+for safety, darted back, calling aloud as he went, "Away, you cowards!
+By virtue of your obedience I command you not to shut the door--the
+church must not be turned into a castle." With his own hands he thrust
+them away from the door, opened it himself, and catching hold of the
+excluded monks, dragged them into the building, exclaiming, "Come in,
+come in--faster, faster!"
+
+[Illustration:
+
+ From a Photograph. Engraved by Charles Meeder.
+
+ Canterbury Cathedral.
+]
+
+The knights, who had been checked for a moment by the sight of the
+closed door, on seeing it unexpectedly thrown open, rushed into the
+church. It was, we must remember, about five o'clock in a winter
+evening; the shades of night were gathering, and were deepened into a
+still darker gloom within the high and massive walls of the vast
+cathedral, which was only illuminated here and there by the solitary
+lamps burning before the altars. The twilight, lengthening from the
+shortest day a fortnight before, was but just sufficient to reveal the
+outline of objects.
+
+In the dim twilight they could just discern a group of figures
+mounting the steps of the eastern staircase. One of the knights called
+out to them, "Stay." Another, "Where is Thomas Becket, traitor to the
+king?" No answer was returned. None could have been expected by any
+one who remembered the indignant silence with which Becket had swept
+by when the same words had been applied by Randulf of Broc at
+Northampton. Fitzurse rushed forward, and, stumbling against one of
+the monks on the lower step, still not able to distinguish clearly in
+the darkness, exclaimed, "Where is the Archbishop?" Instantly the
+answer came: "Reginald, here I am, no traitor, but the archbishop and
+priest of God; what do you wish?" and from the fourth step, which he
+had reached in his ascent, with a slight motion of his head--noticed
+apparently as his peculiar manner in moments of excitement--Becket
+descended to the transept. Attired, we are told, in his white rochet,
+with a cloak and hood thrown over his shoulders, he thus suddenly
+confronted his assailants. Fitzurse sprang back two or three paces,
+and Becket passing by him took up his station between the central
+pillar and the massive wall which still forms the southwest corner of
+what was then the chapel of St. Benedict. Here they gathered round
+him, with the cry, "Absolve the bishops whom you have excommunicated."
+"I cannot do other than I have done," he replied, and turning to
+Fitzurse, he added, "Reginald, you have received many favors at my
+hands; why do you come into my church armed?" Fitzurse planted the ax
+against his breast, and returned for answer, "You shall die--I will
+tear out your heart." Another, perhaps in kindness, struck him between
+the shoulders with the flat of his sword, exclaiming, "Fly; you are a
+dead man." "I am ready to die," replied the primate, "for God and the
+Church; but I warn you, I curse you in the name of God Almighty, if
+you do not let my men escape."
+
+The well-known horror which in that age was felt at an act of
+sacrilege, together with the sight of the crowds who were rushing in
+from the town through the nave, turned their efforts for the next few
+moments to carrying him out of the church. Fitzurse threw down the ax,
+and tried to drag him out by the collar of his long cloak, calling,
+"Come with us--you are our prisoner." "I will not fly, you detestable
+fellow," was Becket's reply, roused to his usual vehemence, and
+wrenching the cloak out of Fitzurse's grasp. The three knights
+struggled violently to put him on Tracy's shoulders. Becket set his
+back against the pillar, and resisted with all his might, whilst Grim,
+vehemently remonstrating, threw his arms around him to aid his
+efforts. In the scuffle, Becket fastened upon Tracy, shook him by his
+coat of mail, and exerting his great strength flung him down on the
+pavement. It was hopeless to carry on the attempt to remove him. And
+in the final struggle which now began, Fitzurse, as before, took the
+lead. He approached with his drawn sword, and waving it over his head,
+cried, "Strike, strike!" but merely dashed off his cap. Tracy sprang
+forward and struck a more decided blow.
+
+The blood from the first blow was trickling down his face in a thin
+streak; he wiped it with his arm, and when he saw the stain, he said,
+"Into thy hands, O Lord, I commend my spirit." At the third blow, he
+sank on his knees--his arms falling, but his hands still joined as if
+in prayer. With his face turned towards the altar of St. Benedict, he
+murmured in a low voice, "For the name of Jesus, and the defense of
+the Church, I am willing to die." Without moving hand or foot, he
+fell flat on his face as he spoke. In this posture he received a
+tremendous blow, aimed with such violence that the scalp or crown of
+the head was severed from the skull. "Let us go--let us go," said Hugh
+of Horsea, "the traitor is dead; he will rise no more."
+
+ * * * * *
+
+The life of Thomas Becket, and his tragic death, have furnished themes
+for many noble contributions to English literature. Arthur Penrhyn
+Stanley, Dean of Westminster, has written of him, in a very impartial
+and trustworthy manner, in his "Historical Memoirs of Canterbury" from
+which the above extract is taken. The poet Tennyson, late in life,
+composed a tragedy entitled "Becket" which portrays in a vivid,
+poetical manner the most striking scenes in the career of the great
+archbishop. James Anthony Froude, in "Short Stories on Great
+Subjects," has written a charming and instructive essay on the "Life
+and Times of Thomas Becket"; and Professor Freeman has presented us
+with a similar historical study in his "Saint Thomas of Canterbury."
+It may also be observed that Chaucer's immortal work, "The Canterbury
+Tales," depends for its connecting thread upon the once general custom
+of making pilgrimages to the tomb of Becket.
+
+[Illustration: Dean Stanley.]
+
+
+
+
+THE PILGRIMS. (1620.)
+
+
+Methinks I see one solitary, adventurous vessel, the "Mayflower," of a
+forlorn hope, freighted with the prospects of a future state, and bound
+across the unknown sea. I behold it pursuing, with a thousand
+misgivings, the uncertain, the tedious voyage. Suns rise and set, and
+weeks and months pass, and winter surprises them on the deep, but brings
+them not the sight of the wished-for shore. I see them now, scantily
+supplied with provisions, crowded almost to suffocation, in their
+ill-stored prison, delayed by calms, pursuing a circuitous route,--and
+now, driven in fury before the raging tempest, on the high and giddy
+waves. The awful voice of the storm brawls through the rigging.
+
+[Illustration: Edward Everett.]
+
+The laboring masts seem straining from their base; the dismal sound of
+the pumps is heard; the ship leaps, as it were, madly, from billow to
+billow; the ocean breaks, and settles with engulfing floods over the
+floating deck, and beats with deadening, shivering weight, against the
+staggering vessel.
+
+I see them escape from these perils, pursuing their all but desperate
+undertaking, and landed at last, after a five months' passage, on the
+ice-clad rocks of Plymouth,--weak and weary from the voyage, poorly
+armed, scantily provisioned, without shelter, without means,
+surrounded by hostile tribes.
+
+Shut now the volume of history, and tell me, on any principle of human
+probability, what shall be the fate of this handful of adventurers?
+Tell me, man of military science, in how many months were they all
+swept off by the thirty savage tribes, enumerated within the early
+limits of New England?
+
+Tell me, politician, how long did a shadow of a colony on which your
+conventions and treaties had not smiled, languish on the distant
+coast? Student of history, compare for me the baffled projects, the
+deserted settlements, the abandoned adventures of other times, and
+find the parallel of this.
+
+Was it the winter's storm, beating upon the houseless heads of women
+and children? was it hard labor and spare meals? was it disease? was
+it the tomahawk? was it the deep malady of a blighted hope, a ruined
+enterprise, and a broken heart, aching in its last moments at the
+recollection of the loved and left, beyond the sea? was it some, or
+all of these united, that hurried this forsaken company to their
+melancholy fate?
+
+And is it possible, that neither of these causes, that not all
+combined, were able to blast this bud of hope? Is it possible, that
+from a beginning so feeble, so frail, so worthy not so much of
+admiration as of pity, there has gone forth a progress so steady, a
+growth so wonderful, an expansion so ample, a reality so important, a
+promise, yet to be fulfilled, so glorious?
+
+ --_Edward Everett._
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration:
+
+ From the Painting by A. W. Bayes. Engraved by E. Heinemann.
+
+ The Departure of the Mayflower.
+]
+
+THE LANDING OF THE PILGRIMS.
+
+(1620.)
+
+
+ The breaking waves dashed high
+ On a stern and rock-bound coast,
+ And the trees against a stormy sky,
+ Their giant branches tossed.
+
+ And the heavy night hung dark
+ The hills and waters o'er,
+ When a band of exiles moored their bark
+ On the wild New England shore.
+
+ Not as the conqueror comes,
+ They, the true-hearted, came;
+ Not with the roll of the stirring drums,
+ And the trumpet that sings of fame.
+
+ Not as the flying come,
+ In silence and in fear;
+ They shook the depths of the desert gloom
+ With their hymns of lofty cheer.
+
+ Amidst the storm they sang,
+ And the stars heard, and the sea:
+ And the sounding aisles of the dim woods rang
+ To the anthem of the free!
+
+ The ocean eagle soared
+ From his nest by the white wave's foam:
+ And the rocking pines of the forest roared,--
+ This was their welcome home!
+
+ There were men with hoary hair,
+ Amidst that pilgrim band;
+ Why had _they_ come to wither there,
+ Away from their childhood's land?
+
+ There was woman's fearless eye,
+ Lit by her deep love's truth;
+ There was manhood's brow serenely high,
+ And the fiery heart of youth.
+
+ What sought they thus afar?
+ Bright jewels of the mine?
+ The wealth of seas, the spoils of war?--
+ They sought a faith's pure shrine!
+
+ Ay! call it holy ground,
+ The soil where first they trod:
+ They have left unstained what there they found,
+ Freedom to worship God.
+
+ --_Felicia Hemans._
+
+
+
+
+ Patriots have toiled, and in their country's cause
+ Bled nobly; and their deeds, as they deserve
+ Receive proud recompense. We give in charge
+ Their names to the sweet lyre. The historic Muse,
+ Proud of the treasure, marches with it down
+ To latest times; and Sculpture, in her turn,
+ Gives bond in stone and ever-during brass
+ To guard them, and to immortalize her trust.
+
+ --_William Cowper._
+
+
+
+
+THE ROBIN.
+
+
+The robin is perhaps the best known of all our birds. The name is so
+prominent in children's stories, in folklore, in poetry, and in
+general literature, that even town children who have never seen the
+bird know it by name; but to many grown people, even those who have
+lived all their lives in the country, the robin is not familiar as a
+winter bird. It is known to come and go, it is true, but is supposed
+to be merely in transit, and just where the observer happens to be is
+not its abiding place. This impression is due to lack of observation,
+for the birds are as well disposed towards your thicket and cedar
+trees as those of some far-off neighbor.
+
+This crystal-clear, cold January day, with the mercury almost at zero,
+I found the robins on the south hillside, and seldom have they shown
+to better advantage. One was perched in a sapling beech to which the
+leaves still clung. It chirped at times so that its companions could
+hear it, and was answered by them, as well as by the nuthatches, a
+tree creeper, some sparrows, and a winter wren.
+
+It was a cozy, warm spot wherein these birds had gathered, which,
+strangely enough, was filled with music even when every bird was mute.
+This robin was half concealed among the crisp beech leaves, and
+these--not the birds about them--were singing. The breeze caused them
+to tremble violently, and their thin edges were as harp strings, the
+wiry sound produced being smoothed by the crisp rattling caused by the
+leaves' rapid contact with each other.
+
+It was much like the click of butterflies' wings, but greatly
+exaggerated. A simple sound, but a sweet, wholesome one that made me
+think less of the winter's rigor and recalled the recent warm autumnal
+days. They were singing leaves, and the robin watched them closely as
+he stood near by, and chirped at times, as if to encourage them.
+Altogether it made a pretty picture, one of those that human skill has
+not yet transferred to a printed page; and our winter sunshine is full
+of just such beauty.
+
+How incomprehensible it is that any one should speak of the _few_
+robins that venture to remain! Flocks of a hundred or more are not
+uncommon in the depth of winter, and this recalls the fact that at
+this time of year robins are never alone. It may appear so for a time,
+but when the bird you are watching is ready to move on, his call will
+be answered by others that you have not seen, and half a dozen at
+least will fly off to new scenes.
+
+This is often noticed on a much larger scale when we flush robins in a
+field. They are generally widely scattered, and, go where you will,
+there will be one or two hopping before you; but when one takes alarm,
+the danger cry is heard by all, and a great flock will gather in the
+air in an incredibly short time.
+
+Robins are not lovers of frozen ground; they know where the earth
+resists frost, down in the marshy meadows, and there they congregate
+in the dreary midwinter afternoons, after spending the morning feeding
+upon berries. I have seen them picking those of the cedar, poison ivy,
+green brier, and even the seedy, withered fruit of the poke; but at
+times this question of food supply must be a difficult problem to
+solve, and then they leave us for a while, until pleasanter weather
+prevails, when they venture back.
+
+In April, when the chill of winter is no longer in its bones, the
+robin becomes prominent, and the more so because of the noise it
+makes. It sings fairly well, and early in the morning there is a world
+of suggestiveness in the ringing notes. The song is loud, declamatory,
+and acceptable more for the pleasant thoughts it occasions than for
+the actual melody. We are always glad to hear the robins, but never
+for the same reason that we listen to a wood thrush. Of course there
+are exceptions.
+
+With the close of the nesting season--and this extends well into the
+summer--much of the attractiveness of the bird disappears. As
+individual members of great loose flocks that fret the upper air with
+an incessant chirping, they offer little to entertain us even when the
+less hardy minstrels of the summer have sought their southern homes.
+
+It is true that they add something to the picture of a dreamy October
+afternoon when the mellow sunlight tips the wilted grasses with dull
+gold. They restore for the time the summertide activity of the meadows
+when with golden-winged woodpeckers they chase the crickets in the
+close-cropped pastures, but they are soon forgotten if a song sparrow
+sings or a wary hawk screams among the clouds. Robins are always
+welcome, but never more so than when they chatter, on an April
+morning, of the near future with its buds and blossoms.
+
+ --_From "Bird-Land Echoes," by Charles Conrad Abbott._
+
+
+
+
+THE MOTIONS OF BIRDS.
+
+
+A good ornithologist should be able to distinguish birds by their air
+as well as by their colors and shape, on the wing as well as on the
+ground; and in the bush as well as in the hand. For though it must not
+be said that every species of bird has a manner peculiar to itself,
+yet there is somewhat in most _genera_, at least, that at first sight
+discriminates them, and enables a judicious observer to pronounce upon
+them with some certainty.
+
+Thus kites and buzzards sail round in circles with wings expanded and
+motionless; and it is from their gliding manner that the former are
+still called in the north of England gleads, from the Saxon verb
+_glidan_, to glide. Hen harriers fly low over the meadows or fields of
+corn, and beat the ground regularly like a pointer or setting dog.
+Owls move in a buoyant manner, as if lighter than the air; they seem
+to want ballast.
+
+There is a peculiarity belonging to ravens that must draw the
+attention even of the most incurious--they spend all their leisure
+time in striking and cuffing each other on the wing in a kind of
+playful skirmish; and, when they move from one place to another,
+frequently turn on their backs with a loud croak, and seem to be
+falling to the ground. When this odd gesture betides them, they are
+scratching themselves with one foot, and thus lose the center of
+gravity. Rooks sometimes dive and tumble in a frolicsome manner; crows
+and daws swagger in their walk; woodpeckers fly with a wavy motion,
+opening and closing their wings at every stroke, and so are always
+rising or falling in curves. All of this genus use their tails, which
+incline downward, as a support while they run up trees. Parrots, like
+all other hooked-clawed birds, walk awkwardly, and make use of their
+bill as a third foot, climbing and descending with ridiculous caution.
+
+All the gallinæ parade and walk gracefully, and run nimbly, but fly
+with difficulty, with an impetuous whirring, and in a straight line.
+Magpies and jays flutter with powerless wings, and make no dispatch;
+herons seem encumbered with too much sail for their light bodies, but
+these vast hollow wings are necessary in carrying burdens, such as
+large fishes, and the like; pigeons, and particularly the sort called
+smiters, have a way of clashing their wings, the one against the
+other, over their backs with a loud snap; another variety, called
+tumblers, turn themselves over in the air.
+
+The kingfisher darts along like an arrow; fern owls, or goatsuckers,
+glance in the dusk over the tops of trees like a meteor; swallows
+sweep over the surface of the ground and water, and distinguish
+themselves by rapid turns and quick evolutions; swifts dash round in
+circles; and the bank martin moves with frequent vacillations like a
+butterfly.
+
+Most small birds hop; but wagtails and larks walk, moving their legs
+alternately. All the duck kind waddle; divers and auks walk as if
+fettered, and stand erect, on their tails. Geese and cranes, and most
+wild fowls, move in figured flights, often changing their position.
+
+ --_From "The Natural History of Selbourne," by Gilbert White._
+
+
+
+
+THE ORIGIN OF RIVERS.
+
+
+Let us trace a river to its source. Beginning where it empties itself
+into the sea, and following it backwards, we find it from time to time
+joined by tributaries which swell its waters. The river of course
+becomes smaller as these tributaries are passed. It shrinks first to a
+brook, then to a stream; this again divides itself into a number of
+smaller streamlets, ending in mere threads of water. These constitute
+the source of the river, and are usually found among hills.
+
+Thus, the Severn has its source in the Welsh mountains; the Thames in
+the Cotswold Hills; the Missouri in the Rocky Mountains; and the
+Amazon in the Andes of Peru.
+
+[Illustration: John Tyndall.]
+
+But it is quite plain that we have not yet reached the real beginning
+of the rivers. Whence do the earliest streams derive their water? A
+brief residence among the mountains would prove to you that they are
+fed by rains. In dry weather you would find the streams feeble,
+sometimes, indeed, quite dried up. In wet weather you would see them
+foaming torrents. In general these streams lose themselves as little
+threads of water upon the hillsides; but sometimes you may trace a
+river to a definite spring. But you very soon assure yourself that
+such springs are also fed by rain, which has percolated through the
+rocks or soil, and which, through some orifice that it has found or
+formed, comes to the light of day.
+
+But we can not end here. Whence comes the rain that forms the mountain
+streams? Observation enables you to answer the question. Rain does not
+come from a clear sky. It comes from clouds.
+
+But what are clouds? Is there nothing you are acquainted with which
+they resemble? You discover at once a likeness between them and the
+condensed steam of a locomotive. At every puff of the engine a cloud
+is projected into the air.
+
+Watch the cloud sharply. You notice that it first forms at a little
+distance from the top of the funnel. Give close attention and you will
+sometimes see a perfectly clear space between the funnel and the
+cloud. Through that clear space the thing which makes the cloud must
+pass. What then is this thing which at one moment is transparent and
+invisible, and at the next moment visible as a dense opaque cloud?
+
+It is the _steam_ or _vapor of water_ from the boiler. Within the
+boiler this steam is transparent and invisible; but to keep it in this
+invisible state a heat would be required as great as that within the
+boiler. When the vapor mingles with the cold air above the hot funnel,
+it ceases to be vapor. Every bit of steam shrinks, when chilled, to a
+much more minute particle of water. The liquid particles thus produced
+form a kind of _water dust_ of exceeding fineness, which floats in the
+air, and is called a _cloud_.
+
+Watch the cloud banner from the funnel of a running locomotive: you
+see it growing gradually less dense. It finally melts away altogether,
+and, if you continue your observations, you will not fail to notice
+that the speed of its disappearance depends on the character of the
+day. In moist weather the cloud hangs long and lazily in the air; in
+dry weather it is rapidly licked up. What has become of it? It has
+been reconverted into true invisible vapor. The _drier_ the air, and
+the _hotter_ the air, the greater is the amount of cloud which can be
+thus dissolved in it.
+
+Make the lid of a kettle air-tight, and permit the steam to issue from
+the spout; a cloud is formed in all respects similar to that which
+issues from the funnel of the locomotive. To produce the cloud, in the
+case of the locomotive and the kettle, _heat_ is necessary. By heating
+the water we first convert it into steam, and then by chilling the
+steam we convert it into cloud. Is there any fire in nature which
+produces the clouds of our atmosphere? There is--the fire of the sun.
+
+By tracing the course of a river, we find that both its beginning and
+its ending are in the sea. All its water is derived from the sea, and to
+the sea it returns its floods. But if we seek for its causes, we find
+that its beginning and its ending are in the sun. For it is the fire of
+the sun that produces the clouds from which the water of the river is
+derived, and it is the same fire of the sun that dries up its stream.
+
+ --_Adapted from "Forms of Water in Clouds and Rivers,"
+ by John Tyndall._
+
+
+
+
+ADDRESS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN
+
+AT THE DEDICATION OF GETTYSBURG CEMETERY, THE 19TH OF NOVEMBER, 1863.
+
+
+Fourscore and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this
+continent a new nation, conceived in liberty, and dedicated to the
+proposition that all men are created equal. Now we are engaged in a
+great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so
+conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great
+battlefield of the war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that
+field as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives
+that their nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that
+we should do this.
+
+[Illustration: Abraham Lincoln.]
+
+But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate, we can not consecrate, we
+can not hallow this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who
+struggled here, have consecrated it far above our power to add or
+detract. The world will little note, nor long remember, what we say
+here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us, the
+living, rather to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they
+who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to
+be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us--that from these
+honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they
+gave the last full measure of devotion--that we here highly resolve that
+these dead shall not have died in vain--that this nation, under God,
+shall have a new birth of freedom--and that government of the people, by
+the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.
+
+
+
+
+THE AMERICAN FLAG.
+
+
+ When Freedom, from her mountain height,
+ Unfurled her standard to the air,
+ She tore the azure robe of night,
+ And set the stars of glory there;
+ She mingled with its gorgeous dyes
+ The milky baldric of the skies,
+ And striped its pure, celestial white
+ With streakings of the morning light;
+ Then from his mansion in the sun
+ She called her eagle bearer down,
+ And gave into his mighty hand
+ The symbol of her chosen land.
+
+[Illustration: Joseph Rodman Drake.]
+
+ Flag of the brave! thy folds shall fly,
+ The sign of hope and triumph high!
+ When speaks the signal trumpet tone,
+ And the long line comes gleaming on
+ (Ere yet the life blood, warm and wet,
+ Has dimmed the glistening bayonet),
+ Each soldier's eye shall brightly turn
+ To where thy sky-born glories burn,
+ And as his springing steps advance,
+ Catch war and vengeance from thy glance.
+ And when the cannon mouthings loud
+ Heave in wild wreaths the battle shroud,
+ And gory sabers rise and fall,
+ Like shoots of flame on midnight's pall,
+ Then shall thy meteor glances glow,
+ And cowering foes shall sink beneath
+ Each gallant arm that strikes below
+ That lovely messenger of death.
+ Flag of the seas! on ocean's wave
+ Thy stars shall glitter o'er the brave;
+ When death, careering on the gale,
+ Sweeps darkly round the bellied sail,
+ And frighted waves rush wildly back
+ Before the broadside's reeling rack,
+ Each dying wanderer of the sea
+ Shall look at once to heaven and thee,
+ And smile to see thy splendors fly
+ In triumph o'er his closing eye.
+
+ Flag of the free heart's hope and home,
+ By angel hands to valor given,
+ Thy stars have lit the welkin dome,
+ And all thy hues were born in heaven.
+ Forever float that standard sheet!
+ Where breathes the foe, but falls before us,
+ With Freedom's soil beneath our feet,
+ And Freedom's banner streaming o'er us!
+
+ --_Joseph Rodman Drake._
+
+
+
+
+THE LAST FIGHT IN THE COLISEUM, A.D. 404.
+
+[Illustration: Charlotte M. Yonge.]
+
+
+The grandest and most renowned of all ancient amphitheaters is the
+Coliseum at Rome. It was built by Vespasian and his son Titus, the
+conquerors of Jerusalem, in a valley in the midst of the seven hills
+of Rome. The captive Jews were forced to labor at it; and the
+materials--granite outside, and a softer stone within--are so solid,
+and so admirably put together, that still, at the end of eighteen
+centuries, it has scarcely even become a ruin, but remains one of the
+greatest wonders of Rome. Five acres of ground were inclosed within
+the oval of its outer wall, which outside rises perpendicularly in
+tiers of arches one above another. Within, the galleries of seats
+projected forwards, each tier coming out far beyond the one above it;
+so that between the lowest and the outer wall there was room for a
+great variety of chambers, passages, and vaults around the central
+space, called the arena.
+
+Altogether, when full, this huge building held no fewer than 87,000
+spectators! It had no roof; but when there was rain, or if the sun was
+too hot, the sailors in the porticoes unfurled awnings that ran along
+upon ropes, and formed a covering of silk and gold tissue over the
+whole. Purple was the favorite color for this veil, because, when the
+sun shone through it, it cast such beautiful rosy tints on the snowy
+arena and the white purple-edged togas of the Roman citizens.
+
+When the emperor had seated himself and given the signal, the sports
+began. Sometimes a rope dancing elephant would begin the
+entertainment, by mounting even to the summit of the building and
+descending by a cord. Or a lion came forth with a jeweled crown on his
+head, a diamond necklace round his neck, his mane plaited with gold,
+and his claws gilded, and played a hundred pretty gentle antics with a
+little hare that danced fearlessly within his grasp.
+
+Sometimes water was let into the arena, a ship sailed in, and falling
+to pieces in the midst, sent a crowd of strange animals swimming in
+all directions. Sometimes the ground opened, and trees came growing up
+through it, bearing golden fruit. Or the beautiful old tale of Orpheus
+was acted: these trees would follow the harp and song of a musician;
+but--to make the whole part complete--it was no mere play, but in real
+earnest, that the Orpheus of the piece fell a prey to live bears.
+
+For the Coliseum had not been built for such harmless spectacles as
+those first described. The fierce Romans wanted to be excited and to
+feel themselves strongly stirred; and, presently, the doors of the pits
+and dens around the arena were thrown open, and absolutely savage beasts
+were let loose upon one another--rhinoceroses and tigers, bulls and
+lions, leopards and wild boars--while the people watched with ferocious
+curiosity to see the various kinds of attack and defense, their ears at
+the same time being delighted, instead of horror-struck, by the roars
+and howls of the noble creatures whose courage was thus misused.
+
+[Illustration: The Coliseum at the Present Day.]
+
+Wild beasts tearing each other to pieces might, one would think,
+satisfy any taste for horror; but the spectators needed even nobler
+game to be set before their favorite monsters:--men were brought
+forward to confront them. Some of these were, at first, in full armor,
+and fought hard, generally with success. Or hunters came, almost
+unarmed, and gained the victory by swiftness and dexterity, throwing a
+piece of cloth over a lion's head, or disconcerting him by putting
+their fist down his throat. But it was not only skill, but death, that
+the Romans loved to see; and condemned criminals and deserters were
+reserved to feast the lions, and to entertain the populace with their
+various kinds of death. Among those condemned was many a Christian
+martyr, who witnessed a good confession before the savage-eyed
+multitude around the arena, and "met the lion's gory mane" with a calm
+resolution and a hopeful joy that the lookers-on could not understand.
+To see a Christian die, with upward gaze, and hymns of joy on his
+tongue, was the most strange and unaccountable sight the Coliseum
+could offer; and it was therefore the choicest, and reserved for the
+last of the spectacles in which the brute creation had a part.
+
+The carcasses were dragged off with hooks, the bloodstained sand was
+covered with a fresh green layer, perfume was wafted in stronger
+clouds, and a procession come forward--tall, well-made men, in the
+prime of their strength. Some carried a sword and a lasso, others a
+trident and a net; some were in light armor, others in the full, heavy
+equipment of a soldier; some on horseback, some in chariots, some on
+foot. They marched in, and made their obeisance to the emperor; and
+with one voice their greeting sounded through the building: "Hail,
+Cæsar; those about to die salute thee!" They were the gladiators--the
+swordsmen trained to fight to the death to amuse the populace.
+
+[Illustration:
+
+ From the Painting by J. L. Gerome. Engraved by Henry Wolf.
+
+ The Last Prayer--Christian Martyrs in the Coliseum.
+]
+
+Fights of all sorts took place,--the light-armed soldier and the
+netsman--the lasso and the javelin--the two heavy-armed warriors,--all
+combinations of single combat, and sometimes a general mêlée. When a
+gladiator wounded his adversary, he shouted to the spectators, "He has
+it!" and looked up to know whether he should kill or spare. When the
+people held up their thumbs, the conquered was left to recover, if he
+could; if they turned them down, he was to die; and if he showed any
+reluctance to present his throat for the deathblow, there was a
+scornful shout, "Receive the steel!"
+
+ "I see before me the gladiator lie:
+ He leans upon his hand; his manly brow
+ Consents to death, but conquers agony;
+ And his drooped head sinks gradually low;
+ And through his side the last drops, ebbing slow
+ From the red gash, fall heavy, one by one,
+ Like the first of a thunder-shower; and now
+ The arena swims around him--he is gone,
+ Ere ceased the inhuman shout which hailed the wretch who won."
+
+Christianity, however, worked its way upwards, and at last was
+professed by the emperor on his throne. Persecution came to an end,
+and no more martyrs fed the beasts in the Coliseum. The Christian
+emperors endeavored to prevent any more shows where cruelty and death
+formed the chief interest, and no truly religious person could endure
+the spectacle; but custom and love of excitement prevailed even
+against the emperor. They went on for fully a hundred years after Rome
+had, in name, become a Christian city.
+
+Meantime the enemies of Rome were coming nearer and nearer. Alaric, the
+great chief of the Goths, led his forces into Italy, and threatened the
+city itself. Honorius, the emperor, was a cowardly, almost idiotic boy;
+but his brave general, Stilicho, assembled his forces, met the Goths,
+and gave them a complete defeat, on Easter day of the year 403. He
+pursued them to the mountains, and for that time saved Rome.
+
+In the joy of victory, the Roman Senate invited the conqueror and his
+ward Honorius to enter the city in triumph, at the opening of the new
+year, with the white steeds, purple robes, and vermilion cheeks with
+which, of old, victorious generals were welcomed at Rome. The churches
+were visited instead of the Temple of Jupiter, and there was no murder
+of the captives; but Roman bloodthirstiness was not yet allayed, and,
+after the procession had been completed, the Coliseum shows commenced,
+innocently at first, with races on foot, on horseback, and in chariots;
+then followed a grand hunt of beasts turned loose in the arena; and next
+a sword dance. But after the sword dance came the arraying of swordsmen,
+with no blunted weapons, but with sharp spears and swords--a gladiator
+combat in full earnest. The people, enchanted, applauded with shouts of
+ecstasy this gratification of their savage tastes.
+
+Suddenly, however, there was an interruption. A rude, roughly robed
+man, bareheaded and barefooted, had sprung into the arena, and, waving
+back the gladiators, began to call aloud upon the people to cease from
+the shedding of innocent blood, and not to requite God's mercy, in
+turning away the sword of the enemy, by encouraging murder. Shouts,
+howls, cries, broke in upon his words; this was no place for
+preachings,--the old customs of Rome should be observed,--"Back, old
+man!"--"On, gladiators!"
+
+The gladiators thrust aside the meddler, and rushed to the attack. He
+still stood between, holding them apart, striving in vain to be heard.
+"Sedition! sedition!"--"Down with him!"--was the cry; and the prefect
+in authority himself added his voice. The gladiators, enraged at
+interference with their vocation, cut him down. Stones, or whatever
+came to hand, rained upon him from the furious people, and he perished
+in the midst of the arena! He lay dead; and then the people began to
+reflect upon what had been done.
+
+His dress showed that he was one of the hermits who had vowed themselves
+to a life of prayer and self-denial, and who were greatly reverenced,
+even by the most thoughtless. The few who had previously seen him, told
+that he had come from the wilds of Asia on a pilgrimage, to visit the
+shrines and keep his Christmas at Rome. They knew that he was a holy
+man--no more. But his spirit had been stirred by the sight of thousands
+flocking to see men slaughter one another, and in his simple-hearted
+zeal he had resolved to stop the cruelty, or die.
+
+He had died, but not in vain. His work was done. The shock of such a
+death before their eyes turned the hearts of the people; they saw the
+wickedness and cruelty to which they had blindly surrendered
+themselves; and since the day when the hermit died in the Coliseum,
+there has never been another fight of gladiators. The custom was
+utterly abolished; and one habitual crime at least was wiped from the
+earth by the self-devotion of one humble, obscure, and nameless man.
+
+ --_From "A Book of Golden Deeds," by Charlotte Yonge._
+
+
+
+
+THE PASSING OF ARTHUR.
+
+
+The reader has already become somewhat acquainted with the marvelous
+history of King Arthur, and has read about the poems and romances by
+which the memory of his life and exploits have been preserved. He has
+also read the mythical account of the King's last hours on earth as
+recorded in the quaint old romance written by Sir Thomas Malory. Here
+he may read another rendering of the same story, written in grand and
+beautiful poetic form by Alfred Tennyson. In the "Idylls of the King,"
+Lord Tennyson has given us a complete history of Arthur and of the
+brave knights and fair ladies who lived at his court. These poems are
+among the noblest ever written in our language. Turn now to the last
+story in "School Reading by Grades--Fifth Year," and compare each
+passage in that brief narrative with its corresponding passage in the
+following poem.
+
+ So all day long the noise of battle roll'd
+ Among the mountains by the winter sea;
+ Until King Arthur's Table, man by man,
+ Had fall'n in Lyonesse about their lord,
+ King Arthur. Then, because his wound was deep,
+ The bold Sir Bedivere uplifted him,
+ Sir Bedivere, the last of all his knights,
+ And bore him to a chapel nigh the field,
+ A broken chancel with a broken cross,
+ That stood on a dark strait of barren land.
+ On one side lay the Ocean, and on one
+ Lay a great water, and the moon was full.
+ Then spake King Arthur to Sir Bedivere:
+ "The sequel of to-day unsolders all
+ The goodliest fellowship of famous knights
+ Whereof this world holds record. Such a sleep
+ They sleep--the men I loved. I think that we
+ Shall never more, at any future time,
+ Delight our souls with talk of knightly deeds,
+ Walking about the gardens and the halls
+ Of Camelot, as in the days that were.
+ I perish by this people which I made,--
+ Tho' Merlin sware that I should come again
+ To rule once more; but let what will be, be,
+ I am so deeply smitten thro' the helm
+ That without help I can not last till morn.
+ Thou therefore take my brand Excalibur,
+ Which was my pride: for thou rememberest how
+ In those old days, one summer noon, an arm
+ Rose up from out the bosom of the lake,
+ Clothed in white samite, mystic, wonderful,
+ Holding the sword--and how I row'd across
+ And took it, and have worn it, like a king:
+ And, wheresoever I am sung or told
+ In after time, this also shall be known:
+ But now delay not: take Excalibur,
+ And fling him far into the middle mere;
+ Watch what thou seëst and lightly bring me word."
+ To him replied the bold Sir Bedivere:
+ "It is not meet, Sir King, to leave thee thus,
+ Aidless, alone, and smitten thro' the helm.
+ A little thing may harm a wounded man.
+ Yet I thy hest will all perform at full,
+ Watch what I see, and lightly bring thee word."
+ So saying, from the ruin'd shrine he stept,
+ And in the moon athwart the place of tombs,
+ Where lay the mighty bones of ancient men,
+ Old knights, and over them the sea wind sang
+ Shrill, chill, with flakes of foam. He, stepping down
+ By zigzag paths, and juts of pointed rock,
+ Came on the shining levels of the lake.
+ There drew he forth the brand Excalibur,
+ And o'er him, drawing it, the winter moon,
+ Brightening the skirts of a long cloud, ran forth
+ And sparkled keen with frost against the hilt:
+ For all the haft twinkled with diamond sparks,
+ Myriads of topaz lights, and jacinth work
+ Of subtlest jewelry. He gazed so long
+ That both his eyes were dazzled, as he stood,
+ This way and that dividing the swift mind,
+ In act to throw: but at the last it seem'd
+ Better to leave Excalibur conceal'd
+ There in the many-knotted waterflags,
+ That whistled stiff and dry about the marge.
+ So strode he back slow to the wounded King.
+ Then spake King Arthur to Sir Bedivere:
+ "Hast thou perform'd my mission which I gave?
+ What is it thou hast seen? or what hast heard?"
+ And answer made the bold Sir Bedivere:
+ "I heard the ripple washing in the reeds,
+ And the wild water lapping on the crag."
+ To whom replied King Arthur, faint and pale:
+ "Thou hast betray'd thy nature and thy name,
+ Not rendering true answer, as beseem'd
+ Thy fëalty, nor like a noble knight:
+ For surer sign had follow'd, either hand,
+ Or voice, or else a motion of the mere.
+ This is a shameful thing for men to lie.
+ Yet now I charge thee, quickly go again,
+ As thou art lief and dear, and do the thing
+ I bade thee, watch, and lightly bring me word."
+ Then went Sir Bedivere the second time
+ Across the ridge, and paced beside the mere,
+ Counting the dewy pebbles, fix'd in thought;
+ But when he saw the wonder of the hilt,
+ How curiously and strangely chased, he smote
+ His palms together, and he cried aloud:
+ "And if indeed I cast the brand away,
+ Surely a precious thing, one worthy note,
+ Should thus be lost for ever from the earth,
+ Which might have pleased the eyes of many men.
+ What good should follow this, if this were done?
+ What harm, undone? deep harm to disobey,
+ Seeing obedience is the bond of rule.
+ Were it well to obey then, if a king demand
+ An act unprofitable, against himself?
+ The King is sick, and knows not what he does.
+ What record, or what relic of my lord
+ Should be to after time, but empty breath
+ And rumors of a doubt? but were this kept,
+ Stored in some treasure-house of mighty kings,
+ Some one might show it at a joust of arms,
+ Saying, 'King Arthur's sword, Excalibur,
+ Wrought by the lonely maiden of the Lake.
+ Nine years she wrought it, sitting in the deeps
+ Upon the hidden bases of the hills.'
+ So might some old man speak in the after time
+ To all the people, winning reverence.
+ But now much honor and much fame were lost."
+ So spake he, clouded with his own conceit,--
+ And hid Excalibur the second time,
+ And so strode back slow to the wounded King.
+ Then spoke King Arthur, breathing heavily:
+ "What is it thou hast seen? or what hast heard?"
+ And answer made the bold Sir Bedivere:
+ "I heard the water lapping on the crag,
+ And the long ripple washing in the reeds."
+ To whom replied King Arthur, much in wrath:
+ "Ah, miserable and unkind, untrue,
+ Unknightly, traitor-hearted! Woe is me!
+ Authority forgets a dying king,
+ Laid widow'd of the power in his eye
+ That bow'd the will. I see thee what thou art,
+ For thou, the latest-left of all my knights,
+ In whom should meet the offices of all,
+ Thou wouldst betray me for the precious hilt;
+ Either from lust of gold, or like a girl
+ Valuing the giddy pleasure of the eyes.
+ Yet, for a man may fail in duty twice,
+ And the third time may prosper, get thee hence:
+ But, if thou spare to fling Excalibur,
+ I will arise and slay thee with my hands."
+ Then quickly rose Sir Bedivere, and ran,
+ And, leaping down the ridges lightly, plunged
+ Among the bulrush beds, and clutch'd the sword,
+ And strongly wheel'd and threw it. The great brand
+ Made lightnings in the splendor of the moon,
+ And flashing round and round, and whirl'd in an arch,
+ Shot like a streamer of the northern morn,
+ Seen where the moving isles of winter shock
+ By night, with noises of the Northern Sea.
+ So flash'd and fell the brand Excalibur:
+ But ere he dipt the surface, rose an arm
+ Clothed in white samite, mystic, wonderful,
+ And caught him by the hilt, and brandish'd him
+ Three times, and drew him under in the mere.
+ And lightly went the other to the King.
+ Then spoke King Arthur, drawing thicker breath:
+ "Now see I by thine eyes that this is done.
+ Speak out: what is it thou hast heard, or seen?"
+ And answer made the bold Sir Bedivere:
+ "Sir King, I closed mine eyelids, lest the gems
+ Should blind my purpose, for I never saw,
+ Nor shall see, here or elsewhere, till I die,
+ Not tho' I live three lives of mortal men,
+ So great a miracle as yonder hilt.
+ Then with both hands I flung him, wheeling him;
+ But when I look'd again, behold an arm,
+ Clothed in white samite, mystic, wonderful,
+ That caught him by the hilt, and brandish'd him
+ Three times and drew him under in the mere."
+ And answer made King Arthur, breathing hard:
+ "My end draws nigh; 'tis time that I were gone.
+ Make broad thy shoulders to receive my weight,
+ And bear me to the margin; yet I fear
+ My wound hath taken cold, and I shall die."
+ So saying, from the pavement he half rose,
+ Slowly, with pain, reclining on his arm,
+ And looking wistfully with wide blue eyes
+ As in a picture. Him Sir Bedivere
+ Remorsefully regarded thro' his tears,
+ And would have spoken, but he found not words;
+ Then took with care, and kneeling on one knee,
+ O'er both his shoulders drew the languid hands,
+ And rising bore him thro' the place of tombs.
+ But, as he walk'd, King Arthur panted hard,
+ Like one that feels a nightmare on his bed
+ When all the house is mute. So sigh'd the King,
+ Muttering and murmuring at his ear, "Quick, quick!
+ I fear it is too late, and I shall die."
+ But the other swiftly strode from ridge to ridge,
+ Clothed with his breath, and looking as he walk'd,
+ Larger than human on the frozen hills.
+ He heard the deep behind him, and a cry
+ Before. His own thought drove him, like a goad.
+ Dry clash'd his harness in the icy caves
+ And barren chasms, and all to left and right
+ The bare black cliff clang'd round him, as he based
+ His feet on jets of slippery crag that rang
+ Sharp-smitten with the dint of armed heels--
+ And on a sudden, lo! the level lake,
+ And the long glories of the winter moon.
+ Then saw they how there hove a dusky barge,
+ Dark as a funeral scarf from stem to stern,
+ Beneath them; and descending they were ware
+ That all the decks were dense with stately forms
+ Black-stoled, black-hooded, like a dream--by these
+ Three Queens with crowns of gold--and from them rose
+ A cry that shiver'd to the tingling stars,
+ And, as it were one voice, an agony
+ Of lamentation, like a wind, that shrills
+ All night in a waste land, where no one comes,
+ Or hath come, since the making of the world.
+ Then murmur'd Arthur, "Place me in the barge."
+ So to the barge they came. There those three Queens
+ Put forth their hands, and took the King, and wept....
+ Then loudly cried the bold Sir Bedivere:
+ "Ah! my Lord Arthur, whither shall I go?
+ Where shall I hide my forehead and my eyes?
+ For now I see the true old times are dead,
+ When every morning brought a noble chance,
+ And every chance brought out a noble knight....
+ But now the whole Round Table is dissolved
+ Which was an image of the mighty world,
+ And I, the last, go forth companionless,
+ And the days darken round me, and the years,
+ Among new men, strange faces, other minds."
+ And slowly answered Arthur from the barge:
+ "The old order changeth, yielding place to new,
+ And God fulfills himself in many ways,
+ Lest one good custom should corrupt the world.
+ Comfort thyself; what comfort is in me?
+ I have lived my life, and that which I have done
+ May He within himself make pure! but thou,
+ If thou shouldst never see my face again,
+ Pray for my soul. More things are wrought by prayer
+ Than this world dreams of. Wherefore, let thy voice
+ Rise like a fountain for me night and day.
+ For what are men better than sheep or goats
+ That nourish a blind life within the brain,
+ If, knowing God, they lift not hands of prayer
+ Both for themselves and those who call them friends?
+ For so the whole round earth is every way
+ Bound by gold chains about the feet of God.
+ But now farewell. I am going a long way
+ With these thou seëst--if indeed I go
+ (For all my mind is clouded with a doubt)--
+ To the island-valley of Avilion
+ Where falls not hail, or rain, or any snow,
+ Nor ever wind blows loudly; but it lies
+ Deep-meadow'd, happy, fair with orchard lawns
+ And bowery hollows crown'd with summer sea,
+ Where I will heal me of my grievous wound."
+ So said he, and the barge with oar and sail
+ Moved from the brink, like some full-breasted swan
+ That, fluting a wild carol ere her death,
+ Ruffles her pure cold plume, and takes the flood
+ With swarthy webs. Long stood Sir Bedivere
+ Revolving many memories, till the hull
+ Look'd one black dot against the verge of dawn,
+ And on the mere the wailing died away.
+
+ --_From "The Idylls of the King," by Alfred Tennyson._
+
+
+
+
+FOR STUDY AND REFERENCE.
+
+
+PRINCIPLES OF GOOD READING.
+
+To become a good reader, patient and long-continued practice is
+necessary. We learn to read by much reading and never by the study of
+formal rules. Nevertheless, a knowledge of the following general
+principles and definitions may be of some value in assisting the
+learner to acquire correct habits in the practice of oral reading.
+
+PRONUNCIATION.
+
+Under this term are included Articulation, Syllabication, and Accent.
+
+Correct articulation requires that each letter, syllable, and word
+should be clearly and properly pronounced. Incorrect articulation is
+the result either of careless habits or of natural defects. In either
+case, it may be largely overcome by persistent and careful drill in
+the pronunciation of those words in which the greatest difficulty is
+experienced. Conversation, declamation, calisthenics, singing, and
+similar exercises should be engaged in, in order to assist in
+overcoming habits of timidity or diffidence, and to give increased
+power and flexibility to the vocal organs.
+
+Syllabication and accent are learned by careful observation and by
+reference, in all cases of doubt, to some standard dictionary.
+
+EXPRESSION.
+
+Correct expression in reading has reference to tone of voice,
+inflection, pitch, emphasis, all of which are included under
+modulation.
+
+TONE.
+
+Tone, or quality of voice, is the kind of sound employed in reading or
+speaking. A conversational tone is such as is used in ordinary
+conversation for the expression of quiet or unemotional thoughts. A
+full tone of voice is used in the expression of high or lofty
+sentiments, and of feelings of joy, courage, or exultation. A middle
+tone is used in the rendering of expressions which while not
+conversational in character are too unimpassioned to require a full
+tone. A low or subdued tone is used in passages where the sense
+requires a suppression of sound. The only rule necessary is this:
+_Study so to regulate the tone of voice that it shall always be in
+harmony with the thoughts expressed._
+
+INFLECTION.
+
+Inflection is the upward or downward movement of the voice in speaking
+or reading. There are two inflections: the _rising inflection_, in
+which the voice slides upward; and the _falling inflection_, in which
+the voice slides downward. Sometimes there is a union of the two
+inflections upon a single sound or syllable, in order to express
+surprise, scorn, irony, sorrow, or other strong or peculiar emotion.
+This union of inflections is called _circumflex_. No rule for
+inflections can be given which is not subject to numerous exceptions.
+The movement of the voice, whether upward or downward, is in all cases
+determined by the thought in the sentence. _That inflection should be
+used which will assist to convey, in the most natural and forcible
+manner, the meaning intended by the author._
+
+PITCH.
+
+Very closely related to tone and inflection is pitch, by which is meant
+the degree of elevation of the voice. Pitch may be _middle_, _high_, or
+_low_. Middle pitch is that which is used in common conversation and in
+the expression of unemotional thoughts. Light and joyous emotions and
+lively narration require a high pitch. Passages expressing sadness, deep
+joy, dignified serenity of mind, and kindred emotions, require a low
+pitch. Hence, the only rule to be observed is this: _Let the pitch be
+always in harmony with the sentiments to be expressed._
+
+EMPHASIS.
+
+Emphasis is any change of pitch, or variation of the voice, which
+serves to call special attention to an important word, syllable, or
+expression. The only rule that can be given for securing correctness
+of emphasis is: _Be natural._ Children, in ordinary conversation,
+never make mistakes in emphasis. If they are made to understand what
+they are reading, have not been permitted to imitate incorrect models,
+and are not hampered by unnecessary rules, they will read as well as
+they talk. Let reading be but conversation from the book, and not only
+emphasis, but pitch and inflection will require but little separate
+attention, and no special rules.
+
+PAUSES.
+
+Pauses in reading are necessary to make the meaning clear or to assist
+in the proper modulation of the voice and therefore in the correct
+rendering of the sentiments of the author. The former are called
+grammatical pauses, and are indicated by the marks of punctuation; the
+latter are called rhetorical pauses, and depend for their correct
+usage upon the reader's understanding of the thoughts which he is
+endeavoring to render. In reading poetry, a slight pause is generally
+proper at the end of each line, and sometimes also at the middle of
+each line. The latter is called the _cæsural_ pause. The object of
+poetic pauses is simply to promote the melody.
+
+
+AUTHORS AND BOOKS.
+
+=Abbott, Charles Conrad=, the author of the essay on "The Robin" (page
+197), is an American writer and naturalist. He was born at Trenton, N.
+J., in 1843. He is an ardent lover of nature, and has written several
+delightful books on subjects relating to popular science and outdoor
+life. Among these are "Birdland Echoes," from which the above-named
+essay is taken; "A Naturalist's Wanderings about Home," and "Waste
+Land Wanderings."
+
+=Aytoun= (ā´toon), =William Edmonstoune=, the author of the selection
+entitled "The Pass of Killiecrankie" (page 138), was a Scottish lawyer
+and poet. Born in Edinburgh, 1813; died, 1865. He was for many years one
+of the editors of "Blackwood's Magazine." He wrote "Lays of the Scottish
+Cavaliers," "Ballads of Scotland," and other poems.
+
+=Blackmore, Richard D.=, the author of "Lorna Doone," is an English
+lawyer and novelist. Born in Berkshire, 1825. Besides "Lorna Doone,"
+he has written "Alice Lorraine," "Springhaven," "The Maid of Sker,"
+and several other stories.
+
+=Browning, Mrs. Elizabeth Barrett=, the author of "The Romance of the
+Swan's Nest" (page 98), was an English poet. Born in Durham, England,
+1806. In 1846 she married Robert Browning, and during the rest of her
+life resided chiefly at Florence, Italy, where she died in 1861. She
+wrote "Prometheus Bound" (1833), "Aurora Leigh" (1857), and many
+shorter poems.
+
+=Bryant, William Cullen=, the author of "The Death of the Flowers"
+(page 18), was one of the most popular of American poets. Born at
+Cummington, Mass., 1794; died at New York, 1878. Besides his poems, he
+wrote translations of Homer's "Iliad" and "Odyssey," and was for more
+than half a century one of the editors of "The Evening Post" (New York).
+
+=Buckley, Arabella Burton=, is an English author and naturalist. Born
+at Brighton, England, 1840. She has written several books on
+scientific subjects for young readers: "The Fairy Land of Science,"
+from which our selection is taken (page 29), "Winners in Life's Race,"
+and "Life and her Children."
+
+=Campbell, Thomas=: A British poet and critic. Born at Glasgow,
+Scotland, 1777; died, 1844. He wrote "The Pleasures of Hope,"
+"Hohenlinden," "Lochiel's Warning," and many other well-known poems.
+
+"=Cloister and the Hearth, The=": An historical romance, by Charles
+Reade, first published in 1861. The scenes are laid mostly in Holland
+and Italy, and the time is the middle of the fifteenth century. See
+page 153.
+
+=Collier, W. F.=, author of the sketch on "Life in Norman England" (page
+89), is an English historian. He has written "The History of the British
+Empire," "A History of England," and several other similar works.
+
+=Cowper, William=: A celebrated English poet. Born, 1731; died, 1800.
+His principal work was "The Task," from which our brief selection
+(page 196) has been taken. He wrote also "John Gilpin," "Tirocinium,"
+and several other poems.
+
+"=David Copperfield, The Personal History of=": A novel, by Charles
+Dickens, first published in 1849. "Of all my books," says Dickens, "I
+like this the best." Many scenes in the novelist's own life are
+depicted in this story. The character from whom the book took its name
+is a timid boy reduced to desperation by the cruelty of his
+stepfather, Mr. Murdstone. At ten years of age he is sent to a
+warehouse in London, where he was employed in rough work at a small
+salary. He finally runs away, and is protected and adopted by an
+eccentric maiden lady, Miss Betsey Trotwood. He becomes a writer, and
+marries a gentle, innocent little lady, whom he calls his "child
+wife"; she dies, and he afterwards marries a woman of stronger mind,
+named Agnes Wickfield. The selection which we give (page 121) is a
+fair example of the style which characterizes the story.
+
+=Dickens, Charles=: The most popular of English novelists. Born, 1812;
+died, 1870. Wrote "The Pickwick Papers," "Nicholas Nickleby," "Oliver
+Twist," "David Copperfield," from which our story of "The Shipwreck"
+(page 121) has been taken, and numerous other works of fiction.
+
+=Drake, Joseph Rodman=, author of "The American Flag" (page 206), was
+an American poet. Born at New York, 1795; died, 1820. His principal
+work was "The Culprit Fay," written in 1816.
+
+=Everett, Edward=: An American statesman and orator. Born at Boston,
+Mass., 1794; died, 1865. He was editor of the "North American Review,"
+member of Congress, Governor of Massachusetts, President of Harvard
+College, Secretary of State in the cabinet of Millard Fillmore, and
+United States Senator from Massachusetts. His orations and speeches
+fill four volumes.
+
+=Froude, James Anthony=: A noted English historian. Born, 1818; died,
+1894. His chief work was a "History of England from the Fall of Wolsey
+to the Defeat of the Spanish Armada." He also wrote four volumes of
+"Short Studies on Great Subjects," "Cæsar, a Sketch," "Life of Lord
+Beaconsfield," "Life of Carlyle," etc.
+
+=Hemans, Mrs. Felicia=: An English poet. Born at Liverpool, 1793; died,
+1835. She wrote numerous short poems, which were at one time very
+popular. She is best remembered in this country as the author of "The
+Landing of the Pilgrims" (page 195), "Casabianca," and similar pieces.
+
+=Hogg, James=: A Scottish poet, often called from his occupation the
+Ettrick Shepherd. Born, 1770; died, 1835. Among his poems are "The
+Queen's Wake" (1813), "The Pilgrims of the Sun" (1815), and many short
+pieces.
+
+=Howells, William Dean=: An American novelist and poet. Born at
+Martinsville, Ohio, 1837. He was for ten years editor of the "Atlantic
+Monthly." He has written numerous novels, several short comedies or
+farces, and a volume of poetry. Our selection is from one of his
+latest works, "Stories of Ohio," a series of sketches relating to the
+settlement and early history of that commonwealth.
+
+=Hunt, James Henry Leigh=, author of the poem entitled "The Glove and
+the Lions" (page 119), was an English essayist and poet. Born, 1784;
+died, 1859. His chief poem is "The Story of Rimini"; his principal
+prose works are "Life of Lord Byron" (1828), and "Autobiography" (1850).
+
+"=Idylls of the King=": The first part of this noble poem by Lord
+Tennyson appeared in 1859, and the remaining parts were issued at
+various intervals until its completion. It comprises twelve books, or
+poems, which should be read in the following order: "The Coming of
+Arthur," "Gareth and Lynette," "The Marriage of Geraint," "Geraint and
+Enid," "Balin and Balan," "Merlin and Vivien," "Lancelot and Elaine,"
+"The Holy Grail," "Pelleas and Etarre," "The Last Tournament,"
+"Guinevere," "The Passing of Arthur." Taken together in this order,
+these various poems present a complete and connected history of King
+Arthur and his knights. See page 216.
+
+=Ingelow= (in´je lō), =Jean=: An English poet and novelist. Born at
+Boston, Lincolnshire, 1830; died, 1897. Wrote "Off the Skelligs,"
+"Fated to be Free," "A Motto Changed," several children's books, and
+numerous poems.
+
+=Irving, Washington=: An eminent American writer. Born, 1783; died,
+1859. His principal works are "Columbus and his Companions" (from
+which the extract beginning on page 25 is taken), "The Sketch Book,"
+"Tales of a Traveler" (1824), "The Conquest of Granada" (1829), "The
+Alhambra" (1832), "Oliver Goldsmith" (1849), "Mahomet and His
+Successors" (1850), "Life of George Washington" (1859).
+
+"=Job, The Book of=": One of the books of the Old Testament, the
+authorship of which is unknown, but has been ascribed to various
+persons and periods of time. It is doubtless one of the oldest
+literary productions in our possession, and may be described as a
+poetic drama, having a didactic purpose. The hero of the book is Job,
+a man of great wealth and prosperity, who has been suddenly overtaken
+by misfortune. The great literary merit of the work is recognized by
+all scholars.
+
+=Johnson, Dr. Samuel=: An eminent English essayist, poet, and
+lexicographer. Born, 1709; died, 1784. For his biography, see
+Macaulay's essay on his life and works in "School Reading by
+Grades--Seventh Year."
+
+=Jonson, Ben=: A celebrated English poet and dramatist. Born, 1573;
+died, 1637. Among his plays are "Every Man in his Humour" (1598),
+"Cynthia's Revels" (1600), "The Alchemist" (1610), etc.
+
+=Kingsley, Charles=: An eminent English author and clergyman. See
+Biographical Notes in "School Reading by Grades--Fifth Year."
+
+"=Lays of Ancient Rome=": A volume of poems written by Lord Macaulay
+and first published in 1842. It includes "Horatius" (see page 32),
+"The Battle of Lake Regillus," "Virginia," and "The Prophecy of Capys."
+
+=Lewes= (lū´es), =George Henry=: An English philosophical and
+miscellaneous writer. Born at London, 1817; died, 1878. He wrote
+"Seaside Studies" (1858), "Studies in Animal Life" (1862), "Problems
+of Life and Mind" (1874), and many other works on scientific and
+philosophical subjects.
+
+=Lincoln, Abraham=: The sixteenth President of the United States. Born
+in Kentucky, 1809; died at Washington, D. C., 1865. The "Address at
+Gettysburg" (page 205) is generally conceded to be one of the noblest
+examples of oratory produced in modern times.
+
+"=Lorna Doone=: a Romance of Exmoor." First published in 1869. See
+page 64.
+
+"=Mexico, History of the Conquest of=," by William H. Prescott (see
+page 104), was first published in 1843. Other works relating to the
+same event are "The Spanish Conquest in America," by Sir Arthur Helps,
+"The Fair God" (a romance) by General Lew Wallace.
+
+=Prescott, William Hickling=: An eminent American historian. Born at
+Salem, Mass., 1796; died, 1859. His principal works are "History of
+the Reign of Ferdinand and Isabella" (1838), "Conquest of Mexico" (see
+note above), "Conquest of Peru" (1847), "History of Philip II" (1858).
+
+=Reade, Charles=: A noted English barrister and novelist. Born in
+Oxfordshire, 1814; died, 1884. His novels are very numerous, but the
+best is "The Cloister and the Hearth," from which our selection is
+taken (page 153). Several of his writings are noted for their strong
+opposition to social evils.
+
+=Scott, Sir Walter.= See Biographical Notes in "School Reading by
+Grades--Fifth Year."
+
+=Stanley, Arthur Penrhyn=: An English divine and historian. Born,
+1815; died, 1881. He traveled in Egypt and Palestine in 1852-53; wrote
+"Sinai and Palestine" (1856), "Memorials of Canterbury" (1855),
+"History of the Jewish Church" (1865), etc.
+
+=Stockton, Frank Richard=: A noted American author and humorist. Born
+at Philadelphia, 1834. He has written "Rudder Grange," "The Clocks of
+Rondaine," "Pomona's Travels," "Stories of New Jersey," and many
+other works, including several books for children.
+
+"=Tales of a Grandfather=": A collection of historical stories, by Sir
+Walter Scott, first published in four series, 1827-30. See page 66.
+
+=Tennyson, Alfred.= See Biographical Notes in "School Reading by
+Grades--Fifth Year."
+
+=Tyndall, John=: An eminent British scientist. Born in Ireland, 1820;
+died in England, 1893. Among his works are "The Forms of Water in
+Clouds and Rivers" (1873) from which our extract is selected (page
+202), "Hours of Exercise in the Alps" (1871), "Fragments of Science"
+(1892), and many other works of a similar character.
+
+"=Westward Ho! or the Voyages and Adventures of Sir Amyas Leigh=": A
+novel by Charles Kingsley, first published in 1855. See page 165.
+
+=Winthrop, Robert Charles=: An American statesman and orator. Born at
+Boston, 1809; died, 1894. His most famous addresses were delivered at
+the laying of the corner-stone of the Washington Monument, 1848, and
+at the completion of the same monument, 1885.
+
+=White, Gilbert=: An English clergyman and naturalist, famous as the
+author of "Natural History and Antiquities of Selborne" (1789). He was
+born at Selborne, 1720; died there, 1793.
+
+=Yonge= (yung), =Charlotte Mary=: An English writer and novelist. Born
+at Otterbourne, 1823. She has written more than a hundred volumes,
+including, "The Heir of Redclyffe," "Daisy Chain," "Landmarks of
+History," and "A Book of Golden Deeds," from which the selection
+beginning on page 208 is taken.
+
+
+EXPLANATORY NOTES.
+
+=Page 20.= "Straits of Sunda." The passage between the islands of Java
+and Sumatra, leading from the Indian Ocean to the Sea of Java. See a
+good map of this part of the world.
+
+=25.= "The Return of Columbus." Returning from his first voyage (see
+"School Reading by Grades--Fourth Year," page 43), Columbus reached
+Palos, March 15, 1493. The selection here given from Irving describes
+his triumphal reception a few weeks later at the court of Ferdinand
+and Isabella at Barcelona.
+
+"Hidalgos." Spanish noblemen of the lower class.
+
+=27.= "Las Casas." A Spanish historian, born, 1474; died, 1566. He
+went to America in 1502, and in 1542 was Bishop of Chiapas in Mexico.
+We are indebted to him for some of the earliest trustworthy accounts
+of the Spanish discoveries. He was the friend and defender of the
+Indians against their European conquerors.
+
+=28.= "_Te Deum laudamus._" "We praise thee, O God."
+
+=32.= Tarquin the Proud, or Tarquinius Superbus, reigned, according to
+the traditional account, from 534 to 509 B.C. The modern name of
+Clusium is Chiusi (Kē [=oo]´sē). It is situated in the province
+of Siena in Italy, and is famous for its ruins of Etruscan origin.
+
+=33.= "Consul." After the expulsion of the kings from Rome the
+governing power was vested in two consuls, who were elected annually.
+At the time of the story, one of the consuls had been slain in battle
+with Porsena. Our selection begins with the twenty-sixth stanza of
+Macaulay's poem.
+
+"Ramnian," belonging to the Ramnes, the first of the three tribes
+which originally composed the Roman nation. Herminius was a member of
+the second tribe, or Tities. The third tribe were the Luceres.
+
+=35.= For the places mentioned on this and the following pages, see
+some good classical atlas.
+
+=36.= "She-wolf's litter." A reference to the legend that Romulus and
+Remus, the founders of Rome, were, when babes, protected and reared by
+a she-wolf.
+
+=42.= "Fathers." The Roman senators.
+
+=44.= Sir Francis Drake was an English seaman, born about 1540; died,
+1596. He was famous for his operations on the sea against the
+Spaniards of America, and especially for being the first Englishman to
+circumnavigate the globe.
+
+=66.= Bannockburn is the name of a small village three miles south of
+Stirling, in Scotland. Robert Bruce, one of the national heroes of
+Scotland, was born, 1274; died, 1329. His right to the throne of
+Scotland was disputed by Edward I. of England, who claimed the
+suzerainty of that country for himself. The war which resulted from
+this dispute was continued by Edward II. until he met with the signal
+defeat here narrated. Bruce's right to the Scottish throne was
+formally acknowledged by England in 1328.
+
+=89.= "Great stone castles." For a description of the different parts
+of a Norman castle mentioned in this selection, see the word "Castle"
+in Webster's International Dictionary.
+
+=93.= "Conquest." The Norman conquest under Duke William, 1066. See
+"School Reading by Grades--Fourth Year," page 181.
+
+"Author of 'Ivanhoe.'" Sir Walter Scott. See "Ivanhoe," Chapter VIII.
+
+"Quintain." An upright post, on the top of which turned a cross-piece,
+having on one end a broad board and on the other a sandbag. The
+endeavor was to strike the board with the lance while riding under it
+and get away without being hit by the sandbag.
+
+=96.= "Scriptorium." A room in a monastery where the monks wrote or
+copied manuscripts. See "School Reading by Grades--Fifth Year," page
+170.
+
+=100.= "Nathless." Nevertheless.
+
+=104.= Cortés. Hernando Cortés was born in Spain in 1485. In 1504, at
+the age of nineteen, he sailed for Santo Domingo, where he was
+received with great favor, and where for several years he held
+important offices in connection with the government of the new colony.
+In 1518 he organized the expedition for the conquest of Mexico. The
+city was finally captured, after a gallant defense of 77 days, August
+13, 1521. Utterly neglected and forsaken in his old age, Cortés died
+at Seville, in Spain, December 2, 1547.
+
+=106.= "Palanquin" (păl an kēn´). An inclosed litter, borne on
+men's shoulders, for conveying a single person.
+
+=106.= "Cacique" (k[.a] sēk´). A chieftain, or nobleman, among the
+Aztecs or Indians.
+
+=107.= "Panache" (păn [.a]sh´). A plume or bunch of feathers. A
+military plume.
+
+=109.= "Tenochtitlan" (ten ōch tēt län´). The Aztec name for
+their chief city, the site of which is now occupied by the city of
+Mexico. It was founded about two hundred years before the Spanish
+conquest, and was built on an island in Tezcuco Lake. The name Mexitl,
+or Mexico, was also applied to the city, or to a portion of it.
+
+=110.= "Bernal Diaz" (dē´äth). A Spanish soldier in the army of
+Cortés, who afterwards wrote a history of the conquest.
+
+=111.= "Montezuma." Cortés repaid this chieftain for his kindness by
+seizing him in his own house and carrying him to the Spanish quarters,
+where he kept him as a prisoner. The Aztecs attacked the quarters, and
+Montezuma, by the direction of Cortés, appeared on the wall to counsel
+peace. This so exasperated them that they pelted him with stones, and
+wounded him so that he died four days later.
+
+=118.= "The Lions." Rosa Bonheur, from whose painting this picture has
+been reproduced, is one of the most famous painters of the nineteenth
+century, especially of animal life and of landscapes. She was born at
+Bordeaux, France, in 1828. For nearly fifty years she has been
+directress of the Free School of Design for Young Girls in Paris. Many
+of her paintings have received high praise, but the one by which she
+is best known in this country is "The Horse Fair," in the Metropolitan
+Museum of Art, New York.
+
+=138.= "Sir William Wallace." One of the national heroes of Scotland.
+His deeds are commemorated in a once very popular romance by Jane
+Porter entitled "The Scottish Chiefs" (1810).
+
+=139.= "Schehallion." A mountain 35 miles northwest of Perth.
+Altitude, 3547 feet.
+
+=140.= "Royal Martyr." King Charles I. of England, beheaded by
+Parliament, 1649.
+
+"King James." James II., at that time a fugitive from his throne.
+
+"Covenanting traitors." Adherents of the "Solemn League and Covenant"
+adopted by the Scottish Parliament in 1638, and by the English
+Parliament in 1643, for the preservation of the reformed religion in
+Scotland and the suppression of papacy and prelacy.
+
+=153.= "Burgundy." The limits and character of the region known by
+this name have varied greatly at different periods of history. The
+Burgundy here mentioned was the great duchy of that name, the capital
+of which was Dijon. The Duke of Burgundy at the time of this story was
+the famous Charles the Bold, who was its ruler from 1467 to 1477.
+After his death it passed into the control of the king of France.
+
+"Flanders." This country, which now forms the southeastern part of the
+province of Zealand, Netherlands, was united to Burgundy in 1369.
+Upon the death of Charles the Bold it passed to Austria; but since
+that time it has been successively acquired by various other
+neighboring states.
+
+=154.= "Palisades." Strong long stakes one end of which is set in the
+ground and the other sharpened.
+
+"Sappers." Builders of fortifications.
+
+=155.= "Quarrels." Square-headed arrows for crossbows.
+
+"Mantelets." Large shields of rope, wood, or metal.
+
+"Mangonels." Engines for throwing stones or javelins.
+
+=156.= "Barbican." See "Castle" in Webster's International Dictionary.
+A tower for defending the entrance to a castle.
+
+"Arbalester." A crossbowman.
+
+"Half ell shaft." A shaft or arrow half an ell in length.
+
+=158.= "Fascines" (făs´sēnz). Bundles of sticks bound together
+and used for filling ditches or raising batteries.
+
+=160.= "Sir Turk." The Turkish catapult just described.
+
+=163.= "Solway." Solway Firth, an arm of the Irish Sea, extending into
+Scotland: remarkable for the rapidity of its tides.
+
+=164.= "Graeme" (grām). See page 138.
+
+=165.= "Manoa" (mä nō´ä). The city ruled by the gilded king, El
+Dorado. It was said to be built on an island in a lake called Parima,
+somewhere in the northern part of South America. Beginning about 1530,
+great numbers of expeditions were made by the Spaniards in search of
+this fabled city, all of which ended in disappointment and disaster.
+
+=175.= "Naught of strange." Nothing out of the usual order.
+
+=176.= "Lindis." A small stream in Lincolnshire.
+
+"Melick" (mĕl´ĭk). Melic grass, a kind of grass eaten by cattle.
+
+=177.= "Warping down." Turning aside out of a straight course; moving
+in zigzag lines.
+
+"Scope." A sea wall, or steep shore.
+
+=178.= "Bairns." Little children.
+
+=179.= "Eygre" (ē´gẽr). The flood tide moving with great force
+and swiftness up the river.
+
+=181.= Henry II. of England was born in 1133; died, 1189. He was the
+first of the Plantagenet line of kings.
+
+=182.= Thomas Becket, born in London, 1118, was the son of a rich
+merchant, and became a member of the household of Theobald, archbishop
+of Canterbury, about 1142. Through the influence of Theobald his
+interests with the king were advanced, and he became chancellor during
+the first year of Henry's reign. He was murdered in 1170.
+
+=190.= In 1172 Becket was canonized under the title of St. Thomas of
+Canterbury, and in 1220 his bones were removed to Trinity Chapel,
+where they became the object of great veneration. For several
+centuries pilgrimages were made to his shrine from all parts of
+England. Chaucer's "Canterbury Tales" were related by a party of
+pilgrims who were making this journey, presumably near the close of
+the fourteenth century. By order of King Henry VIII. the shrine was
+finally destroyed, and the bones of Becket were scattered and burned.
+
+=200.= "Genera." Plural of _genus_--a name applied to a class of
+objects subdivided into species.
+
+"Hen harriers." Hawks which fly low and harass fowls or small animals.
+
+=201.= "Gallinæ" (găl lī´ne). The order of birds which includes
+domestic fowls, pheasants, quails, grouse, etc.
+
+=205.= The National Cemetery at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, was
+dedicated by President Lincoln, November 19, 1863. It was here that
+the great battle of Gettysburg was fought, July 1, 2, and 3 of the
+same year. The cemetery contains the graves of 3580 soldiers, with a
+central monument, built at a cost of $50,000, and a large number of
+regimental monuments on the various historic points of the battlefield.
+
+=208.= "Vespasian and his son Titus." Vespasian was emperor of Rome
+A.D. 70-79. He was succeeded by his son Titus, who died two years
+later. Jerusalem was taken and destroyed by Titus, acting as his
+father's general, in the year 70. Both these emperors expended large
+sums on public works. The Coliseum, although begun by Vespasian in 72,
+was not finished during his reign. Despite the enormous mass of the
+present ruins, it is estimated that they comprise only about one third
+of the original materials; the remainder have been carried away,
+destroyed, or used in the construction of other buildings.
+
+=209.= "Orpheus." The sweet musician of Thrace whose music charmed
+birds and beasts, and caused even rocks and trees to move from their
+places to listen to the divine melody.
+
+=212.= "The Last Prayer." Jean Leon Gérôme, the painter of this
+picture, is a celebrated French artist, born at Vesoul in 1824. He
+studied in Italy, and to perfect himself in his art, traveled for some
+years in Egypt, Turkey, and other eastern countries. As might have
+been expected, the subjects of many of his paintings are oriental. In
+1863, he became professor of painting at the Academy of Fine Arts. His
+works are very numerous and meritorious.
+
+=213.= The stanza of poetry quoted on this page is from Lord Byron's
+"Childe Harold's Pilgrimage."
+
+"Honorius." Honorius was born at Constantinople, A.D. 384, and became
+emperor of the western empire in 395 at the age of eleven years. He
+married the daughter of his guardian, Stilicho, in 398. It was during
+his reign (in 410) that Rome was taken and sacked by Alaric the Goth.
+He died in 423.
+
+=216.= "Lyonesse" (lī o nĕs´). A mythical region, said to have
+extended from Land's End, in Cornwall, to the Scilly Islands. A
+tradition still exists of the submersion and destruction of this
+country, probably in the tenth century. King Arthur was said to have
+been a native of Lyonesse.
+
+=217.= "Camelot." A legendary town in England where Arthur had his
+palace and court. It is supposed by some to have been near Winchester;
+others locate it in Wales.
+
+"Merlin." A half-legendary bard and wizard, who is supposed to have
+lived in the early part of the sixth century. He was the companion and
+counselor of Arthur, and instituted the Round Table at Carduel. The
+famous prose romance, called the "Romance of Merlin," was written in
+French by Hélie de Borron about the year 1200. It was translated into
+English about the middle of the fifteenth century.
+
+"Excalibur." The sword which Arthur had received from the Lady of the
+Lake. It had many miraculous qualities, and the wearer of its scabbard
+could lose no blood.
+
+=223.= "Daïs throne." A throne raised upon an elevated platform or daïs.
+
+=224.= "Avilion." In Celtic mythology, the Land of the Blessed--an
+earthly paradise in the western seas. All the great heroes of mediæval
+times, as Arthur and Ogier the Dane, were carried there, where they
+lived in perfect happiness at the court of Morgan le Fay, the queen of
+the fairies.
+
+
+
+
+Transcriber's Note
+
+
+ * Line numbers removed from short stories.
+
+ * Obvious punctuation and spelling errors repaired.
+
+ * Footnote moved to the end of short story.
+
+ * In Table of Contents "Portraits of Authors" page number corrected
+ for Arthur Penrhyn Stanley from "190" to "191".
+
+ * Chiusi (Kē [=oo]´sē) contains [=oo] representing a "long oo" sound
+ not represented in any charts.
+
+ * Text enclosed between equal signs was in bold face in the original
+ (=bold=).
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's School Reading by Grades, by James Baldwin
+
+*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SCHOOL READING BY GRADES ***
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