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Title: The Ontario Readers - Third Book
Author: Ontario. Ministry of Education
Language: English
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[Illustration: One Flag
One Fleet
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THE ONTARIO READERS
THIRD BOOK
AUTHORIZED BY
THE MINISTER OF EDUCATION
The price of this book to the purchaser is not the total cost.
During the present period of abnormal and fluctuating
trade conditions, an additional sum, which may vary
from time to time, is paid to the Publisher
by the Department of Education.
Entered, according to Act of the Parliament of Canada, in the year 1909,
in the office of the Minister of Agriculture by the
Minister of Education for Ontario.
TORONTO:
THE T. EATON Co LIMITED
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
THE MINISTER OF EDUCATION is indebted to Rudyard Kipling, Henry
Newbolt, Beckles Willson, E. B. Osborn, F. T. Bullen, Flora Annie Steel;
Charles G. D. Roberts, W. Wilfred Campbell, Ethelwyn Wetherald, Jean
Blewett, Robert Reid, "Ralph Connor," John Waugh, S. T. Wood; Henry Van
Dyke, Elizabeth Stuart Phelps Ward, and Richard Watson Gilder for
special permission to reproduce, in this Reader, selections from their
writings.
He is indebted to Lord Tennyson for special permission to reproduce the
poems from the works of Alfred, Lord Tennyson; to Lloyd Osbourne for
permission to reproduce the selection from the works of Robert Louis
Stevenson; and to J. F. Edgar for permission to reproduce one of Sir
James D. Edgar's poems.
He is also indebted to Macmillan & Co., Limited, for special permission,
to reproduce selections from the works of Alfred, Lord Tennyson, Rudyard
Kipling, and Flora Annie Steel; to Smith, Elder & Co., for the extract
from F. T. Bullen's "The Cruise of the Cachalot"; to Elkin Mathews for
Henry Newbolt's poem from "The Island Race"; to Sampson Low, Marston &
Company for the extract from R. D. Blackmore's "Lorna Doone"; to Thomas
Nelson & Sons for the extract from W. F. Collier's "History of the
British Empire"; to Chatto and Windus for the extract from E. B. Osborn's
"Greater Canada"; to Houghton Mifflin Company for "The Chase" from
Charles Dudley Warner's "A-Hunting of the Deer," "Mary Elizabeth" by
Mrs. Phelps Ward, and the poems by Celia Thaxter and by Richard Watson
Gilder; to The Century Company for Jacob A. Riis' "The Story of a Fire"
from "_The Century Magazine_"; to The Copp Clark Co., Limited, for the
selections from Charles G. D. Roberts' works; to The Westminster Co.,
Limited, for the extract from "Ralph Connor's" "The Man from Glengarry."
The Minister is grateful to these authors and publishers and to others,
not mentioned here, through whose courtesy he has been able to include
in this Reader so many copyright selections.
Toronto, May, 1909.
CONTENTS
PAGE
_To-day_
_Thomas Carlyle_
1
Fortune and the Beggar
_Ivan Kirloff_
2
_The Lark and the Rook_
_Unknown_
4
The Pickwick Club on the Ice
_Charles Dickens_
6
_Tubal Cain_
_Charles Mackay_
11
Professor Frog's Lecture
_M. A. L. Lane_
14
_A Song for April_
_Charles G. D. Roberts_
25
How the Crickets Brought Good Fortune
_P. J. Stahl_
26
_The Battle of Blenheim_
_Robert Southey_
31
The Ride for Life
_"Ralph Connor"_
34
_Iagoo, the Boaster_
_Henry W. Longfellow_
39
The Story of a Fire
_Jacob A. Riis_
40
_The Quest_
_Eudora S. Bumstead_
43
The Jackal and the Partridge
_Flora Annie Steel_
44
_Hide and Seek_
_Henry Van Dyke_
50
The Burning of the "Goliath"
_Dean Stanley_
52
_Hearts of Oak_
_David Garrick_
55
_A Wet Sheet and a Flowing Sea_
_Allan Cunningham_
56
The Talents
_Bible_
57
_A Farewell_
_Charles Kingsley_
59
_An Apple Orchard in the Spring_
_William Martin_
60
The Bluejay
_"Mark Twain"_
61
_A Canadian Camping Song_
_Sir James David Edgar_
65
The Argonauts
_John Waugh_
66
_The Minstrel-Boy_
_Thomas Moore_
71
Mary Elizabeth
_Elizabeth Stuart Phelps Ward_
72
_The Frost_
_Hannah Flagg Gould_
83
_Corn-fields_
_Mary Howitt_
84
South-West Wind, Esq.
_John Ruskin_
86
_The Meeting of the Waters_
_Thomas Moore_
97
Love
_Bible_
98
_The Robin's Song_
_Unknown_
99
Work or Play
_"Mark Twain"_
100
_Burial of Sir John Moore_
_Charles Wolfe_
106
The Whistle
_Benjamin Franklin_
108
_A Canadian Boat Song_
_Thomas Moore_
109
The Little Hero of Haarlem
_Sharpe's London Magazine_
110
_Father William_
_"Lewis Carroll"_
115
David and Goliath
_Bible_
117
_Charge of the Light Brigade_
_Alfred, Lord Tennyson_
123
Maggie Tulliver
_George Eliot_
125
_The Corn Song_
_John G. Whittier_
134
Sports in Norman England
_William Fitzstephen_
136
_A Song of Canada_
_Robert Reid_
140
A Mad Tea Party
_"Lewis Carroll"_
142
_The Slave's Dream_
_Henry W. Longfellow_
149
The Chase
_Charles Dudley Warner_
152
_The Inchcape Rock_
_Robert Southey_
158
A Rough Ride
_Richard D. Blackmore_
161
_The Arab and His Steed_
_The Honourable Mrs. Norton_
169
_The Poet's Song_
_Alfred, Lord Tennyson_
173
Adventure with a Whale
_Frank T. Bullen_
174
_The Maple_
_H. F. Darnell_
179
Damon and Pythias
_Charlotte M. Yonge_
181
_The Wreck of the Orpheus_
_C. A. L._
184
_The Tide River_
_Charles Kingsley_
185
Wisdom the Supreme Prize
_Bible_
187
_The Orchard_
_Jean Blewett_
188
Inspired by the Snow
_Samuel T. Wood_
189
_The Squirrel_
_William Cowper_
192
_Soldier, Rest_
_Sir Walter Scott_
192
Fishing
_Thomas Hughes_
193
_The Fountain_
_James Russell Lowell_
199
_Break, Break, Break_
_Alfred, Lord Tennyson_
201
The Bed of Procrustes
_Charles Kingsley_
202
_"Bob White"_
_George Cooper_
208
Radisson and the Indians
_Beckles Willson_
209
_The Brook_
_Alfred, Lord Tennyson_
212
"Do Seek Their Meat From God"
_Charles G. D. Roberts_
215
_A Song of the Sea_
_"Barry Cornwall"_
222
Little Daffydowndilly
_Nathaniel Hawthorne_
223
_The Sandpiper_
_Celia Thaxter_
234
From "The Sermon on the Mount"
_Bible_
236
_The Legend of Saint Christopher_
_Helen Hunt Jackson_
237
William Tell and His Son
_Chamber's "Tracts"_
241
_A Midsummer Song_
_Richard Watson Gilder_
244
The Relief of Lucknow
_"Letter from an officer's wife"_
246
_The Song in Camp_
_Bayard Taylor_
250
_Afterglow_
_William Wilfred Campbell_
252
King Richard and Saladin
_Sir Walter Scott_
253
_England's Dead_
_Felicia Hemans_
258
_Hohenlinden_
_Thomas Campbell_
260
The Dream of the Oak Tree
_Hans Christian Andersen_
262
A Prayer
_Robert Louis Stevenson_
266
_The Death of the Flowers_
_William Cullen Bryant_
267
_'Tis the Last Rose of Summer_
_Thomas Moore_
269
A Roman's Honour
_Charlotte M. Yonge_
270
_The Fighting Téméraire_
_Henry Newbolt_
273
Don Quixote's Fight with the Windmills
_Miguel de Cervantes_
275
_The Romance of the Swan's Nest_
_Elizabeth Barrett Browning_
281
Moonlight Sonata
_Unknown_
285
_The Red-Winged Blackbird_
_Ethelwyn Wetherald_
290
_To the Cuckoo_
_John Logan_
291
The Story of a Stone
_D. B._
293
_The Snow-Storm_
_John G. Whittier_
298
The Heroine of Verchères
_Francis Parkman_
301
_Jacques Cartier_
_Thomas D'Arcy M'Gee_
307
Ants and Their Slaves
_Jules Michelet_
310
_Lead, Kindly Light_
_John Henry Newman_
315
The Jolly Sandboys
_Charles Dickens_
316
_The Gladness of Nature_
_William Cullen Bryant_
324
Old English Life
_William F. Collier_
325
_Puck's Song_
_Rudyard Kipling_
330
The Battle of Queenston Heights
_Unknown_
332
_The Bugle Song_
_Alfred, Lord Tennyson_
337
Charity
_Bible_
338
_A Christmas Carol_
_James Russell Lowell_
339
The Barren Lands
_E. B. Osborn_
341
_A Spring Morning_
_William Wordsworth_
345
_Crossing the Bar_
_Alfred, Lord Tennyson_
346
EMPIRE DAY
I want you to remember what Empire Day means. Empire Day is the festival
on which every British subject should reverently remember that the
British Empire stands out before the whole world as the fearless
champion of freedom, fair play and equal rights; that its watchwords are
responsibility, duty, sympathy and self-sacrifice, and that a special
responsibility rests with you individually to be true to the traditions
and to the mission of your race.
I also want you to remember that one day Canada will become, if her
people are faithful to their high British traditions, the most powerful
of all the self-governing nations, not excluding the people of the
United Kingdom, which make up the British Empire, and that it rests with
each one of you individually to do your utmost by your own conduct and
example to make Canada not only the most powerful, but the noblest of
all the self-governing nations that are proud to owe allegiance to the
King.
Earl Grey.
Governor-General of Canada
THIRD READER
TO-DAY
So here hath been dawning
Another blue day;
Think, wilt thou let it
Slip useless away?
Out of Eternity
This new day is born;
Into Eternity
At night will return.
Behold it aforetime
No eye ever did;
So soon it forever
From all eyes is hid.
Here hath been dawning
Another blue day;
Think, wilt thou let it
Slip useless away?
CARLYLE
FORTUNE AND THE BEGGAR
One day a ragged beggar was creeping along from house to house. He
carried an old wallet in his hand, and was asking at every door for a
few cents to buy something to eat. As he was grumbling at his lot, he
kept wondering why it was that folks who had so much money were never
satisfied but were always wanting more.
"Here," said he, "is the master of this house--I know him well. He was
always a good business man, and he made himself wondrously rich a long
time ago. Had he been wise he would have stopped then. He would have
turned over his business to some one else, and then he could have spent
the rest of his life in ease. But what did he do instead? He built ships
and sent them to sea to trade with foreign lands. He thought he would
get mountains of gold.
"But there were great storms on the water; his ships were wrecked, and
his riches were swallowed up by the waves. Now all his hopes lie at the
bottom of the sea, and his great wealth has vanished.
"There are many such cases. Men seem to be never satisfied unless they
gain the whole world.
"As for me, if I had only enough to eat and to wear, I would not want
anything more."
Just at that moment Fortune came down the street. She saw the beggar and
stopped. She said to him:
"Listen! I have long wished to help you. Hold your wallet and I will
pour this gold into it, but only on this condition: all that falls into
the wallet shall be pure gold; but every piece that falls upon the
ground shall become dust. Do you understand?"
"Oh, yes, I understand," said the beggar.
"Then have a care," said Fortune. "Your wallet is old, so do not load it
too heavily."
The beggar was so glad that he could hardly wait. He quickly opened his
wallet, and a stream of yellow dollars poured into it. The wallet grew
heavy.
"Is that enough?" asked Fortune.
"Not yet."
"Isn't it cracking?"
"Never fear."
The beggar's hands began to tremble. Ah, if the golden stream would only
pour for ever!
"You are the richest man in the world now!"
"Just a little more, add just a handful or two."
"There, it's full. The wallet will burst."
"But it will hold a little, just a little more!"
Another piece was added, and the wallet split. The treasure fell upon
the ground and was turned to dust. Fortune had vanished. The beggar had
now nothing but his empty wallet, and it was torn from top to bottom. He
was as poor as before.
IVAN KIRLOFF
THE LARK AND THE ROOK
"Good-night, Sir Rook!" said a little lark,
"The daylight fades; it will soon be dark;
I've bathed my wings in the sun's last ray;
I've sung my hymn to the parting day;
So now I haste to my quiet nook
In yon dewy meadow--good-night, Sir Rook!"
"Good-night, poor Lark," said his titled friend
With a haughty toss and a distant bend;
"I also go to my rest profound,
But not to sleep on the cold, damp ground.
The fittest place for a bird like me
Is the topmost bough of yon tall pine tree.
"I opened my eyes at peep of day
And saw you taking your upward way,
Dreaming your fond romantic dreams,
An ugly speck in the sun's bright beams,
Soaring too high to be seen or heard;
And I said to myself: 'What a foolish bird!'
"I trod the park with a princely air;
I filled my crop with the richest fare;
I cawed all day 'mid a lordly crew,
And I made more noise in the world than you!
The sun shone forth on my ebon wing;
I looked and wondered--good-night, poor thing!"
"Good-night, once more," said the lark's sweet voice,
"I see no cause to repent my choice;
You build your nest in the lofty pine,
But is your slumber more sweet than mine?
You make more noise in the world than I,
But whose is the sweeter minstrelsy?"
UNKNOWN
What stronger breast-plate than a heart untainted?
Thrice is he armed, that hath his quarrel just;
And he but naked, though locked up in steel,
Whose conscience with injustice is corrupted.
SHAKESPEARE
THE PICKWICK CLUB ON THE ICE
"You skate, of course, Winkle?" said Wardle.
"Ye-yes; oh, yes," replied Mr. Winkle. "I--I--am _rather_ out of
practice."
"Oh, _do_ skate, Mr. Winkle," said Arabella. "I like to see it so much."
"Oh, it is _so_ graceful," said another young lady. A third young lady
said it was elegant, and a fourth expressed her opinion that it was
"swan-like."
"I should be very happy, I'm sure," said Mr. Winkle, reddening; "but I
have no skates."
This objection was at once overruled. Trundle had got a couple of pair,
and the fat boy announced that there were half a dozen more downstairs,
whereat Mr. Winkle expressed exquisite delight, and looked exquisitely
uncomfortable.
Old Wardle led the way to a pretty large sheet of ice; and the fat boy
and Mr. Weller, having shovelled and swept away the snow which had
fallen on it during the night, Mr. Bob Sawyer adjusted his skates with a
dexterity which to Mr. Winkle seemed perfectly marvellous, and described
circles with his left leg, and cut figures of eight, and inscribed upon
the ice, without once stopping for breath, a great many other pleasant
and astonishing devices, to the excessive satisfaction of Mr. Pickwick,
Mr. Tupman, and the ladies; which reached a pitch of positive
enthusiasm, when old Wardle and Benjamin Allen, assisted by the
aforesaid Bob Sawyer, performed some mystic evolutions, which they
called a reel.
All this time, Mr. Winkle, with his face and hands blue with the cold,
had been forcing a gimlet into the soles of his feet, and putting his
skates on with the points behind, and getting the straps into a very
complicated and entangled state, with the assistance of Mr. Snodgrass,
who knew rather less about skates than a Hindoo. At length, however,
with the assistance of Mr. Weller, the unfortunate skates were firmly
screwed and buckled on, and Mr. Winkle was raised to his feet.
"Now, then, sir," said Sam in an encouraging tone; "off vith you, and
show 'em how to do it."
"Stop, Sam, stop," said Mr. Winkle, trembling violently, and clutching
hold of Sam's arms with the grasp of a drowning man. "How slippery it
is, Sam!"
"Not an uncommon thing upon ice, sir," replied Mr. Weller. "Hold up,
sir."
This last observation of Mr. Weller's bore reference to a demonstration
Mr. Winkle made at the instant, of a frantic desire to throw his feet
into the air and dash the back of his head on the ice.
"These--these--are very awkward skates; ain't they, Sam?" inquired Mr.
Winkle, staggering.
"I'm afeerd there's an orkard gen'lm'n in 'em, sir," replied Sam.
"Now, Winkle," cried Mr. Pickwick, quite unconscious that there was
anything the matter. "Come, the ladies are all anxiety."
"Yes, yes," replied Mr. Winkle, with a ghastly smile. "I'm coming."
"Just a goin' to begin," said Sam, endeavouring to disengage himself.
"Now, sir, start off."
"Stop an instant, Sam," gasped Mr. Winkle, clinging most affectionately
to Mr. Weller. "I find I've a couple of coats at home that I don't want,
Sam. You may have them, Sam."
"Thank'ee, sir," replied Mr. Weller.
"Never mind touching your hat, Sam," said Mr. Winkle, hastily. "You
needn't take your hand away to do that. I meant to have given you five
shillings this morning for a Christmas-box, Sam. I'll give it to you
this afternoon, Sam."
"You're wery good, sir," replied Mr. Weller.
"Just hold me at first, Sam; will you?" said Mr. Winkle. "There--that's
right. I shall soon get into the way of it, Sam. Not too fast, Sam; not
too fast."
Mr. Winkle, stooping forward with his body half doubled up, was being
assisted over the ice by Mr. Weller, in a very singular and un-swan-like
manner, when Mr. Pickwick most innocently shouted from the opposite
bank--
"Sam!"
"Sir?" said Mr. Weller.
"Here. I want you."
"Let go, sir," said Sam. "Don't you hear the governor a-callin'? Let go,
sir!"
With a violent effort, Mr. Weller disengaged himself from the grasp of
the agonized Pickwickian; and, in so doing, administered a considerable
impetus to the unhappy Mr. Winkle. With an accuracy which no degree of
dexterity or practice could have insured, that unfortunate gentleman
bore swiftly down into the centre of the reel, at the very moment when
Mr. Bob Sawyer was performing a flourish of unparalleled beauty. Mr.
Winkle struck wildly against him, and with a loud crash they both fell
heavily down. Mr. Pickwick ran to the spot. Bob Sawyer had risen to his
feet, but Mr. Winkle was far too wise to do anything of the kind in
skates. He was seated on the ice making spasmodic efforts to smile; but
anguish was depicted on every lineament of his countenance.
"Are you hurt?" inquired Mr. Benjamin Allen, with great anxiety.
"Not much," said Mr. Winkle, rubbing his back very hard.
"I wish you'd let me bleed you," said Mr. Benjamin, with great
eagerness.
"No, thank you," replied Mr. Winkle hurriedly.
"I really think you had better," said Allen.
"Thank you," replied Mr. Winkle "I'd rather not."
"What do _you_ think, Mr. Pickwick?" inquired Bob Sawyer.
Mr. Pickwick was excited and indignant. He beckoned to Mr. Weller, and
said in a stern voice:
"Take his skates off."
The command was not to be resisted. Mr. Winkle allowed Sam to obey it in
silence.
"Lift him up," said Mr. Pickwick. Sam assisted him to rise.
Mr. Pickwick retired a few paces apart from the bystanders; and,
beckoning his friend to approach, fixed a searching look upon him, and
uttered in a low but distinct and emphatic tone these remarkable words:
"You're a humbug, sir."
"A what?" said Mr. Winkle, starting.
"A humbug, sir. I will speak plainer, if you wish it. An impostor, sir."
With these words, Mr. Pickwick turned slowly on his heel and rejoined
his friends.
DICKENS: "The Pickwick Papers."
TUBAL CAIN
Old Tubal Cain was a man of might,
In the days when earth was young;
By the fierce red light of his furnace bright,
The strokes of his hammer rung:
And he lifted high his brawny hand
On the iron glowing clear,
Till the sparks rushed out in scarlet showers,
As he fashioned the sword and spear.
And he sang--"Hurrah for my handiwork!
Hurrah for the spear and sword!
Hurrah for the hand that shall wield them well,
For he shall be king and lord!"
To Tubal Cain came many a one,
As he wrought by his roaring fire;
And each one prayed for a strong steel blade,
As the crown of his desire;
And he made them weapons sharp and strong,
Till they shouted loud for glee;
And they gave him gifts of pearls and gold,
And spoils of the forest free.
And they sang--"Hurrah for Tubal Cain,
Who hath given us strength anew!
Hurrah for the smith, hurrah for the fire,
And hurrah for the metal true!"
But a sudden change came o'er his heart,
Ere the setting of the sun;
And Tubal Cain was filled with pain
For the evil he had done:
He saw that men, with rage and hate,
Made war upon their kind,
That the land was red with the blood they shed,
In their lust for carnage blind.
And he said--"Alas! that I ever made,
Or that skill of mine should plan,
The spear and the sword for men whose joy
Is to slay their fellow-man!"
And for many a day old Tubal Cain
Sat brooding o'er his woe;
And his hand forbore to smite the ore,
And his furnace smouldered low.
But he rose at last with a cheerful face,
And a bright courageous eye,
And bared his strong right arm for work,
While the quick flames mounted high.
And he sang--"Hurrah for my handiwork!"
And the red sparks lit the air;
"Not alone for the blade was the bright steel made,"
And he fashioned the first ploughshare.
And men, taught wisdom from the past,
In friendship joined their hands;
Hung the sword in the hall, the spear on the wall,
And ploughed the willing lands:
And sang--"Hurrah for Tubal Cain!
Our stanch good friend is he;
And for the ploughshare and the plough,
To him our praise shall be.
But while oppression lifts its head,
Or a tyrant would be lord;
Though we may thank him for the plough,
We'll not forget the sword!"
CHARLES MACKAY
PROFESSOR FROG'S LECTURE
Bobby was not quite sure that he was awake, but when he opened his eyes
there was the blue sky, with the soft, white clouds drifting across it,
the big pine waving its spicy branches over his head, and beyond, the
glint of sunshine on the waters of the pond. Presently Bobby heard
voices talking softly.
"This is a good specimen," said one voice. "See how stout and strong he
looks!"
"I wonder who that is, and what he has found," thought Bobby. "I wish it
wasn't such hard work to keep my eyes open." He made a great effort,
however, and raised his heavy lids. At first he could see nothing. Then
he caught a glimpse of a mossy log, with a row of frogs and toads
sitting upon it. They were looking solemnly at him. Bobby felt a little
uncomfortable under that steady gaze.
"The toads are making their spring visit to the pond to lay their eggs,"
thought the boy. "I forgot that they were due this week."
"He must have done a good deal of mischief in his day," said an old
bull-frog, gravely. A chill crept over Bobby. "In his day."--What did
that mean?
A toad hopped out from the line and came so close to Bobby that he could
have touched her but for the strange spell which held him fast.
"Yes," said she; "this is one of the species. We are very fortunate to
have caught him. Now we shall be ready to listen to Professor Rana's
remarks."
Still Bobby could not move. What were they going to do? In a moment
there was a rustling among the dry leaves and dozens of frogs and toads
were seen hurrying towards the pine tree. Among them was a ponderous
frog, carrying a roll of manuscript under his arm. He wore huge goggles,
and looked so wise that Bobby did not dare to laugh.
"I am very sleepy," murmured a portly toad near Bobby's left ear. "I
laid over eight thousand eggs last night, and I have a long journey
before me. But I must stay to hear this. We may never have such a chance
again."
"Ladies and gentlemen," began the professor, in a sonorous tone that was
easily heard for several feet, "this is a specimen of the creature known
to us as the human tadpole. You will kindly observe his long legs. They
were doubtless given to him for the purpose of protection. Being
possessed of a most mischievous and reckless spirit, the species is
always getting into difficulties, and would probably become extinct if
it had not the power to run away."
"Nonsense!" said Bobby under his breath. There was a murmur of interest
and curiosity among the crowd. Bobby felt his legs twitch nervously, but
his power over them was gone.
"Otherwise," went on the lecturer, "he is not at all adapted to his
surroundings. Observe how carefully we are dressed. The frogs have the
green and brown tints of their homes by the water-side. The toads look
like lumps of dirt, so that they may not be too readily snapped up by
birds of prey. But the Boy--to call him by his scientific name--has no
such protection. Look at this red shirt and these white trousers, and
this hat as big as a trout pool! Could anything be more ridiculous? Even
a giraffe does not look so absurd as this."
A red flush mounted to Bobby's freckled cheeks, but this time he did not
try to speak.
"Now," said the professor, "as far as we have been able to learn, the
human tadpole is absolutely useless. We are, therefore, doing no harm in
experimenting upon this specimen. There are plenty of them, and this one
will not be a serious loss."
"Stop!" said Bobby, so unexpectedly that everybody jumped. "What are you
going to do with me?"
"You will be so kind as to lie still," said the professor severely. "At
present you are only a specimen."
There was no help for it. Bobby found it impossible to move hand or
foot. He could wriggle a little,--but that was all.
"Not only is the Boy entirely useless," went on the professor, "but he
is often what might be called a pest, even to his own kind. He is
endured in the world for what he may become when he is full-grown, and
even then he is sometimes disappointing. You are familiar with many of
his objectionable ways towards the animal world, but I am sure you would
be surprised if you knew what a care and trouble he frequently is to his
own people. He can be trusted to do few kinds of work. It is difficult
to keep him clean. He doesn't know how to get his own dinner. He has a
genius for making weaker things miserable. He likes fishing, and he
longs for a gun; he collects birds' eggs; he puts butterflies on pins;
he teases his little sisters."
"Why isn't the species exterminated?" asked another frog angrily.
Then the toad near Bobby's ear spoke timidly: "I think you are a little
unjust, Professor. I have known boys who were comparatively harmless."
"It is true there may be a few, Mrs. Bufo," said the professor with
great politeness, "but as a class they may be fairly set down as of very
doubtful value. Speak up, Tadpole, and say if I have made any false
statements so far."
Bobby fairly shouted in his eagerness to be heard.
"We do work," he said. "We have to go to school every day."
"What a help that must be to your parents and to the world at large!"
said the frog with sarcasm. "I am surprised that we never see the
results of such hard labour. Do you know how useful even our smallest
tadpoles are? Without them this pond would be no longer beautiful, but
foul and ill-smelling. As for what we do when we are grown up, modesty
forbids me to praise the frogs, but you know what a toad is worth to
mankind?"
"No," said Bobby. "About two cents, I guess." Bobby didn't intend to be
rude. He thought this a liberal valuation.
"Twenty dollars a year, as estimated by the Department of Agriculture!"
cried the frog triumphantly. "What do you think of that?"
"I should like to know why," said Bobby, looking as if he thought
Professor Rana was making fun of him.
"What are the greatest enemies of mankind?" asked the professor, peering
over his goggles at poor Bobby.
"Tigers," said Bobby, promptly; "or wolves."
"Wrong," said the lecturer. "Insects. Insects destroy property on this
continent to the amount of over four hundred million dollars annually.
Insects destroy the crops upon which man depends for his food. Going to
school hasn't made you very wise, has it? Well, the toads are insect
destroyers. That's their business. If the State only knew enough to make
use of them, millions of dollars might be saved every year. Does it seem
to you that the human animal is so clever as it might be, when it allows
such numbers of toads to be destroyed?"
"It's a shame!" chimed in a voice from the front seats. "We keep out of
the way as much as we can; we eat every kind of troublesome worm and
insect,--the cutworm, canker-worm, tent caterpillar, army-worm,
rose-beetle, and the common house-fly; we ask for no wages or food or
care,--and what do we get in return? Not even protection and common
kindness. If we had places where we could live in safety, who could tell
the amount of good we might do? Yet I would not have this poor boy hurt
if a word of mine could prevent it."
"This is a scientific meeting," observed the professor; "and benevolent
sentiments are quite out of place. We will now proceed to notice the
delicate nervous system of the creature. Stand closer, my friends, if
you please."
"Nervous system, indeed!" said Bobby. "Boys don't have such silly things
as nerves!"
Suddenly Bobby felt a multitude of tiny pin pricks over the entire
surface of his body. The suffering was not intense, but the irritation
made him squirm and wince. He could not discover the cause of his
discomfort, but at the professor's command it suddenly ceased.
"That will do," said the frog. "Each hair on his head is also connected
with a nerve. Pull his hair, please!"
"Oh, don't!" said Bobby. "That hurts!"
Nobody listened to him. It did hurt, more than you would think, for tiny
hands were pulling each hair separately. When the ordeal was over,
Bobby heard a faint noise in the grass as if some very small creatures
were scurrying away, but he could see nothing. He was winking his eyes
desperately to keep from crying.
"The assistants may go now," said the professor; and the sound of little
feet died away in the distance.
"How interesting this is!" murmured a plain-looking toad who had been
watching the experiments attentively.
"I think it's mean," protested poor Bobby, "to keep a fellow fastened up
like this, and then torment him."
"Does it hurt as much as being skinned, or having your legs cut off?"
demanded the professor.
"Or should you prefer to be stepped on, or burned up in a rubbish pile?"
asked Mrs. Bufo.
"How should you like to be stoned or kicked, for a change?" said another
toad sharply.
"Perhaps you would choose a fish-hook in the corner of your mouth?" said
a voice from the pond.
"Or one run the entire length of your body?" came a murmur from the
ground under Bobby's head.
"Wait a minute," said the professor, more gently. "We will give you a
chance to defend yourself. It is not customary to inquire into the moral
character of specimens, but we do not wish to be unjust. Perhaps you can
explain why you made a bonfire the very week after the toads came out of
their winter-quarters. Dozens of lives were destroyed before that fire
was put out."
"I forgot about the toads," began Bobby.
"Carelessness!" said the professor. "Now you may tell us why you like to
throw stones at us."
"To see you jump," said Bobby, honestly.
"Thoughtlessness!" said the professor. "That's worse."
"Why do you kick us, instead of lifting us gently when we are in your
way?" inquired a toad in a stern voice.
"Because you will give me warts if I touch you," said Bobby, pleased to
think that he had a good reason at last.
"Ignorance!" cried the professor. "The toad is absolutely harmless. It
has about it a liquid that might cause pain to a cut finger or a
sensitive tissue like that of the mouth or eye, but the old story that a
toad is poisonous is a silly fable."
"Will you tell me, please," asked a toad in a plaintive voice, "if you
are the boy who, last year, carried home some of my babies in a tin pail
and let them die?"
"I'm afraid I am," said Bobby, sorrowfully.
"Do explain why you dislike us!" said Mrs. Bufo in such a frank fashion
that Bobby felt that he must tell the truth.
"I suppose it's your looks," said the boy, unable to frame his answer in
more polite terms.
"Well, upon my word!" interrupted the professor. "I thought better of a
boy than that. So you prefer boys with pretty faces and soft, curling
hair, and nice clothes, to those who can climb and jump and who are not
afraid of a day's tramp in the woods."
"Of course I don't," said indignant Bobby. "I hate boys who are always
thinking about their clothes."
"Oh, you do!" said the frog. "Now answer me a few more questions. Have
you ever stolen birds' eggs?"
"Yes," said truthful Bobby.
"Have you collected butterflies?"
"Yes," said Bobby.
"Have you taken nuts from the squirrels' cupboards?"
"Yes," said Bobby.
"Do you think we ought to have a very friendly feeling towards you?"
went on the questioner.
"No," said Bobby; "I don't."
"We have shown that you are not only useless, but careless and
thoughtless and ignorant," said the frog. "Is there any very good reason
why we should let you go?"
Poor Bobby racked his brains to think of something that should appeal to
his captors.
"I have a right to live, haven't I?" he said at last.
"Because you are so pretty?" suggested the professor, and Bobby's eyes
fell with shame.
"Any better right than we have?" came a chorus of voices. Bobby was
silent. He felt very helpless and insignificant. There was a long pause.
Then the frog professor smiled broadly at Bobby.
"Come," he said; "I like you. You are not afraid to be honest, and
that's something."
"If you will let me go," said Bobby, "I'll see that the boys don't hurt
you any more."
"I felt pretty sure that we'd converted you," said the professor; "and
I'm going to let you go back and preach to the heathen, as the grown
people say. You can see for yourself how much harm a boy can do if he
doesn't think."
Bobby felt that he was free, and scrambled to his feet, rubbing first
one arm and then the other to take the prickly feeling out of them. The
frogs had vanished; there was only the blue sky, the waving pine tree,
and the quiet pond.
"Well!" said Bobby with a long breath of amazement.
"Kerjunk!" came the warning voice of a frog, somewhere near the water's
edge.
"Yes sir, I'll remember," said Bobby in the meekest of meek tones.
M. A. L. LANE
A SONG FOR APRIL
List! list! The buds confer.
This noonday they've had news of her;
The south bank has had views of her;
The thorn shall exact his dues of her;
The willows adream
By the freshet stream
Shall ask what boon they choose of her.
Up! up! The world's astir;
The would-be green has word of her;
Root and germ have heard of her,
Coming to break
Their sleep and wake
Their hearts with every bird of her.
See! see! How swift concur
Sun, wind, and rain at the name of her,
A-wondering what became of her;
The fields flower at the flame of her;
The glad air sings
With dancing wings
And the silvery shrill acclaim of her.
CHARLES G. D. ROBERTS
[Illustration: ALEXANDRA THE QUEEN MOTHER]
HOW THE CRICKETS BROUGHT GOOD FORTUNE
My friend Jacques went into a baker's shop one day to buy a little cake
which he had fancied in passing. He intended it for a child whose
appetite was gone, and who could be coaxed to eat only by amusing him.
He thought that such a pretty loaf might tempt even the sick. While he
waited for his change, a little boy six or eight years old, in poor but
perfectly clean clothes, entered the baker's shop.
[Illustration: UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO]
"Ma'am," said he to the baker's wife, "Mother sent me for a loaf of
bread." The woman took from the shelf a four-pound loaf, the best one
she could find, and put it into the arms of the little boy.
My friend Jacques then first observed the thin and thoughtful face of
the little fellow. It contrasted strongly with the round, open
countenance of the large loaf, of which he was taking the greatest care.
"Have you any money?" said the baker's wife.
The little boy's eyes grew sad.
"No, ma'am," said he, hugging the loaf closer to his thin blouse; "but
mother told me to say that she would come and speak to you about it
to-morrow."
"Run along," said the good woman; "carry your bread home, child."
"Thank you, ma'am," said the poor little fellow.
My friend Jacques came forward for his money. He had put his purchase
into his pocket, and was about to go, when he found the child with the
big loaf, whom he had supposed to be half-way home, standing stock-still
behind him.
"What are you doing there?" said the baker's wife to the child, whom she
also had thought to be fairly off. "Don't you like the bread?"
"Oh, yes, ma'am!" said the child.
"Well, then, carry it to your mother, my little friend. If you wait any
longer, she will think you are playing by the way, and you will get a
scolding."
The child did not seem to hear. Something else absorbed his attention.
The baker's wife went up to him and gave him a friendly tap on the
shoulder. "What are you thinking about?" said she.
"Ma'am," said the little boy, "what is that that sings?"
"There is no singing," said she.
"Yes!" cried the little fellow. "Hear it! Queek, queek, queek, queek!"
My friend and the woman both listened, but they could hear nothing,
unless it was the song of the crickets, frequent guests in bakers
houses.
"It is a little bird," said the dear little fellow; "or perhaps the
bread sings when it bakes, as apples do?"
"No, indeed, little goosey!" said the baker's wife; "those are crickets.
They sing in the bake-house because we are lighting the oven, and they
like to see the fire."
"Crickets!" said the child; "are they really crickets?"
"Yes, to be sure," said she, good-humouredly. The child's face lighted
up.
"Ma'am," said he, blushing at the boldness of his request, "I would like
it very much if you would give me a cricket."
"A cricket," said the baker's wife, smiling; "what in the world would
you do with a cricket, my little friend? I would gladly give you all
there are in the house, to get rid of them, they run about so."
"O, ma'am, give me one, only one, if you please!" said the child,
clasping his little thin hands under the big loaf. "They say that
crickets bring good luck into houses; and perhaps if we had one at home,
mother, who has so much trouble, wouldn't cry any more."
"Why does your poor mamma cry?" said my friend, who could no longer help
joining in the conversation.
"On account of her bills, sir," said the little fellow. "Father is dead,
and mother works very hard, but she cannot pay them all."
My friend took the child, and with him the large loaf, into his arms,
and I really believe he kissed them both. Meanwhile the baker's wife,
who did not dare to touch a cricket herself, had gone into the
bake-house. She made her husband catch four, and put them into a box
with holes in the cover, so that they might breathe. She gave the box to
the child, who went away perfectly happy.
When he had gone, the baker's wife and my friend gave each other a good
squeeze of the hand. "Poor little fellow!" said they both together. Then
she took down her account-book, and, finding the page where the mother's
charges were written, made a great dash all down the page, and then
wrote at the bottom, "Paid."
Meanwhile my friend, to lose no time, had put up in paper all the money
in his pockets, where fortunately he had quite a sum that day, and had
begged the good wife to send it at once to the mother of the little
cricket-boy, with her bill receipted, and a note, in which he told her
that she had a son who would one day be her pride and joy.
They gave it to a baker's boy with long legs, and told him to make
haste. The child, with his big loaf, his four crickets, and his little
short legs, could not run very fast, so that when he reached home, he
found his mother, for the first time in many weeks, with her eyes raised
from her work, and a smile of peace and happiness upon her lips.
The boy believed that it was the arrival of his four little black things
which had worked this miracle, and I do not think he was mistaken.
Without the crickets, and his good little heart, would this happy change
have taken place in his mother's fortunes?
P. J. STAHL
THE BATTLE OF BLENHEIM
It was a summer evening,
Old Kaspar's work was done,
And he before his cottage door
Was sitting in the sun,
And by him sported on the green
His little grandchild Wilhelmine.
She saw her brother Peterkin
Roll something large and round,
Which he beside the rivulet
In playing there had found:
He came to ask what he had found,
That was so large, and smooth, and round.
Old Kaspar took it from the boy,
Who stood expectant by:
And then the old man shook his head,
And, with a natural sigh,
"'Tis some poor fellow's skull," said he,
"Who fell in the great victory.
"I find them in the garden,
For there's many here about;
And often when I go to plough,
The ploughshare turns them out!
For many thousand men," said he,
"Were slain in that great victory."
"Now tell me what 'twas all about,"
Young Peterkin, he cries;
And little Wilhelmine looks up
With wonder-waiting eyes;
"Now tell us all about the war,
And what they fought each other for."
"It was the English," Kaspar cried,
"Who put the French to rout;
But what they fought each other for,
I could not well make out;
But everybody said," quoth he,
"That 'twas a famous victory.
"My father lived at Blenheim then,
Yon little stream hard by;
They burnt his dwelling to the ground,
And he was forced to fly;
So with his wife and child he fled,
Nor had he where to rest his head.
"They say it was a shocking sight
After the field was won;
For many thousand bodies here
Lay rotting in the sun;
But things like that, you know, must be
After a famous victory.
"Great praise the Duke of Marlbro' won,
And our good prince Eugene."
"Why 'twas a very wicked thing!"
Said little Wilhelmine.
"Nay, nay, my little girl," quoth he,
"It was a famous victory.
"And everybody praised the Duke
Who this great fight did win."
"But what good came of it at last?"
Quoth little Peterkin.
"Why, that I cannot tell," said he,
"But 'twas a famous victory."
SOUTHEY
THE RIDE FOR LIFE
Away off towards the swamp, which they were avoiding, the long,
heart-chilling cry of a mother-wolf quavered on the still night air. In
spite of herself, Mrs. Murray shivered, and the boys looked at each
other.
"There is only one," said Ranald in a low voice to Don, but they both
knew that where the she-wolf is there is a pack not far off. "And we
will be through the bush in five minutes."
"Come, Ranald! Come away, you can talk to Don any time. Good-night,
Don." And so saying she headed her pony toward the clearing and was off
at a gallop, and Ranald, shaking his head at his friend, ejaculated:
"Man alive! what do you think of that?" and was off after the pony.
Together they entered the bush. The road was well beaten and the horses
were keen to go, so that before many minutes were over they were half
through the bush. Ranald's spirits rose and he began to take some
interest in his companion's observations upon the beauty of the lights
and shadows falling across their path.
"Look at that very dark shadow from the spruce there, Ranald," she
cried, pointing to a deep, black turn in the road. For answer there came
from behind them the long, mournful hunting-cry of the wolf. He was on
their track. Immediately it was answered by a chorus of howls from the
bush on the swamp side, but still far away. There was no need of
command; the pony sprang forward with a snort and the colt followed, and
after a few minutes' running, passed her.
"Whow-oo-oo-oo-ow," rose the long cry of the pursuer, summoning help,
and drawing nearer.
"Whw-ee-wow," came the shorter, sharper answer from the swamp, but much
nearer than before and more in front. They were trying to head off their
prey.
Ranald tugged at his colt till he got him back with the pony.
"It is a good road," he said, quietly; "you can let the pony go. I will
follow you." He swung in behind the pony, who was now running for dear
life and snorting with terror at every jump.
"God preserve us!" said Ranald to himself. He had caught sight of a dark
form as it darted through the gleam of light in front.
"What did you say, Ranald?" The voice was quiet and clear.
"It is a great pony to run," said Ranald, ashamed of himself.
"Is she not?"
Ranald glanced over his shoulder. Down the road, running with silent,
awful swiftness, he saw the long, low body of the leading wolf flashing
through the bars of moonlight across the road, and the pack following
hard.
"Let her go, Mrs. Murray," cried Ranald. "Whip her and never stop." But
there was no need; the pony was wild with fear, and was doing her best
running.
Ranald meantime was gradually holding in the colt, and the pony drew
away rapidly. But as rapidly the wolves were closing in behind him. They
were not more than a hundred yards away, and gaining every second.
Ranald, remembering the suspicious nature of the brutes, loosened his
coat and dropped it on the road; with a chorus of yelps they paused,
then threw themselves upon it, and in another minute took up the chase.
But now the clearing was in sight. The pony was far ahead, and Ranald
shook out his colt with a yell. He was none too soon, for the pursuing
pack, now uttering short, shrill yelps, were close at the colt's heels.
Lizette, fleet as the wind, could not shake them off. Closer and ever
closer they came, snapping and snarling. Ranald could see them over his
shoulder. A hundred yards more and he would reach his own back lane. The
leader of the pack seemed to feel that his chances were slipping swiftly
away. With a spurt he gained upon Lizette, reached the saddle-girths,
gathered himself into two short jumps, and sprang for the colt's throat.
Instinctively Ranald stood up in his stirrups, and kicking his foot
free, caught the wolf under the jaw. The brute fell with a howl under
the colt's feet, and next moment they were in the lane and safe.
The savage brutes, discouraged by their leader's fall, slowed down their
fierce pursuit, and hearing the deep bay of the Macdonalds' great
deer-hound, Bugle, up at the house, they paused, sniffed the air a few
minutes, then turned and swiftly and silently slid into the dark
shadows. Ranald, knowing that they would hardly dare enter the lane,
checked the colt, and wheeling, watched them disappear.
"I'll have some of your hides some day," he cried, shaking his fist
after them. He hated to be made to run.
He had hardly set the colt's face homeward when he heard something
tearing down the lane to meet him. The colt snorted, swerved, and then
dropping his ears, stood still. It was Bugle, and after him came Mrs.
Murray on the pony.
"Oh, Ranald!" she panted, "thank God you are safe. I was afraid
you--you--" Her voice broke in sobs. Her hood had fallen back from her
white face, and her eyes were shining like two stars. She laid her hand
on Ranald's arm, and her voice grew steady as she said: "Thank God, my
boy, and thank you with all my heart. You risked your life for mine. You
are a brave fellow! I can never forget this!"
"Oh, pshaw!" said Ranald, awkwardly. "You are better stuff than I am.
You came back with Bugle. And I knew Liz could beat the pony." Then they
walked their horses quietly to the stable, and nothing more was said by
either of them; but from that hour Ranald had a friend ready to offer
life for him, though he did not know it then nor till years afterward.
RALPH CONNOR: "The Man from Glengarry."
Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his
friends.
ST. JOHN, XV. 13
IAGOO, THE BOASTER
And Iagoo, the great boaster,
He the marvellous story-teller,
He the friend of old Nokomis,
Saw in all the eyes around him,
Saw in all their looks and gestures,
That the wedding guests assembled,
Longed to hear his pleasant stories,
His immeasurable falsehoods.
Very boastful was Iagoo;
Never heard he an adventure
But himself had met a greater;
Never any deed of daring
But himself had done a bolder;
Never any marvellous story
But himself could tell a stranger.
Would you listen to his boasting,
Would you only give him credence,
No one ever shot an arrow
Half so far and high as he had;
Ever caught so many fishes,
Ever killed so many reindeer,
Ever trapped so many beaver!
None could run so fast as he could,
None could dive so deep as he could,
None could swim so far as he could;
None had made so many journeys,
None had seen so many wonders,
As this wonderful Iagoo,
As this marvellous story-teller!
Thus his name became a by-word
And a jest among the people;
And whene'er a boastful hunter
Praised his own address too highly,
Or a warrior, home returning,
Talked too much of his achievements,
All his hearers cried: "Iagoo!
Here's Iagoo come among us!"
LONGFELLOW: "Hiawatha."
THE STORY OF A FIRE
Thirteen years have passed since, but it is all to me as if it had
happened yesterday,--the clanging of the fire-bells, the hoarse shouts
of the firemen, the wild rush and terror of the streets; then the great
hush that fell upon the crowd; the sea of upturned faces with the fire
glow upon it; and up there, against the background of black smoke that
poured from roof to attic, the boy clinging to the narrow ledge, so far
up that it seemed humanly impossible that help could ever come.
But even then it was coming. Up from the street, while the crew of the
truck company were labouring with the heavy extension ladder that at its
longest stretch was many feet too short, crept four men upon long,
slender poles with cross-bars, iron-hooked at the end. Standing in one
window, they reached up and thrust the hook through the next one above,
then mounted a story higher. Again the crash of glass, and again the
dizzy ascent. Straight up the wall they crept, looking like human flies
on the ceiling, and clinging as close, never resting, reaching one
recess only to set out for the next; nearer and nearer in the race for
life, until but a single span separated the foremost from the boy. And
now the iron hook fell at his feet, and the fireman stood upon the step
with the rescued lad in his arms, just as the pent-up flames burst lurid
from the attic window, reaching with impotent fury for their prey. The
next moment they were safe upon the great ladder waiting to receive them
below.
Then such a shout went up! Men fell on each other's necks, and cried and
laughed at once. Strangers slapped one another on the back with
glistening faces, shook hands, and behaved generally like men gone
suddenly mad. Women wept in the street. The driver of a car stalled in
the crowd, who had stood through it all speechless, clutching the reins,
whipped his horses into a gallop and drove away, yelling like a
Comanche, to relieve his feelings. The boy and his rescuer were carried
across the street without anyone knowing how. Policemen forgot their
dignity and shouted with the rest. Fire, peril, terror, and loss were
alike forgotten in the one touch of nature that makes the whole world
kin.
Fireman John Binns was made captain of his crew, and the Bennett medal
was pinned on his coat on the next parade day.
JACOB A. RIIS
Whene'er a noble deed is wrought,
Whene'er is spoken a noble thought,
Our hearts in glad surprise
To higher levels rise.
LONGFELLOW
THE QUEST
There once was a restless boy
Who dwelt in a home by the sea,
Where the water danced for joy,
And the wind was glad and free;
But he said: "Good mother, O let me go!
For the dullest place in the world, I know,
Is this little brown house,
This old brown house,
Under the apple tree.
"I will travel east and west;
The loveliest homes I'll see;
And when I have found the best,
Dear mother, I'll come for thee.
I'll come for thee in a year and a day,
And joyfully then we'll haste away
From this little brown house,
This old brown house,
Under the apple tree."
So he travelled here and there,
But never content was he,
Though he saw in lands most fair
The costliest homes there be.
He something missed from the sea or sky,
Till he turned again with a wistful sigh
To the little brown house,
The old brown house,
Under the apple tree.
Then the mother saw and smiled,
While her heart grew glad and free.
"Hast thou chosen a home, my child?
Ah, where shall we dwell?" quoth she.
And he said: "Sweet mother, from east to west,
The loveliest home, and the dearest and best,
Is a little brown house,
An old brown house,
Under an apple tree."
EUDORA S. BUMSTEAD
THE JACKAL AND THE PARTRIDGE
A Jackal and a Partridge swore eternal friendship; but the Jackal was
very exacting and jealous. "You don't do half as much for me as I do for
you," he used to say, "and yet you talk a great deal of your friendship.
Now my idea of a friend is one who is able to make me laugh or cry,
give me a good meal, or save my life if need be. You couldn't do that!"
"Let us see," answered the Partridge; "follow me at a little distance,
and if I don't make you laugh soon you may eat me!"
So she flew on till she met two travellers trudging along, one behind
the other. They were both foot-sore and weary, and the first carried his
bundle on a stick over his shoulder, while the second had his shoes in
his hand.
Lightly as a feather the Partridge settled on the first traveller's
stick. He, none the wiser, trudged on; but the second traveller, seeing
the bird sitting so tamely just in front of his nose, said to himself:
"What a chance for a supper!" and immediately flung his shoes at it,
they being ready to hand. Whereupon the Partridge flew away, and the
shoes knocked off the first traveller's turban.
"What a plague do you mean?" cried he, angrily turning on his companion.
"Why did you throw your shoes at my head?"
"Brother!" replied the other, mildly, "do not be vexed. I didn't throw
them at you, but at a Partridge that was sitting on your stick."
"On my stick! Do you take me for a fool?" shouted the injured man, in a
great rage. "Don't tell me such cock-and-bull stories. First you insult
me, and then you lie like a coward; but I'll teach you manners!"
Then he fell upon his fellow-traveller without more ado, and they fought
until they could not see out of their eyes, till their noses were
bleeding, their clothes in rags, and the Jackal had nearly died of
laughing.
"Are you satisfied?" asked the Partridge of her friend.
"Well," answered the Jackal, "you have certainly made me laugh, but I
doubt if you could make me cry. It is easy enough to be a buffoon; it is
more difficult to excite the higher emotions."
"Let us see," retorted the Partridge, somewhat piqued; "there is a
huntsman with his dogs coming along the road. Just creep into that
hollow tree and watch me; if you don't weep scalding tears, you must
have no feeling in you!"
The Jackal did as he was bid, and watched the Partridge, who began
fluttering about the bushes till the dogs caught sight of her, when she
flew to the hollow tree where the Jackal was hidden. Of course the dogs
smelled him at once, and set up such a yelping and scratching that the
huntsman came up and, seeing what it was, dragged the Jackal out by the
tail. Whereupon the dogs worried him to their hearts' content, and
finally left him for dead.
By and by he opened his eyes--for he was only foxing--and saw the
Partridge sitting on a branch above him.
"Did you cry?" she asked anxiously. "Did I rouse your higher emo--"
"Be quiet, will you!" snarled the Jackal; "I'm half-dead with fear!"
So there the Jackal lay for some time, getting the better of his
bruises, and meanwhile he became hungry.
"Now is the time for friendship!" said he to the Partridge. "Get me a
good dinner, and I will acknowledge you are a true friend."
"Very well!" replied the Partridge; "only watch me, and help yourself
when the time comes."
Just then a troop of women came by, carrying their husbands' dinners to
the harvest-field.
The Partridge gave a little plaintive cry, and began fluttering along
from bush to bush as if she were wounded.
"A wounded bird!--a wounded bird!" cried the women; "we can easily catch
it!"
Whereupon they set off in pursuit, but the cunning Partridge played a
thousand tricks, till they became so excited over the chase that they
put their bundles on the ground in order to pursue it more nimbly. The
Jackal, meanwhile, seizing his opportunity, crept up, and made off with
a good dinner.
"Are you satisfied now?" asked the Partridge.
"Well," returned the Jackal, "I confess you have given me a very good
dinner; you have also made me laugh--and cry--ahem! But, after all, the
great test of friendship is beyond you--you couldn't save my life!"
"Perhaps not," acquiesced the Partridge, mournfully. "I am so small and
weak. But it grows late--we should be going home; and as it is a long
way round by the ford, let us go across the river. My friend, the
crocodile, will carry us over."
Accordingly, they set off for the river, and the crocodile kindly
consented to carry them across; so they sat on his broad back, and he
ferried them over. But just as they were in the middle of the stream the
Partridge remarked: "I believe the crocodile intends to play us a trick.
How awkward if he were to drop you into the water!"
"Awkward for you, too!" replied the Jackal, turning pale.
"Not at all! not at all! I have wings, you haven't."
On this the Jackal shivered and shook with fear, and when the crocodile,
in a grewsome growl, remarked that he was hungry and wanted a good meal,
the wretched creature hadn't a word to say.
"Pooh!" cried the Partridge, airily, "don't try tricks on us--I should
fly away, and as for my friend, the Jackal, you couldn't hurt _him_. He
is not such a fool as to take his life with him on these little
excursions; he leaves it at home locked up in the cupboard."
"Is that a fact?" asked the crocodile, surprised.
"Certainly!" retorted the Partridge. "Try to eat him if you like, but
you will only tire yourself to no purpose."
"Dear me! how very odd!" gasped the crocodile; and he was so taken aback
that he carried the Jackal safe to shore.
"Well, are you satisfied now?" asked the Partridge.
"My dear madam!" quoth the Jackal, "you have made me laugh, you have
made me cry, you have given me a good dinner, and you have saved my
life; but upon my honour I think you are too clever for a friend: so,
good-bye!"
And the Jackal never went near the Partridge again.
FLORA ANNIE STEEL: "Tales from the Punjab."
HIDE AND SEEK
All the trees are sleeping, all the winds are still,
All the flocks of fleecy clouds have wandered past the hill;
Through the noonday silence, down the woods of June,
Hark! a little hunter's voice comes running with a tune.
"Hide and seek!
"When I speak,
"You must answer me:
"Call again,
"Merry men,
"Coo-ee, coo-ee, coo-ee!"
Now I hear his footsteps, rustling through the grass:
Hidden in my leafy nook, shall I let him pass?
Just a low, soft whistle,--quick the hunter turns,
Leaps upon me laughing, rolls me in the ferns.
"Hold him fast,
"Caught at last!
"Now you're it, you see.
"Hide your eye,
"Till I cry,
"Coo-ee, coo-ee, coo-ee!"
Long ago he left me, long and long ago:
Now I wander through the world and seek him high and low;
Hidden safe and happy, in some pleasant place,--
Ah, if I could hear his voice, I soon should find his face.
Far away,
Many a day,
Where can Barney be?
Answer, dear,
Don't you hear?
"Coo-ee, coo-ee, coo-ee!"
Birds that in the spring-time thrilled his heart with joy,
Flowers he loved to pick for me, 'mind me of my boy.
Surely he is waiting till my steps come nigh;
Love may hide itself awhile, but love can never die.
Heart be glad,
The little lad
Will call some day to thee:
"Father dear,
"Heaven is here,
"Coo-ee, coo-ee, coo-ee!"
HENRY VAN DYKE
THE BURNING OF THE "GOLIATH"
(Owing to the excellent discipline which Captain Bourchier had
established, and to the courage of the boys, only twelve lives
were lost out of the crew of five hundred).
Let me give you an example of self-denial which comes from near home. I
will speak to you of what has been done by little boys of seven, of
eight, of twelve, of thirteen;--little English boys, and English boys
with very few advantages of birth; not brought up, as most of you are,
in quiet, orderly homes, but taken from the London workhouses. I will
speak to you of what such little boys have done, not fifteen hundred, or
even two hundred years ago, but last week--last Wednesday, on the river
Thames.
Do you know of whom I am thinking? I am thinking of the little boys,
nearly five hundred, who were taken from different workhouses in London,
and put to school to be trained as sailors on board the ship which was
called after the name of the giant whom David slew--the training-ship
Goliath.
About eight o'clock on Wednesday morning that great ship suddenly caught
fire, from the upsetting of a can of oil in the lamp-room. It was hardly
daylight. In a very few minutes the ship was on fire from one end to the
other, and the fire-bell rang to call the boys to their posts. What did
they do? Think of the sudden surprise, the sudden danger--the flames
rushing all around them, and the dark, cold water below them! Did they
cry, or scream, or fly about in confusion? No; they ran each to his
proper place.
They had been trained to do that--they knew that it was their duty; and
no one forgot himself; no one lost his presence of mind. They all, as
the captain said: "behaved like men." Then, when it was found impossible
to save the ship, those who could swim jumped into the water by order of
the captain, and swam for their lives. Some, also at his command, got
into a boat; and then, when the sheets of flame and the clouds of smoke
came pouring out of the ship, the smaller boys for a moment were
frightened, and wanted to push away.
But there was one among them--the little mate: his name was William
Bolton: we are proud that he came from Westminster: a quiet boy, much
loved by his comrades--who had the sense and courage to say: "No; we
must stay and help those that are still in the ship." He kept the barge
alongside the ship as long as possible, and was thus the means of saving
more than one hundred lives!
There were others who were still in the ship while the flames went on
spreading. They were standing by the good captain, who had been so kind
to them all, and whom they all loved so much. In that dreadful crisis
they thought more of him than of themselves. One threw his arms round
his neck and said: "You'll be burnt, Captain;" and another said: "Save
yourself before the rest." But the captain gave them the best of all
lessons for that moment. He said: "That's not the way at sea, my boys."
He meant to say--and they quite understood what he meant--that the way
at sea is to prepare for danger beforehand, to meet it manfully when it
comes, and to look at the safety, not of oneself, but of others. The
captain had not only learned that good old way himself, but he also knew
how to teach it to the boys under his charge.
DEAN STANLEY
HEARTS OF OAK
Come, cheer up, my lads, 'tis to glory we steer,
To add something more to this wonderful year,
To honour we call you, not press you like slaves,
For who are so free as the sons of the waves?
Hearts of oak are our ships, hearts of oak are our men,
We always are ready,
Steady, boys, steady,
We'll fight and we'll conquer again and again.
Still Britain shall triumph, her ships plough the sea,
Her standard be justice, her watchword "Be free;"
Then, cheer up, my lads, with one heart let us sing
Our soldiers, our sailors, our statesmen, our king.
Hearts of oak are our ships, hearts of oak are our men,
We always are ready,
Steady, boys, steady,
We'll fight and we'll conquer again and again.
DAVID GARRICK
A WET SHEET AND A FLOWING SEA
A wet sheet and a flowing sea,
A wind that follows fast,
And fills the white and rustling sail,
And bends the gallant mast;
And bends the gallant mast, my boys,
While, like the eagle free,
Away the good ship flies, and leaves
Old England on the lee!
"O for a soft and gentle wind!"
I heard a fair one cry;
But give to me the snoring breeze
And white waves heaving high;
And white waves heaving high, my boys,
The good ship tight and free,--
The world of waters is our home,
And merry men are we.
There's tempest in yon hornèd moon,
And lightning in yon cloud;
And hark the music, mariners,
The wind is piping loud!
The wind is piping loud, my boys,
The lightning flashes free,--
While the hollow oak our palace is,
Our heritage the sea.
ALLAN CUNNINGHAM
THE TALENTS
The kingdom of heaven is as a man travelling into a far country, who
called his own servants, and delivered unto them his goods. And unto one
he gave five talents, to another two, and to another one; to every man
according to his several ability; and straightway took his journey.
Then he that had received the five talents went and traded with the
same, and made them other five talents. And likewise he that had
received two, he also gained other two. But he that had received one
went and digged in the earth, and hid his lord's money. After a long
time the lord of those servants cometh, and reckoneth with them.
And so he that had received five talents came and brought other five
talents saying, "Lord, thou deliveredst unto me five talents: behold, I
have gained beside them five talents more." His lord said unto him,
"Well done, thou good and faithful servant; thou hast been faithful over
a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things: enter thou into
the joy of thy lord."
He also that had received two talents came and said, "Lord, thou
deliveredst unto me two talents: behold, I have gained two other talents
beside them." His lord said unto him, "Well done, good and faithful
servant; thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will make thee
ruler over many things: enter thou into the joy of thy lord."
Then he which had received the one talent came and said, "Lord, I knew
thee that thou art an hard man, reaping where thou hast not sown, and
gathering where thou hast not strawed; and I was afraid, and went and
hid thy talent in the earth: lo, there thou hast that is thine." His
lord answered and said unto him, "Thou wicked and slothful servant, thou
knewest that I reap where I sowed not, and gather where I have not
strawed: thou oughtest therefore to have put my money to the
exchangers, and then at my coming I should have received mine own with
usury. Take therefore the talent from him, and give it unto him which
hath ten talents. For unto every one that hath shall be given, and he
shall have abundance: but from him that hath not shall be taken away
even that which he hath. And cast ye the unprofitable servant into outer
darkness: there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth."
ST. MATTHEW, XXV. 14-30
A FAREWELL
My fairest child, I have no song to give you;
No lark could pipe to skies so dull and gray;
Yet, ere we part, one lesson I can leave you
For every day.
I'll tell you how to sing a clearer carol
Than lark who hails the dawn or breezy down,
To earn yourself a purer poet's laurel
Than Shakespeare's crown.
Be good, sweet maid, and let who will be clever;
Do noble things, not dream them, all day long:
And so make life, death, and that vast forever,
One grand, sweet song.
KINGSLEY
AN APPLE ORCHARD IN THE SPRING
Have you seen an apple orchard in the spring?
In the spring?
An English apple orchard in the spring?
When the spreading trees are hoary
With their wealth of promised glory,
And the mavis sings its story,
In the spring.
Have you plucked the apple blossoms in the spring?
In the spring?
And caught their subtle odours in the spring?
Pink buds pouting at the light,
Crumpled petals baby white
Just to touch them a delight--
In the spring.
Have you walked beneath the blossoms in the spring?
In the spring?
Beneath the apple blossoms in the spring?
When the pink cascades are falling,
And the silver brooklets brawling,
And the cuckoo bird soft calling,
In the spring.
If you have not, then you know not, in the spring,
In the spring,
Half the colour, beauty, wonder of the spring,
No sweet sight can I remember
Half so precious, half so tender,
As the apple blossoms render,
In the spring.
WILLIAM MARTIN
THE BLUEJAY
Said Jim Baker: "There's more to a bluejay than to any other creature.
He has more kinds of feeling than any other creature; and mind you,
whatever a bluejay feels, he can put into words. No common words either,
but out-and-out book-talk. You never see a jay at a loss for a word.
"You may call a jay a bird. Well, so he is, because he has feathers on
him. Otherwise, he is just as human as you are.
"Yes, sir; a jay is everything that a man is. A jay can laugh, a jay can
gossip, a jay can feel ashamed, just as well as you do, maybe better.
And there's another thing: in good, clean, out-and-out scolding, a
bluejay can beat anything alive.
"Seven years ago the last man about here but me moved away. There stands
his house--a log house with just one big room and no more: no ceiling,
nothing between the rafters and the floor.
"Well, one Sunday morning I was sitting out here in front of my cabin,
with my cat, taking the sun, when a bluejay flew down on that house with
an acorn in his mouth.
"'Hello,' says he, 'I reckon here's something.' When he spoke, the acorn
fell out of his mouth and rolled down on the roof. He didn't care; his
mind was on the thing he had found.
"It was a knot-hole in the roof. He cocked his head to one side, shut
one eye, and put the other to the hole, like a 'possum looking down a
jug.'
"Then he looked up, gave a wink or two with his wings, and says: 'It
looks like a hole, it's placed like a hole--and--if I don't think it is
a hole!'
"Then he cocked his head down and took another look. He looked up with
joy, this time winked his wings and his tail both, and says: 'If I ain't
in luck! Why it's an elegant hole!'
"So he flew down and got that acorn and dropped it in, and was tilting
his head back with a smile when a queer look of surprise came over his
face. Then he says: 'Why, I didn't hear it fall.'
"He cocked his eye at the hole again and took a long look; rose up and
shook his head; went to the other side of the hole and took another look
from that side; shook his head again. No use.
"So after thinking awhile, he says: 'I reckon it's all right. I'll try
it, anyway.'
"So he flew off and brought another acorn and dropped it in, and tried
to get his eye to the hole quick enough to see what became of it. He was
too late. He got another acorn and tried to see where it went, but he
couldn't.
"He says: 'Well, I never saw such a hole as this before. I reckon it's a
new kind.' Then he got angry and walked up and down the roof. I never
saw a bird take on so.
"When he got through, he looked in the hole for half a minute; then he
says: 'Well, you're a long hole, and a deep hole, and a queer hole, but
I have started to fill you, and I'll do it if it takes a hundred
years.'
"And with that away he went. For two hours and a half you never saw a
bird work so hard. He did not stop to look in any more, but just threw
acorns in and went for more.
"Well, at last he could hardly flap his wings he was so tired out. So he
bent down for a look. He looked up, pale with rage. He says: 'I've put
in enough acorns to keep the family thirty years, and I can't see a sign
of them.'
"Another jay was going by and heard him. So he stopped to ask what was
the matter. Our jay told him the whole story. Then he went and looked
down the hole and came back and said: 'How many tons did you put in
there?' 'Not less than two,' said our jay.
"The other jay looked again, but could not make it out; so he gave a
yell and three more jays came. They all talked at once for awhile, and
then called in more jays.
"Pretty soon the air was blue with jays, and every jay put his eye to
the hole and told what he thought. They looked the house all over, too.
The door was partly open, and at last one old jay happened to look in.
There lay the acorns all over the floor.
"He flapped his wings and gave a yell: 'Come here, everybody! Ha! Ha!
He's been trying to fill a house with acorns!'
"As each jay took a look, the fun of the thing struck him, and how he
did laugh. And for an hour after they roosted on the housetop and trees,
and laughed like human beings. It isn't any use to tell me a bluejay
hasn't any fun in him. I know better."
SAMUEL L. CLEMENS (Mark Twain)
A CANADIAN CAMPING SONG
A white tent pitched by a glassy lake,
Well under a shady tree,
Or by rippling rills from the grand old hills,
Is the summer home for me.
I fear no blaze of the noontide rays,
For the woodland glades are mine,
The fragrant air, and that perfume rare,
The odour of forest pine.
A cooling plunge at the break of day,
A paddle, a row, or sail,
With always a fish for a mid-day dish,
And plenty of Adam's ale.
With rod or gun, or in hammock swung,
We glide through the pleasant days;
When darkness falls on our canvas walls,
We kindle the camp fire's blaze.
From out the gloom sails the silv'ry moon,
O'er forests dark and still,
Now far, now near, ever sad and clear,
Comes the plaint of the whip-poor-will;
With song and laugh, and with kindly chaff,
We startle the birds above,
Then rest tired heads on our cedar beds,
To dream of the ones we love.
SIR J. D. EDGAR: "This Canada of Ours."
THE ARGONAUTS
Now, when the building of the ship Argo was finished, the fifty heroes
came to look upon her, and joy filled their hearts. "Surely," said they,
"this is the greatest ship that ever sailed the sea."
So eager were they to make trial of the long oars that some, leaping on
the shoulders of their comrades and grasping the shrouds, clambered over
the bulwarks upon the thwarts and drew the rest in after them. Orpheus,
upon the mighty shoulders of Jason the leader of the expedition, seized
hold of the arm of the azure-eyed goddess, the figure-head of the ship,
and, as he climbed on board, her whisper reached his ear. "Orpheus, sing
me something." This was the song:
"How sweet upon the surge to ride,
And leap from wave to wave,
While oars flash fast above the tide
And lordly tempests rave.
How sweet it is across the main,
In wonder-land to roam,
To win rich treasure, endless fame,
And earn a welcome home."
Then the good ship Argo stirred in all her timbers and longing for the
restless sea came upon her and she rushed headlong down the grooves till
the lips of the goddess tasted the salt sea spray.
Many a day they sailed through laughing seas and ever they spoke
together of the glory of the Golden Fleece which they hoped to bring
home from far off Colchis.
When they were come to the land of Colchis, King Æetes summoned them to
his palace. Beside him was seated his daughter, the beautiful witch
maiden, Medea. She looked upon the Greeks and upon Jason, fairest and
noblest of them all, and her spirit leaped forth to meet his. And
knowing what lay before them, "surely," she thought, "it were an evil
thing that men so bold and comely should perish."
When Jason demanded the Golden Fleece, the rage of the King rushed up
like a whirlwind, but he curbed his speech and spake a fair word.
"Choose ye now him who is boldest among you and let him perform the
labours I shall set."
That night Medea stole from the palace to warn the hero of the toils and
dangers that awaited him,--to tame a span of brazen-footed
fire-breathing bulls, with them to plough four acres of unbroken land in
the field of Ares, to sow the tilth with serpents' teeth, to slay its
crop of warriors, to cross a river, and climb a lofty wall, to snatch
the Fleece from a tree round which lay coiled the sleepless dragon. "How
can these things be accomplished and that before the setting of another
sun?" But Jason used flattering words, singing the song of Chiron:
"No river so deep but an arm may swim,
No wall so steep but a foot may climb,
No dragon so dread but a sword may slay,
No fiend so fierce but your charms may stay."
Medea, seeing that he knew not fear, gave him a magic ointment which
should give him the strength of seven men and protect him from fire and
steel.
All the people assembled at sunrise in the field of Ares. When the
fire-breathing bulls saw Jason standing in the middle of the field, fury
shot from their eyes. Fierce was their onset and the multitude waited
breathless to see what the end would be. As the bulls came on with
lowered heads, and tails in air, Jason leaped nimbly to one side, and
the monsters shot past him with bellowings that shook the earth. They
turned and Jason poised for the leap. As they passed a second time, he
grasped the nearest by the horn and lightly vaulted upon its back. The
bull, unused to the burden, sank cowering to the ground. Jason patted
its neck caressing it, and gladly it shared the yoke with its fellow.
When the ground was ploughed and sown with the teeth of the serpent, a
thousand warriors sprang full-armed from the brown earth. Then King
Æetes greatly rejoiced, but Medea, trembling at the sight, laid a spell
upon them that they might not clearly distinguish friend from foe.
One among them came forth and Jason advanced to meet him, walking with a
halt. His adversary laughed aloud, but Jason with a mighty bound sprang
upon the shoulders of his enemy and bore him helmetless to the ground.
The hero quickly replaced the fallen helmet with his own, giving a
golden helmet for a brazen. The other rose and fled back among his
fellows who, thinking it was Jason come among them, fell upon and slew
him and strove with each other for the golden helmet until all were
slain but one who, wounded unto death, rose up from the fray and
shouting "Victory" sank upon knee and elbow never to rise again.
The rest of the task was quickly accomplished, for Medea by her spells
cast a deep sleep upon the dragon. So the Golden Fleece was won and
brought once more to Iolchos with a prize still more precious, for Jason
bore home with him Medea, the beautiful witch maiden, who became his
bride and ruled with him, let us hope, many happy years.
JOHN WAUGH
In the elder days of Art,
Builders wrought with greatest care
Each minute and unseen part;
For the Gods see everywhere.
Let us do our work as well,
Both the unseen and the seen;
Make the house, where Gods may dwell,
Beautiful, entire and clean.
LONGFELLOW
THE MINSTREL-BOY
The Minstrel-boy to the war is gone,
In the ranks of death you'll find him;
His father's sword he has girded on,
And his wild harp slung behind him.
"Land of song!" said the warrior-bard,
"Tho' all the world betrays thee,
_One_ sword, at least, thy rights shall guard,
_One_ faithful harp shall praise thee!"
The Minstrel fell! but the foeman's chain
Could not bring his proud soul under;
The harp he loved ne'er spoke again,
For he tore its chords asunder;
And said: "No chains shall sully thee,
Thou soul of love and bravery!
Thy songs were made for the pure and free,
They shall never sound in slavery."
MOORE
Once to every man and nation comes the moment to decide,
In the strife of Truth with Falsehood, for the good or evil side;
Then it is the brave man chooses, while the coward stands aside.
LOWELL
MARY ELIZABETH
Mary Elizabeth was a little girl with a long name. She was poor, she was
sick, she was ragged, she was dirty, she was cold, she was hungry, she
was frightened. She had no home, she had no mother, she had no father.
She had no supper, she had had no dinner, she had had no breakfast. She
had no place to go and nobody to care where she went.
In fact, Mary Elizabeth had not much of anything but a short pink calico
dress, a little red cotton-and-wool shawl, and her long name. Besides
this, she had a pair of old rubbers, too large for her.
She was walking up Washington Street. It was late in the afternoon of a
bitter January day.
"God made so many people," thought Mary Elizabeth, "He must have made so
many suppers. Seems as if there'd ought to be one for one extry little
girl."
But she thought this in a gentle way. She was a very gentle little girl.
All girls who hadn't anything were not like Mary Elizabeth.
* * * * *
So now she was shuffling up Washington Street, not knowing exactly what
to do next,--peeping into people's faces, timidly looking away from
them, heart-sick (for a very little girl can be very heart-sick),
colder, she thought, every minute, and hungrier each hour than she was
the hour before.
The child left Washington Street at last, where everybody had homes and
suppers without one extra one to spare for a little girl, and turned
into a short, bright, showy street, where stood a great hotel.
Whether the door-keeper was away, or busy, or sick, or careless, or
whether the head-waiter at the dining-room was so tall that he couldn't
see so short a beggar, or whether the clerk at the desk was so noisy
that he couldn't hear so still a beggar, or however it was, Mary
Elizabeth did get in; by the door-keeper, past the head-waiter, under
the shadow of the clerk, over the smooth, slippery marble floor the
child crept on.
She came to the office door and stood still. She looked around her with
wide eyes. She had never seen a place like that. Lights flashed over it,
many and bright. Gentlemen sat in it smoking and reading. They were all
warm. Not one of them looked as if he had had no dinner and no
breakfast and no supper.
"How many extry suppers," thought the little girl, "it must ha' taken to
feed 'em all. I guess maybe there'll be one for me in here."
Mary Elizabeth stood in the middle of it, in her pink calico dress and
red plaid shawl. The shawl was tied over her head and about her neck
with a ragged tippet. Her bare feet showed in the old rubbers. She began
to shuffle about the room, holding out one purple little hand.
One or two of the gentlemen laughed; some frowned; more did nothing at
all; most did not notice, or did not seem to notice, the child. One
said: "What's the matter here?"
Mary Elizabeth shuffled on. She went from one to the other, less
timidly; a kind of desperation had taken possession of her. The odours
from the dining-room came in, of strong, hot coffee, and strange roast
meats. Mary Elizabeth thought of Jo.
It seemed to her she was so hungry that, if she could not get a supper,
she should jump up and run and rush about and snatch something and steal
like Jo. She held out her hand, but only said: "I'm hungry!"
A gentleman called her. He was the gentleman who had asked: "What's the
matter here?" He called her in behind his daily paper which was big
enough to hide three of Mary Elizabeth, and when he saw that nobody was
looking he gave her a five-cent piece in a hurry, as if he had committed
a sin, and said quickly: "There, there, child! go now, go!"
Then he began to read his newspaper quite hard and fast and to look
severe, as one does who never gives anything to beggars, as a matter of
principle.
But nobody else gave anything to Mary Elizabeth. She shuffled from one
to another, hopelessly. Every gentleman shook his head. One called for a
waiter to put her out. This frightened her and she stood still.
Over by a window, in a lonely corner of the great room, a young man was
sitting apart from the others. He sat with his elbows on the table and
his face buried in his arms. He was a well-dressed young man, with
brown, curling hair.
Mary Elizabeth wondered why he looked so miserable and why he sat alone.
She thought, perhaps, that if he weren't so happy as the other
gentlemen, he would be more sorry for cold and hungry girls. She
hesitated, then walked along and directly up to him.
One or two gentlemen laid down their papers and watched this; they
smiled and nodded to each other. The child did not see them to wonder
why. She went up and put her hand upon the young man's arm.
He started. The brown, curly head lifted itself from the shelter of his
arms; a young face looked sharply at the beggar girl,--a beautiful young
face it might have been.
It was haggard now and dreadful to look at,--bloated and badly marked
with the unmistakable marks of a wicked week's debauch. He roughly said:
"What do you want?"
"I'm hungry," said Mary Elizabeth.
"I can't help that. Go away."
"I haven't had anything to eat for a whole day--a whole day!" repeated
the child.
Her lip quivered. But she spoke distinctly. Her voice sounded through
the room. One gentleman after another laid down his paper or his pipe.
Several were watching this little scene.
"Go away!" repeated the young man, irritably. "Don't bother me. I
haven't had anything to eat for three days!"
His face went down into his arms again. Mary Elizabeth stood staring at
the brown, curling hair. She stood perfectly still for some moments. She
evidently was greatly puzzled. She walked away a little distance, then
stopped and thought it over.
And now paper after paper and pipe after cigar went down. Every
gentleman in the room began to look on. The young man with the beautiful
brown curls, and dissipated, disgraced, and hidden face was not stiller
than the rest.
The little figure in the pink calico and the red shawl and big rubbers
stood for a moment silent among them all. The waiter came to take her
out but the gentlemen motioned him away.
Mary Elizabeth turned her five-cent piece over and over in her purple
hand. Her hand shook. The tears came. The smell of the dinner from the
dining-room grew savoury and strong. The child put the piece of money to
her lips as if she could have eaten it, then turned and, without further
hesitation, went back.
She touched the young man--on the bright hair this time--with her
trembling little hand.
The room was so still now that what she said rang out to the corridor,
where the waiters stood, with the clerk behind looking over the desk to
see.
"I'm sorry you are so hungry. If you haven't had anything for three
days, you must be hungrier than me. I've got five cents. A gentleman
gave it me. I wish you would take it. I've only gone one day. You can
get some supper with it, and--maybe--I--can get some somewheres! I wish
you'd please to take it!"
Mary Elizabeth stood quite still, holding out her five-cent piece. She
did not understand the stir that went all over the bright room. She did
not see that some of the gentlemen coughed and wiped their spectacles.
She did not know why the brown curls before her came up with such a
start, nor why the young man's wasted face flushed red and hot with a
noble shame.
She did not in the least understand why he flung the five-cent piece
upon the table, and, snatching her in his arms, held her fast and hid
his face on her plaid shawl and sobbed. Nor did she seem to know what
could be the reason that nobody seemed amused to see this gentleman
cry.
The gentleman who had given her the money came up, and some more came
up, and they gathered around, and she in the midst of them, and they all
spoke kindly, and the young man with the bad face that might have been
so beautiful stood up, still clinging to her, and said aloud:
"She's shamed me before you all, and she's shamed me to myself! I'll
learn a lesson from this beggar, so help me God!"
So then he took the child upon his knee, and the gentlemen came up to
listen, and the young man asked her what her name was.
"Mary Elizabeth, sir."
"Names used to mean things--in the Bible--when I was as little as you. I
read the Bible then. Does Mary Elizabeth mean angel of rebuke?"
"Sir?"
"Where do you live, Mary Elizabeth?"
"Nowhere, sir."
"Where do you sleep?"
"In Mrs. O'Flynn's shed, sir. It's too cold for the cows. She's so kind,
she lets us stay."
"Whom do you stay with?"
"Nobody, only Jo."
"Is Jo your brother?"
"No, sir. Jo is a girl. I haven't got only Jo."
"What does Jo do for a living?"
"She--gets it, sir."
"And what do you do?"
"I beg. It's better than to--get it, sir, I think."
"Where's your mother?"
"Dead."
"What did she die of?"
"Drink, sir," said Mary Elizabeth, in her distinct and gentle tone.
"Ah--well. And your father?"
"He is dead. He died in prison."
"What sent him to prison?"
"Drink, sir."
"Oh!"
"I had a brother once," continued Mary Elizabeth, who grew quite
eloquent with so large an audience, "but he died, too."
"I do want my supper," she added, after a pause, speaking in a whisper,
as if to Jo or to herself, "and Jo'll be wondering for me."
"Wait, then," said the young man. "I'll see if I can't beg enough to get
you your supper."
"I thought there must be an extry one among so many folks!" cried Mary
Elizabeth; for now, she thought, she should get back her five cents.
And, truly, the young man put the five cents into his hat, to begin
with. Then he took out his purse, and put in something that made less
noise than the five-cent piece and something more and more and more.
Then he passed around the great room, walking still unsteadily, and the
gentleman who gave the five cents and all the gentlemen put something
into the young man's hat.
So, when he came back to the table, he emptied the hat and counted the
money, and, truly, it was forty dollars.
"Forty dollars!"
Mary Elizabeth looked frightened.
"It's yours," said the young man. "Now come to supper. But see! this
gentleman who gave you the five-cent piece shall take care of the money
for you. You can trust him. He's got a wife, too. But we'll come to
supper now."
* * * * *
So the young man took her by the hand, and the gentleman whose wife knew
all about what to do with orphans took her by the other hand, and one or
two more gentlemen followed, and they all went into the dining-room, and
put Mary Elizabeth in a chair at a clean white table, and asked her
what she wanted for her supper.
Mary Elizabeth said that a little dry toast and a cup of milk would do
nicely. So all the gentlemen laughed. And she wondered why.
And the young man with the brown curls laughed, too, and began to look
quite happy. But he ordered chicken and cranberry sauce and mashed
potatoes and celery and rolls and butter and tomatoes and an ice cream
and a cup of tea and nuts and raisins and cake and custard and apples
and grapes.
And Mary Elizabeth sat in her pink dress and red shawl and ate the
whole; and why it didn't kill her nobody knows; but it didn't.
The young man with the face that might have been beautiful--that might
be yet, one would have thought who had seen him then--stood watching the
little girl.
"She's preached me the best sermon," he said below his breath, "I ever
heard. May God bless her! I wish there were a thousand like her in this
selfish world!"
And when I heard about it I wished so, too.
ELIZABETH STUART PHELPS WARD
Oh, there is nothing on earth half so holy
As the innocent heart of a child.
DICKENS
THE FROST
The Frost looked forth, one still clear night,
And whispered: "Now I shall be out of sight;
So through the valley and over the height,
In silence I'll take my way:
I will not go on like that blustering train,
The wind and the snow, the hail and the rain,
Who make so much bustle and noise in vain,
But I'll be as busy as they."
Then he flew to the mountain and powdered its crest;
He lit on the trees, and their boughs he dressed
In diamond beads--and over the breast
Of the quivering lake he spread
A coat of mail, that it need not fear
The downward point of many a spear
That he hung on its margin, far and near,
Where a rock could rear its head.
He went to the windows of those who slept,
And over each pane, like a fairy, crept;
Wherever he breathed, wherever he stept,
By the light of the moon were seen
Most beautiful things:--there were flowers and trees;
There were bevies of birds and swarms of bees:
There were cities with temples and towers; and these
All pictured in silver sheen.
But he did one thing that was hardly fair;
He peeped in the cupboard, and finding there
That all had forgotten for him to prepare--
"Now just to set them a-thinking,
I'll bite this basket of fruit," said he,
"This costly pitcher I'll burst in three,
And the glass of water they've left for me
Shall 'Tchick!' to tell them I'm drinking."
H. F. GOULD
CORN-FIELDS
When on the breath of Autumn's breeze,
From pastures dry and brown,
Goes floating, like an idle thought,
The fair, white thistle-down,--
Oh, then what joy to walk at will
Upon the golden harvest-hill!
What joy in dreaming ease to lie
Amid a field new shorn;
And see all round, on sunlit slopes,
The piled-up shocks of corn;
And send the fancy wandering o'er
All pleasant harvest-fields of yore!
I feel the day; I see the field;
The quivering of the leaves;
And good old Jacob, and his house,--
Binding the yellow sheaves!
And at this very hour I seem
To be with Joseph in his dream!
I see the fields of Bethlehem,
And reapers many a one
Bending unto their sickles' stroke,
And Boaz looking on;
And Ruth, the Moabitess fair,
Among the gleaners stooping there!
Again, I see a little child,
His mother's sole delight,--
God's living gift of love unto
The kind, good Shunammite;
To mortal pangs I see him yield,
And the lad bear him from the field.
The sun-bathed quiet of the hills,
The fields of Galilee,
That eighteen hundred years ago
Were full of corn, I see;
And the dear Saviour take his way
'Mid ripe ears on the Sabbath day.
Oh, golden fields of bending corn,
How beautiful they seem!
The reaper-folk, the piled-up sheaves,
To me are like a dream;
The sunshine, and the very air
Seem of old time, and take me there!
MARY HOWITT
SOUTH-WEST WIND, ESQ.
Treasure Valley belonged to three brothers--Schwartz, Hans, and Gluck.
The two elder brothers were rich, cruel, quarrelsome men who never gave
anything in charity. The youngest brother, Gluck, was twelve years old,
and kind to everyone. He had to act as cook and servant to his brothers.
One cold, wet day the brothers went out, telling Gluck to roast a leg of
mutton on the spit, let nobody into the house, and let nothing out.
After a time some one knocked at the door. Gluck went to the window,
opened it, and put his head out to see who it was.
It was the most extraordinary-looking little gentleman. He had a very
large nose, slightly brass-coloured; very round and very red cheeks;
merry eyes, long hair, and moustaches that curled twice round like a
corkscrew on each side of his mouth. He was four feet six inches high,
and wore a pointed cap as long as himself. It was decorated with a black
feather about three feet long. Around his body was folded an enormous
black, glossy-looking cloak much too long for him. As he knocked again
he caught sight of Gluck.
"Hollo!" said the little gentleman, "that's not the way to answer the
door; I'm wet, let me in."
To do the little gentleman justice, he _was_ wet. His feather hung down
between his legs like a beaten puppy's tail, dripping like an umbrella;
and from the ends of his moustaches the water was running into his
waistcoat pockets, and out again like a mill stream.
"I beg pardon, sir," said Gluck, "I'm very sorry, but I really can't."
"Can't what?" said the old gentleman.
"I can't let you in, sir,--I can't, indeed; my brothers would beat me to
death, sir, if I thought of such a thing. What do you want, sir?"
"Want?" said the old gentleman, petulantly, "I want fire and shelter;
and there's your great fire there blazing, crackling, and dancing on the
walls, with nobody to feel it. Let me in, I say; I only want to warm
myself."
Gluck had had his head, by this time, so long out of the window that he
began to feel it was really unpleasantly cold, and when he turned and
saw the beautiful fire rustling and roaring, and throwing long, bright
tongues up the chimney, as if it were licking its chops at the savoury
smell of the leg of mutton, his heart melted within him that it should
be burning away for nothing. "He does look _very_ wet," said little
Gluck; "I'll just let him in for a quarter of an hour." Round he went to
the door, and opened it; and as the little gentleman walked in, through
the house came a gust of wind that made the old chimneys totter.
"That's a good boy," said the little gentleman. "Never mind your
brothers. I'll talk to them."
"Pray, sir, don't do any such thing," said Gluck. "I can't let you stay
till they come; they'd be the death of me."
"Dear me," said the old gentleman, "I'm very sorry to hear that. How
long may I stay?"
"Only till the mutton's done, sir," replied Gluck, "and it's very
brown."
Then the old gentleman walked into the kitchen, and sat himself down on
the hob, with the top of his cap accommodated up the chimney, for it
was a great deal too high for the roof. "You'll soon dry there, sir,"
said Gluck, and sat down again to turn the mutton. But the old gentleman
did _not_ dry there, but went on drip, drip, dripping among the cinders,
and the fire fizzed and sputtered, and began to look very black and
uncomfortable; never was such a cloak; every fold in it ran like a
gutter.
"I beg pardon, sir," said Gluck at length, after watching the water
spreading in long quicksilver-like streams over the floor for a quarter
of an hour; "mayn't I take your cloak?"
"No, thank you," said the old gentleman.
"Your cap, sir?"
"I am all right, thank you," said the old gentleman, rather gruffly.
"But--sir--I'm very sorry," said Gluck, hesitatingly; "but--really,
sir--you're putting the fire out."
"It'll take longer to do the mutton, then," replied his visitor, dryly.
Gluck was very much puzzled by the behaviour of his guest; it was such a
strange mixture of coolness and humility. He turned away at the string
meditatively for another five minutes.
"That mutton looks very nice," said the old gentleman, at length. "Can't
you give me a little bit?"
"Impossible, sir," said Gluck.
"I'm very hungry," continued the old gentleman; "I've had nothing to eat
yesterday, nor to-day. They surely couldn't miss a bit from the
knuckle!"
He spoke in so very melancholy a tone that it quite melted Gluck's
heart. "They promised me one slice to-day, sir," said he; "I can give
you that, but not a bit more."
"That's a good boy," said the old gentleman again.
Then Gluck warmed a plate and sharpened a knife. "I don't care if I do
get beaten for it," thought he. Just as he had cut a large slice out of
the mutton, there came a tremendous rap at the door. The old gentleman
jumped off the hob, as if it had suddenly become inconveniently warm.
Gluck fitted the slice into the mutton again, with desperate efforts at
exactitude, and ran to open the door.
"What did you keep us waiting in the rain for?" said Schwartz, as he
walked in, throwing his umbrella in Gluck's face.
"Ay! what for, indeed, you little vagabond?" said Hans, administering an
educational box on the ear, as he followed his brother into the kitchen.
"Bless my soul!" said Schwartz, when he opened the door.
"Amen," said the little gentleman, who had taken his cap off, and was
standing in the middle of the kitchen, bowing with the utmost possible
velocity.
"Who's that?" said Schwartz, catching up a rolling-pin, and turning to
Gluck with a fierce frown.
"I don't know, indeed, brother," said Gluck, in great terror.
"How did he get in?" roared Schwartz.
"My dear brother," said Gluck, deprecatingly, "he was so _very_ wet!"
The rolling-pin was descending on Gluck's head; but at the instant the
old gentleman interposed his conical cap, on which it crashed with a
shock that shook the water out of it all over the room. What was very
odd, the rolling-pin no sooner touched the cap than it flew out of
Schwartz's hand, spinning like a straw in a high wind, and fell into the
corner at the farther end of the room.
"Who are you, sir?" demanded Schwartz, turning upon him.
"What's your business?" snarled Hans.
"I'm a poor, old man, sir," the little gentleman began very modestly,
"and I saw your fire through the window, and begged shelter for a
quarter of an hour."
"Have the goodness to walk out again, then," said Schwartz. "We've quite
enough water in our kitchen, without making it a drying-house."
"It is a cold day to turn an old man out in, sir; look at my gray
hairs." They hung down to his shoulders.
"Ay!" said Hans, "there are enough of them to keep you warm. Walk!"
"I'm very, very hungry, sir; couldn't you spare me a bit of bread before
I go?"
"Bread, indeed!" said Schwartz; "do you suppose we've nothing to do with
our bread but to give it to such red-nosed fellows as you?"
"Why don't you sell your feather?" said Hans, sneeringly. "Out with
you!"
"A little bit," said the old gentleman.
"Be off!" said Schwartz.
"Pray, gentlemen--"
"Off, and be hanged!" cried Hans, seizing him by the collar. But he had
no sooner touched the old gentleman's collar, than away he went after
the rolling-pin, spinning round and round, till he fell into the corner
on the top of it. Then Schwartz was very angry, and ran at the old
gentleman to turn him out; but he also had hardly touched him, when away
he went after Hans and the rolling-pin, and hit his head against the
wall as he tumbled into the corner. And so there they lay, all three.
Then the old gentleman spun himself round with velocity in the opposite
direction; continued to spin until his long cloak was all wound neatly
about him; clapped his cap on his head, very much on one side (for it
could not stand upright without going through the ceiling), gave an
additional twist to his corkscrew moustaches, and replied with perfect
coolness: "Gentlemen, I wish you a very good-morning. At twelve o'clock
to-night I'll call again; after such a refusal of hospitality as I have
just experienced, you will not be surprised if that visit is the last I
ever pay you."
"If I ever catch you here again," muttered Schwartz, coming,
half-frightened, out of the corner--but before he could finish his
sentence, the old gentleman had shut the house door behind him with a
great bang; and past the window, at the same instant, drove a wreath of
ragged cloud, that whirled and rolled away down the valley in all manner
of shapes; turning over and over in the air, and melting away at last in
a gush of rain.
"A very pretty business, indeed, Mr. Gluck!" said Schwartz. "Dish the
mutton, sir. If ever I catch you at such a trick again--bless me, why
the mutton's been cut!"
"You promised me one slice, brother, you know," said Gluck.
"Oh! and you were cutting it hot, I suppose, and going to catch all the
gravy. It'll be long before I promise you such a thing again. Leave the
room, sir; and have the kindness to wait in the coal-cellar till I call
you."
Gluck left the room melancholy enough. The brothers ate as much mutton
as they could, locked the rest in the cupboard, and proceeded to get
very drunk after dinner.
Such a night as it was! Howling wind and rushing rain, without
intermission.
The brothers had just sense enough left to put up all the shutters, and
double-bar the door, before they went to bed. They usually slept in the
same room. As the clock struck twelve, they were both awakened by a
tremendous crash. Their door burst open with a violence that shook the
house from top to bottom.
"What's that?" cried Schwartz, starting up in his bed.
"Only I," said the little gentleman.
The two brothers sat up on their bolster, and stared into the darkness.
The room was full of water, and by a misty moonbeam, which found its way
through a hole in the shutter, they could see, in the midst of it, an
enormous foam globe, spinning round, and bobbing up and down like a
cork, on which, as on a most luxurious cushion, reclined the little old
gentleman, cap and all. There was plenty of room for it now, for the
roof was off.
"Sorry to incommode you," said their visitor, ironically. "I'm afraid
your beds are dampish; perhaps you had better go to your brother's room;
I've left the ceiling on there."
They required no second admonition, but rushed into Gluck's room, wet
through, and in an agony of terror.
"You'll find my card on the kitchen table," the old gentleman called
after them. "Remember, the _last_ visit."
"Pray Heaven it may be!" said Schwartz, shuddering. And the foam globe
disappeared.
Dawn came at last, and the two brothers looked out of Gluck's little
window in the morning. The Treasure Valley was one mass of ruin and
desolation. The inundation had swept away trees, crops, and cattle, and
left, in their stead, a waste of red sand and gray mud. The two brothers
crept, shivering and horror-struck, into the kitchen. The water had
gutted the whole first floor: corn, money, almost every movable thing
had been swept away, and there was left only a small white card on the
kitchen table. On it, in large, breezy, long-legged letters, were
engraved the words:--
SOUTH-WEST WIND, ESQUIRE.
RUSKIN: "The King of the Golden River."
(Adapted)
The cloud-capp'd towers, the gorgeous palaces,
The solemn temples, the great globe itself,
Yea, all which it inherit, shall dissolve;
And, like this insubstantial pageant faded,
Leave not a rack behind. We are such stuff
As dreams are made on, and our little life
Is rounded with a sleep.
SHAKESPEARE
THE MEETING OF THE WATERS
There is not in the wide world a valley so sweet
As that vale in whose bosom the bright waters meet;
Oh! the last rays of feeling and life must depart,
Ere the bloom of that valley shall fade from my heart.
Yet it _was_ not that Nature had shed o'er the scene
Her purest of crystal and brightest of green;
'Twas _not_ her soft magic of streamlet or hill,
Oh! no,--it was something more exquisite still.
'Twas that friends, the beloved of my bosom, were near,
Who made every dear scene of enchantment more dear,
And who felt how the best charms of Nature improve,
When we see them reflected from looks that we love.
Sweet vale of Avoca! how calm could I rest
In thy bosom of shade, with the friends I love best,
Where the storms that we feel in this cold world should cease,
And our hearts, like thy waters, be mingled in peace.
MOORE
LOVE
Love your enemies, do good to them which hate you. Bless them that curse
you, and pray for them which despitefully use you. And as ye would that
men should do to you, do ye also to them likewise. For if ye love them
which love you, what thank have ye? for sinners also love those that
love them. And if ye do good to them which do good to you, what thank
have ye? for sinners also do even the same. And if ye lend to them of
whom ye hope to receive, what thank have ye? for sinners also lend to
sinners, to receive as much again. But love ye your enemies, and do
good, and lend, hoping for nothing again; and your reward shall be
great, and ye shall be the children of the Highest: for he is kind unto
the unthankful and to the evil. Be ye therefore merciful, as your
Father also is merciful. Judge not, and ye shall not be judged: condemn
not, and ye shall not be condemned: forgive, and ye shall be forgiven.
Give, and it shall be given unto you; good measure, pressed down, and
shaken together, and running over, shall men give into your bosom. For
with the same measure that ye mete withal it shall be measured to you
again.
ST. LUKE, VI. 27-38
THE ROBIN'S SONG
"When the willows gleam along the brooks,
And the grass grows green in sunny nooks,
In the sunshine and the rain
I hear the robin in the lane
Singing, 'Cheerily,
Cheer up, cheer up;
Cheerily, cheerily,
Cheer up.'
"But the snow is still
Along the walls and on the hill.
The days are cold, the nights forlorn,
For one is here and one is gone.
'Tut, tut. Cheerily,
Cheer up, cheer up;
Cheerily, cheerily,
Cheer up.'
"When spring hopes seem to wane,
I hear the joyful strain--
A song at night, a song at morn,
A lesson deep to me is borne,
Hearing, 'Cheerily,
Cheer up, cheer up;
Cheerily, cheerily,
Cheer up.'"
UNKNOWN
WORK OR PLAY
Saturday morning was come, and all the summer world was bright and fresh
and brimming with life. There was a song in every heart; and if the
heart was young the music issued at the lips. There was cheer in every
face, and a spring in every step. The locust trees were in bloom, and
the fragrance of the blossoms filled the air.
Tom appeared on the sidewalk with a bucket of whitewash and a
long-handled brush. He surveyed the fence, and the gladness went out of
nature, and a deep melancholy settled down upon his spirit. Thirty yards
of board fence nine feet high! It seemed to him that life was hollow,
and existence but a burden. Sighing, he dipped his brush and passed it
along the topmost plank; repeated the operation; did it again; compared
the insignificant whitewashed streak with the far-reaching continent of
unwhitewashed fence, and sat down on a tree-box discouraged.
He began to think of the fun he had planned for this day, and his
sorrows multiplied. Soon the free boys would come tripping along on all
sorts of delicious expeditions, and they would make a world of fun of
him for having to work--the very thought of it burnt him like fire.
He got out his worldly wealth and examined it--bits of toys, marbles and
trash; enough to buy an exchange of work maybe, but not enough to buy so
much as half an hour of pure freedom. So he returned his straitened
means to his pocket, and gave up the idea of trying to buy the boys.
At this dark and hopeless moment an inspiration burst upon him. Nothing
less than a great, magnificent inspiration. He took up his brush and
went tranquilly to work. Ben Rogers hove in sight presently; the very
boy of all boys whose ridicule he had been dreading. Ben's gait was the
hop, skip, and jump--proof enough that his heart was light and his
anticipations high. He was eating an apple, and giving a long melodious
whoop at intervals, followed by a deep-toned ding dong dong, ding dong
dong, for he was personating a steamboat.
Tom went on whitewashing--paid no attention to the steamer. Ben stared a
moment, and then said--
"Hi-yi! You're a stump, ain't you!"
No answer. Tom surveyed his last touch with the eye of an artist; then
he gave his brush another gentle sweep, and surveyed the result as
before. Ben ranged up alongside of him. Tom's mouth watered for the
apple, but he stuck to his work. Ben said--
"Hello, old chap; you got to work, hey?"
"Why, it's you, Ben! I warn't noticing."
"Say, I'm going in a-swimming, I am. Don't you wish you could? But of
course you'd druther work, wouldn't you? 'Course you would!"
Tom contemplated the boy a bit, and said--
"What do you call work?"
"Why ain't that work?"
Tom resumed his whitewashing, and answered carelessly--
"Well, maybe it is, and maybe it ain't. All I know is, it suits Tom
Sawyer."
"Oh, come now, you don't mean to let on that you like it?"
The brush continued to move.
"Like it? Well, I don't see why I oughtn't to like it. Does a boy get a
chance to whitewash a fence every day?"
That put the thing in a new light. Ben stopped nibbling his apple. Tom
swept his brush daintily back and forth--stepped back to note the
effect--added a touch here and there--criticised the effect again, Ben
watching every move, and getting more and more interested, more and more
absorbed. Presently he said--
"Say, Tom, let me whitewash a little."
Tom considered; was about to consent; but he altered his mind: "No, no;
I reckon it wouldn't hardly do, Ben. You see, Aunt Polly's awful
particular about this fence--right here on the street, you know--but if
it was the back fence I wouldn't mind, and she wouldn't. Yes, she's
awful particular about this fence; it's got to be done very careful; I
reckon there ain't one boy in a thousand, maybe two thousand, that can
do it the way it's got to be done."
"No--is that so? Oh, come now; lemme just try, only just a little. I'd
let you, if you was me, Tom."
"Ben, I'd like to, honest injun; but Aunt Polly--well, Jim wanted to do
it, but she wouldn't let him. Sid wanted to do it, but she wouldn't let
Sid. Now, don't you see how I am fixed? If you was to tackle this fence,
and anything was to happen to it--"
"Oh, shucks; I'll be just as careful. Now lemme try. Say--I'll give you
the core of my apple."
"Well, here. No, Ben; now don't; I'm afeard--"
"I'll give you all of it!"
Tom gave up the brush with reluctance in his face, but alacrity in his
heart. And while Ben worked and sweated in the sun, the retired artist
sat on a barrel in the shade close by, dangled his legs, munched his
apple, and planned the slaughter of more innocents. There was no lack of
material; boys happened along every little while; they came to jeer, but
remained to whitewash.
By the time Ben was fagged out, Tom had traded the next chance to Billy
Fisher for a kite in good repair; and when he played out, Johnny Miller
bought in for a dead rat and a string to swing it with; and so on, and
so on, hour after hour. And when the middle of the afternoon came, from
being a poor, poverty-stricken boy in the morning, Tom was literally
rolling in wealth.
He had, besides the things I have mentioned, twelve marbles, part of a
jew's harp, a piece of blue bottle-glass to look through, a
spool-cannon, a key that wouldn't unlock anything, a fragment of chalk,
a glass stopper of a decanter, a tin soldier, a couple of tadpoles, six
fire-crackers, a kitten with only one eye, a brass door-knob, a
dog-collar--but no dog--the handle of a knife, four pieces of
orange-peel, and a dilapidated old window-sash. He had had a nice, good,
idle time all the while--plenty of company--and the fence had three
coats of whitewash on it! If he hadn't run out of whitewash, he would
have bankrupted every boy in the village.
Tom said to himself that it was not such a hollow world after all. He
had discovered a great law of human action, without knowing it, namely,
that, in order to make a man or a boy covet a thing, it is only
necessary to make the thing difficult to attain. If he had been a great
and wise philosopher, he would have comprehended that Work consists of
whatever a body is _obliged_ to do, and that Play consists of whatever a
body is _not_ obliged to do.
MARK TWAIN: "The Adventures of Tom Sawyer."
BURIAL OF SIR JOHN MOORE
Not a drum was heard, not a funeral note,
As his corpse to the rampart we hurried;
Not a soldier discharged his farewell shot
O'er the grave where our hero we buried.
We buried him darkly at dead of night,
The sods with our bayonets turning;
By the struggling moon-beam's misty light,
And the lantern dimly burning.
No useless coffin inclosed his breast,
Nor in sheet nor in shroud we wound him;
But he lay like a warrior taking his rest,
With his martial cloak around him.
Few and short were the prayers we said,
And we spoke not a word of sorrow;
But we steadfastly gazed on the face that was dead,
And we bitterly thought of the morrow.
We thought as we hollowed his narrow bed,
And smoothed down his lonely pillow,
That the foe and the stranger would tread o'er his head,
And we far away on the billow.
Lightly they'll talk of the spirit that's gone,
And o'er his cold ashes upbraid him,--
But little he'll reck, if they let him sleep on,
In the grave where a Briton has laid him.
But half of our heavy task was done
When the clock struck the hour for retiring;
And we heard the distant and random gun
That the foe was sullenly firing.
Slowly and sadly we laid him down
From the field of his fame fresh and gory;
We carved not a line, and we raised not a stone,
But we left him alone with his glory.
C. WOLFE
THE WHISTLE
When I was a boy of seven years old, my friends, on a holiday, filled my
pocket with coppers. I went directly to a shop where they sold toys for
children, and being charmed with the sound of a whistle, that I met by
the way in the hands of another boy, I voluntarily offered and gave all
my money for one. I then came home, and went whistling all over the
house, much pleased with my whistle, but disturbing all the family. My
brothers, and sisters, and cousins, understanding the bargain I had
made, told me I had given four times as much for it as it was worth; put
me in mind what good things I might have bought with the rest of the
money; and laughed at me so much for my folly, that I cried with
vexation; and the reflection gave me more chagrin than the whistle gave
me pleasure.
This, however, was afterwards of use to me, the impression continuing in
my mind; so that often, when I was tempted to buy some unnecessary
thing, I said to myself: "Don't give too much for the whistle;" and I
saved my money.
As I grew up, came into the world, and observed the actions of men, I
thought I met with many, very many, who gave too much for the whistle.
When I saw any one fond of popularity, constantly employing himself in
politics, neglecting his own affairs and ruining them by that neglect,
"He pays, indeed," said I, "too much for his whistle."
If I saw one fond of fine clothes, fine furniture, fine horses, all
above his fortune, for which he contracted debts and ended his career in
poverty, "Alas!" said I, "he has paid dear, very dear, for his whistle."
In short, I believed that a great part of the miseries of mankind were
brought upon them by the false estimates they had made of the value of
things, and by their giving too much for their whistles.
BENJAMIN FRANKLIN
A CANADIAN BOAT SONG
Faintly as tolls the evening chime
Our voices keep tune and our oars keep time.
Soon as the woods on shore look dim,
We'll sing at St. Ann's our parting hymn.
Row, brothers, row, the stream runs fast,
The Rapids are near and the daylight's past.
Why should we yet our sail unfurl?
There is not a breath the blue wave to curl;
But, when the wind blows off the shore,
Oh! sweetly we'll rest our weary oar.
Blow, breezes, blow, the stream runs fast,
The Rapids are near and the daylight's past.
Utawas' tide! this trembling moon
Shall see us float over thy surges soon.
Saint of this green isle! hear our prayers,
Oh, grant us cool heavens and favouring airs.
Blow, breezes, blow, the stream runs fast,
The Rapids are near and the daylight's past.
MOORE
THE LITTLE HERO OF HAARLEM
At an early period in the history of Holland, a boy was born in Haarlem,
a town remarkable for its variety of fortune in war, but happily still
more so for its manufactures and inventions in peace.
His father was a sluicer--that is, one whose employment it was to open
and shut the sluices or large oak gates which, placed at certain regular
distances, close the entrances of the canals, and secure Holland from
the danger to which it seems exposed, of finding itself under water,
rather than above it. When water is wanted, the sluicer raises the
sluices more or less, as required, as the cook turns the cock of a
fountain, and closes them again carefully at night; otherwise the water
would flow into the canals, then overflow them, and inundate the whole
country; so that even the little children in Holland are fully aware of
the importance of a punctual discharge of the sluicer's duties.
The boy was about eight years old when, one day, he asked permission to
take some cakes to a poor blind man, who lived at the other side of the
dike. His father gave him leave, but charged him not to stay too late.
The child promised, and set off on his little journey. The blind man
thankfully partook of his young friend's cakes, and the boy, mindful of
his father's orders, did not wait, as usual, to hear one of the old
man's stories, but as soon as he had seen him eat one muffin, took leave
of him to return home.
As he went along by the canals, then quite full, for it was in October,
and the autumn rains had swelled the waters,--the boy now stooped to
pull the little blue flowers which his mother loved so well, now, in
childish gaiety, hummed some merry song. The road gradually became more
solitary, and soon neither the joyous shout of the villager returning to
his cottage home, nor the rough voice of the carter grumbling at his
lazy horses, was any longer to be heard. The little fellow now perceived
that the blue of the flowers in his hands was scarcely distinguishable
from the green of the surrounding herbage, and he looked up in some
dismay. The night was falling; not, however, a dark, winter night, but
one of those beautiful, clear, moonlight nights, in which every object
is perceptible, though not as distinctly as by day.
The child thought of his father, of his injunction, and was preparing to
quit the ravine in which he was almost buried, and to regain the beach,
when suddenly a slight noise, like the trickling of water upon pebbles,
attracted his attention. He was near one of the large sluices, and he
now carefully examined it, and soon discovered a hole in the wood,
through which the water was flowing. With the instant perception which
every child in Holland would have, the boy saw that the water must soon
enlarge the hole through which it was now only dropping, and that utter
and general ruin would be the consequence of the inundation of the
country that must follow. To see, to throw away the flowers, to climb
from stone to stone till he reached the hole, and to put his finger into
it, was the work of a moment, and to his delight he found that he had
succeeded in stopping the flow of the water.
This was all very well for a little while, and the child thought only of
the success of his device. But the night was closing in, and with the
night came the cold. The little boy looked around in vain. No one came.
He shouted--he called loudly--no one answered. He resolved to stay there
all night, but alas! the cold was becoming every moment more biting, and
the poor finger fixed in the hole began to feel benumbed, and the
numbness soon extended to the hand, and thence throughout the whole arm.
The pain became still greater, still harder to bear, but yet the boy
moved not. Tears rolled down his cheeks as he thought of his father, of
his mother, of his little bed, where he might now be sleeping so
soundly; but still the little fellow stirred not, for he knew that did
he remove the small slender finger which he had opposed to the escape of
the water, not only would he himself be drowned, but his father, his
brothers, his neighbours--nay, the whole village.
We know not what faltering of purpose, what momentary failures of
courage there might have been during that long and terrible night; but
certain it is, that at daybreak he was found in the same painful
position by a clergyman returning from attendance on a deathbed, who, as
he advanced, thought he heard groans, and bending over the dike,
discovered a child seated on a stone, writhing from pain, and with pale
face and tearful eyes.
"In the name of wonder, boy," he exclaimed, "what are you doing there?"
"I am hindering the water from running out," was the answer, in perfect
simplicity, of the child, who, during that whole night, had been
evincing such heroic fortitude and undaunted courage.
The Muse of History has handed down to posterity many a warrior, the
destroyer of thousands of his fellow-men--but she has left us in
ignorance of the name of this real little hero of Haarlem.
SHARPE'S LONDON MAGAZINE
Dreams, books, are each a world; and books, we know,
Are a substantial world, both pure and good.
WORDSWORTH
FATHER WILLIAM
"Repeat 'You are old, Father William,'" said the Caterpillar.
Alice folded her hands, and began:--
"You are old, Father William," the young man said,
"And your hair has become very white;
And yet you incessantly stand on your head--
Do you think, at your age, it is right?"
"In my youth," Father William replied to his son,
"I feared it might injure the brain;
But now that I'm perfectly sure I have none,
Why, I do it again and again."
"You are old," said the youth, "as I mentioned before,
And have grown most uncommonly fat;
Yet you turned a back-somersault in at the door--
Pray, what is the reason of that?"
"In my youth," said the sage, as he shook his gray locks,
"I kept all my limbs very supple
By the use of this ointment--one shilling the box--
Allow me to sell you a couple."
"You are old," said the youth, "and your jaws are too weak
For anything tougher than suet;
Yet you finished the goose, with the bones and the beak.
Pray, how did you manage to do it?"
"In my youth," said his father, "I took to the law,
And argued each case with my wife;
And the muscular strength, which it gave to my jaw,
Has lasted the rest of my life."
"You are old," said the youth; "one would hardly suppose
That your eye was as steady as ever;
Yet you balanced an eel on the end of your nose--
What made you so awfully clever?"
"I have answered three questions, and that is enough,"
Said his father; "don't give yourself airs!
Do you think I can listen all day to such stuff?
Be off, or I'll kick you down-stairs!"
"That is not said right," said the Caterpillar.
"Not _quite_ right, I'm afraid," said Alice timidly; "some of the words
have got altered."
"It is wrong from beginning to end," said the Caterpillar decidedly, and
there was silence for some minutes.
LEWIS CARROLL: "The Adventures of Alice in Wonderland."
DAVID AND GOLIATH
Now the Philistines gathered together their armies to battle, and Saul
and the men of Israel were gathered together, and pitched by the valley
of Elah, and set the battle in array against the Philistines. And the
Philistines stood on a mountain on the one side, and Israel stood on a
mountain on the other side: and there was a valley between them.
And there went out a champion out of the camp of the Philistines, named
Goliath, of Gath, whose height was six cubits and a span. And he had an
helmet of brass upon his head, and he was armed with a coat of mail; and
the weight of the coat was five thousand shekels of brass. And he had
greaves of brass upon his legs, and a target of brass between his
shoulders. And the staff of his spear was like a weaver's beam; and his
spear's head weighed six hundred shekels of iron: and one bearing a
shield went before him.
And he stood and cried unto the armies of Israel, and said unto them,
Why are ye come out to set your battle in array? Am not I a Philistine,
and ye servants to Saul? Choose you a man for you, and let him come down
to me. If he be able to fight with me, and to kill me, then will we be
your servants: but if I prevail against him, and kill him, then shall ye
be our servants, and serve us. And the Philistine said, I defy the
armies of Israel this day; give me a man, that we may fight together.
When Saul and all Israel heard those words of the Philistine, they were
dismayed, and greatly afraid.
And David rose up early in the morning, and left the sheep with a
keeper, and took, and went, as Jesse had commanded him; and he came to
the trench, as the host was going forth to the fight, and shouted for
the battle. For Israel and the Philistines had put the battle in array,
army against army. And David left his carriage in the hand of the keeper
of the carriage, and ran into the army, and came and saluted his
brethren. And as he talked with them, behold, there came up the
champion, the Philistine of Gath, Goliath by name, out of the armies of
the Philistines, and spake according to the same words: and David heard
them. And all the men of Israel, when they saw the man, fled from him,
and were sore afraid. And the men of Israel said, Have ye seen this man
that is come up? surely to defy Israel is he come up: and it shall be,
that the man who killeth him, the king will enrich him with great
riches, and will give him his daughter, and make his father's house free
in Israel. And David spake to the men that stood by him, saying, What
shall be done to the man that killeth this Philistine, and taketh away
the reproach from Israel? For who is this Philistine, that he should
defy the armies of the living God? And the people answered him after
this manner, saying, So shall it be done to the man that killeth him.
And when the words were heard which David spake, they rehearsed them
before Saul: and he sent for him.
And David said to Saul, Let no man's heart fail because of him; thy
servant will go and fight with this Philistine. And Saul said to David,
Thou art not able to go against this Philistine to fight with him: for
thou art but a youth, and he a man of war from his youth. And David said
unto Saul, Thy servant kept his father's sheep, and there came a lion,
and a bear, and took a lamb out of the flock: And I went out after him,
and smote him, and delivered it out of his mouth: and when he arose
against me, I caught him by his beard, and smote him, and slew him. Thy
servant slew both the lion and the bear: and this Philistine shall be as
one of them, seeing he hath defied the armies of the living God. David
said moreover, The Lord that delivered me out of the paw of the lion,
and out of the paw of the bear, he will deliver me out of the hand of
this Philistine. And Saul said unto David, Go, and the Lord be with
thee.
And Saul armed David with his armour, and he put a helmet of brass upon
his head; also he armed him with a coat of mail. And David girded his
sword upon his armour, and he assayed to go; for he had not proved it.
And David said unto Saul, I cannot go with these; for I have not proved
them. And David put them off him. And he took his staff in his hand, and
chose him five smooth stones out of the brook, and put them in a
shepherd's bag which he had, even in a scrip; and his sling was in his
hand: and he drew near to the Philistine.
And the Philistine came on and drew near unto David; and the man that
bare the shield went before him. And when the Philistine looked about,
and saw David, he disdained him: for he was but a youth, and ruddy, and
of a fair countenance. And the Philistine said unto David, Am I a dog,
that thou comest to me with staves? And the Philistine cursed David by
his gods.
And the Philistine said to David, Come to me, and I will give thy flesh
unto the fowls of the air, and to the beasts of the field.
Then said David to the Philistine, Thou comest to me with a sword, and
with a spear, and with a shield: but I come to thee in the name of the
Lord of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom thou hast defied.
This day will the Lord deliver thee into mine hand; and I will smite
thee, and take thine head from thee; and I will give the carcases of the
host of the Philistines this day unto the fowls of the air, and to the
wild beasts of the earth; that all the earth may know that there is a
God in Israel. And all this assembly shall know that the Lord saveth not
with sword and spear: for the battle is the Lord's, and he will give you
into our hands.
And it came to pass, when the Philistine arose, and came and drew nigh
to meet David, that David hasted, and ran toward the army to meet the
Philistine. And David put his hand in his bag, and took thence a stone,
and slang it, and smote the Philistine in his forehead, that the stone
sunk into his forehead; and he fell upon his face to the earth. So David
prevailed over the Philistine with a sling and with a stone, and smote
the Philistine, and slew him; but there was no sword in the hand of
David. Therefore David ran, and stood upon the Philistine, and took his
sword, and drew it out of the sheath thereof, and slew him, and cut off
his head therewith. And when the Philistines saw their champion was
dead, they fled.
I. SAMUEL, XVII.
[Illustration: AT THE END OF THE MEAL]
THE CHARGE OF THE LIGHT BRIGADE
Half a league, half a league,
Half a league onward,
All in the valley of Death
Rode the six hundred.
"Forward, the Light Brigade!
Charge for the guns!" he said:
Into the valley of Death
Rode the six hundred.
"Forward, the Light Brigade!"
Was there a man dismay'd?
Not tho' the soldier knew
Some one had blunder'd:
Their's not to make reply,
Their's not to reason why,
Their's but to do and die:
Into the valley of Death
Rode the six hundred.
Cannon to right of them,
Cannon to left of them,
Cannon in front of them
Volley'd and thunder'd;
Storm'd at with shot and shell,
Boldly they rode and well,
Into the jaws of Death,
Into the mouth of Hell
Rode the six hundred.
Flash'd all their sabres bare,
Flash'd as they turn'd in air
Sabring the gunners there,
Charging an army, while
All the world wonder'd:
Plunged in the battery-smoke
Right thro' the line they broke;
Cossack and Russian
Reel'd from the sabre-stroke
Shatter'd and sunder'd.
Then they rode back, but not
Not the six hundred.
Cannon to right of them,
Cannon to left of them,
Cannon behind them
Volley'd and thunder'd;
Storm'd at with shot and shell,
While horse and hero fell,
They that had fought so well
Came thro' the jaws of Death,
Back from the mouth of Hell,
All that was left of them,
Left of six hundred.
When can their glory fade?
O the wild charge they made!
All the world wonder'd.
Honour the charge they made!
Honour the Light Brigade,
Noble six hundred!
TENNYSON
MAGGIE TULLIVER
Maggie and Tom came in from the garden with their father and their Uncle
Glegg. Maggie had thrown her bonnet off very carelessly, and, coming in
with her hair rough as well as out of curl, rushed at once to Lucy. The
contrast between the two cousins was like the contrast between a rough,
dark, overgrown puppy and a white kitten. Lucy put up the neatest little
rosebud mouth to be kissed: everything about her was neat.
"Heyday!" said Aunt Glegg, with loud emphasis. "Do little boys and girls
come into a room without taking notice of their uncles and aunts? That
wasn't the way when I was a little girl."
"Go and speak to your aunts and uncles, my dears," said Mrs. Tulliver.
She wanted to whisper to Maggie a command to go and have her hair
brushed.
"Well, and how do you do? And I hope you're good children, are you?"
said Aunt Glegg, in the same loud, emphatic way. "Look up, Tom, look up.
Look at me now. Put your hair behind your ears, Maggie, and keep your
frock on your shoulder."
Aunt Glegg always spoke to them in this loud, emphatic way, as if she
considered them deaf.
"Well, my dears," said Aunt Pullet, "you grow wonderfully fast,--I doubt
they'll outgrow their strength. I think the girl has too much hair. I'd
have it thinned and cut shorter, sister, if I were you; it isn't good
for her health. It's that makes her skin so brown,--don't you think so,
sister Deane?"
"I can't say, I'm sure, sister," said Mrs. Deane, shutting her lips
close and looking at Maggie.
"No, no," said Mr. Tulliver, "the child's healthy enough: there's
nothing ails her. There's red wheat as well as white, for that matter,
and some like the dark grain best. But it would be as well if Bessie
would have the child's hair cut so it would lie smooth."
"Maggie," said Mrs. Tulliver, beckoning Maggie to her, and whispering in
her ear, "go and get your hair brushed,--do, for shame! I told you not
to come in without going to Martha first; you know I did."
"Tom, come out with me," whispered Maggie, pulling his sleeve as she
passed him; and Tom followed willingly enough.
"Come upstairs with me, Tom," she whispered, when they were outside the
door. "There's something I want to do before dinner."
"There's no time to play at anything before dinner," said Tom.
"Oh, yes, there is time for this--_do_ come, Tom."
Tom followed Maggie upstairs into her mother's room, and saw her go at
once to a drawer from which she took out a large pair of scissors.
"What are they for, Maggie?" said Tom, feeling his curiosity awakened.
Maggie answered by seizing her front locks and cutting them straight
across the middle of her forehead.
"Oh, my buttons, Maggie, you'll catch it!" exclaimed Tom; "you'd better
not cut any more off."
Snip! went the great scissors again while Tom was speaking; and he could
hardly help feeling it was rather good fun--Maggie looking so queer.
"Here, Tom, cut it behind for me," said Maggie, excited by her own
daring, and anxious to finish the deed.
"You'll catch it, you know," said Tom, hesitating a little as he took
the scissors.
"Never mind--make haste!" said Maggie, giving a little stamp with her
foot. Her cheeks were quite flushed.
The black locks were so thick,--nothing could be more tempting to a lad
who had already tasted the forbidden pleasure of cutting the pony's
mane. One delicious grinding snip, and then another and another, and the
hinder locks fell heavily on the floor. Maggie stood cropped in a
jagged, uneven manner, but with a sense of clearness and freedom, as if
she had emerged from a wood into the open plain.
"Oh, Maggie," said Tom, jumping round her and slapping his knees as he
laughed; "oh, my buttons, what a queer thing you look! Look at yourself
in the glass."
Maggie felt an unexpected pang. She had thought beforehand chiefly of
her own deliverance from her teasing hair and teasing remarks about it,
and something also of the triumph she should have over her mother and
her aunts by this very decided course of action. She didn't want her
hair to look pretty--that was out of the question--she only wanted
people to think her a clever little girl and not to find fault with her.
But now, when Tom began to laugh at her, the affair had quite a new
aspect. She looked in the glass, and still Tom laughed and clapped his
hands, and Maggie's flushed cheeks began to pale, and her lips to
tremble a little.
"Oh, Maggie, you'll have to go down to dinner directly," said Tom. "Oh,
my!"
"Don't laugh at me, Tom," said Maggie, in a passionate tone, and with an
outburst of angry tears, stamping, and giving him a push.
"Now, then, spitfire!" said Tom. "What did you cut it off for, then? I
shall go down: I can smell the dinner going in."
Tom hurried down-stairs and left poor Maggie. As she stood crying before
the glass, she felt it impossible that she should go down to dinner and
endure the severe eyes and severe words of her aunts, while Tom, and
Lucy, and Martha, who waited at table, and perhaps her father and her
uncles, would laugh at her. If Tom had laughed at her, of course every
one else would; and, if she had only let her hair alone, she could have
sat with Tom and Lucy, and had the apricot pudding and the custard! What
could she do but sob?
"Miss Maggie, you're to come down this minute," said Kezia, entering the
room hurriedly. "What have you been a-doing? I never saw such a fright!"
"Don't, Kezia," said Maggie, angrily. "Go away!"
"But I tell you, you're to come down, Miss, this minute: your mother
says so," said Kezia, going up to Maggie and taking her by the hand to
raise her from the floor.
"Get away, Kezia; I don't want any dinner," said Maggie, resisting
Kezia's arm. "I shan't come."
"Oh, well, I can't stay. I've got to wait at dinner," said Kezia, going
out again.
"Maggie, you little silly," said Tom, peeping into the room ten minutes
after, "why don't you come and have your dinner? There's lots o'
goodies, and mother says you're to come. What are you crying for?"
Oh, it was dreadful! Tom was so hard and unconcerned; if _he_ had been
crying on the floor, Maggie would have cried, too. And there was the
dinner, so nice; and she was _so_ hungry. It was very bitter.
But Tom was not altogether hard. He went and put his head near her, and
said, in a lower, comforting tone: "Won't you come, then, Maggie? Shall
I bring you a bit of pudding when I've had mine--and a custard and
things?"
"Ye-e-es," said Maggie, beginning to feel life a little more tolerable.
"Very well," said Tom, going away. But he turned again at the door and
said: "But you'd better come, you know. There's the dessert, you know."
Maggie's tears had ceased, and she looked reflective as Tom left her.
His good nature had taken off the keenest edge of her suffering.
Slowly she rose from among her scattered locks, and slowly she made her
way down-stairs. Then she stood leaning with one shoulder against the
frame of the dining-parlour door, peeping in when it was ajar. She saw
Tom and Lucy with an empty chair between them, and there were the
custards on a side-table--it was too much. She slipped in and went
towards the empty chair. But she had no sooner sat down than she
repented, and wished herself back again.
Mrs. Tulliver gave a little scream as she saw her, and dropped the large
gravy-spoon into the dish with the most serious results to the
tablecloth.
Mrs. Tulliver's scream made all eyes turn towards the same point as her
own, and Maggie's cheeks and ears began to burn, while Uncle Glegg, a
kind-looking, white-haired old gentleman, said: "Heyday! what little
girl's this? Why, I don't know her. Is it some little girl you've picked
up in the road, Kezia?"
"Why, she's gone and cut her hair herself," said Mr. Tulliver in an
undertone to Mr. Deane, laughing with much enjoyment.
"Why, little Miss, you've made yourself look very funny," said Uncle
Pullet.
"Fie, for shame!" said Aunt Glegg, in her severest tone of reproof.
"Little girls that cut their own hair should be whipped and fed on bread
and water, not come and sit down with their aunts and uncles."
"Aye, aye," said Uncle Glegg, meaning to give a playful turn, "she must
be sent to jail, I think, and they'll cut the rest of her hair off
there, and make it all even."
"She's more like a gypsy than ever," said Aunt Pullet in a pitying tone.
"She's a naughty child, that'll break her mother's heart," said Mrs.
Tulliver, with the tears in her eyes.
Maggie seemed to be listening to a chorus of reproach and derision. Her
first flush came from anger. Tom thought she was braving it out,
supported by the recent appearance of the pudding and custard.
He whispered: "Oh, my! Maggie, I told you you'd catch it." He meant to
be friendly, but Maggie felt convinced that Tom was rejoicing in her
ignominy.
Her feeble power of defiance left her in an instant, her heart swelled,
and, getting up from her chair, she ran to her father, hid her face on
his shoulder, and burst out into loud sobbing. "Come, come," said her
father, soothingly, putting his arm round her, "never mind; give over
crying: father'll take your part."
Delicious words of tenderness! Maggie never forgot any of these moments
when her father "took her part"; she kept them in her heart, and thought
of them long years after, when every one else said that her father had
done very ill by his children.
GEORGE ELIOT: "The Mill on the Floss."
(Adapted)
THE CORN SONG
Heap high the farmer's wintry hoard!
Heap high the golden corn!
No richer gift has Autumn poured
From out her lavish horn!
Let other lands, exulting, glean
The apple from the pine,
The orange from its glossy green,
The cluster from the vine;
We better love the hardy gift
Our rugged vales bestow,
To cheer us when the storm shall drift
Our harvest-fields with snow.
Through vales of grass and meads of flowers,
Our ploughs their furrows made,
While on the hills the sun and showers
Of changeful April played.
We dropped the seed o'er hill and plain,
Beneath the sun of May,
And frightened from our sprouting grain
The robber crows away.
All through the long, bright days of June
Its leaves grew green and fair,
And waved in hot midsummer's noon
Its soft and yellow hair.
And now, with autumn's moon-lit eves,
Its harvest-time has come,
We pluck away the frosted leaves,
And bear the treasure home.
There, richer than the fabled gift
Apollo showered of old,
Fair hands the broken grain shall sift,
And knead its meal of gold.
Let vapid idlers loll in silk
Around their costly board;
Give us the bowl of samp and milk,
By homespun beauty poured!
Where'er the wide old kitchen hearth
Sends up its smoky curls,
Who will not thank the kindly earth,
And bless our farmer girls!
WHITTIER
SPORTS IN NORMAN ENGLAND
After dinner all the youth of the city go into the field of the suburbs,
and address themselves to the famous game of football. The scholars of
each school have their peculiar ball; and the particular trades have,
most of them, theirs. The elders of the city, the fathers of the
parties, and the rich and wealthy, come to the field on horseback, in
order to behold the exercises of the youth, and in appearance are
themselves as youthful as the youngest; seeming to be revived at the
sight of so much agility, and in a participation of the diversion of
their festive sons.
At Easter the diversion is prosecuted on the water; a target is strongly
fastened to a trunk or mast fixed in the middle of the river, and a
youngster standing upright in the stern of a boat, made to move as fast
as the oars and current can carry it, is to strike the target with his
lance; and if, in hitting it, he breaks his lance and keeps his place in
the boat, he gains his point and triumphs; but if it happens the lance
is not shivered by the force of the blow, he is, of course, tumbled into
the water, and away goes his vessel without him.
However, a couple of boats full of young men are placed one on each side
of the target, so as to be ready to take up the unsuccessful adventurer
the moment he emerges from the stream and comes fairly to the surface.
The bridge and the balconies on the banks are filled with spectators,
whose business is to laugh. On holidays, in summer, the pastime of the
youth is to exercise themselves in archery, in running, leaping,
wrestling, casting of stones, and flinging to certain distances, and,
lastly, with bucklers.
In the winter holidays when that vast lake which waters the walls of the
City towards the north is hard frozen, the youth, in great numbers, go
to divert themselves on the ice. Some, taking a small run, place their
feet at the proper distance, and are carried, sliding sideways, a great
way; others will make a large cake of ice, and seating one of their
companions upon it, they take hold of one another's hands, and draw him
along: when it sometimes happens that, moving so swiftly on so slippery
a plain, they all fall down headlong.
Others there are who are still more expert in these amusements on the
ice; they place certain bones, the leg bones of some animal, under the
soles of their feet by tying them round their ankles, and, then, taking
a pole shod with iron into their hands, they push themselves forward by
striking it against the ice, and are carried along with a velocity equal
to the flight of a bird, or a bolt discharged from a cross-bow.
Sometimes two of them thus furnished agree to start opposite one to
another, at a great distance; they meet, elevate their poles, attack and
strike each other, when one or both of them fall, and not without some
bodily hurt; and even after their fall they shall be carried a good
distance from each other by the rapidity of the motion. Very often the
leg or the arm of the party that falls, if he chances to light upon
them, is broken; but youth is an age ambitious of glory, fond and
covetous of victory, and that in future time it may acquit itself boldly
and valiantly in real engagements, it will run these hazards in sham
ones.
Hawking and hunting were sports only for persons of quality, and woe be
to the unhappy man of the lower orders who indulged in either of these
sports. If caught he would be severely punished and might have his eyes
put out.
[Illustration: IN THE HIGHLANDS OF ONTARIO]
After breakfast, knights with their ladies ride out, each bearing upon
his wrist a falcon with scarlet hood and collar of gold. As they near
the river a heron, who had been fishing for his breakfast among the
reeds near the bank, hears them and spreading his wings flies upward. A
knight slips the hood from the falcon's head and next instant he sees
the heron. Away he darts, while knights and ladies rein in their horses
and watch. Up, and up, he goes until he passes the heron and still he
flies higher. Next instant he turns and, with a terrible swoop
downwards, pounces upon the heron and kills it.
The knight sounds his whistle and instantly the falcon turns and darts
back to him for the dainty food which is given as a reward for his good
hunting. Then he is chained and hooded again till another bird rises. So
the morning passes, and many a bird do the falcons bring down before the
knights and ladies return to the castle for "noon-meat."
WILLIAM FITZSTEPHEN
(Adapted)
And He that doth the ravens feed,
Yea, providently caters for the sparrow,
Be comfort to my age!
SHAKESPEARE
A SONG OF CANADA
Sing me a song of the great Dominion!
Soul-felt words for a patriot's ear!
Ring out boldly the well-turned measure,
Voicing your notes that the world may hear;
Here is no starveling--Heaven-forsaken--
Shrinking aside where the Nations throng;
Proud as the proudest moves she among them--
Worthy is she of a noble song!
Sing me the might of her giant mountains,
Baring their brows in the dazzling blue;
Changeless alone, where all else changes,
Emblems of all that is grand and true:
Free, as the eagles around them soaring;
Fair, as they rose from their Maker's hand:
Shout, till the snow-caps catch the chorus--
The white-topp'd peaks of our mountain land.
Sing me the calm of her tranquil forests,
Silence eternal, and peace profound,
In whose great heart's deep recesses
Breaks no tempest, and comes no sound;
Face to face with the deathlike stillness,
Here, if at all, man's soul might quail:
Nay! 'tis the love of that great peace leads us
Thither, where solace will never fail!
Sing me the pride of her stately rivers,
Cleaving their way to the far-off sea;
Glory of strength in their deep-mouth'd music--
Glory of mirth in their tameless glee.
Hark! 'tis the roar of the tumbling rapids;
Deep unto deep through the dead night calls;
Truly, I hear but the voice of Freedom
Shouting her name from her fortress walls!
Sing me the joy of her fertile prairies,
League upon league of the golden grain:
Comfort, housed in the smiling homestead--
Plenty, throned on the lumbering wain.
Land of Contentment! May no strife vex you,
Never war's flag on your plains be unfurl'd;
Only the blessings of mankind reach you--
Finding the food for a hungry world!
Sing me the charm of her blazing camp fires;
Sing me the quiet of her happy homes,
Whether afar 'neath the forest arches,
Or in the shade of the city's domes;
Sing me her life, her loves, her labours;
All of a mother a son would hear;
For when a lov'd one's praise is sounding,
Sweet are the strains to the lover's ear.
Sing me the worth of each Canadian,
Roamer in wilderness--toiler in town--
Search earth over you'll find none stancher,
Whether his hands be white or brown;
Come of a right good stock to start with,
Best of the world's blood in each vein;
Lords of ourselves, and slaves to no one,
For us or from us, you'll find we're--MEN!
Sing me the song, then; sing it bravely;
Put your soul in the words you sing;
Sing me the praise of this glorious country--
Clear on the ear let the deep notes ring.
Here is no starveling--Heaven-forsaken--
Crouching apart where the Nations throng;
Proud as the proudest moves she among them--
Well is she worthy a noble song!
ROBERT REID
A MAD TEA PARTY
There was a table set out under a tree in front of the house, and the
March Hare and the Hatter were having tea at it: a Dormouse was sitting
between them, fast asleep, and the other two were using it as a cushion,
resting their elbows on it, and talking over its head. "Very
uncomfortable for the Dormouse," thought Alice; "only, as it's asleep,
I suppose it doesn't mind."
The table was a large one, but the three were all crowded together at
one corner of it: "No room! No room!" they cried out when they saw Alice
coming. "There's _plenty_ of room!" said Alice, indignantly, and she sat
down in a large arm-chair at one end of the table.
"Your hair wants cutting," said the Hatter. He had been looking at Alice
for some time with great curiosity, and this was his first speech.
"You should learn not to make personal remarks," Alice said with some
severity: "it's very rude."
The Hatter opened his eyes very wide on hearing this; but all he _said_
was: "Why is a raven like a writing-desk?"
"Come, we shall have some fun now!" thought Alice. "I'm glad they've
begun asking riddles--I believe I can guess that," she added aloud.
"Do you mean that you think you can find out the answer to it?" said the
March Hare.
"Exactly so," said Alice.
"Then you should say what you mean," the March Hare went on.
"I do," Alice hastily replied; "at least--at least I mean what I
say--that's the same thing, you know."
"Not the same thing a bit!" said the Hatter. "Why, you might just as
well say that 'I see what I eat' is the same thing as 'I eat what I
see'!"
"You might just as well say," added the March Hare, "that 'I like what I
get' is the same thing as 'I get what I like'!"
"You might just as well say," added the Dormouse, who seemed to be
talking in its sleep, "that 'I breathe when I sleep' is the same thing
as 'I sleep when I breathe'!"
"It _is_ the same thing with you," said the Hatter, and here the
conversation dropped, and the party sat silent for a minute, while Alice
thought over all she could remember about ravens and writing-desks,
which wasn't much.
"Have you guessed the riddle yet?" the Hatter said, turning to Alice
again.
"No, I give it up," Alice replied: "what's the answer?"
"I haven't the slightest idea," said the Hatter.
"Nor I," said the March Hare.
Alice sighed wearily. "I think you might do something better with the
time," she said, "than wasting it in asking riddles that have no
answers."
"Suppose we change the subject," the March Hare interrupted, yawning.
"I'm getting tired of this. I vote the young lady tells us a story."
"I'm afraid I don't know one," said Alice, rather alarmed at the
proposal.
"Then the Dormouse shall!" they both cried.
"Wake up, Dormouse!" And they pinched it on both sides at once.
The Dormouse slowly opened its eyes. "I wasn't asleep," it said in a
hoarse, feeble voice, "I heard every word you fellows were saying."
"Tell us a story!" said the March Hare.
"Yes, please do!" pleaded Alice.
"And be quick about it," added the Hatter, "or you'll be asleep again
before it's done."
"Once upon a time there were three little sisters," the Dormouse began
in a great hurry, "and their names were Elsie, Lacie, and Tillie; and
they lived at the bottom of a well--"
"What did they live on?" said Alice, who always took a great interest in
questions of eating and drinking.
"They lived on treacle," said the Dormouse, after thinking a minute or
two.
"They couldn't have done that, you know," Alice gently remarked: "they'd
have been ill."
"So they were," said the Dormouse, "_very_ ill."
Alice tried a little to fancy to herself what such an extraordinary way
of living would be like, but it puzzled her too much, so she went on:
"But why did they live at the bottom of a well?"
"Take some more tea," the March Hare said to Alice, very earnestly.
"I've had nothing yet," Alice replied in an offended tone, "so I can't
take more."
"You mean you can't take _less_," said the Hatter: "It's very easy to
take _more_ than nothing."
"Nobody asked _your_ opinion," said Alice.
"Who's making personal remarks now?" the Hatter asked triumphantly.
Alice did not quite know what to say to this: so she helped herself to
some tea and bread-and-butter, and then turned to the Dormouse, and
repeated her question. "Why did they live at the bottom of a well?"
The Dormouse again took a minute or two to think about it, and then
said: "It was a treacle-well."
"There's no such thing!" Alice was beginning very angrily, but the
Hatter and the March Hare went "Sh! Sh!" and the Dormouse sulkily
remarked: "If you can't be civil, you'd better finish the story for
yourself."
"No, please go on!" Alice said, very humbly, "I won't interrupt you
again. I dare say there may be _one_."
"One, indeed!" said the Dormouse, indignantly. However it consented to
go on. "And so these three little sisters--they were learning to draw,
you know--"
"What did they draw?" said Alice, quite forgetting her promise.
"Treacle," said the Dormouse, without considering at all this time.
"I want a clean cup," interrupted the Hatter, "let's all move one place
on."
He moved as he spoke, and the Dormouse followed him: the March Hare
moved into the Dormouse's place, and Alice, rather unwillingly, took the
place of the March Hare. The Hatter was the only one who got any
advantage from the change: and Alice was a good deal worse off than
before, as the March Hare had just upset the milk jug into his plate.
Alice did not wish to offend the Dormouse again, so she began very
cautiously: "But I don't understand. Where did they draw the treacle
from?"
"You can draw water out of a water-well," said the Hatter; "so I should
think you could draw treacle out of a treacle-well--eh stupid?"
"But they were _in_ the well," Alice said to the Dormouse, not choosing
to notice this last remark.
"Of course they were," said the Dormouse,--"well in."
This answer so confused poor Alice, that she let the Dormouse go on for
some time without interrupting it.
"They were learning to draw," the Dormouse went on, yawning and rubbing
its eyes, for it was getting very sleepy; "and they drew all manner of
things--everything that begins with an M--"
"Why with an M?" said Alice.
"Why not?" said the March Hare.
Alice was silent.
The Dormouse had closed its eyes by this time, and was going off into a
doze, but, on being pinched by the Hatter, it woke up again with a
little shriek, and went on, "--that begins with an M, such as
mouse-traps, and the moon, and memory, and muchness--you know you say
things are 'much of a muchness'--did you ever see such a thing as a
drawing of a muchness?"
"Really, now you ask me," said Alice, very much confused, "I don't
think--"
"Then you shouldn't talk," said the Hatter.
This piece of rudeness was more than Alice could bear: she got up in
great disgust, and walked off: the Dormouse fell asleep instantly, and
neither of the others took the least notice of her going, though she
looked back once or twice, half hoping that they would call after her:
the last time she saw them, they were trying to put the Dormouse into
the teapot.
LEWIS CARROLL: "The Adventures of Alice in Wonderland."
THE SLAVE'S DREAM
Beside the ungathered rice he lay,
His sickle in his hand;
His breast was bare, his matted hair
Was buried in the sand.
Again, in the mist and shadow of sleep,
He saw his Native Land.
Wide through the landscape of his dreams
The lordly Niger flowed;
Beneath the palm trees on the plain
Once more a king he strode;
And heard the tinkling caravans
Descend the mountain road.
He saw once more his dark-eyed queen
Among her children stand;
They clasped his neck, they kissed his cheeks,
They held him by the hand!--
A tear burst from the sleeper's lids
And fell into the sand.
And then at furious speed he rode
Along the Niger's bank;
His bridle-reins were golden chains,
And, with a martial clank,
At each leap he could feel his scabbard of steel
Smiting his stallion's flank.
Before him, like a blood-red flag,
The bright flamingoes flew;
From morn till night he followed their flight,
O'er plains where the tamarind grew,
Till he saw the roofs of Caffre huts,
And the ocean rose to view.
At night he heard the lion roar,
And the hyena scream,
And the river-horse, as he crushed the reeds,
Beside some hidden stream;
And it passed, like a glorious roll of drums,
Through the triumph of his dream.
The forests, with their myriad tongues,
Shouted of liberty;
And the Blast of the Desert cried aloud,
With a voice so wild and free,
That he started in his sleep and smiled
At their tempestuous glee.
He did not feel the driver's whip,
Nor the burning heat of day;
For Death had illumined the Land of Sleep,
And his lifeless body lay
A worn-out fetter, that the soul
Had broken and thrown away!
LONGFELLOW
Reading maketh a full man, conference a ready man, and writing an exact
man. Histories make men wise; poets, witty; the mathematics, subtle;
logic and rhetoric, able to contend.
BACON
THE CHASE
Early one August morning a doe was feeding on Basin Mountain.
The sole companion of the doe was her only child, a charming little
fawn, whose brown coat was just beginning to be mottled with beautiful
spots.
The buck, his father, had been that night on a long tramp across the
mountain to Clear Pond, and had not yet returned. He went to feed on the
lily pads there.
The doe was daintily cropping tender leaves and turning from time to
time to regard her offspring. The fawn had taken his morning meal and
now lay curled up on a bed of moss.
If the mother stepped a pace or two farther away in feeding, the fawn
made a half-movement, as if to rise and follow her. If, in alarm, he
uttered a plaintive cry, she bounded to him at once.
It was a pretty picture,--maternal love on the one part, and happy trust
on the other.
The doe lifted her head with a quick motion. Had she heard something?
Probably it was only the south wind in the balsams. There was silence
all about in the forest. With an affectionate glance at her fawn, she
continued picking up her breakfast.
But suddenly she started, head erect, eyes dilated, a tremor in her
limbs. She turned her head to the south; she listened intently.
There was a sound, a distinct, prolonged note, pervading the woods. It
was repeated. The doe had no doubt now. It was the baying of a
hound--far off, at the foot of the mountain.
Time enough to fly; time enough to put miles between her and the hound
before he should come upon her fresh trail; yes, time enough. But there
was the fawn.
The cry of the hound was repeated, more distinct this time. The mother
bounded away a few paces. The fawn started up with an anxious bleat. The
doe turned; she came back; she couldn't leave him.
She walked away toward the west, and the little thing skipped after her.
It was slow going for the slender legs, over the fallen logs and through
the rasping bushes. The doe bounded in advance and waited. The fawn
scrambled after her, slipping and tumbling along, and whining a good
deal because his mother kept always moving away from him.
Whenever the fawn caught up, he was quite content to frisk about. He
wanted more breakfast, for one thing; and his mother wouldn't stand
still. She moved on continually; and his weak legs were tangled in the
roots of the narrow deer path.
Suddenly came a sound that threw the doe into a panic of terror,--a
short, sharp yelp, followed by a prolonged howl, caught up and re-echoed
by other bayings along the mountain side. The danger was certain now; it
was near. She could not crawl on in this way; the dogs would soon be
upon them. She turned again for flight. The fawn, scrambling after her,
tumbled over, and bleated piteously. Flight with the fawn was
impossible.
The doe returned, stood by him, head erect and nostrils distended.
Perhaps she was thinking. The fawn lay down contentedly, and the doe
licked him for a moment. Then, with the swiftness of a bird, she dashed
away, and in a moment was lost in the forest. She went in the direction
of the hounds.
She descended the slope of the mountain until she reached the more open
forest of hard wood. She was going due east, when she turned away toward
the north, and kept on at a good pace.
In five minutes more she heard the sharp yelp of discovery, and then the
deep-mouthed howl of pursuit. The hounds had struck her trail where she
turned, and the fawn was safe.
For the moment fear left her, and she bounded on with the exaltation of
triumph. For a quarter of an hour she went on at a slapping pace,
clearing the bushes with bound after bound, flying over the fallen logs,
pausing neither for brook nor ravine. The baying of the hounds grew
fainter behind.
After running at high speed perhaps half a mile farther, it occurred to
her that it would be safe now to turn to the west, and, by a wide
circuit, seek her fawn. But at the moment she heard a sound that chilled
her heart. It was the cry of a hound to the west of her. There was
nothing to do but to keep on, and on she went, with the noise of the
pack behind her.
In five minutes more she had passed into a hillside clearing. She heard
a tinkle of bells. Below her, down the mountain slope, were other
clearings broken by patches of woods. A mile or two down lay the valley
and the farmhouses. That way also her enemies were. Not a merciful heart
in all that lovely valley. She hesitated; it was only for an instant.
She must cross the Slide Brook valley, if possible, and gain the
mountain opposite. She bounded on; she stopped. What was that? From the
valley ahead came the cry of a searching hound. Every way was closed but
one, and that led straight down the mountain to the cluster of houses.
The hunted doe went down "the open," clearing the fences, flying along
the stony path.
As she approached Slide Brook, she saw a boy standing by a tree with a
raised rifle. The dogs were not in sight, but she could hear them coming
down the hill. There was no time for hesitation. With a tremendous burst
of speed she cleared the stream, and as she touched the bank heard the
"ping" of a rifle bullet in the air above her. The cruel sound gave
wings to the poor thing.
In a moment more she leaped into the travelled road. Women and children
ran to the doors and windows; men snatched their rifles. There were
twenty people who were just going to shoot her, when the doe leaped the
road fence, and went away across a marsh toward the foothills.
By this time the dogs, panting and lolling out their tongues, came
swinging along, keeping the trail, like stupids, and consequently
losing ground when the deer doubled. But when the doe had got into the
timber, she heard the savage brutes howling across the meadow. (It is
well enough, perhaps, to say that nobody offered to shoot the dogs.)
The courage of the panting fugitive was not gone, but the fearful pace
at which she had been going told on her. Her legs trembled, and her
heart beat like a trip-hammer. She slowed her speed, but still fled up
the right bank of the stream. The dogs were gaining again, and she
crossed the broad, deep brook. The fording of the river threw the hounds
off for a time. She used the little respite to push on until the baying
was faint in her ears.
Late in the afternoon she staggered down the shoulder of Bartlett, and
stood upon the shore of the lake. If she could put that piece of water
between her and her pursuers, she would be safe. Had she strength to
swim it?
At her first step into the water she saw a sight that sent her back with
a bound. There was a boat mid-lake; two men were in it. One was rowing;
the other had a gun in his hand. What should she do? With only a
moment's hesitation she plunged into the lake. Her tired legs could not
propel the tired body rapidly.
The doe saw the boat nearing her. She turned to the shore whence she
came; the dogs were lapping the water and howling there. She turned
again to the centre of the lake. The brave, pretty creature was quite
exhausted now. In a moment more the boat was on her, and the man at the
oars had leaned over and caught her.
"Knock her on the head with that paddle!" he shouted to the gentleman in
the stern. The gentleman _was_ a gentleman, with a kind face. He took
the paddle in his hand. Just then the doe turned her head and looked at
him with her great appealing eyes.
"I can't do it! I can't do it!" and he dropped the paddle. "Oh, let her
go!"
But the guide slung the deer round, and whipped out his hunting-knife.
And the gentleman ate that night of the venison.
CHARLES DUDLEY WARNER
(Adapted)
THE INCHCAPE ROCK
No stir in the air, no stir in the sea,
The ship was as still as she could be;
Her sails from heaven received no motion,
Her keel was steady in the ocean.
Without either sign or sound of their shock,
The waves flowed over the Inchcape Rock;
So little they rose, so little they fell,
They did not move the Inchcape Bell.
The pious Abbot of Aberbrothock
Had placed that bell on the Inchcape Rock;
On a buoy in the storm it floated and swung,
And over the waves its warning rung.
When the Rock was hid by the surge's swell,
The mariners heard the warning bell;
And then they knew the perilous Rock,
And blessed the Abbot of Aberbrothock.
The sun in heaven was shining gay;
All things were joyful on that day;
The sea-birds screamed as they wheeled round,
And there was joyance in their sound.
The buoy of the Inchcape Bell was seen,
A darker speck on the ocean green;
Sir Ralph the Rover walked his deck,
And he fixed his eye on the darker speck.
He felt the cheering power of spring;
It made him whistle, it made him sing:
His heart was mirthful to excess,
But the Rover's mirth was wickedness.
His eye was on the Inchcape float;
Quoth he: "My men, put out the boat,
And row me to the Inchcape Rock,
And I'll plague the Abbot of Aberbrothock."
The boat is lowered, the boatmen row,
And to the Inchcape Rock they go;
Sir Ralph bent over from the boat,
And he cut the bell from the Inchcape float.
Down sank the bell, with a gurgling sound,
The bubbles rose and burst around;
Quoth Sir Ralph: "The next who comes to the Rock
Won't bless the Abbot of Aberbrothock."
Sir Ralph the Rover sailed away;
He scoured the seas for many a day;
And now, grown rich with plundered store,
He steers his course for Scotland's shore.
So thick a haze o'erspreads the sky
They cannot see the sun on high;
The wind hath blown a gale all day,
At evening it hath died away.
On the deck the Rover takes his stand;
So dark it is, they see no land.
Quoth Sir Ralph: "It will be lighter soon,
For there is the dawn of the rising moon."
"Canst hear," said one, "the breakers roar?
For methinks we should be near the shore."
"Now where we are I cannot tell,
But I wish we could hear the Inchcape Bell."
They hear no sound; the swell is strong;
Though the wind hath fallen, they drift along,
Till the vessel strikes with a shivering shock;
Cried they: "It is the Inchcape Rock!"
Sir Ralph the Rover tore his hair,
He cursed himself in his despair:
The waves rush in on every side;
The ship is sinking beneath the tide.
But, even in his dying fear,
One dreadful sound could the Rover hear,--
A sound as if, with the Inchcape Bell,
The fiends below were ringing his knell.
SOUTHEY
A ROUGH RIDE
"Well, young ones, what be gaping at?"
"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 a 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
strawbed 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 rumours abroad
that she was not a mare, after all, but a witch.
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 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 cannot tell you,
because they are too manifold; "take off your saddle-bag 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 a herring.
Something of this occurred to him, even in his wrath with me, for he
spoke very softly to the filly, who now could scarcely 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 towards 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 forefeet 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 furthest--"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 quick-set 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 knew 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."
R. D. BLACKMORE: "Lorna Doone."
Full many a gem of purest ray serene
The dark unfathomed caves of ocean bear:
Full many a flower is born to blush unseen
And waste its sweetness on the desert air.
GRAY
THE ARAB AND HIS STEED
My beautiful! my beautiful! that standest meekly by,
With thy proudly arched and glossy neck, and dark and fiery eye;
Fret not to roam the desert now, with all thy wingèd speed,
I may not mount on thee again--thou'rt sold, my Arab steed.
Fret not with that impatient hoof, snuff not the breezy wind,
The further that thou fliest now, so far am I behind;
The stranger hath thy bridle-rein--thy master hath his gold--
Fleet-limbed and beautiful! farewell! thou'rt sold, my steed, thou'rt sold!
Farewell! those free untired limbs full many a mile must roam,
To reach the chill and wintry sky which clouds the stranger's home;
Some other hand, less fond, must now thy corn and bed prepare;
The silky mane I braided once must be another's care.
The morning sun shall dawn again, but never more with thee
Shall I gallop through the desert paths, where we were wont to be:
Evening shall darken on the earth; and o'er the sandy plain,
Some other steed, with slower step, shall bear me home again.
Yes, thou must go! the wild free breeze, the brilliant sun and sky,
Thy master's home--from all of these my exiled one must fly.
Thy proud, dark eye will grow less proud, thy step become less fleet,
And vainly shalt thou arch thy neck, thy master's hand to meet.
Only in sleep shall I behold that dark eye glancing bright;
Only in sleep shall hear again that step so firm and light;
And when I raise my dreaming arm to check or cheer thy speed,
Then must I, starting, wake to feel--thou'rt sold, my Arab steed!
Ah! rudely then, unseen by me, some cruel hand may chide,
Till foam-wreaths lie, like crested waves, along thy panting side,
And the rich blood that's in thee swells in thy indignant pain,
Till careless eyes, which rest on thee, may count each startled vein.
Will they ill-use thee? If I thought--but no, it cannot be--
Thou art so swift, yet easy curbed; so gentle, yet so free.
And yet, if haply, when thou'rt gone my lonely heart should yearn,
Can the hand which casts thee from it now, command thee to return?
Return! alas! my Arab steed! what shall thy master do,
When thou who wert his all of joy, hast vanished from his view?
When the dim distance cheats mine eye, and through the gathering tears,
Thy bright form for a moment, like the false mirage appears?
Slow and unmounted will I roam, with weary step alone,
Where with fleet step and joyous bound thou oft hast borne me on!
And sitting down by that green well, I'll pause and sadly think:
It was here he bowed his glossy neck when last I saw him drink!
When last I saw thee drink!--Away! the fevered dream is o'er;
I could not live a day, and know that we should meet no more!
They tempted me, my beautiful! for hunger's power is strong,
They tempted me, my beautiful! but I have loved too long.
Who said that I had given thee up, who said that thou wert sold?
'Tis false--'tis false, my Arab steed! I fling them back their gold.
Thus, thus I leap upon thy back, and scour the distant plains,
Away! who overtakes us now shall claim thee for his pains!
THE HONOURABLE MRS. NORTON
THE POET'S SONG
The rain had fallen, the Poet arose,
He pass'd by the town and out of the street,
A light wind blew from the gates of the sun,
And waves of shadow went over the wheat,
And he sat him down in a lonely place,
And chanted a melody loud and sweet,
That made the wild-swan pause in her cloud,
And the lark drop down at his feet.
The swallow stopt as he hunted the fly,
The snake slipt under a spray,
The wild hawk stood with the down on his beak,
And stared, with his foot on the prey,
And the nightingale thought, "I have sung many songs,
But never a one so gay,
For he sings of what the world will be
When the years have died away."
TENNYSON
Never to tire, never to grow cold; to be patient, sympathetic, tender;
to look for the budding flower, and the opening heart; to hope always,
like God, to love always--this is duty.
AMIEL
ADVENTURE WITH A WHALE
I gaily flung myself into my place in the mate's boat one morning, as we
were departing in chase of a magnificent cachalot that had been raised
just after breakfast. There were no other vessels in sight,--much to our
satisfaction,--the wind was light, with a cloudless sky, and the whale
was dead to leeward of us. We sped along at a good rate towards our
prospective victim, who was, in his leisurely enjoyment of life, calmly
lolling on the surface, occasionally lifting his enormous tail out of
water and letting it fall flat upon the surface with a boom audible for
miles.
We were, as usual, first boat; but, much to the mate's annoyance, when
we were a short half-mile from the whale our main-sheet parted. It
became immediately necessary to roll the sail up, lest its flapping
should alarm the watchful monster, and this delayed us sufficiently to
allow the other boats to shoot ahead of us. Thus the second mate got
fast some seconds before we arrived on the scene, seeing which, we
furled sail, unshipped the mast, and went in on him with the oars only.
At first the proceedings were quite of the usual character, our chief
wielding his lance in most brilliant fashion, while not being fast to
the animal allowed us much greater freedom in our evolutions; but that
fatal habit of the mate's--of allowing his boat to take care of herself
so long as he was getting in some good home-thrusts--once more asserted
itself. Although the whale was exceedingly vigorous, churning the sea
into yeasty foam over an enormous area, there we wallowed close to him,
right in the middle of the turmoil, actually courting disaster.
He had just settled down for a moment, when, glancing over the gunwale,
I saw his tail, like a vast shadow, sweeping away from us towards the
second mate, who was lying off the other side of him. Before I had time
to think, the mighty mass of gristle leaped into the sunshine, curved
back from us like a huge bow. Then with a roar it came at us, released
from its tension of Heaven knows how many tons. Full on the broadside it
struck us, sending every soul but me flying out of the wreckage as if
fired from catapults. I did not go because my foot was jammed somehow in
the well of the boat, but the wrench nearly pulled my thighbone out of
its socket. I had hardly released my foot when, towering above me, came
the colossal head of the great creature, as he ploughed through the
bundle of _débris_ that had just been a boat. There was an appalling
roar of water in my ears, and darkness that might be felt all around.
Yet, in the midst of it all, one thought predominated as clearly as if I
had been turning it over in my mind in the quiet of my bunk
aboard--"What if he should swallow me?" Nor to this day can I understand
how I escaped the portals of his gullet, which, of course, gaped wide as
a church door. But the agony of holding my breath soon overpowered every
other feeling and thought, till just as something was going to snap
inside my head, I rose to the surface. I was surrounded by a welter of
bloody froth, which, made it impossible for me to see; but oh, the air
was sweet!
I struck out blindly, instinctively, although I could feel so strong an
eddy that voluntary progress was out of the question. My hand touched
and clung to a rope, which immediately towed me in some direction--I
neither knew nor cared whither. Soon the motion ceased, and, with a
seaman's instinct, I began to haul myself along by the rope I grasped,
although no definite idea was in my mind as to where it was attached.
Presently I came butt up against something solid, the feel of which
gathered all my scattered wits into a compact knob of dread. It was the
whale! "Any port in a storm," I murmured, beginning to haul away again
on my friendly line. By dint of hard work I pulled myself right up the
sloping, slippery bank of blubber, until I reached the iron, which, as
luck would have it, was planted in that side of the carcass now
uppermost.
Carcass I said--well, certainly I had no idea of there being any life
remaining within the vast mass beneath me; yet I had hardly time to take
a couple of turns round myself with the rope (or whale-line, as I had
proved it to be), when I felt the great animal quiver all over, and
begin to forge ahead. I was now composed enough to remember that help
could not be far away, and that my rescue, providing that I could keep
above water, was but a question of a few minutes. But I was hardly
prepared for the whale's next move. Being very near his end, the boat,
or boats, had drawn off a bit, I supposed, for I could see nothing of
them. Then I remembered the flurry.
Almost at the same moment it began; and there was I, who, with fearful
admiration had so often watched the titanic convulsions of a dying
cachalot, actually involved in them. The turns were off my body, but I
was able to twist a couple of turns round my arms, which, in case of his
sounding, I could readily let go. Then all was lost in roar and rush, as
of the heart of some mighty cataract, during which I was sometimes
above, sometimes beneath, the water, but always clinging, with every
ounce of energy still left, to the line. Now, one thought was
uppermost--"What if he should breach?" I had seen them do so when in
flurry, leaping full twenty feet in the air. Then I prayed.
Quickly as all the preceding changes had passed, came perfect peace.
There I lay, still alive, but so weak that, although I could feel the
turns slipping off my arms, and knew that I should slide off the slope
of the whale's side into the sea if they did, I could make no effort to
secure myself. Everything then passed away from me, just as if I had
gone to sleep. I do not at all understand how I kept my position, nor
how long, but I awoke to the blessed sound of voices, and saw the second
mate's boat alongside.
FRANK T. BULLEN: "The Cruise of the Cachalot."
THE MAPLE
All hail to the broad-leaved Maple!
With her fair and changeful dress--
A type of our youthful country
In its pride and loveliness;
Whether in Spring or Summer,
Or in the dreary Fall,
'Mid Nature's forest children,
She's fairest of them all.
Down sunny slopes and valleys
Her graceful form is seen,
Her wide, umbrageous branches
The sunburnt reaper screen;
'Mid the dark-browed firs and cedars
Her livelier colours shine,
Like the dawn of the brighter future
On the settler's hut of pine.
She crowns the pleasant hilltop,
Whispers on breezy downs,
And casts refreshing shadows
O'er the streets of our busy towns;
She gladdens the aching eyeball,
Shelters the weary head,
And scatters her crimson glories
On the graves of the silent dead.
When winter's frosts are yielding
To the sun's returning sway,
And merry groups are speeding
To sugar-woods away;
The sweet and welling juices,
Which form their welcome spoil,
Tell of the teeming plenty,
Which here waits honest toil.
When sweet-toned Spring, soft-breathing,
Breaks Nature's icy sleep,
And the forest boughs are swaying
Like the green waves of the deep;
In her fair and budding beauty,
A fitting emblem, she,
Of this our land of promise,
Of hope, of liberty.
And when her leaves, all crimson,
Droop silently and fall,
Like drops of life-blood welling
From a warrior brave and tall;
They tell how fast and freely
Would her children's blood be shed,
Ere the soil of our faith and freedom
Should echo a foeman's tread.
Then hail to the broad-leaved Maple!
With her fair and changeful dress--
A type of our youthful country
In its pride and loveliness;
Whether in Spring or Summer,
Or in the dreary Fall,
'Mid Nature's forest children,
She's fairest of them all.
H. F. DARNELL
DAMON AND PYTHIAS
In Syracuse there was so hard a ruler that the people made a plot to
drive him out of the city. The plot was discovered, and the king
commanded that the leaders should be put to death. One of these, named
Damon, lived at some distance from Syracuse. He asked that before he was
put to death he might be allowed to go home to say good-bye to his
family, promising that he would then come back to die at the appointed
time.
The king did not believe that he would keep his word, and said: "I will
not let you go unless you find some friend who will come and stay in
your place. Then, if you are not back on the day set for execution, I
shall put your friend to death in your stead." The king thought to
himself: "Surely no one will ever take the place of a man condemned to
death."
Now, Damon had a very dear friend, named Pythias, who at once came
forward and offered to stay in prison while Damon was allowed to go
away. The king was very much surprised, but he had given his word; Damon
was therefore permitted to leave for home, while Pythias was shut up in
prison.
Many days passed, the time for the execution was close at hand, and
Damon had not come back. The king, curious to see how Pythias would
behave, now that death seemed so near, went to the prison.
"Your friend will never return," he said to Pythias.
"You are wrong," was the answer. "Damon will be here if he can possibly
come. But he has to travel by sea, and the winds have been blowing the
wrong way for several days. However, it is much better that I should die
than he. I have no wife and no children, and I love my friend so well
that it would be easier to die for him than to live without him. So I am
hoping and praying that he may be delayed until my head has fallen."
The king went away more puzzled than ever.
The fatal day arrived but Damon had not come. Pythias was brought
forward and led upon the scaffold. "My prayers are heard," he cried. "I
shall be permitted to die for my friend. But mark my words. Damon is
faithful and true; you will yet have reason to know that he has done his
utmost to be here!"
Just at this moment a man came galloping up at full speed, on a horse
covered with foam! It was Damon. In an instant he was on the scaffold,
and had Pythias in his arms. "My beloved friend," he cried, "the gods be
praised that you are safe. What agony have I suffered in the fear that
my delay was putting your life in danger!"
There was no joy in the face of Pythias, for he did not care to live if
his friend must die. But the king had heard all. At last he was forced
to believe in the unselfish friendship of these two. His hard heart
melted at the sight, and he set them both free, asking only that they
would be his friends, also.
CHARLOTTE M. YONGE
Honour and shame from no condition rise;
Act well your part, there all the honour lies.
POPE
THE WRECK OF THE ORPHEUS
All day, amid the masts and shrouds,
They hung above the wave;
The sky o'erhead was dark with clouds,
And dark beneath, their grave.
The water leaped against its prey,
Breaking with heavy crash,
And when some slack'ning hands gave way,
They fell with dull, low splash.
Captain and man ne'er thought to swerve;
The boats went to and fro;
With cheery face and tranquil nerve,
Each saw his brother go.
Each saw his brother go, and knew,
As night came swiftly on,
That less and less his own chance grew--
Night fell, and hope was gone.
The saved stood on the steamer's deck,
Straining their eyes to see
Their comrades clinging to the wreck
Upon that surging sea;
And still they gazed into the dark
Till, on their startled ears,
There came from that swift-sinking bark
A sound of gallant cheers.
Again, and yet again it rose;
Then silence round them fell--
Silence of death--and each man knows
It was a last farewell.
No cry of anguish, no wild shriek
Of men in agony--
No dropping down of watchers weak,
Weary and glad to die,
But death met with three British cheers--
Cheers of immortal fame;
For us the choking, blinding tears--
For them a glorious name.
Oh England, while thy sailor-host
Can live and die like these,
Be thy broad lands or won or lost,
Thou'rt mistress of the seas!
C. A. L.
THE TIDE RIVER
Clear and cool, clear and cool,
By laughing shallow, and dreaming pool;
Cool and clear, cool and clear,
By shining shingle, and foaming weir;
Under the crag where the ouzel sings,
And the ivied wall where the church-bell rings,
Undefiled, for the undefiled;
Play by me, bathe in me, mother and child.
Dank and foul, dank and foul,
By the smoky town in its murky cowl;
Foul and dank, foul and dank,
By wharf and sewer and slimy bank;
Darker and darker the further I go,
Baser and baser the richer I grow;
Who dare sport with the sin defiled?
Shrink from me, turn from me, mother and child.
Strong and free, strong and free,
The flood-gates are open, away to the sea;
Free and strong, free and strong,
Cleansing my streams as I hurry along
To the golden sands, and the leaping bar,
And the taintless tide that awaits me afar;
As I lose myself in the infinite main,
Like a soul that has sinned and is pardoned again.
Undefiled, for the undefiled,
Play by me, bathe in me, mother and child.
KINGSLEY
The best result of all education is the acquired power of making
yourself do what you ought to do, when you ought to do it, whether you
like it or not.
HUXLEY
[Illustration: ONTARIO AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE]
WISDOM THE SUPREME PRIZE
My son, despise not the chastening of the LORD;
Neither be weary of his reproof:
For whom the LORD loveth he reproveth;
Even as a father the son in whom he delighteth.
Happy is the man that findeth wisdom,
And the man that getteth understanding.
For the merchandise of it is better than the merchandise of silver,
And the gain thereof than fine gold.
She is more precious than rubies:
And none of the things thou canst desire are to be compared unto her.
Length of days is in her right hand;
In her left hand are riches and honour.
Her ways are ways of pleasantness,
And all her paths are peace.
She is a tree of life to them that lay hold upon her:
And happy is every one that retaineth her.
The LORD by wisdom founded the earth;
By understanding he established the heavens.
By his knowledge the depths were broken up,
And the skies drop down the dew.
PROVERBS, III.
THE ORCHARD
There's no garden like an orchard,
Nature shows no fairer thing
Than the apple trees in blossom
In these late days o' the spring.
Here the robin redbreast's nesting,
Here, from golden dawn till night,
Honey bees are gaily swimming
In a sea of pink and white.
Just a sea of fragrant blossoms,
Steeped in sunshine, drenched in dew,
Just a fragrant breath which tells you
Earth is fair again and new.
Just a breath of subtle sweetness,
Breath which holds the spice o' youth,
Holds the promise o' the summer--
Holds the best o' things, forsooth.
There's no garden like an orchard,
Nature shows no fairer thing
Than the apple trees in blossom
In these late days o' the spring.
JEAN BLEWETT
INSPIRED BY THE SNOW
The black squirrel delights in the new-fallen snow like a boy--a real
boy, with red hands as well as red cheeks, and an automatic mechanism of
bones and muscles capable of all things except rest. The first snow
sends a thrill of joy through every fibre of such a boy, and a thousand
delights crowd into his mind. The gliding, falling coasters on the
hills, the passing sleighs with niches on the runners for his feet, the
flying snowballs, the sliding-places, the broad, tempting ice, all whirl
through his mind in a delightful panorama, and he hurries out to catch
the elusive flakes in his outstretched hands and to shout aloud in the
gladness of his heart. And the black squirrel becomes a boy with the
first snow. What a pity he cannot shout! There is a superabundant joy
and life in his long, graceful bounds, when his beautiful form, in its
striking contrast with the white snow, seems magnified to twice its real
size. Perhaps there is vanity as well as joy in his lithe, bounding
motions among the naked trees, for nature seems to have done her utmost
to provide a setting that would best display his graces of form and
motion.
When the falling snow clings in light, airy masses on the spruces and
pines, and festoons the naked tracery and clustering winter buds of the
maples--when the still air seems to fix every twig and branch and
clinging mass of snow in a solid medium of crystal, the spell of
stillness is broken by the silent but joyful leaps of the hurrying
squirrel. How alive he seems, in contrast with the silence of the snow,
as his outlines contrast with its perfect white! His body curves and
elongates with regular undulations, as he measures off the snow with
twin footprints. Away in the distance he is still visible among the
naked trunks, a moving patch of animated blackness. His free, regular
footprints are all about, showing where he has run hither and thither,
with no apparent purpose except to manifest his joy in life.
His red-haired cousin comes to a lofty opening in a hollow tree and
looks out with an expression of disappointment on his face. He does not
like the snow-covered landscape spread out so artistically before him.
It makes him tired, and he has not enough energy to scold an intruder,
as he would in the comfortable days of summer. No amount of coaxing or
tapping will tempt him from his lofty watch-tower, or win more
recognition than a silent look of weary discontent. Another cousin, the
chipmunk, no longer displays his daintily-striped coat. Oblivious in his
burrow, he is sleeping away the days, and waiting for a more congenial
season.
But the black squirrel, now among the branches of an elm, is twitching
from one rigid attitude to another, electrified by the crisp atmosphere
and the inspiration of the snow. Again he is leaping over the white
surface to clamber up the repellent bark of a tall hickory. Among the
larger limbs he disappears. As he never attempts to hide, he must have
retired into his own dwelling to partake of the store laid by in the
season of plenty. Hickory nuts are his favourite food, and the hard
shells seem but an appetizing relish. He knows the value of frugality,
and gathers them before they are ripe, throwing down the shrivelled and
unfilled, that the boys may not annoy him with stones and sticks. In
winter he is the happiest of all the woodland family. He does not yield
to the drowsy, numbing influence of the cold, nor to the depression of a
season of scanty fare, but bounds along from tree to tree, inspired by
the subtle spirit of winter and revelling in the joy of being alive.
S. T. WOOD
THE SQUIRREL
Drawn from his refuge in some lonely elm
That age or injury has hollow'd deep,
Where, on his bed of wool and matted leaves,
He has outslept the winter, ventures forth
To frisk a while, and bask in the warm sun,
The squirrel, flippant, pert, and full of play.
He sees me, and at once, swift as a bird,
Ascends the neighbouring beech; there whisks his brush,
And perks his ears, and stamps and scolds aloud,
With all the prettiness of feign'd alarm,
And anger insignificantly fierce.
COWPER
SOLDIER, REST
"Soldier, rest! thy warfare o'er,
Sleep the sleep that knows not breaking;
Dream of battled fields no more,
Days of danger, nights of waking.
In our isle's enchanted hall,
Hands unseen thy couch are strewing,
Fairy strains of music fall,
Every sense in slumber dewing.
Soldier, rest! thy warfare o'er,
Dream of fighting fields no more:
Sleep the sleep that knows not breaking,
Morn of toil, nor night of waking.
"No rude sound shall reach thine ear,
Armour's clang, or war-steed champing,
Trump nor pibroch summon here
Mustering clan, or squadron tramping.
Yet the lark's shrill fife may come
At the daybreak from the fallow,
And the bittern sound his drum,
Booming from the sedgy shallow.
Ruder sounds shall none be near,
Guards nor warders challenge here,
Here's no war-steed's neigh and champing,
Shouting clans or squadrons stamping."
SCOTT: "The Lady of the Lake"
FISHING
One fine Thursday afternoon, Tom, having borrowed East's new rod,
started by himself to the river. He fished for some time with small
success, not a fish would rise to him; but as he prowled along the bank,
he was presently aware of mighty ones feeding in a pool on the opposite
side, under the shade of a huge willow-tree. The stream was deep here,
but some fifty yards below was a shallow, for which he made off
hot-foot; and forgetting landlords, keepers, solemn prohibitions of the
Doctor, and everything else, pulled up his trousers, plunged across, and
in three minutes was creeping along on all fours towards the clump of
willows.
It isn't often that great chub, or any other coarse fish, are in earnest
about anything; but just then they were thoroughly bent on feeding, and
in half an hour Master Tom had deposited three thumping fellows at the
foot of the giant willow. As he was baiting for a fourth pounder, and
just going to throw in again, he became aware of a man coming up the
bank not one hundred yards off. Another look told him that it was the
under-keeper. Could he reach the shallow before him? No, not carrying
his rod. Nothing for it but the tree. So Tom laid his bones to it,
shinning up as fast as he could and dragging up his rod after him. He
had just time to reach and crouch along upon a huge branch some ten feet
up, which stretched out over the river, when the keeper arrived at the
clump.
Tom's heart beat fast as he came under the tree; two steps more and he
would have passed, when, as ill-luck would have it, the gleam on the
scales of the dead fish caught his eye, and he made a dead point at the
foot of the tree. He picked up the fish one by one; his eye and touch
told him that they had been alive and feeding within the hour.
Tom crouched lower along the branch, and heard the keeper beating the
clump. "If I could only get the rod hidden," thought he, and began
gently shifting it to get it alongside of him: "willow-trees don't throw
out straight hickory shoots twelve feet long, with no leaves, worse
luck." Alas! the keeper catches the rustle, and then a sight of the rod,
and then of Tom's hand and arm.
"Oh, be up ther', be 'ee?" says he, running under the tree. "Now you
come down this minute."
"Tree'd at last," thinks Tom, making no answer, and keeping as close as
possible, but working away at the rod, which he takes to pieces. "I'm in
for it, unless I can starve him out."
And then he begins to meditate getting along the branch for a plunge,
and scramble to the other side; but the small branches are so thick,
and the opposite bank so difficult, that the keeper will have lots of
time to get round by the ford before he can get out, so he gives that
up. And now he hears the keeper beginning to scramble up the trunk. That
will never do; so he scrambles himself back to where his branch joins
the trunk, and stands with lifted rod.
"Hullo, Velveteens, mind your fingers if you come any higher."
The keeper stops and looks up, and then with a grin says: "Oh! be you,
be it, young measter? Well, here's luck. Now I tells 'ee to come down at
once, and 't'll be best for 'ee."
"Thank 'ee, Velveteens, I'm very comfortable," said Tom, shortening the
rod in his hand, and preparing for battle.
"Werry well, please yourself," says the keeper, descending, however, to
the ground again, and taking his seat on the bank. "I bean't in no
hurry, so you med take your time. I'll larn 'ee to gee honest folk names
afore I've done with 'ee."
"My luck as usual," thinks Tom; "what a fool I was to give him a black!
If I'd called him 'keeper,' now, I might get off. The return match is
all his way."
The keeper quietly proceeded to take out his pipe, fill, and light it,
keeping an eye on Tom, who now sat disconsolately across the branch,
looking at the keeper--a pitiful sight for men and fishes. The more he
thought of it the less he liked it.
"It must be getting near second calling-over," thinks he. Keeper smokes
on stolidly. "If he takes me up, I shall be flogged safe enough. I can't
sit here all night. Wonder if he'll rise at silver."
"I say, keeper," said he, meekly, "let me go for two bob?"
"Not for twenty neither," grunts his persecutor.
And so they sat on till long past second calling-over; and the sun came
slanting in through the willow-branches, and telling of locking-up near
at hand.
"I'm coming down, keeper," said Tom at last, with a sigh, fairly tired
out. "Now what are you going to do?"
"Walk 'ee up to School, and give 'ee over to the Doctor; them's my
orders," says Velveteens, knocking the ashes out of his fourth pipe, and
standing up and shaking himself.
"Very good," said Tom; "but hands off, you know. I'll go with you
quietly, so no collaring or that sort of thing."
Keeper looked at him a minute: "Werry good," said he at last. And so Tom
descended, and wended his way drearily by the side of the keeper up to
the School-house, where they arrived just at locking-up.
As they passed the School-gates, the Tadpole and several others who were
standing there caught the state of things, and rushed out, crying,
"Rescue!" but Tom shook his head, so they only followed to the Doctor's
gate, and went back sorely puzzled.
How changed and stern the Doctor seemed from the last time that Tom was
up there, as the keeper told the story, not omitting to state how Tom
had called him blackguard names. "Indeed, sir," broke in the culprit,
"it was only Velveteens." The Doctor only asked one question.
"You know the rule about the banks, Brown?"
"Yes, sir."
"Then wait for me to-morrow, after first lesson."
"I thought so," muttered Tom.
"And about the rod, sir?" went on the keeper. "Master's told we as we
might have all the rods----"
"Oh, please, sir," broke in Tom, "the rod isn't mine."
The Doctor looked puzzled, but the keeper, who was a good-hearted
fellow, and melted at Tom's evident distress, gave up his claim.
Tom was flogged next morning, and a few days afterwards met Velveteens,
and presented him with half a crown for giving up the rod claim, and
they became sworn friends; and I regret to say that Tom had many more
fish from under the willow that May-fly season, and was never caught
again by Velveteens.
HUGHES: "Tom Brown's School Days."
THE FOUNTAIN
Into the sunshine,
Full of the light,
Leaping and flashing
From morn till night!
Into the moonlight,
Whiter than snow,
Waving so flower-like
When the winds blow!
Into the starlight,
Rushing in spray,
Happy at midnight,
Happy by day;
Ever in motion,
Blithesome and cheery,
Still climbing heavenward
Never aweary;--
Glad of all weathers;
Still seeming best,
Upward or downward,
Motion thy rest;--
Full of a nature
Nothing can tame,
Changed every moment,
Ever the same;--
Ceaseless aspiring,
Ceaseless content,
Darkness or sunshine
Thy element;--
Glorious fountain!
Let my heart be
Fresh, changeful, constant,
Upward, like thee!
LOWELL
BREAK, BREAK, BREAK
Break, break, break,
On thy cold gray stones, O Sea!
And I would that my tongue could utter
The thoughts that arise in me.
O well for the fisherman's boy,
That he shouts with his sister at play!
O well for the sailor lad,
That he sings in his boat on the bay!
And the stately ships go on
To their haven under the hill;
But O for the touch of a vanish'd hand,
And the sound of a voice that is still!
Break, break, break,
At the foot of thy crags, O Sea!
But the tender grace of a day that is dead
Will never come back to me.
TENNYSON
Try to frequent the company of your betters. In books and life, that is
the most wholesome society; learn to admire rightly; the great pleasure
of life is that. Note what great men admired: they admired great things;
narrow spirits admire basely and worship meanly.
THACKERAY
THE BED OF PROCRUSTES
A very tall and strong man, dressed in rich garments, came down to meet
Theseus. On his arms were golden bracelets, and round his neck a collar
of jewels; and he came forward, bowing courteously, and held out both
his hands, and spoke:
"Welcome, fair youth, to these mountains; happy am I to have met you!
For what greater pleasure to a good man than to entertain strangers? But
I see that you are weary. Come up to my castle, and rest yourself
awhile."
"I give you thanks," said Theseus; "but I am in haste to go up the
valley."
"Alas! you have wandered far from the right way, and you cannot reach
your journey's end to-night, for there are many miles of mountain
between you and it, and steep passes, and cliffs dangerous after
nightfall. It is well for you that I met you, for my whole joy is to
find strangers, and to feast them at my castle, and hear tales from them
of foreign lands. Come up with me, and eat the best of venison, and
drink the rich red wine, and sleep upon my famous bed, of which all
travellers say that they never saw the like. For whatsoever the
stature of my guest, however tall or short, that bed fits him to a hair,
and he sleeps on it as he never slept before." And he laid hold on
Theseus' hands, and would not let him go.
[Illustration: NIAGARA FALLS]
Theseus wished to go forwards: but he was ashamed to seem churlish to so
hospitable a man; and he was curious to see that wondrous bed; and
beside, he was hungry and weary: yet he shrank from the man, he knew not
why; for, though his voice was gentle, it was dry and husky like a
toad's; and though his eyes were gentle, they were dull and cold like
stones. But he consented, and went with the man up a glen which led from
the road, under the dark shadow of the cliffs.
And as they went up, the glen grew narrower, and the cliffs higher and
darker, and beneath them a torrent roared, half seen between bare
limestone crags. And around them was neither tree nor bush, while the
snow-blasts swept down the glen, cutting and chilling, till a horror
fell on Theseus as he looked round at that doleful place. And he said at
last: "Your castle stands, it seems, in a dreary region."
"Yes; but once within it, hospitality makes all things cheerful. But who
are these?" and he looked back, and Theseus also; and far below, along
the road which they had left, came a string of laden asses, and
merchants walking by them, watching their ware.
"Ah, poor souls!" said the stranger. "Well for them that I looked back
and saw them! And well for me, too, for I shall have the more guests at
my feast. Wait awhile till I go down and call them, and we will eat and
drink together the livelong night. Happy am I, to whom Heaven sends so
many guests at once!"
And he ran back down the hill, waving his hand and shouting to the
merchants, while Theseus went slowly up the steep pass.
But as he went up he met an aged man, who had been gathering driftwood
in the torrent-bed. He had laid down his faggot in the road, and was
trying to lift it again to his shoulder. And when he saw Theseus, he
called to him and said:
"O fair youth, help me up with my burden, for my limbs are stiff and
weak with years."
Then Theseus lifted the burden on his back. And the old man blessed him,
and then looked earnestly upon him, and said:
"Who are you, fair youth, and wherefore travel you this doleful road?"
"Who I am my parents know; but I travel this doleful road because I have
been invited by a hospitable man, who promises to feast me and to make
me sleep upon I know not what wondrous bed."
Then the old man clapped his hands together and cried:
"Know, fair youth, that you are going to torment and to death, for he
who met you (I will requite your kindness by another) is a robber and a
murderer of men. Whatsoever stranger he meets he entices him hither to
death; and as for this bed of which he speaks, truly it fits all comers,
yet none ever rose alive off it save me."
"Why?" asked Theseus, astonished.
"Because, if a man be too tall for it, he lops his limbs till they be
short enough, and if he be too short, he stretches his limbs till they
be long enough; but me only he spared, seven weary years agone; for I
alone of all fitted his bed exactly, so he spared me, and made me his
slave. And once I was a wealthy merchant, and dwelt in a great city; but
now I hew wood and draw water for him, the torment of all mortal men."
Then Theseus said nothing; but he ground his teeth together.
"Escape, then," said the old man, "for he will have no pity on thy
youth. But yesterday he brought up hither a young man and a maiden, and
fitted them upon his bed; and the young man's hands and feet he cut off,
but the maiden's limbs he stretched until she died, and so both perished
miserably--but I am tired of weeping over the slain. And therefore he is
called Procrustes, the stretcher. Flee from him: yet whither will you
flee? The cliffs are steep, and who can climb them? and there is no
other road."
But Theseus laid his hand upon the old man's mouth, and said: "There is
no need to flee;" and he turned to go down the pass.
"Do not tell him that I have warned you, or he will kill me by some evil
death;" and the old man screamed after him down the glen; but Theseus
strode on in his wrath.
And he said to himself: "This is an ill-ruled land; when shall I have
done ridding it of monsters?" And, as he spoke, Procrustes came up the
hill, and all the merchants with him, smiling and talking gaily. And
when he saw Theseus, he cried: "Ah, fair young guest, have I kept you
too long waiting?"
But Theseus answered: "The man who stretches his guests upon a bed and
hews off their hands and feet, what shall be done to him, when right is
done throughout the land?"
Then Procrustes' countenance changed, and his cheeks grew as green as a
lizard, and he felt for his sword in haste; but Theseus leaped on him,
and cried:
"Is this true, my host, or is it false?" and he clasped Procrustes round
waist and elbow, so that he could not draw his sword.
"Is this true, my host, or is it false!" But Procrustes answered never a
word.
Then Theseus flung him from him, and lifted up his dreadful club; and
before Procrustes could strike him, he had struck and felled him to the
ground.
And once again he struck him; and his evil soul fled forth, squeaking
like a bat into the darkness of a cave.
Then Theseus stripped him of his gold ornaments, and went up to his
house, and found there great wealth and treasure, which he had stolen
from the passers-by. And he called the people of the country, whom
Procrustes had spoiled a long time, and divided the spoil among them,
and went down the mountains, and away.
KINGSLEY: "The Heroes."
(Adapted)
"BOB WHITE"
I see you, on the zigzag rails,
You cheery little fellow!
While purple leaves are whirling down,
And scarlet, brown, and yellow.
I hear you when the air is full
Of snow-down of the thistle;
All in your speckled jacket trim,
"Bob White! Bob White!" you whistle.
Tall amber sheaves, in rustling rows,
Are nodding there to greet you;
I know that you are out for play--
How I should like to meet you!
Though blithe of voice, so shy you are,
In this delightful weather;
What splendid playmates, you and I,
"Bob White," would make together!
There, you are gone! but far away
I hear your whistle falling.
Ah! maybe it is hide-and-seek,
And that's why you are calling.
Along those hazy uplands wide
We'd be such merry rangers;
What! silent now, and hidden too!
"Bob White," don't let's be strangers.
Perhaps you teach your brood the game,
In yonder rainbowed thicket,
While winds are playing with the leaves,
And softly creeks the cricket.
"Bob White! Bob White!"--again I hear
That blithely whistled chorus;
Why should we not companions be?
One Father watches o'er us!
GEORGE COOPER
RADISSON AND THE INDIANS
The tribe being assembled and having spread out their customary gifts,
consisting of beaver tails, smoked moose tongues and pemmican, one of
the leading braves arose and said:
"Men who pretend to give us life, do you wish us to die! You know what
beaver is worth and the trouble we have to take it. You call yourselves
our brothers, and yet will not give us what those give who make no such
profession. Accept our gifts, and let us barter, or we will visit you
no more. We have but to travel a hundred leagues and we will encounter
the English, whose offers we have heard."
On the conclusion of this harangue, silence reigned for some moments.
All eyes were turned on the two white traders. Feeling that now or never
was the time to exhibit firmness, Radisson, without rising to his feet,
addressed the whole assemblage in haughty accents.
"Whom dost thou wish I should answer? I have heard a dog bark; when a
man shall speak, he will see I know how to defend my conduct and my
terms. We love our brothers and we deserve their love in return. For
have we not saved them all from the treachery of the English?"
Uttering these words fearlessly, he leaped to his feet and drew a long
hunting-knife from his belt. Seizing by the scalp-lock the chief of the
tribe, who had already adopted him as his son, he asked: "Who art thou?"
To which the chief responded, as was customary: "Thy father."
"Then," cried Radisson, "if that is so, and thou art my father, speak
for me. Thou art the master of my goods; but as for that dog who has
spoken, what is he doing in this company? Let him go to his brothers,
the English, at the head of the Bay. Or he need not travel so far. He
may, if he chooses, see them starving and helpless on yonder island;
answering to my words of command.
"I know how to speak to my Indian father," continued Radisson, "of the
perils of the woods, of the abandonment of his squaws and children, of
the risks of hunger and the peril of death by foes. All these you avoid
by trading with us here. But although I am mightily angry, I will take
pity on this wretch and let him still live. Go," addressing the brave
with his weapon outstretched, "take this as my gift to you, and depart.
When you meet your brothers, the English, tell them my name, and add
that we are soon coming to treat them and their factory yonder as we
have treated this one."
The speaker knew enough of the Indian character, especially in affairs
of trade, to be aware that a point once yielded them is never recovered.
And it is but just to say that the terms he then made of three axes for
a beaver were thereafter adopted, and that his firmness saved the
Company many a cargo of these implements. His harangue produced an
immediate impression upon all save the humiliated brave, who declared
that, if the Assiniboines came hither to barter, he would lie in ambush
and kill them.
The French trader's reply to this was, to the Indian mind, a terrible
one.
"I will myself travel into thy country," said he, "and eat sagamite in
thy grandmother's skull."
While the brave and his small circle of friends were livid with fear and
anger, Radisson ordered three fathoms of tobacco to be distributed;
observing, contemptuously, to the hostile minority that, as for them,
they might go and smoke women's tobacco in the country of the lynxes.
The barter began and, when at nightfall the Indians departed, not a skin
was left amongst them.
BECKLES WILLSON: "The Great Company."
THE BROOK
I come from haunts of coot and hern,
I make a sudden sally,
And sparkle out among the fern,
To bicker down a valley.
By thirty hills I hurry down,
Or slip between the ridges,
By twenty thorps, a little town,
And half a hundred bridges.
Till last by Philip's farm I flow
To join the brimming river,
For men may come and men may go,
But I go on for ever.
I chatter over stony ways,
In little sharps and trebles,
I bubble into eddying bays,
I babble on the pebbles.
With many a curve my banks I fret
By many a field and fallow,
And many a fairy foreland set
With willow-weed and mallow.
I chatter, chatter, as I flow
To join the brimming river,
For men may come and men may go,
But I go on for ever.
I wind about, and in and out,
With here a blossom sailing,
And here and there a lusty trout,
And here and there a grayling,
And here and there a foamy flake
Upon me, as I travel
With many a silvery waterbreak
Above the golden gravel,
And draw them all along, and flow
To join the brimming river,
For men may come and men may go,
But I go on for ever.
I steal by lawns and grassy plots,
I slide by hazel covers;
I move the sweet forget-me-nots
That grow for happy lovers.
I slip, I slide, I gloom, I glance,
Among my skimming swallows;
I make the netted sunbeam dance
Against my sandy shallows.
I murmur under moon and stars
In brambly wildernesses;
I linger by my shingly bars;
I loiter round my cresses;
And out again I curve and flow
To join the brimming river,
For men may come and men may go,
But I go on for ever.
TENNYSON
As good almost kill a man as kill a good book. Many a man lives a burden
to the earth, but a good book is the precious life blood of a
master-spirit.
MILTON
"DO SEEK THEIR MEAT FROM GOD"
There was a solitary cabin in the thick of the woods a mile or more from
the nearest neighbour, a substantial frame house in the midst of a large
and well-tilled clearing. The owner of the cabin, a shiftless fellow who
spent his days for the most part at the corner tavern three miles
distant, had suddenly grown disgusted with a land wherein one must work
to live, and had betaken himself with his seven-year-old boy to seek
some more indolent clime.
The five-year-old son of the prosperous owner of the frame house and the
older boy had been playmates. The little boy, unaware of his comrade's
departure, had stolen away, late in the afternoon, along the lonely
stretch of wood road, and had reached the cabin only to find it empty.
As the dusk gathered, he grew afraid to start for home and crept
trembling into the cabin, whose door would not stay shut. Desperate with
fear and loneliness, he lifted up his voice piteously. In the terrifying
silence, he listened hard to hear if anyone or anything were coming.
Then again his shrill childish wailings arose, startling the unexpectant
night, and piercing the forest depths, even to the ears of two great
panthers which had set forth to seek their meat from God.
The lonely cabin stood some distance, perhaps a quarter of a mile, back
from the highway connecting the settlements. Along this main road a man
was plodding wearily. All day he had been walking, and now as he neared
home his steps began to quicken with anticipation of rest. Over his
shoulder projected a double-barrelled fowling-piece, from which was
slung a bundle of such necessities as he had purchased in town that
morning. It was the prosperous settler, the master of the frame house,
who had chosen to make the tedious journey on foot.
He passed the mouth of the wood road leading to the cabin and had gone
perhaps a furlong beyond, when his ears were startled by the sound of a
child crying in the woods. He stopped, lowered his burden to the road,
and stood straining ears and eyes in the direction of the sound. It was
just at this time that the two panthers also stopped, and lifted their
heads to listen. Their ears were keener than those of the man, and the
sound had reached them at a greater distance.
Presently the settler realized whence the cries were coming. He called
to mind the cabin; but he did not know the cabin's owner had departed.
He cherished a hearty contempt for the drunken squatter; and on the
drunken squatter's child he looked with small favour, especially as a
playmate for his own boy. Nevertheless he hesitated before resuming his
journey.
"Poor little fellow!" he muttered, half in wrath. "I reckon his precious
father's drunk down at 'the Corners,' and him crying for loneliness!"
Then he re-shouldered his burden and strode on doggedly.
But louder, shriller, more hopeless and more appealing, arose the
childish voice, and the settler paused again, irresolute, and with
deepening indignation. In his fancy he saw the steaming supper his wife
would have awaiting him. He loathed the thought of retracing his steps,
and then stumbling a quarter of a mile through the stumps and bog of the
wood road. He was foot-sore as well as hungry, and he cursed the
vagabond squatter with serious emphasis; but in that wailing was a
terror which would not let him go on. He thought of his own little one
left in such a position, and straightway his heart melted. He turned,
dropped his bundle behind some bushes, grasped his gun, and made speed
back for the cabin.
"Who knows," he said to himself, "but that drunken idiot has left his
youngster without a bite to eat in the whole miserable shanty? Or maybe
he's locked out, and the poor little beggar's half scared to death.
_Sounds_ as if he was scared;" and at this thought the settler quickened
his pace.
As the hungry panthers drew near the cabin, and the cries of the lonely
child grew clearer, they hastened their steps, and their eyes opened to
a wider circle, flaming with a greener fire. It would be thoughtless
superstition to say the beasts were cruel. They were simply keen with
hunger, and alive with the eager passion of the chase. They were not
ferocious with any anticipation of battle, for they knew the voice was
the voice of a child, and something in the voice told them the child was
solitary. Theirs was no hideous or unnatural rage, as it is the custom
to describe it. They were but seeking with the strength, the cunning,
the deadly swiftness given them to that end, the food convenient for
them. On their success in accomplishing that for which nature had so
exquisitely designed them, depended not only their own, but the lives of
their blind and helpless young, now whimpering in the cave on the slope
of the moon-lit ravine. They crept through a wet alder thicket, bounded
lightly over the ragged brush fence, and paused to reconnoitre on the
edge of the clearing, in the full glare of the moon. At the same moment,
the settler emerged from the darkness of the wood road on the opposite
side of the clearing. He saw the two great beasts, heads down and snouts
thrust forward, gliding toward the open cabin door.
For a few moments the child had been silent. Now his voice rose again in
pitiful appeal, a very ecstasy of loneliness and terror. There was a
note in the cry that shook the settler's soul. He had a vision of his
own boy, at home with his mother, safe-guarded from even the thought of
peril. And here was this little one left to the wild beasts! "Thank God!
Thank God I came!" murmured the settler, as he dropped on one knee to
take a surer aim. There was a loud report (not like the sharp crack of a
rifle), and the female panther, shot through the loins, fell in a heap,
snarling furiously and striking with her fore-paws.
The male walked around her in fierce and anxious amazement. Presently,
as the smoke lifted, he discerned the settler kneeling for a second
shot. With a high screech of fury, the lithe brute sprang upon his
enemy, taking a bullet full in his chest without seeming to know he was
hit. Ere the man could slip in another cartridge the beast was upon him,
bearing him to the ground and fixing keen fangs in his shoulder. Without
a word, the man set his strong fingers desperately into the brute's
throat, wrenched himself partly free, and was struggling to rise, when
the panther's body collapsed upon him all at once, a dead weight which
he easily flung aside. The bullet had done its work just in time.
Quivering from the swift and dreadful contest, bleeding profusely from
his mangled shoulder, the settler stepped up to the cabin door and
peered in. He heard sobs in the darkness.
"Don't be scared, sonny," he said, in a reassuring voice. "I'm going to
take you home along with me. Poor little lad, _I'll_ look after you, if
folks that ought to don't."
Out of the dark corner came a shout of delight, in a voice which made
the settler's heart stand still. "_Daddy_, Daddy," it said, "I _knew_
you'd come. I was so frightened when it got dark!" And a little figure
launched itself into the settler's arms, and clung to him trembling. The
man sat down on the threshold and strained the child to his breast. He
remembered how near he had been to disregarding the far-off cries, and
great beads of sweat broke out upon his forehead.
Not many weeks afterwards the settler was following the fresh trail of a
bear which had killed his sheep. The trail led him at last along the
slope of a deep ravine, from whose bottom came the brawl of a swollen
and obstructed stream. In the ravine he found a shallow cave, behind a
great white rock. The cave was plainly a wild beast's lair, and he
entered circumspectly. There were bones scattered about, and on some dry
herbage in the deepest corner of the den, he found the dead bodies of
two small panther cubs.
CHARLES G. D. ROBERTS: "Earth's Enigmas."
(Adapted)
So nigh is grandeur to our dust,
So near is God to man,
When Duty whispers low, "_Thou must_,"
The youth replies, "_I can_."
EMERSON
A SONG OF THE SEA
The Sea! the Sea! the open Sea!
The blue, the fresh, the ever free!
Without a mark, without a bound,
It runneth the earth's wide regions 'round;
It plays with the clouds; it mocks the skies;
Or like a cradled creature lies.
I'm on the Sea! I'm on the Sea!
I am where I would ever be;
With the blue above, and the blue below,
And silence wheresoe'er I go;
If a storm should come and awake the deep,
What matter? _I_ shall ride and sleep.
I love (oh! _how_ I love) to ride
On the fierce, foaming, bursting tide,
When every mad wave drowns the moon,
Or whistles aloft his tempest tune,
And tells how goeth the world below,
And why the south-west blasts do blow.
I never was on the dull, tame shore,
But I loved the great Sea more and more,
And backwards flew to her billowy breast,
Like a bird that seeketh its mother's nest;
And a mother she _was_ and _is_ to me;
For I was born on the open Sea.
The waves were white, and red the morn,
In the noisy hour when I was born;
And the whale it whistled, the porpoise rolled
And the dolphins bared their backs of gold;
And never was heard such an outcry wild
As welcomed to life the Ocean-child!
I've lived since then, in calm and strife,
Full fifty summers a sailor's life,
With wealth to spend, and a power to range,
But never have sought nor sighed for change;
And Death whenever he comes to me,
Shall come on the wide unbounded Sea!
B. W. PROCTER: ("Barry Cornwall")
LITTLE DAFFYDOWNDILLY
"I slept, and dreamed that life was beauty;
I woke, and found that life was duty."
Daffydowndilly was so called because in his nature he resembled a
flower, and loved to do only what was beautiful and agreeable, and took
no delight in labour of any kind. But while Daffydowndilly was yet a
little boy, his mother sent him away from his pleasant home, and put him
under the care of a very strict schoolmaster, who went by the name of
Mr. Toil. Those who knew him best affirmed that this Mr. Toil was a
very worthy character; and that he had done more good, both to children
and grown people, than anybody else in the world.
Certainly he had lived long enough to do a great deal of good; for, if
all stories be true, he had dwelt upon earth ever since Adam was driven
from the garden of Eden.
Nevertheless, Mr. Toil had a severe and ugly countenance, especially for
such little boys or big men as were inclined to be idle; his voice, too,
was harsh; and all his ways and customs seemed very disagreeable to our
friend Daffydowndilly. The whole day long this terrible schoolmaster sat
at his desk overlooking the scholars, or stalked about the school-room
with a certain awful birch rod in his hand. Now came a rap over the
shoulders of a boy whom Mr. Toil had caught at play; now he punished a
whole class who were behindhand with their lessons; and, in short,
unless a lad chose to attend quietly and constantly to his book, he had
no chance of enjoying a quiet moment in the school-room of Mr. Toil.
"This will never do for me," thought Daffydowndilly.
Now the whole of Daffydowndilly's life had hitherto been passed with his
dear mother, who had a much sweeter face than old Mr. Toil, and who had
always been very indulgent to her little boy. No wonder, therefore, that
poor Daffydowndilly found it a woeful change to be sent away from the
good lady's side and put under the care of this ugly-visaged
schoolmaster, who never gave him any apples or cakes, and seemed to
think that little boys were created only to get lessons.
"I can't bear it any longer," said Daffydowndilly to himself, when he
had been at school about a week. "I'll run away and try to find my dear
mother; and, at any rate, I shall never find anybody half so
disagreeable as this old Mr. Toil!"
So the very next morning, off started poor Daffydowndilly, and began his
rambles about the world, with only some bread and cheese for his
breakfast, and very little pocket-money to pay his expenses. But he had
gone only a short distance when he overtook a man of grave and sedate
appearance, who was trudging at a moderate pace along the road.
"Good-morning, my lad," said the stranger; and his voice seemed hard and
severe, but yet had a sort of kindness in it. "Whence do you come so
early, and whither are you going?"
Little Daffydowndilly was a boy of a very ingenuous disposition, and had
never been known to tell a lie in all his life. Nor did he tell one now.
He hesitated a moment or two, but finally confessed that he had run away
from school, on account of his great dislike for Mr. Toil; and that he
was resolved to find some place in the world where he should never see
or hear of the old schoolmaster again.
"Oh, very well, my little friend!" answered the stranger. "Then we will
go together; for I, likewise, have had a good deal to do with Mr. Toil,
and should be glad to find some place where he was never heard of."
Our friend Daffydowndilly would have been better pleased with a
companion of his own age, with whom he might have gathered flowers along
the road-side, or have chased butterflies, or have done many other
things to make the journey pleasant. But he had wisdom enough to
understand that he should get along through the world much easier by
having a man of experience to show him the way. So he accepted the
stranger's proposal, and they walked on very sociably together.
They had not gone far, when the road passed by a field where some
haymakers were at work, mowing down the tall grass and spreading it out
in the sun to dry. Daffydowndilly was delighted with the sweet smell of
the new-mown grass, and thought how much pleasanter it must be to make
hay in the sunshine under the blue sky, and with the birds singing
sweetly in the neighbouring trees and bushes, than to be shut up in a
dismal school-room, learning lessons all day long, and continually
scolded by old Mr. Toil. But, in the midst of these thoughts, while he
was stopping to peep over the stone wall, he started back and caught
hold of his companion's hand.
"Quick, quick!" cried he. "Let us run away, or he will catch us!"
"Who will catch us?" asked the stranger.
"Mr. Toil, the old schoolmaster!" answered Daffydowndilly. "Don't you
see him amongst the haymakers?"
And Daffydowndilly pointed to an elderly man, who seemed to be the owner
of the field, and the employer of the men at work there. He had stripped
off his coat and waistcoat, and was busily at work in his shirt sleeves.
The drops of sweat stood upon his brow; but he gave himself not a
moment's rest, and kept crying out to the haymakers to make hay while
the sun shone. Now, strange to say, the figure and features of this old
farmer were precisely the same as those of old Mr. Toil, who, at that
very moment, must have been just entering his school-room.
"Don't be afraid," said the stranger. "This is not Mr. Toil, the
schoolmaster, but a brother of his, who was bred a farmer; and the
people say he is the more disagreeable man of the two. However, he won't
trouble you unless you become a labourer on the farm."
Little Daffydowndilly believed what his companion said, but he was very
glad, nevertheless, when they were out of sight of the old farmer, who
bore such a singular resemblance to Mr. Toil. The two travellers had
gone but little farther, when they came to a spot where some carpenters
were erecting a house. Daffydowndilly begged his companion to stop a
moment; for it was a very pretty sight to see how neatly the carpenters
did their work, with their broad-axes and saws, and planes, and hammers,
shaping out the doors, and putting in the window-sashes, and nailing on
the clap-boards; and he could not help thinking that he should like to
take a broad-axe, a saw, a plane, and a hammer, and build a little house
for himself. And then, when he should have a house of his own, old Mr.
Toil would never dare to molest him.
But, just while he was delighting himself with this idea, little
Daffydowndilly beheld something that made him catch hold of his
companion's hand, all in a fright.
"Make haste. Quick, quick!" cried he. "There he is again!" "Who?" asked
the stranger, very quietly.
"Old Mr. Toil," said Daffydowndilly, trembling.
"There! he that is overseeing the carpenters. 'Tis my old schoolmaster,
as sure as I'm alive!"
The stranger cast his eyes where Daffydowndilly pointed his finger; and
he saw an elderly man, with a carpenter's rule and compass in his hand.
This person went to and fro about the unfinished house, measuring pieces
of timber and marking out the work that was to be done, and continually
exhorting the other carpenters to be diligent. And wherever he turned
his hard and wrinkled visage, the men seemed to feel that they had a
task-master over them, and sawed, and hammered, and planed, as if for
dear life.
"Oh, no! this is not Mr. Toil, the schoolmaster," said the stranger. "It
is another brother of his, who follows the trade of carpenter."
"I am very glad to hear it," quoth Daffydowndilly; "but if you please,
sir, I should like to get out of his way as soon as possible."
Then they went on a little farther, and soon heard the sound of a drum
and fife. Daffydowndilly pricked up his ears at this, and besought his
companion to hurry forward, that they might not miss seeing the
soldiers. Accordingly they made what haste they could, and soon met a
company of soldiers gaily dressed, with beautiful feathers in their
caps, and bright muskets on their shoulders. In front marched two
drummers and two fifers, beating on their drums and making such lively
music that little Daffydowndilly would gladly have followed them to the
end of the world. And if he was only a soldier, then, he said to
himself, old Mr. Toil would never venture to look him in the face.
"Quick step! Forward march!" shouted a gruff voice.
Little Daffydowndilly started, in great dismay; for this voice which had
spoken to the soldiers sounded precisely the same as that which he had
heard every day in Mr. Toil's school-room, out of Mr. Toil's own mouth.
And, turning his eyes to the captain of the company, what should he see
but the very image of old Mr. Toil himself, with a smart cap and feather
on his head, a pair of gold epaulets on his shoulders, a laced coat on
his back, a purple sash round his waist, and a long sword, instead of a
birch rod, in his hand. And though he held his head so high, and
strutted like a turkey-cock, still he looked quite as ugly and
disagreeable as when he was hearing lessons in the school-room.
"This is certainly old Mr. Toil," said Daffydowndilly, in a trembling
voice. "Let us run away for fear he should make us enlist in his
company!"
"You are mistaken again, my little friend," replied the stranger, very
composedly. "This is not Mr. Toil, the schoolmaster, but a brother of
his, who has served in the army all his life. People say he's a terribly
severe fellow; but you and I need not be afraid of him."
"Well, well," said little Daffydowndilly, "but if you please, sir, I
don't want to see the soldiers any more."
So the child and the stranger resumed their journey; and, by and by,
they came to a house by the road-side, where a number of people were
making merry. Young men and rosy-cheeked girls, with smiles on their
faces, were dancing to the sound of a fiddle. It was the pleasantest
sight that Daffydowndilly had yet met with, and it comforted him for all
his disappointments.
"Oh, let us stop here," cried he to his companion; "for Mr. Toil will
never dare to show his face where there is a fiddler, and where people
are dancing and making merry. We shall be quite safe here!"
But these last words died away upon Daffydowndilly's tongue; for,
happening to cast his eyes on the fiddler, whom should he behold again
but the likeness of Mr. Toil, holding a fiddle-bow instead of a birch
rod, and flourishing it with as much ease and dexterity as if he had
been a fiddler all his life! He had somewhat the air of a Frenchman, but
still looked exactly like the old schoolmaster; and Daffydowndilly even
fancied that he nodded and winked at him, and made signs for him to join
in the dance.
"Oh, dear me!" whispered he, turning pale, "it seems as if there was
nobody but Mr. Toil in the world. Who could have thought of his playing
on a fiddle!"
"This is not your old schoolmaster," observed the stranger, "but another
brother of his, who was bred in France, where he learned the profession
of a fiddler. He is ashamed of his family, and generally calls himself
Monsieur le Plaisir; but his real name is Toil, and those who have known
him best think him still more disagreeable than his brothers."
"Oh, take me back!--take me back!" cried poor little Daffydowndilly,
bursting into tears. "If there is nothing but Toil all the world over, I
may just as well go back to the school-house!"
"Yonder it is,--there is the school-house!" said the stranger, for
though he and Daffydowndilly had taken a great many steps, they had
travelled in a circle instead of a straight line. "Come; we will go back
to school together."
There was something in his companion's voice that little Daffydowndilly
now remembered, and it is strange that he had not remembered it sooner.
Looking up into his face, behold! there again was the likeness of old
Mr. Toil; so that the poor child had been in company with Toil all day,
even while he was doing his best to run away from him. Some people, to
whom I have told little Daffydowndilly's story, are of the opinion that
old Mr. Toil was a magician, and possessed the power of multiplying
himself into as many shapes as he saw fit.
Be this as it may, little Daffydowndilly had learned a good lesson, and
from that time forward was diligent at his task, because he knew that
diligence is not a whit more toilsome than sport or idleness. And when
he became better acquainted with Mr. Toil, he began to think that his
ways were not so very disagreeable, and that the old schoolmaster's
smile of approbation made his face almost as pleasant as even that of
Daffydowndilly's mother.
NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE
THE SANDPIPER
Across the narrow beach we flit,
One little sandpiper and I;
And fast I gather, bit by bit,
The scattered driftwood bleached and dry.
The wild waves reach their hands for it,
The wild wind raves, the tide runs high,
As up and down the beach we flit,--
One little sandpiper and I.
Above our heads the sullen clouds
Scud black and swift across the sky:
Like silent ghosts in misty shrouds
Stand out the white lighthouses high.
Almost as far as eye can reach
I see the close-reefed vessels fly,
As fast we flit along the beach,--
One little sandpiper and I.
I watch him as he skims along,
Uttering his sweet and mournful cry;
He starts not at my fitful song,
Or flash of fluttering drapery;
He has no thought of any wrong,
He scans me with a fearless eye.
Stanch friends are we, well-tried and strong,
The little sandpiper and I.
Comrade, where wilt thou be to-night
When the loosed storm breaks furiously?
My driftwood-fire will burn so bright!
To what warm shelter canst thou fly?
I do not fear for thee, though wroth
The tempest rushes through the sky:
For are we not God's children both,
Thou, little sandpiper, and I?
CELIA THAXTER
FROM "THE SERMON ON THE MOUNT"
Blessed are the poor in spirit: for their's is the kingdom of heaven.
Blessed are they that mourn: for they shall be comforted. Blessed are
the meek: for they shall inherit the earth. Blessed are they which do
hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled. Blessed
are the merciful: for they shall obtain mercy. Blessed are the pure in
heart: for they shall see God. Blessed are the peacemakers: for they
shall be called the children of God.
Again, ye have heard that it hath been said by them of old time, Thou
shalt not forswear thyself, but shalt perform unto the Lord thine oaths.
But I say unto you, Swear not at all; neither by heaven; for it is God's
throne: nor by the earth; for it is his footstool: neither by Jerusalem;
for it is the city of the great King. Neither shalt thou swear by thy
head, because thou canst not make one hair white or black.
Ye have heard that it hath been said, Thou shalt love thy neighbour, and
hate thine enemy. But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that
curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which
despitefully use you, and persecute you; that ye may be the children of
your Father which is in heaven: for he maketh his sun to rise on the
evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust.
For if ye love them which love you, what reward have ye? do not even the
publicans the same? And if ye salute your brethren only, what do ye more
than others? do not even the publicans so? Be ye therefore perfect, even
as your Father which is in heaven is perfect.
ST. MATTHEW, V.
THE LEGEND OF SAINT CHRISTOPHER
For many a year Saint Christopher
Served God in many a land;
And master painters drew his face,
With loving heart and hand,
On altar fronts and churches' walls;
And peasants used to say,--
To look on good Saint Christopher
Brought luck for all the day.
For many a year, in lowly hut,
The giant dwelt content
Upon the bank, and back and forth
Across the stream he went;
And on his giant shoulders bore
All travellers who came,
By night, by day, or rich or poor,
All in King Jesus' name.
But much he doubted if the King
His work would note or know,
And often with a weary heart
He waded to and fro.
One night, as wrapped in sleep he lay,
He sudden heard a call,--
"O Christopher, come, carry me!"
He sprang, looked out, but all
Was dark and silent on the shore,
"It must be that I dreamed,"
He said, and laid him down again;
But instantly there seemed
Again the feeble, distant cry,--
"Oh, come and carry me!"
Again he sprang and looked: again
No living thing could see.
The third time came the plaintive voice,
Like infant's, soft and weak;
With lantern strode the giant forth,
More carefully to seek.
Down on the bank a little child
He found,--a piteous sight,--
Who weeping, earnestly implored
To cross that very night.
With gruff good will he picked him up,
And on his neck to ride
He tossed him, as men play with babes,
And plunged into the tide.
But as the water closed around
His knees, the infant's weight
Grew heavier, and heavier,
Until it was so great
The giant scarce could stand upright,
His staff shook in his hand,
His mighty knees bent under him,
He barely reached the land.
And, staggering, set the infant down,
And turned to scan his face;
When, lo! he saw a halo bright
Which lit up all the place.
Then Christopher fell down, afraid
At marvel of the thing,
And dreamed not that it was the face
Of Jesus Christ, his King.
Until the infant spoke, and said:
"O Christopher, behold!
I am the Lord whom thou hast served,
Rise up, be glad and bold!
"For I have seen and noted well,
Thy works of charity;
And that thou art my servant good
A token thou shalt see.
Plant firmly here upon this bank
Thy stalwart staff of pine,
And it shall blossom and bear fruit,
This very hour, in sign."
Then, vanishing, the infant smiled.
The giant, left alone,
Saw on the bank, with luscious dates,
His stout pine staff bent down.
I think the lesson is as good
To-day as it was then--
As good to us called Christians
As to the heathen men--
The lesson of Saint Christopher,
Who spent his strength for others,
And saved his soul by working hard
To help and save his brothers!
HELEN HUNT JACKSON
WILLIAM TELL AND HIS SON
The sun already shone brightly as William Tell entered the town of
Altorf, and he advanced at once to the public place, where the first
object that caught his eyes was a handsome cap, embroidered with gold,
stuck upon the end of a long pole. Soldiers were walking around it in
silence, and the people of Altorf, as they passed, bowed their head to
the symbol of authority. The cap had been set up by Gessler, the
Austrian commander, for the purpose of discovering those who were not
submissive to the Austrian power, which had ruled the people of the
Swiss Cantons for a long time with great severity. He suspected that the
people were about to break into rebellion, and with a view to learn who
were the most discontented, he had placed the ducal cap of Austria on
this pole, publicly proclaiming that every one passing near, or within
sight of it, should bow before it, in proof of his homage to the duke.
Tell was much surprised at this new and strange attempt to humble the
people, and, leaning on his cross-bow, gazed scornfully on them and the
soldiers. Berenger, captain of the guard, at length observed this man,
who alone amidst the cringing crowd carried his head erect. He ordered
him to be seized and disarmed by the soldiers, and then conducted him to
Gessler, who put some questions to him, which he answered so haughtily
that Gessler was both surprised and angry. Suddenly, he was struck by
the likeness between him and the boy Walter Tell, whom he had seized and
put in prison the previous day for uttering some seditious words; he
immediately asked his name, which he no sooner heard than he knew him to
be the archer so famous, as the best marksman in the Canton.
Gessler at once resolved to punish both father and son at the same time,
by a method which was perhaps the most refined act of torture which man
ever imagined. As soon, then, as the youth was brought out, the governor
turned to Tell, and said: "I have often heard of thy great skill as an
archer, and I now intend to put it to the proof. Thy son shall be placed
at a distance of a hundred yards, with an apple on his head. If thou
strikest the apple with thy arrow, I will pardon you both; but if thou
refusest this trial, thy son shall die before thine eyes."
Tell implored Gessler to spare him so cruel a trial, in which he might
perhaps kill his beloved boy with his own hand. The governor would not
alter his purpose; so Tell at last agreed to shoot at the apple, as the
only chance of saving his son's life. Walter stood with his back to a
linden tree. Gessler, some distance behind, watched every motion. His
cross-bow and one arrow were handed to Tell; he tried the point, broke
the weapon, and demanded his quiver. It was brought to him and emptied
at his feet. He stooped down, and taking a long time to choose an arrow,
he managed to hide a second in his girdle.
After being in doubt a long time, his whole soul beaming in his face,
his love for his son rendering him almost powerless, he at length roused
himself--drew the bow--aimed--shot--and the apple, struck to the core,
was carried away by the arrow.
The market-place of Altorf was filled by loud cheers. Walter flew to
embrace his father, who, overcome by his emotion, fell fainting to the
ground, thus exposing the second arrow to view. Gessler stood over him,
awaiting his recovery, which speedily taking place, Tell rose, and
turned away from the governor with horror. The latter, however,
scarcely yet believing his senses, thus addressed him: "Incomparable
archer, I will keep my promise; but what needed you with that second
arrow which I see in your girdle?"
Tell replied: "It is the custom of the bowmen of Uri to have always one
arrow in reserve."
"Nay, nay," said Gessler, "tell me thy real motive; and, whatever it may
have been, speak frankly, and thy life is spared."
"The second shaft," replied Tell, "was to pierce thy heart, tyrant, if I
had chanced to harm my son."
CHAMBER'S "Tracts."
A MIDSUMMER SONG
O, father's gone to market-town, he was up before the day,
And Jamie's after robins, and the man is making hay,
And whistling down the hollow goes the boy that minds the mill,
While mother from the kitchen door is calling with a will:
"Polly!--Polly!--The cows are in the corn!
O, where's Polly?"
From all the misty morning air there comes a summer sound--
A murmur as of waters from skies and trees and ground.
The birds they sing upon the wing, the pigeons bill and coo,
And over hill and hollow rings again the loud halloo:
"Polly!--Polly!--The cows are in the corn!
O, where's Polly?"
Above the trees the honey-bees swarm by with buzz and boom,
And in the field and garden a thousand blossoms bloom.
Within the farmer's meadow a brown-eyed daisy blows,
And down at the edge of the hollow a red and thorny rose.
But Polly!--Polly!--The cows are in the corn!
O, where's Polly?
How strange at such a time of day the mill should stop its clatter!
The farmer's wife is listening now and wonders what's the matter.
O, wild the birds are singing in the wood and on the hill,
While whistling up the hollow goes the boy that minds the mill.
But Polly!--Polly!--The cows are in the corn!
O, where's Polly?
RICHARD WATSON GILDER
THE RELIEF OF LUCKNOW
On every side death stared us in the face; no human skill could avert it
any longer. We saw the moment approach when we must bid farewell to
earth, yet without feeling that unutterable horror which must have been
experienced by the unhappy victims at Cawnpore. We were resolved rather
to die than yield, and were fully persuaded that in twenty-four hours
all would be over. The engineer had said so, and all knew the worst. We
women strove to encourage each other, and to perform the light duties
which had been assigned to us, such as conveying orders to the
batteries, and supplying the men with provisions, especially cups of
coffee, which we prepared day and night.
I had gone out to try to make myself useful, in company with Jessie
Brown, the wife of a corporal in my husband's regiment. Poor Jessie had
been in a state of restless excitement all through the siege, and had
fallen away visibly within the last few days. A constant fever consumed
her, and her mind wandered occasionally, especially that day when the
recollections of home seemed powerfully present to her. At last,
overcome with fatigue, she lay down on the ground, wrapped up in her
plaid. I sat beside her, promising to awaken her when, as she said, her
"father should return from the ploughing."
She fell at length into a profound slumber, motionless and apparently
breathless, her head resting in my lap. I myself could no longer resist
the inclination to sleep, in spite of the continual roar of the cannon.
Suddenly I was aroused by a wild, unearthly scream close to my ear; my
companion stood upright beside me, her arms raised, and her head bent
forward in the attitude of listening.
A look of intense delight broke over her countenance. She grasped my
hand, drew me toward her, and exclaimed: "Dinna ye hear it? dinna ye
hear it? Aye. I'm no dreaming: it's the slogan o' the Highlanders!
We're saved! we're saved!" Then, flinging herself on her knees, she
thanked God with passionate fervour.
I felt utterly bewildered; my English ears heard only the roar of
artillery, and I thought my poor Jessie was still raving, but she darted
to the batteries, and I heard her cry incessantly to the men: "Courage!
courage! Hark to the slogan--to the Macgregor, the grandest of them a'!
Here's help at last!"
To describe the effect of these words upon the soldiers would be
impossible. For a moment they ceased firing, and every soul listened
with intense anxiety. Gradually, however, there arose a murmur of bitter
disappointment, and the wailing of the women, who had flocked to the
spot, burst out anew as the colonel shook his head. Our dull Lowland
ears heard only the rattle of the musketry.
A few moments more of this deathlike suspense, of this agonizing hope,
and Jessie, who had again sunk on the ground, sprang to her feet, and
cried in a voice so clear and piercing that it was heard along the whole
line: "Will ye no believe it noo? The slogan has ceased, indeed, but the
Campbells are comin'! D'ye hear? d'ye hear?"
At that moment all seemed, indeed, to hear the voice of God in the
distance, when the pibroch of the Highlanders brought us tidings of
deliverance; for now there was no longer any doubt of the fact. That
shrill, penetrating, ceaseless sound, which rose above all other sounds,
could come neither from the advance of the enemy nor from the work of
the sappers. No, it was, indeed, the blast of the Scottish bagpipes, now
shrill and harsh, as threatening vengeance on the foe, then in softer
tones, seeming to promise succour to their friends in need.
Never, surely, was there such a scene as that which followed. Not a
heart in the residency of Lucknow but bowed itself before God. All, by
one simultaneous impulse, fell upon their knees, and nothing was heard
but bursting sobs and the murmured voice of prayer. Then all arose, and
there rang out from a thousand lips a great shout of joy, which
resounded far and wide, and lent new vigour to that blessed pibroch.
To our cheer of "God save the Queen," they replied by the well-known
strain that moves every Scot to tears, "Should auld acquaintance be
forgot." After that, nothing else made any impression on me. I scarcely
remember what followed. Jessie was presented to the general on his
entrance into the fort, and at the officers' banquet her health was
drunk by all present, while the pipers marched around the table, playing
once more the familiar air of "Auld Lang Syne."
"Letter from an officer's wife."
THE SONG IN CAMP
"Give us a song!" the soldiers cried,
The outer trenches guarding,
When the heated guns of the camps allied
Grew weary of bombarding.
The dark Redan, in silent scoff,
Lay, grim and threatening, under;
And the tawny mound of the Malakoff
No longer belched its thunder.
There was a pause. A guardsman said:
"We storm the forts to-morrow;
Sing while we may, another day
Will bring enough of sorrow."
They lay along the battery's side,
Below the smoking cannon:
Brave hearts, from Severn and from Clyde,
And from the banks of Shannon.
They sang of love, and not of fame;
Forgot was Britain's glory:
Each heart recalled a different name,
But all sang "Annie Laurie."
Voice after voice caught up the song,
Until its tender passion
Rose like an anthem, rich and strong,--
Their battle-eve confession.
Dear girl, her name he dared not speak,
But, as the song grew louder,
Something upon the soldier's cheek
Washed off the stains of powder.
Beyond the darkening ocean burned
The bloody sunset's embers,
While the Crimean valleys learned
How English love remembers.
And once again a fire of hell
Rained on the Russian quarters,
With scream of shot, and burst of shell,
And bellowing of the mortars!
And Irish Nora's eyes are dim
For a singer, dumb and gory;
And English Mary mourns for him
Who sang of "Annie Laurie."
Sleep, soldiers! still in honoured rest
Your truth and valour wearing:
The bravest are the tenderest,--
The loving are the daring.
BAYARD TAYLOR
AFTERGLOW
After the clangour of battle
There comes a moment of rest,
And the simple hopes and the simple joys
And the simple thoughts are best.
After the victor's pæan,
After the thunder of gun,
There comes a lull that must come to all
Before the set of the sun.
Then what is the happiest memory?
Is it the foe's defeat?
Is it the splendid praise of a world
That thunders by at your feet?
Nay, nay, to the life-worn spirit
The happiest thoughts are those
That carry us back to the simple joys
And the sweetness of life's repose.
A simple love and a simple trust
And a simple duty done,
Are truer torches to light to death
Than a whole world's victories won.
WILFRED CAMPBELL
KING RICHARD AND SALADIN
Saladin led the way to a splendid pavilion where was everything that
royal luxury could devise. De Vaux, who was in attendance, then removed
the long riding-cloak which Richard wore, and he stood before Saladin in
the close dress which showed to advantage the strength and symmetry of
his person, while it bore a strong contrast to the flowing robes which
disguised the thin frame of the Eastern monarch. It was Richard's
two-handed sword that chiefly attracted the attention of the Saracen--a
broad straight blade, the seemingly unwieldy length of which extended
wellnigh from the shoulder to the heel of the wearer.
"Had I not," said Saladin, "seen this brand flaming in the front of
battle, like that of Azrael, I had scarce believed that human arm could
wield it. Might I request to see the Melech Ric strike one blow with it
in peace and in pure trial of strength?"
"Willingly, noble Saladin," answered Richard; and looking around for
something whereon to exercise his strength, he saw a steel mace, held by
one of the attendants, the handle being of the same metal, and about an
inch and a half in diameter. This he placed on a block of wood.
The glittering broadsword, wielded by both his hands, rose aloft to the
king's left shoulder, circled round his head, descended with the sway of
some terrific engine, and the bar of iron rolled on the ground in two
pieces, as a woodman would sever a sapling with a hedging-bill.
"By the head of the Prophet, a most wonderful blow!" said the Soldan,
critically and accurately examining the iron bar which had been cut
asunder; and the blade of the sword was so well tempered as to exhibit
not the least token of having suffered by the feat it had performed. He
then took the king's hand, and looking on the size and muscular strength
which it exhibited, laughed as he placed it beside his own, so lank and
thin, so inferior in brawn and sinew.
"Ay, look well," said De Vaux in English, "it will be long ere your long
jackanape's fingers do such a feat with your fine gilded reaping-hook
there."
"Silence, De Vaux," said Richard; "by Our Lady, he understands or
guesses thy meaning--be not so broad, I pray thee."
The Soldan, indeed, presently said: "Something I would fain attempt,
though wherefore should the weak show their inferiority in presence of
the strong? Yet, each land hath its own exercises, and this may be new
to the Melech Ric." So saying, he took from the floor a cushion of silk
and down, and placed it upright on one end. "Can thy weapon, my brother,
sever that cushion?" he said to King Richard.
"No, surely," replied the king; "no sword on earth, were it the
Excalibur of King Arthur, can cut that which opposes no steady
resistance to the blow."
"Mark, then," said Saladin; and tucking up the sleeve of his gown,
showed his arm, thin indeed and spare, but which constant exercise had
hardened into a mass consisting of nought but bone, brawn, and sinew. He
unsheathed his scimitar, a curved and narrow blade, which glittered not
like the swords of the Franks, but was, on the contrary, of a dull blue
colour, marked with ten millions of meandering lines, which showed how
anxiously the metal had been welded by the armourer. Wielding this
weapon, apparently so inefficient when compared to that of Richard, the
Soldan stood resting his weight upon his left foot, which was slightly
advanced; he balanced himself a little as if to steady his aim, then,
stepping at once forward, drew the scimitar across the cushion, applying
the edge so dexterously and with so little apparent effort, that the
cushion seemed rather to fall asunder than to be divided by violence.
"It is a juggler's trick," said De Vaux, darting forward and snatching
up the portion of the cushion which had been cut off, as if to assure
himself of the reality of the feat; "there is gramarye in this."
The Soldan seemed to comprehend him, for he undid the sort of veil which
he had hitherto worn, laid it double along the edge of his sabre,
extended the weapon edgeways in the air, and drawing it suddenly through
the veil, although it hung on the blade entirely loose, severed that
also into two parts, which floated to different sides of the tent,
equally displaying the extreme temper and sharpness of the weapon and
the exquisite dexterity of him who used it.
"Now, in good faith, my brother," said Richard, "thou art even matchless
at the trick of the sword, and right perilous were it to meet thee.
Still, however, I put some faith in a downright English blow, and what
we cannot do by sleight we eke out by strength. Nevertheless, in truth
thou art as expert in inflicting wounds as my sage Hakim in curing them.
I trust I shall see the learned leech; I have much to thank him for, and
had brought some small present."
As he spoke, Saladin exchanged his turban for a Tartar cap. He had no
sooner done so, than De Vaux opened at once his extended mouth and his
large round eyes, and Richard gazed with scarce less astonishment, while
the Soldan spoke in a grave and altered voice: "The sick man, sayeth the
poet, while he is yet infirm, knoweth the physician by his step; but
when he is recovered, he knoweth not even his face when he looks upon
him."
"A miracle!--a miracle!" exclaimed Richard.
"Of Mahound's working, doubtless," said Thomas de Vaux.
"That I should lose my learned Hakim," said Richard, "merely by absence
of his cap and robe, and that I should find him again in my royal
brother Saladin!"
"Such is oft the fashion of the world," answered the Soldan: "the
tattered robe makes not always the dervish."
SCOTT: "The Talisman."
ENGLAND'S DEAD
Son of the Ocean Isle!
Where sleep your mighty dead?
Show me what high and stately pile
Is reared o'er Glory's bed.
Go, stranger! track the deep--
Free, free, the white sail spread!
Wave may not foam, nor wild wind sweep,
Where rest not England's dead.
On Egypt's burning plains,
By the pyramid o'erswayed,
With fearful power the noonday reigns,
And the palm trees yield no shade;--
But let the angry sun
From heaven look fiercely red,
Unfelt by those whose task is done!--
There slumber England's dead.
The hurricane hath might
Along the Indian shore,
And far by Ganges' banks at night,
Is heard the tiger's roar;--
But let the sound roll on!
It hath no tone of dread
For those that from their toils are gone,--
There slumber England's dead.
Loud rush the torrent-floods
The Western wilds among,
And free, in green Columbia's woods,
The hunter's bow is strung;--
But let the floods rush on!
Let the arrow's flight be sped!
Why should they reck whose task is done?--
There slumber England's dead.
The mountain-storms rise high
In the snowy Pyrenees,
And toss the pine-boughs through the sky
Like rose-leaves on the breeze;--
But let the storm rage on!
Let the fresh wreaths be shed!
For the Roncesvalles' field is won,--
There slumber England's dead.
On the frozen deep's repose
'Tis a dark and dreadful hour,
When round the ship the ice-fields close,
And the northern night-clouds lower;--
But let the ice drift on!
Let the cold-blue desert spread!
Their course with mast and flag is done,
Even there sleep England's dead.
The warlike of the isles,
The men of field and wave!
Are not the rocks their funeral piles,
The seas and shores their grave?
Go, stranger! track the deep--
Free, free the white sail spread!
Wave may not foam, nor wild wind sweep,
Where rest not England's dead.
FELICIA HEMANS
HOHENLINDEN
On Linden, when the sun was low,
All bloodless lay th' untrodden snow,
And dark as winter was the flow
Of Iser, rolling rapidly.
But Linden saw another sight,
When the drum beat, at dead of night,
Commanding fires of death to light
The darkness of her scenery.
By torch and trumpet fast arrayed
Each horseman drew his battle-blade,
And furious every charger neighed,
To join the dreadful revelry.
Then shook the hills with thunder riven,
Then rushed the steed to battle driven,
And louder than the bolts of heaven,
Far flashed the red artillery.
But redder yet that light shall glow
On Linden's hills of stainèd snow,
And bloodier yet the torrent flow
Of Iser, rolling rapidly.
'Tis morn, but scarce yon level sun
Can pierce the war-clouds, rolling dun,
Where furious Frank, and fiery Hun,
Shout in their sulph'rous canopy.
The combat deepens. On, ye brave,
Who rush to glory, or the grave!
Wave, Munich! all thy banners wave,
And charge with all thy chivalry!
Few, few, shall part where many meet!
The snow shall be their winding-sheet,
And every turf beneath their feet
Shall be a soldier's sepulchre.
THOMAS CAMPBELL
THE DREAM OF THE OAK TREE
There stood in a wood, high on the bank near the open sea-shore, such a
grand old oak tree! It was three hundred and sixty-five years old; but
all this length of years had seemed to the tree scarcely more than so
many days appear to us men and women, boys and girls.
A tree's life is not quite the same as a man's: we wake during the day,
and sleep and dream during the night; but a tree wakes throughout three
seasons of the year, and has no sleep till winter comes. The winter is
its sleeping time--its night after the long day which we call spring,
summer, and autumn.
It was just at the holy Christmas-tide that the oak tree dreamed his
most beautiful dream. He seemed to hear the church-bells ringing all
around, and to feel as if it were a mild, warm summer day. Fresh and
green he reared his mighty crown on high, and the sunbeams played among
his leaves. As in a festive procession, all that the tree had beheld in
his life now passed by.
Knights and ladies, with feathers in their caps and hawks perching on
their wrists, rode gaily through the wood; dogs barked, and the huntsman
sounded his bugle.
Then came foreign soldiers in bright armour and gay vestments, bearing
spurs and halberds, setting up their tents, and presently taking them
down again. Then watch-fires blazed up and bands of wild outlaws sang,
revelled, and slept under the tree's outstretched boughs; or happy
lovers met in quiet moonlight and carved their initials on the grayish
bark.
At one time a guitar and an Æolian harp had been hung among the old
oak's boughs by merry travelling apprentices; now they hung there again,
and the wind played sweetly with their strings.
And now the dream changed. A new and stronger current of life flowed
through him, down to his lowest roots, up to his highest twigs, even to
the very leaves. The tree felt in his roots that a warm life stirred in
the earth, and that he was growing taller and taller; his trunk shot up
more and more, his crown grew fuller; and still he soared and spread.
He felt that his power grew, too, and he longed to advance higher and
higher to the warm, bright sun.
Already he towered above the clouds, which drifted below him, now like a
troop of dark-plumaged birds of passage, now like flocks of large, white
swans. The stars became visible by daylight, so large and bright, each
one sparkling like a mild, clear eye.
It was a blessed moment! and yet, in the height of his joy, the oak tree
felt a desire and longing that all the other trees, bushes, herbs, and
flowers of the wood might be lifted up with him to share in his glory
and gladness. He could not be fully blessed unless he might have all,
small and great, blessed with him.
The tree's crown bowed itself as though it had missed something, and
looked backward. Then he felt the fragrance of honeysuckle and violets,
and fancied he could hear the birds. And so it was! for now peeped forth
through the clouds the green summits of the wood; the other trees below
had grown and lifted themselves up likewise; bushes and herbs shot high
into the air, some tearing themselves loose from their roots to mount
the faster.
Like a flash of white lightning the birch, moving fastest of all, shot
upward its slender stem. Even the feathery brown reeds had pierced their
way through the clouds, and the birds sang and sang, and on the grass
that fluttered to and fro like a streaming ribbon perched the
grasshopper, while cockchafers hummed and bees buzzed. All was music and
gladness.
"But the little blue flower near the water--I want that, too," said the
oak; "and the bellflower, and the dear little daisy." "We are here! we
are here!" chanted sweet low voices on all sides.
"But the pretty anemones, and the bed of lilies of the valley, and all
the flowers that bloomed so long ago,--would that they were here!" "We
are here! we are here!" was the answer, and it seemed to come from the
air above, as if they had fled upward first.
"Oh, this is too great happiness!" exclaimed the oak tree; and now he
felt that his own roots were loosening themselves from the earth. "This
is best of all," he said. "Now no bounds shall detain me. I can soar to
the heights of light and glory, and I have all my dear ones with me."
Such was the oak tree's Christmas dream. And all the while a mighty
storm swept the sea and land; the ocean rolled his heavy billows on the
shore, the tree cracked, and was rent and torn up by the roots at the
very moment when he dreamed that he was soaring to the skies.
Next day the sea was calm again, and a large vessel that had weathered
the storm hoisted all its flags for Merry Christmas. "The tree is
gone--the old oak tree, our beacon! How can its place ever be supplied?"
said the crew. This was the tree's funeral eulogium, while the Christmas
hymn re-echoed from the wood.
HANS CHRISTIAN ANDERSEN
(Adapted)
A PRAYER
The day returns and brings us the petty round of irritating concerns and
duties. Help us to play the man, help us to perform them with laughter
and kind faces; let cheerfulness abound with industry. Give us to go
blithely on our business all this day, bring us to our resting beds
weary and content and undishonoured; and grant us in the end the gift of
sleep.
R. L. STEVENSON
[Illustration: IN THE PASTURE]
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 wind-flower 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.
BRYANT
'TIS THE LAST ROSE OF SUMMER
'Tis the last rose of summer
Left blooming alone;
All her lovely companions
Are faded and gone;
No flower of her kindred,
No rosebud is nigh,
To reflect back her blushes,
Or give sigh for sigh.
I'll not leave thee, thou lone one!
To pine on the stem;
Since the lovely are sleeping,
Go, sleep thou with them.
Thus kindly I scatter
Thy leaves o'er the bed,
Where thy mates of the garden
Lie scentless and dead.
So soon may I follow,
When friendships decay,
And from Love's shining circle
The gems drop away.
When true hearts lie withered,
And fond ones are flown,
Oh! who would inhabit
This bleak world alone!
MOORE
A ROMAN'S HONOUR
The Romans had suffered a terrible defeat in B.C. 251, and Regulus, a
famous soldier and senator, had been captured and dragged into Carthage
where the victors feasted and rejoiced through half the night, and
testified their thanks to their god by offering in his fires the bravest
of their captives.
Regulus himself was not, however, one of these victims. He was kept a
close prisoner for two years, pining and sickening in his loneliness;
while, in the meantime, the war continued, and at last a victory so
decisive was gained by the Romans, that the people of Carthage were
discouraged, and resolved to ask terms of peace. They thought that no
one would be so readily listened to at Rome as Regulus, and they
therefore sent him there with their envoys, having first made him swear
that he would come back to his prison, if there should neither be peace
nor an exchange of prisoners. They little knew how much more a
true-hearted Roman cared for his city than for himself--for his word
than for his life.
Worn and dejected, the captive warrior came to the outside of the gates
of his own city and there paused, refusing to enter. "I am no longer a
Roman citizen," he said; "I am but the barbarian's slave, and the Senate
may not give audience to strangers within the walls."
His wife, Marcia, ran out to greet him, with his two sons, but he did
not look up, and received their caresses as one beneath their notice, as
a mere slave, and he continued, in spite of all entreaty, to remain
outside the city, and would not even go to the little farm he had loved
so well.
The Roman Senate, as he would not come in to them, came out to hold
their meeting in the Campagna.
The ambassadors spoke first; then Regulus, standing up, said, as one
repeating a task: "Conscript fathers, being a slave to the
Carthaginians, I come on the part of my masters to treat with you
concerning peace and an exchange of prisoners." He then turned to go
away with the ambassadors, as a stranger might not be present at the
deliberations of the Senate. His old friends pressed him to stay and
give his opinion as a senator, who had twice been consul; but he refused
to degrade that dignity by claiming it, slave as he was. But, at the
command of his Carthaginian masters, he remained, though not taking his
seat.
Then he spoke. He told the senators to persevere in the war. He said he
had seen the distress of Carthage, and that a peace would be only to her
advantage, not to that of Rome, and therefore he strongly advised that
the war should continue. Then, as to the exchange of prisoners, the
Carthaginian generals, who were in the hands of the Romans, were in full
health and strength, whilst he himself was too much broken down to be
fit for service again; and, indeed, he believed that his enemies had
given him a slow poison, and that he could not live long. Thus he
insisted that no exchange of prisoners should be made.
It was wonderful, even to Romans, to hear a man thus pleading against
himself; and their chief priest came forward and declared that, as his
oath had been wrested from him by force, he was not bound by it to
return to his captivity. But Regulus was too noble to listen to this for
a moment. "Have you resolved to dishonour me?" he said. "I am not
ignorant that death and the extremest tortures are preparing for me; but
what are these to the shame of an infamous action, or the wounds of a
guilty mind? Slave as I am to Carthage, I have still the spirit of a
Roman. I have sworn to return. It is my duty to go; let the gods take
care of the rest."
The Senate decided to follow the advice of Regulus, though they bitterly
regretted his sacrifice. His wife wept and entreated in vain that they
would detain him--they could merely repeat their permission to him to
remain; but nothing could prevail with him to break his word, and he
turned back to the chains and death he expected, as calmly as if he had
been returning to his home. This was in the year B.C. 249.
CHARLOTTE M. YONGE: "Book of Golden Deeds."
THE FIGHTING TÉMÉRAIRE
It was eight bells ringing,
For the morning watch was done,
And the gunner's lads were singing,
As they polished every gun.
It was eight bells ringing,
And the gunner's lads were singing
For the ship she rode a-swinging,
As they polished every gun.
_Oh! to see the linstock lighting,
Téméraire! Téméraire!
Oh! to hear the round shot biting,
Téméraire! Téméraire!
Oh! to see the linstock lighting,
And to hear the round shot biting,
For we're all in love with fighting
On the Fighting Téméraire._
It was noontide ringing,
And the battle just begun,
When the ship her way was winging,
As they loaded every gun.
It was noontide ringing
When the ship her way was winging,
And the gunner's lads were singing,
As they loaded every gun.
_There'll be many grim and gory,
Téméraire! Téméraire!
There'll be few to tell the story,
Téméraire! Téméraire!
There'll be many grim and gory,
There'll be few to tell the story,
But we'll all be one in glory
With the Fighting Téméraire._
There's a far bell ringing
At the setting of the sun,
And a phantom voice is singing
Of the great days done.
There's a far bell ringing,
And a phantom voice is singing
Of renown for ever clinging
To the great days done.
_Now the sunset breezes shiver,
Téméraire! Téméraire!
And she's fading down the river,
Téméraire! Téméraire!
Now the sunset breezes shiver,
And she's fading down the river,
But in England's song for ever
She's the Fighting Téméraire._
HENRY NEWBOLT
DON QUIXOTE'S FIGHT WITH THE WINDMILLS
"I beseech your worship, Sir Knight-errant," quoth Sancho to his master,
"be sure you don't forget what you promised me about the island; for I
dare say I shall make shift to govern it, let it be never so big."
"You must know, friend Sancho," replied Don Quixote, "that it has been
the constant practice of knights-errant in former ages to make their
squires governors of the islands or kingdoms they conquered."
As they were thus discoursing, they discovered some thirty or forty
windmills that are in that plain; and as soon as the knight had spied
them, "Fortune," cried he, "directs our affairs better than we ourselves
could have wished: look yonder, friend Sancho, there are at least thirty
outrageous giants, whom I intend to encounter; and having deprived them
of life, we will begin to enrich ourselves with their spoils; for they
are lawful prize; and the extirpation of that cursed brood will be an
acceptable service to Heaven."
"What giants?" quoth Sancho Panza.
"Those whom thou seest yonder," answered Don Quixote, "with their long
extended arms; some of that detested race have arms of so immense a
size, that sometimes they reach two leagues in length."
"Pray look better, sir," quoth Sancho; "those things yonder are no
giants, but windmills, and the arms you fancy, are their sails, which
being whirled about by the wind, make the mill go."
"'Tis a sign," cried Don Quixote, "thou art but little acquainted with
adventures! I tell thee, they are giants; and therefore if thou art
afraid, go aside and say thy prayers, for I am resolved to engage in a
dreadful unequal combat against them all." This said, he clapped spurs
to his horse Rozinante, without giving ear to his squire Sancho, who
bawled out to him, and assured him that they were windmills, and no
giants. But he was so fully possessed with a strong conceit of the
contrary, that he did not so much as hear his squire's outcry, nor was
he sensible of what they were, although he was already very near them;
far from that: "Stand, cowards," cried he, as loud as he could; "stand
your ground, ignoble creatures, and fly not basely from a single knight,
who dares encounter you all!"
At the same time, the wind rising, the mill-sails began to move, which
when Don Quixote spied, "Base miscreants," cried he, "though you move
more arms than the giant Briareus, you shall pay for your arrogance."
He most devoutly recommended himself to his Lady Dulcinea, imploring her
assistance in this perilous adventure; and, so covering himself with his
shield, and couching his lance, he rushed with Rozinante's utmost speed
upon the first windmill he could come at, and running his lance into the
sail, the wind whirled it about with such swiftness, that the rapidity
of the motion presently broke the lance into shivers, and hurled away
both knight and horse along with it, till down he fell, rolling a good
way off in the field.
Sancho Panza ran as fast as his ass could drive to help his master, whom
he found lying, and not able to stir, such a blow had he and Rozinante
received. "Mercy o' me!" cried Sancho, "did not I give your worship fair
warning? Did not I tell you they were windmills, and that nobody could
think otherwise, unless he had also windmills in his head!"
"Peace, friend Sancho," replied Don Quixote: "there is nothing so
subject to the inconstancy of fortune as war. I am verily persuaded that
cursed necromancer, Freston, who carried away my study and my books, has
transformed these giants into windmills to deprive me of the honour of
the victory; such is his inveterate malice against me; but in the end,
all his pernicious wiles and stratagems shall prove ineffectual against
the prevailing edge of my sword."
"Amen, say I," replied Sancho.
And so heaving him up again upon his legs, once more the knight mounted
poor Rozinante, that was half shoulder-slipped with his fall.
This adventure was the subject of their discourse, as they made the best
of their way towards the pass of Lapice, for Don Quixote took that road,
believing he could not miss of adventure in one so mightily frequented.
However, the loss of his lance was no small affliction to him; and as he
was making his complaint about it to his squire, "I have read," said he,
"friend Sancho, that a certain Spanish knight, having broken his sword
in the heat of an engagement, pulled up by the roots a huge oak tree, or
at least tore down a massy branch, and did such wonderful execution,
crushing and grinding so many Moors with it that day, that he won
himself and his posterity the surname of The Pounder, or Bruiser. I tell
thee this, because I intend to tear up the next oak or holm tree we
meet; with the trunk whereof I hope to perform such wondrous deeds that
thou wilt esteem thyself particularly happy in having had the honour to
behold them, and been the ocular witness of achievements which posterity
will scarce be able to believe."
"Heaven grant you may," cried Sancho; "I believe it all, because your
worship says it. But, an't please you, sit a little more upright in your
saddle; you ride sideling methinks; but that, I suppose, proceeds from
your being bruised by the fall."
"It does so," replied Don Quixote; "and if I do not complain of the
pain, it is because a knight-errant must never complain of his wounds."
"Then I have no more to say," quoth Sancho; "and yet Heaven knows my
heart, I should be glad to hear your worship groan a little now and then
when something ails you: for my part, I shall not fail to bemoan myself
when I suffer the smallest pain, unless, indeed, it can be proved that
the rule of not complaining extends to the squires as well as knights."
Don Quixote could not forbear smiling at the simplicity of his squire;
and told him he gave him leave to complain not only when he pleased, but
as much as he pleased, whether he had any cause or no; for he had never
yet read anything to the contrary in any books of chivalry.
CERVANTES: "The Adventures of Don Quixote."
THE ROMANCE OF THE SWAN'S NEST
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.
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.
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.
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.
"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.
"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.
"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.'
"Then, ay, 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.
"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.'
"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.
"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?'
"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.'
"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!_'
"He will kiss me on the mouth
Then, and lead me as a lover
Through the crowds that praise his deeds:
And, when soul-tied by one troth,
Unto _him_ I will discover
That swan's nest among the reeds."
Little Ellie, with her smile
Not yet ended, rose up gaily,
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.
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.
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.
E. B. BROWNING
[Illustration: DEEP SEA FISHERS]
MOONLIGHT SONATA
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!"
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 too
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 coloured; 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 when 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
practising 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 tones 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 rays falling strongest upon the piano and the 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 arose 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, rugged 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 spirits 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
towards 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 till long past day dawn. And this was the
origin of the Moonlight Sonata with which we are all so fondly
acquainted.
UNKNOWN
THE RED-WINGED BLACKBIRD
Black beneath as the night,
With wings of a morning glow,
From his sooty throat three syllables float,
Ravishing, liquid, low;
And 'tis oh, for the joy of June,
And the bliss that ne'er can flee
From that exquisite call, with its sweet, sweet fall--
O-ke-lee, o-ke-lee, o-ke-lee!
Long ago as a child,
From the bough of a blossoming quince,
That melody came to thrill my frame,
And whenever I've caught it since,
The spring-soft blue of the sky
And the spring-bright bloom of the tree
Are a part of the strain--ah, hear it again!--
O-ke-lee, o-ke-lee, o-ke-lee!
And the night is tenderly black,
The morning eagerly bright,
For that old, old spring is blossoming
In the soul and in the sight.
The red-winged blackbird brings
My lost youth back to me,
When I hear in the swale, from a gray fence rail,
O-ke-lee, o-ke-lee, o-ke-lee!
ETHELWYN WETHERALD
TO THE CUCKOO
Hail, beauteous stranger of the grove!
Thou messenger of spring!
Now Heaven repairs thy rural seat,
And woods thy welcome sing.
What time the daisy decks the green,
Thy certain voice we hear.
Hast thou a star to guide thy path,
Or mark the rolling year?
Delightful visitant! with thee
I hail the time of flowers,
And hear the sound of music sweet
From birds among the bowers.
The school-boy, wandering through the wood
To pull the primrose gay,
Starts, the new voice of Spring to hear,
And imitates thy lay.
What time the pea puts on the bloom,
Thou fliest thy vocal vale,
An annual guest in other lands,
Another spring to hail.
Sweet bird! thy bower is ever green,
Thy sky is ever clear;
Thou hast no sorrow in thy song,
No winter in thy year!
Oh, could I fly, I'd fly with thee!
We'd make, with joyful wing,
Our annual visit o'er the globe,
Companions of the Spring.
JOHN LOGAN
THE STORY OF A STONE
A great many years ago, when nearly the whole of Canada was covered with
water, and the Northern Ocean, which washed the highest crests of the
Alleghanies, made an island of the Laurentian Hills, and wrote its name
on the Pictured Rocks of Lake Superior, there lived somewhere near
Toronto, in the Province of Ontario, a little animal called a Polyp. He
was a curious creature, very small, not unlike a flower in appearance, a
plant-animal.
One day, the sun shone down into the water and set this little fellow
free from the egg in which he was confined. For a time he floated about
near the bottom of the ocean, but at last settled down on a bit of
shell, and fastened himself to it. Then he made an opening in his upper
side, formed for himself a mouth and stomach, thrust out a whole row of
feelers, and began catching whatever morsels of food came in his way. He
had a great many strange ways, but the strangest of all was his
gathering little bits of limestone from the water and building them up
round him, as a person does who builds a well.
But this little Favosite, for that was his name, became lonesome on the
bottom of that old ocean; so one night, when he was fast asleep and
dreaming as only a coral animal can dream, there sprouted out of his
side another little Favosite, who very soon began to wall himself up as
his parent had done. From these, other little Favosites were formed,
till at last there were so many of them, and they were so crowded
together, that, to economize the limestone they built with, they had to
make their cells six-sided, like those of a honey-comb: on this account
they are called Favosites.
[Illustration]
The colony thrived for a long time, and accumulated quite a stock of
limestone. But at last a change came: there was a great rush of muddy
water from the land, and all the Favosites died, leaving only a stony
skeleton to prove that industrious Polyps had ever existed there.
This skeleton remained undisturbed for ages, until the earth began to
rise inch by inch out of the water. Then our Favosites' home rose above
the deep, and with it came all that was left of its old acquaintances
the Trilobites, who were the ancestors of our crabs and lobsters.
[Illustration: Trilobite]
Then the first fishes made their appearance, great fierce-looking
fellows like the gar pike of our lakes, but larger, and armed with
scales as hard as the armour of a crocodile. Next came the sharks, as
savage and voracious as they now are, with teeth like knives. But the
time of these old fishes and of many more animals came and went, and
still the home of the Favosites lay in the ground.
Then came the long, hot, damp epoch, when thick mists hung over the
earth, and great ferns and rushes, as stout as an oak and as tall as a
steeple, grew in Nova Scotia, in Pennsylvania, and in other parts of
America where coal is now found. Huge reptiles, with enormous jaws and
teeth like cross-cut saws, and smaller ones with wings like bats, next
appeared and added to the strangeness of the scene.
But the reptiles died; the ferns and the rush-trees fell into their
native swamps, and were covered up and packed away under great layers of
clay and sand brought down by the rivers, till at last they were turned
into coal, forming for us, what someone has called, beds of petrified
sunshine. But all this while the skeleton of the Favosites lay
undisturbed.
Then the mists cleared away as gradually as they had come, the sun shone
out, the grass grew, and strange four-footed animals came and fed upon
it. Among these were odd-looking little horses no bigger than foxes;
great hairy monsters larger than elephants, with tremendous tusks; hogs
with snouts nearly as long as their bodies; and other strange creatures
that no man has ever seen alive. But still the house of the Favosites
remained where it was.
Next came the great winter, and it continued to snow till the mountains
were hidden. Then the snow was packed into ice, and Canada became one
solid glacier. This ice age continued for many thousands of years.
At last the ice began to melt, and the glacier came slowly down the
slopes, tearing up rocks, little and big, and crushing and grinding and
carrying away everything in its course. It ploughed its way across
Ontario, and the skeleton of our Favosites was rooted out from the quiet
place where it had lain so long, and was caught up in a crevice of the
ice. The glacier slid along, melting all the while, and covering the
land with clay, pebbles, and boulders. At last it stopped, and as it
gradually melted away, all the rocks and stones and dirt it had carried
with it thus far, were deposited into one great heap, and the home of
the Favosites along with them.
Ages afterwards a farmer, near Toronto, when ploughing a field, picked
up a curious bit of "petrified honey-comb," and gave it to a geologist
to hear what he would say about it. And now you have read what he said.
D. B.
THE SNOW-STORM
The sun that brief December day
Rose cheerless over hills of gray,
And, darkly circled, gave at noon
A sadder light than waning moon.
A chill no coat, however stout,
Of homespun stuff could quite shut out,
A hard, dull bitterness of cold,
That checked, mid-vein, the circling race
Of life-blood in the sharpened face,
The coming of the snow-storm told.
The wind blew east: we heard the roar
Of Ocean on his wintry shore,
And felt the strong pulse throbbing there
Beat with low rhythm our inland air.
Meanwhile we did our nightly chores,--
Brought in the wood from out of doors,
Littered the stalls, and from the mows
Raked down the herd's-grass for the cows:
Heard the horse whinnying for his corn;
And, sharply clashing horn on horn,
Impatient down the stanchion rows
The cattle shake their walnut bows;
While, peering from his early perch
Upon the scaffold's pole of birch,
The cock his crested helmet bent
And down his querulous challenge sent.
Unwarmed by any sunset light
The gray day darkened into night,
A night made hoary with the swarm
And whirl-dance of the blinding storm,
As zigzag wavering to and fro
Crossed and recrossed the wingèd snow:
And ere the early bed-time came
The white drift piled the window-frame,
And through the glass the clothes-line posts
Looked in like tall and sheeted ghosts.
So all night long the storm roared on:
The morning broke without a sun;
And, when the second morning shone,
We looked upon a world unknown,
On nothing we could call our own.
Around the glistening wonder bent
The blue walls of the firmament,
No cloud above, no earth below,--
A universe of sky and snow!
The old familiar sights of ours
Took marvellous shapes; strange domes and towers
Rose up where sty or corn-crib stood,
Or garden wall, or belt of wood;
A smooth white mound the brush-pile showed,
A fenceless drift what once was road;
The bridle-post an old man sat
With loose-flung coat and high cocked hat;
The well-curb had a Chinese roof;
And even the long sweep, high aloof,
In its slant splendour, seemed to tell
Of Pisa's leaning miracle.
A prompt, decisive man, no breath
Our father wasted: "Boys, a path!"
Well pleased, (for when did farmer boy
Count such a summons less than joy?)
Our buskins on our feet we drew;
With mittened hands, and caps drawn low
To guard our necks and ears from snow,
We cut the solid whiteness through.
And, where the drift was deepest made
A tunnel walled and overlaid
With dazzling crystal: we had read
Of rare Aladdin's wondrous cave,
And to our own his name we gave,
With many a wish the luck were ours
To test his lamp's supernal powers.
We reached the barn with merry din,
And roused the prisoned brutes within.
The old horse thrust his long head out,
And grave with wonder gazed about;
The cock his lusty greeting said,
And forth his speckled harem led;
The oxen lashed their tails, and hooked,
And mild reproach of hunger looked;
The hornèd patriarch of the sheep,
Like Egypt's Amun roused from sleep,
Shook his sage head with gesture mute,
And emphasized with stamp of foot.
All day the gusty north wind bore
The loosening drift its breath before;
Low circling round its southern zone,
The sun through dazzling snow-mist shone.
WHITTIER: "Snow-bound."
THE HEROINE OF VERCHÈRES
Verchères was a fort on the south shore of the St. Lawrence, about
twenty miles below Montreal. A strong block-house stood outside the
fort, and was connected with it by a covered way. On the morning of the
twenty-second of October, (1692) the inhabitants were at work in the
fields, and nobody was left in the place but two soldiers, two boys, an
old man of eighty, and a number of women and children. The commandant
was on duty at Quebec; his wife was at Montreal; and their daughter,
Madeline, fourteen years of age, was at the landing-place not far from
the gate of the fort, with a man-servant.
Suddenly she heard firing from the direction where the settlers were at
work, and an instant after the servant called out: "Run, miss!--run!
here come the Indians!" She turned and saw forty or fifty of them at the
distance of a pistol-shot. She ran to the fort as quickly as possible,
while the bullets whistled about her ears, and made the time seem very
long. As soon as she was near enough to be heard, she cried out: "To
arms!--to arms!" hoping that somebody would come out and help her; but
it was of no use. The two soldiers in the fort were so scared that they
had hidden in the block-house.
When she had seen certain breaches in the palisade stopped, she went to
the block-house, where the ammunition was kept; and there she found the
two soldiers, one hiding in a corner, and the other with a lighted match
in his hand.
"What are you going to do with that match?" she asked. He answered:
"Light the powder and blow us all up." "You are a miserable coward!"
said she. "Go out of this place." She then threw off her bonnet, put on
a hat, and taking a gun in her hand she said to her two brothers: "Let
us fight to the death. We are fighting for our country and our
religion."
The boys, who were ten and twelve years old, aided by the soldiers, whom
her words had inspired with some little courage, began to fire from the
loop-holes on the Indians, who, ignorant of the weakness of the
garrison, showed their usual reluctance to attack a fortified place, and
occupied themselves with chasing and butchering the people in the
neighbouring fields. Madeline ordered a cannon to be fired, partly to
deter the enemy from an assault, and partly to warn some of the soldiers
who were hunting at a distance.
A canoe was presently seen approaching the landing-place. In it was a
settler named Fontaine, trying to reach the fort with his family. The
Indians were still near; and Madeline feared that the new-comers would
be killed, if something were not done to aid them. Distrusting the
soldiers, she herself went alone to the landing-place.
"I thought," she said, in her account of the affair, "that the savages
would suppose it to be a ruse to draw them towards the fort, in order
to make a sortie upon them. They did suppose so; and thus I was able to
save the Fontaine family. When they were all landed, I made them march
before me in full sight of the enemy. We put so bold a face on it, that
they thought they had more to fear than we. Strengthened by this
reinforcement, I ordered that the enemy should be fired on whenever they
showed themselves.
"After sunset a violent north-east wind began to blow, accompanied with
snow and hail, which told us that we should have a terrible night. The
Indians were all this time lurking about us; and I judged by all their
movements that, instead of being deterred by the storm, they would climb
into the fort under cover of darkness."
She then assembled her troops, who numbered six, all told, and spoke to
them encouraging words. With two old men she took charge of the fort,
and sent Fontaine and the two soldiers with the women and children to
the block-house. She placed her two brothers on two of the bastions, and
an old man on a third, while she herself took charge of the fourth. All
night, in spite of wind, snow, and hail, the cry of "All's well" was
kept up from the block-house to the fort, and from the fort to the
block-house. One would have supposed that the place was full of
soldiers. The Indians thought so, and were completely deceived, as they
afterwards confessed.
At last the daylight came again; and as the darkness disappeared, the
anxieties of the little garrison seemed to disappear with it. Fontaine
said he would never abandon the place while Madeline remained in it. She
declared that she would never abandon it: she would rather die than give
it up to the enemy.
She did not eat or sleep for twice twenty-four hours. She did not go
once into her father's house, but kept always on the bastion, except
when she went to the block-house to see how the people there were
behaving. She always kept a cheerful and smiling face, and encouraged
her little company with the hope of speedy succour.
"We were a week in constant alarm," she continues, "with the enemy
always about us. At last a lieutenant, sent by the governor, arrived in
the night with forty men. As he did not know whether the fort was taken
or not, he approached as silently as possible. One of our sentinels,
hearing a slight sound, cried: 'Who goes there?' I was at the time
dozing, with my head on a table and my gun lying across my arms. The
sentinel told me that he heard voices from the river. I went at once to
the bastion to see whether they were Indians or Frenchmen who were
there. I asked: 'Who are you?' One of them answered: 'We are Frenchmen
come to bring you help.'"
"I caused the gate to be opened, placed a sentinel there, and went down
to the river to meet them. As soon as I saw the lieutenant I saluted
him, and said: 'I surrender my arms to you.' He answered gallantly:
'They are in good hands, Miss.' He inspected the fort, and found
everything in order, and a sentinel on each bastion. 'It is time to
relieve them,' said I; 'we have not been off our bastions for a week.'"
A band of converts from St. Louis arrived soon afterwards, followed the
trail of their heathen countrymen, overtook them on Lake Champlain, and
recovered twenty or more French prisoners.
PARKMAN: "Frontenac and New France."
(Adapted)
JACQUES CARTIER
In the seaport of St. Malo, 'twas a smiling morn in May,
When the Commodore Jacques Cartier to the westward sailed away;
In the crowded old Cathedral, all the town were on their knees,
For the safe return of kinsmen from the undiscovered seas;
And every autumn blast that swept o'er pinnacle and pier,
Filled manly hearts with sorrow, and gentle hearts with fear.
A year passed o'er St. Malo--again came round the day,
When the Commodore Jacques Cartier to the westward sailed away;
But no tidings from the absent had come the way they went,
And tearful were the vigils that many a maiden spent;
And manly hearts were filled with gloom, and gentle hearts with fear,
When no tidings came from Cartier at the closing of the year.
But the earth is as the Future, it hath its hidden side,
And the Captain of St. Malo was rejoicing in his pride;
In the forests of the North--while his townsmen mourned his loss--
He was rearing on Mount Royal the _fleur-de-lis_ and cross;
And when two months were over, and added to the year,
St. Malo hailed him home again, cheer answering to cheer.
He told them of a region, hard, iron-bound and cold,
Nor seas of pearl abounded, nor mines of shining gold;
Where the wind from Thule freezes the word upon the lip,
And the ice in spring comes sailing athwart the early ship;
He told them of the frozen scene, until they thrilled with fear,
And piled fresh fuel on the hearth to make them better cheer.
But when he changed the strain,--he told how soon is cast
In early Spring, the fetters that hold the waters fast;
How the Winter causeway, broken, is drifted out to sea,
And the rills and rivers sing with pride the anthem of the free;
How the magic wand of Summer clad the landscape to his eyes,
Like the dry bones of the just when they wake in Paradise.
He told them of the Algonquin braves--the hunters of the wild;
Of how the Indian mother in the forest rocks her child;
Of how, poor souls, they fancy in every living thing
A spirit good or evil, that claims their worshipping;
Of how they brought their sick and maimed for him to breathe upon;
And of the wonders wrought for them, thro' the Gospel of St. John.
He told them of the river, whose mighty current gave
Its freshness for a hundred leagues to ocean's briny wave;
He told them of the glorious scene presented to his sight,
What time he reared the cross and crown on Hochelaga's height;
And of the fortress cliff, that keeps of Canada the key;--
And they welcomed back Jacques Cartier from perils over sea.
THOMAS D'ARCY M'GEE
ANTS AND THEIR SLAVES
Peter Huber, the son of the noted observer of the ways and habits of
bees, was walking one day in a field near Geneva, Switzerland, when he
saw on the ground an army of reddish-coloured ants on the march. He
decided to follow them and to find out, if possible, the object of their
journey.
On the sides of the column, as if to keep it in order, a few of the
insects sped to and fro. After marching for about a quarter of an hour,
the army halted before an ant-hill, the home of a colony of small, black
ants. These swarmed out to meet the red ones, and, to Huber's surprise,
a combat, short but fierce, took place at the foot of the hill.
A small number of the blacks fought bravely to the last, but the rest
soon fled, panic-stricken, through the gates farthest from the
battle-field, carrying away some of their young. They seemed to know it
was the young ants that the invaders were seeking. The red warriors
quickly forced their way into the tiny city and returned, loaded with
children of the blacks.
Carrying their living booty, the kidnappers left the pillaged town and
started toward their home, whither Huber followed them. Great was his
astonishment when, at the threshold of the red ants' dwelling, he saw
numbers of black ants come forward to receive the young captives and to
welcome them--children of their own race, doomed to be bond-servants in
a strange land.
Here, then, was a miniature city, in which strong red ants lived in
peace with small black ones. But what was the province of the latter?
Huber soon discovered that, in fact, these did all the work. They alone
were able to build the houses in which both races lived; they alone
brought up the young red ants and the captives of their own species;
they alone gathered the supplies of food, and waited upon and fed their
big masters, who were glad to have their little waiters feed them so
attentively.
The masters themselves had no occupation except that of war. When not
raiding some village of the blacks, the red soldiers did nothing but
wander lazily about.
Huber wanted to learn what would be the result if the red ants found
themselves without servants. Would the big creatures know how to supply
their own needs? He put a few of the red insects in a glass case, having
some honey in a corner. They did not go near it. They did not know
enough to feed themselves. Some of them died of starvation, with food
before them. Then he put into the case one black ant. It went straight
to the honey, and with it fed its big, starving, silly masters. Here was
a wonder, truly!
The little blacks exert in many things a moral force whose signs are
plainly visible. For example, those tiny wise creatures will not give
permission to any of the great red ones to go out alone. Nor are these
at liberty to go out even in a body, if their small helpers fear a
storm, or if the day is far advanced. When a raid proves fruitless, the
soldiers coming back without any living booty are forbidden by the
blacks to enter the city, and are ordered to attack some other village.
Not wishing to rely entirely on his own conclusions, Huber asked one of
the great naturalists of Switzerland, Jurine, to decide whether or not
mistakes had been made regarding these customs of the ants. This
witness, and indeed others, found that Huber's reports were true.
"Yet, after all," says Huber, "I still doubted. But on a later day I
again saw in the park of Fontainebleau, near Paris, the same workings of
ant life and wisdom. A well-known naturalist was with me then, and his
conclusions were the same as mine.
"It was half-past four in the afternoon of a very warm day. From a pile
of stones there came forth a column of about five hundred reddish ants.
They marched rapidly toward a field of turf, order in their ranks being
kept by their sergeants. These watched the flanks, and would not permit
any to straggle.
"Suddenly the army disappeared. There was no sign of an ant-hill in the
turf, but, after awhile, we detected a little hole. Through this the
ants had vanished. We supposed it was an entrance to their home. In a
minute they showed us that our supposition was incorrect. They issued in
a throng, nearly every one of them carrying a small black captive.
"From the short time they had taken, it was plain that they knew the
place and the weakness of its citizens. Perhaps it was not the reds'
first attack on this city of the little blacks. These swarmed out in
great numbers; and, truly, I pitied them. They did not attempt to fight.
They seemed terror-stricken, and made no attempt to oppose the warrior
ants, except by clinging to them. One of the marauders was stopped thus,
but a comrade that was free relieved him of his burden, and thereupon
the black ant let go his grasp.
"It was in fact a painful sight. The soldiers succeeded in carrying off
nearly five hundred children. About three feet from the entrance to the
ant-hill the plundered black parents ceased to follow the red robbers,
and resigned themselves to the loss of their young. The whole raid did
not occupy more than ten minutes.
"The parties were, as we have seen, very unequal in strength, and the
attack was clearly an outrage--an outrage no doubt often repeated. The
big red ants, knowing their power, played the part of tyrants; and,
whenever they wanted more slaves, despoiled the small weak blacks of
their greatest treasures--their children."
MICHELET
LEAD, KINDLY LIGHT
Lead, kindly Light, amid th' encircling gloom,
Lead Thou me on;
The night is dark, and I am far from home,
Lead Thou me on.
Keep Thou my feet; I do not ask to see
The distant scene; one step enough for me.
I was not ever thus, nor prayed that Thou
Shouldst lead me on;
I loved to choose and see my path; but now
Lead Thou me on.
I loved the garish day; and, spite of fears,
Pride ruled my will: remember not past years.
So long Thy power hath blest me, sure it still
Will lead me on
O'er moor and fen, o'er crag and torrent, till
The night is gone,
And with the morn those angel faces smile,
Which I have loved long since, and lost a while.
NEWMAN
THE JOLLY SANDBOYS
The Jolly Sandboys was a small road-side inn with a sign, representing
three Sandboys, creaking and swinging on its post on the opposite side
of the road. As the travellers had observed many indications of their
drawing nearer to the race town, such as gypsy camps, showmen of various
kinds, and beggars and trampers of every degree, Mr. Codlin was fearful
of finding the accommodation forestalled; but had the gratification of
finding that his fears were without foundation, for the landlord was
leaning against the door-post, looking lazily at the rain which had
begun to descend heavily.
"Make haste in out of the wet, Tom," said the landlord; "when it came on
to rain I told 'em to make the fire up, and there's a glorious blaze in
the kitchen, I can tell you."
Mr. Codlin followed with a willing mind. A mighty fire was blazing on
the hearth and roaring up the wide chimney with a cheerful sound, which
a large iron cauldron, bubbling and simmering in the heat, lent its
pleasant aid to swell. There was a deep red ruddy blush upon the room,
and when the landlord stirred the fire, sending the flame skipping and
leaping up--when he took off the lid of the iron pot and there rushed
out a savoury smell, while the bubbling sound grew deeper and more rich,
and an unctuous steam came floating out, hanging in a delicious mist
above their heads--when he did this, Mr. Codlin's heart was touched.
He sat down in the chimney-corner and smiled.
Mr. Codlin sat smiling in the chimney-corner, eyeing the landlord as
with a roguish look he held the cover in his hand, and feigning that his
doing so was needful to the welfare of the cookery, suffered the
delightful steam to tickle the nostrils of his guest. The glow of the
fire was upon the landlord's bald head, and upon his twinkling eye, and
upon his watering mouth, and upon his pimpled face, and upon his round
fat figure. Mr. Codlin drew his sleeve across his lips, and said in a
murmuring voice: "What is it?"
"It's a stew of tripe," said the landlord, smacking his lips, "and
cow-heel," smacking them again, "and bacon," smacking them once more,
"and steak," smacking them for the fourth time, "and peas, cauliflowers,
new potatoes, and sparrow-grass, all working up together in one
delicious gravy." Having come to the climax, he smacked his lips a great
many times, and taking a long, hearty sniff of the fragrance that was
hovering about, put on the cover again with the air of one whose toils
on earth were over.
"At what time will it be ready?" asked Mr. Codlin, faintly.
"It'll be done to a turn," said the landlord looking up to the
clock--and the very clock had a colour in its fat white face, and looked
a clock for Jolly Sandboys to consult--"it'll be done to a turn at
twenty-two minutes before eleven."
Mr. Codlin now bethought him of his companions, and acquainted mine host
of the Sandboys that his partner Short, Nell and her grandfather might
shortly be looked for. At length they arrived drenched with rain and
presenting a most miserable appearance. But their steps were no sooner
heard upon the road than the landlord, who had been at the outer door
anxiously watching for their coming, rushed into the kitchen and took
the cover off. The effect was electrical. They all came in with smiling
faces though the wet was dripping from their clothes upon the floor, and
Short's first remark was: "What a delicious smell!"
It is not very difficult to forget rain and mud by the side of a
cheerful fire, and in a bright room. They were furnished with slippers
and such dry garments as the house or their own bundles afforded, and
seating themselves, as Mr. Codlin had already done, in the warm
chimney-corner, soon forgot their late troubles or only remembered them
as enhancing the delights of the present time.
Strange footsteps were now heard without, and fresh company entered.
These were no other than four very dismal dogs, who came pattering in
one after the other, headed by an old bandy dog of particularly mournful
aspect, who, stopping when the last of his followers had got as far as
the door, erected himself upon his hind legs and looked round at his
companions, who immediately stood upon their hind legs, in a grave and
melancholy row. Nor was this the only remarkable circumstance about
these dogs, for each of them wore a kind of little coat of some gaudy
colour trimmed with tarnished spangles, and one of them had a cap upon
his head, tied very carefully under his chin, which had fallen down upon
his nose and completely obscured one eye; add to this, that the gaudy
coats were all wet through and discoloured with rain, and that the
wearers were splashed and dirty, and some idea may be formed of the
unusual appearance of these new visitors to the Jolly Sandboys.
Neither Short nor the landlord nor Thomas Codlin, however, was in the
least surprised, merely remarking that these were Jerry's dogs, and that
Jerry could not be far behind. So there the dogs stood, patiently
winking and gaping and looking extremely hard at the boiling pot, until
Jerry himself appeared, when they all dropped down at once, and walked
about the room in their natural manner. This posture, it must be
confessed, did not much improve their appearance, as their own personal
tails and their coat tails--both capital things in their way--did not
agree together.
Jerry, the manager of these dancing dogs, was a tall black-whiskered man
in a velveteen coat, who seemed well known to the landlord and his
guests and accosted them with great cordiality. Disencumbering himself
of a barrel organ which he placed upon a chair, and retaining in his
hand a small whip wherewith to awe his company of comedians, he came up
to the fire to dry himself, and entered into conversation.
"Your people don't usually travel in character, do they?" said Short,
pointing to the dresses of the dogs. "It must come expensive, if they
do."
"No," replied Jerry, "no, it's not the custom with us. But we've been
playing a little on the road to-day, and we come out with a new wardrobe
at the races, so I didn't think it worth while to stop to undress. Down,
Pedro!"
This was addressed to the dog with the cap on, who, being a new member
of the company, and not quite certain of his duty, kept his unobscured
eye anxiously on his master, and was perpetually starting up on his hind
legs when there was no occasion, and falling down again.
The landlord now busied himself in laying the cloth, in which process
Mr. Codlin obligingly assisted by setting forth his own knife and fork
in the most convenient place and establishing himself behind them. When
everything was ready, the landlord took off the cover for the last time,
and then, indeed, there burst forth such a goodly promise of supper,
that if he had offered to put it on again or had hinted at postponement,
he would certainly have been sacrificed on his own hearth.
However, he did nothing of the kind, but instead assisted a stout
servant girl in turning the contents of the cauldron into a large
tureen; a proceeding which the dogs, proof against various hot splashes
which fell upon their noses, watched with terrible eagerness. At length
the dish was lifted on the table, and mugs of ale having been previously
set round, little Nell ventured to say grace, and supper began.
At this juncture the poor dogs were standing on their hind legs quite
surprisingly; the child, having pity on them, was about to cast some
morsels of food to them before she tasted it herself, hungry though she
was, when their master interposed.
"No, my dear, no, not an atom from anybody's hand but mine if you
please. That dog," said Jerry, pointing out the old leader of the troop,
and speaking in a terrible voice, "lost a halfpenny to-day. _He_ goes
without his supper."
The unfortunate creature dropped upon his forelegs directly, wagged his
tail, and looked imploringly at his master.
"You must be more careful, sir," said Jerry, walking coolly to the chair
where he had placed the organ, and setting the stop. "Come here. Now,
sir, you play away at that, while we have supper, and leave off if you
dare."
The dog immediately began to grind most mournful music. His master,
having shown him the whip, resumed his seat and called up the others,
who, at his directions, formed in a row, standing upright as a file of
soldiers.
"Now, gentlemen," said Jerry, looking at them attentively: "The dog
whose name's called, eats. The dogs whose names an't called, keep quiet.
Carlo."
The lucky individual whose name was called, snapped up the morsel thrown
towards him, but none of the others moved a muscle. In this manner they
were fed at the discretion of their master. Meanwhile the dog in
disgrace ground hard at the organ, sometimes in quick time, sometimes in
slow, but never leaving off for an instant. When the knives and forks
rattled very much, or any of his fellows got an unusually large piece of
fat, he accompanied the music with a short howl, but he immediately
checked it on his master looking round, and applied himself with
increased diligence to the Old Hundredth.
DICKENS: "Old Curiosity Shop."
So, when a great man dies,
For years beyond our ken,
The light he leaves behind him lies
Upon the paths of men.
LONGFELLOW
THE GLADNESS OF NATURE
Is this a time to be cloudy and sad,
When our mother Nature laughs around;
When even the deep blue heavens look glad,
And gladness breathes from the blossoming ground?
There are notes of joy from the hang-bird and wren,
And the gossip of swallows through all the sky;
The ground-squirrel gaily chirps by his den,
And the wilding bee hums merrily by.
The clouds are at play in the azure space,
And their shadows at play on the bright green vale,
And here they stretch to the frolic chase,
And there they roll on the easy gale.
There's a dance of leaves on that aspen bower,
There's a titter of winds in that beechen tree,
There's a smile on the fruit, and a smile on the flower,
And a laugh from the brook that runs to the sea.
And look at the broad-faced sun, how he smiles
On the dewy earth that smiles in his ray,
On the leaping waters and gay young isles;
Ay, look, and he'll smile thy gloom away.
BRYANT
OLD ENGLISH LIFE
When the sun rose on England of olden time, its faint red light stirred
every sleeper from the sack of straw, which formed the only bed of the
age. Springing from this rustling couch, where he had lain naked, and
throwing off the coarse coverlets, usually of sheepskin, the subject of
King Alfred donned the day's dress. Gentlemen wore linen or woollen
tunics, which reached to the knee; and, over these, long fur-lined
cloaks, fastened with a brooch of ivory or gold. Strips of cloth or
leather, bandaged crosswise from the ankle to the knee over red and blue
stockings; and black, pointed shoes, slit along the instep almost to the
toes and fastened with two thongs, completed the costume of an
Anglo-Saxon gentleman. The ladies, wrapping a veil of linen or silk upon
their delicate curls, laced a loose-flowing gown over a tight-sleeved
bodice, and pinned the graceful folds of their mantles with golden
butterflies and other tasteful trinkets.
Breakfast consisted probably of bread, meat, and ale, but was a lighter
repast than that taken when the hurry of the day lay behind. Often it
was eaten in the bower or private apartment.
The central picture in Old English life--the great event of the day--was
_Noon-meat_, or dinner in the great hall. A little before three, the
chief and all his household, with any stray guests who might have
dropped in, met in the hall, which stood in the centre of its encircling
bowers--the principal apartment of every Old English house. Clouds of
wood smoke, rolling up from a fire which blazed in the middle of the
floor, blackened the carved rafters of the arched roof before they found
their way out of the hole above which did duty as a chimney.
Tapestries, dyed purple, or glowing with variegated pictures of saints
and heroes, hung, and if the day was stormy, flapped upon the chinky
walls. In palaces and in earls' mansions coloured tiles, wrought into a
mosaic, formed a clean and pretty pavement; but the common flooring of
the time was clay, baked dry with the heat of winter evenings and summer
noons. The only articles of furniture always in the hall were wooden
benches; some of which, especially the _high settle_ or seat of the
chieftain, boasted cushions, or at least a rug.
While the hungry crowd, fresh from woodland and furrow, were lounging
near the fire or hanging up their weapons on the pegs and hooks that
jutted from the wall, a number of slaves, dragging in a long, flat,
heavy board, placed it on movable legs, and spread on its upper half a
handsome cloth. Then were arranged with other utensils for the meal some
flattish dishes, baskets of ash-wood for holding bread, a scanty
sprinkling of steel knives shaped like our modern razors, platters of
wood, and bowls for the universal broth.
The ceremony of "laying the board," as the Old English phrased it, being
completed, the work of demolition began. Great round cakes of
bread--huge junks of boiled bacon--vast rolls of broiled eel--cups of
milk--horns of ale--wedges of cheese--lumps of salt butter--and smoking
piles of cabbages and beans, melted like magic from the board under the
united attack of greasy fingers and grinding jaws. Kneeling slaves
offered to the lord and his honoured guests long skewers or spits, on
which steaks of beef or venison smoked and sputtered, ready for the
hacking blade.
Poultry, too, and game of every variety, filled the spaces of the upper
board; but the crowd of _loaf-eaters_, as old English domestics were
suggestively called, saw little of these daintier kinds of food, except
the naked bones. Nor did they much care, if, to their innumerable
hunches of bread, they could add enough pig to appease their hunger.
Hounds, sitting eager-eyed by their masters, snapped with sudden jaws at
scraps of fat flung to them, or retired into private life below the
board with some sweet bone that fortune sent them.
The solid part of the banquet ended with the washing of hands, performed
for the honoured occupants of the high settle by officious slaves. The
board was then dragged out of the hall; the loaf-eaters slunk away to
have a nap in the byre, or sat drowsily in corners of the hall; and the
drinking began. During the progress of the meal, Welsh ale had flowed
freely in horns or vessels of twisted glass. Mead and, in very grand
houses, wine now began to circle in goblets of gold and silver, or of
wood inlaid with those precious metals. In humbler houses, story-telling
and songs, sung to the music of the harp by each guest in turn, formed
the principal amusement of the drinking-bout.
Meantime the music and the mead did their work in maddening brains; the
revelry grew louder; riddles, which had flown thick around the board at
first, gave place to banter, taunts, and fierce boasts of prowess; angry
eyes gleamed defiance; and it was well if, in the morning, the household
slaves had not to wash blood-stains from the pavement of the hall, or in
the still night, when the drunken brawlers lay stupid on the floor, to
drag a dead man from the red plash in which he lay.
From the reek and riot of the hall the ladies of the household soon
withdrew to the bower, where they reigned supreme. There, in the earlier
part of the day, they had arrayed themselves in their bright-coloured
robes, plying tweezers and crisping-irons on their yellow hair, and
often heightening the blush that Nature gave them with a shade of rouge.
There, too, they used to scold their female slaves, and beat them, with
a violence which said more for their strength of lung and muscle than
for the gentleness of their womanhood.
When their needles were fairly set a-going upon those pieces of delicate
embroidery, known and prized over all Europe as "English work," some
gentlemen dropped in, perhaps harp in hand, to chat and play for their
amusement, or to engage in games of hazard and skill, which seem to have
resembled modern dice and chess. When in later days supper came into
fashion, the round table of the bower was usually spread for
_Evening-food_, as this meal was called. And not long afterwards, those
bags of straw, from which they sprang at sunrise, received for another
night their human burden, worn out with the labours and the revels of
the day.
W. F. COLLIER
(Adapted)
PUCK'S SONG
See you the dimpled track that runs,
All hollow through the wheat?
O that was where they hauled the guns
That smote King Philip's fleet.
See you our little mill that clacks,
So busy by the brook?
She has ground her corn and paid her tax
Ever since Domesday Book.
See you our stilly woods of oak,
And the dread ditch beside?
O that was where the Saxons broke,
On the day that Harold died.
See you the windy levels spread
About the gates of Rye?
O that was where the Northmen fled,
When Alfred's ships came by.
See you our pastures wide and lone,
Where the red oxen browse?
O there was a City thronged and known,
Ere London boasted a house.
And see you, after rain, the trace
Of mound and ditch and wall?
O that was a Legion's camping-place,
When Caesar sailed from Gaul.
And see you marks that show and fade,
Like shadows on the Downs?
O they are the lines the Flint Men made
To guard their wondrous towns.
Trackway and Camp and City lost,
Salt Marsh where now is corn;
Old Wars, old Peace, old Arts that cease,
And so was England born!
She is not any common Earth,
Water or wood or air,
But Merlin's Isle of Gramarye,
Where you and I will fare.
KIPLING: "Puck of Pook's Hill."
THE BATTLE OF QUEENSTON HEIGHTS
The thirteenth of October, 1812, is a day ever to be remembered in
Canada. All along the Niagara river the greatest excitement had
prevailed: many of the inhabitants had removed with their portable
property into the back country; small bodies of soldiers, regulars and
volunteers, were posted in the towns and villages; Indians were roving
in the adjacent woods; and sentinels, posted along the banks of the
river, were looking eagerly for the enemy that was to come from the
American shore and attempt the subjugation of a free, a happy, and a
loyal people.
In the village of Queenston, that nestles at the foot of an eminence
overlooking the mighty waters of Niagara, two companies of the
Forty-ninth Regiment, or "Green Tigers," as the Americans afterwards
termed them, with one hundred Canadian militia, were posted under the
command of Captain Dennis.
When tattoo sounded on the night of the twelfth, the little garrison
retired to rest. All was silent but the elements, which raged furiously
throughout the night. Nothing was to be heard but the howling of the
wind and the sound of falling rain mingled with the distant roar of the
great cataract. Dripping with rain and shivering with cold, the sentries
paced their weary rounds, from time to time casting a glance over the
swollen tide of the river towards the American shore. At length, when
the gray dawn of morning appeared, a wary sentinel descried a number of
boats, filled with armed men, pushing off from the opposite bank below
the village of Lewiston. Immediately the alarm was given. The soldiers
were roused from their peaceful slumbers, and marched down to the
landing-place. Meanwhile, a battery of one gun, posted on the heights,
and another about a mile below, began to play on the enemy's boats,
sinking some and disabling others.
Finding it impossible to effect a landing in the face of such
opposition, the Americans, leaving a few of their number to occupy the
attention of the troops on the bank, disembarked some distance up the
river, and succeeded in gaining the summit of the height by a difficult
and unprotected pathway. With loud cheers they captured the one-gun
battery, and rushed down upon Captain Dennis and his command; who,
finding themselves far outnumbered by the enemy, retired slowly towards
the north end of the village. Here they were met by General Brock, who
had set out in advance of reinforcements from the town of Niagara,
accompanied only by two officers. Placing himself at the head of the
little band, the gallant general cried: "Follow me!" and, amid the
cheers of regulars and militia, he led his men back to the height from
which they had been forced to retire. At the foot of the hill the
general dismounted, under the sharp fire of the enemy's riflemen, who
were posted among the trees on its summit, climbed over a high stone
wall, and waving his sword, charged up the hill at the head of his
soldiers. This intrepid conduct at once attracted the notice of the
enemy. One of their sharp-shooters advanced a few paces, took deliberate
aim, and shot the general in the breast. It was a mortal wound. Thus
fell Sir Isaac Brock, the hero of Upper Canada, whose name will outlive
the noble monument which a grateful country has erected to his memory.
The fall of their beloved commander infuriated his followers. With loud
cheers of "Revenge the general!" they pressed forward up the hill, and
drove the enemy from their position. But reinforcements were continually
pouring in from the American shore; and after a deadly struggle, in
which Colonel Macdonell, Captain Dennis, and most of the other officers
fell, these brave men were again compelled to retire. They took refuge
under the guns of the lower battery, there awaiting the arrival of
reinforcements from Niagara. About mid-day the first of these arrived,
consisting of a band of fifty Mohawks, under their chiefs, Norton and
Brant. These Indian allies boldly engaged the enemy, and maintained for
a short time a sharp skirmish, but finally retired on the main
reinforcement. This arrived in the course of the afternoon, under the
command of Major-General Sheaffe. Instead of meeting the enemy on the
old ground, the officer now in command moved his whole force of one
thousand men to the right of the enemy's position, and sent forward his
left flank to attack the American right. This left flank was of a very
varied character, consisting of one company of the Forty-first Regiment
of the line, a company of coloured men, and a body of volunteer militia
and Indians, united, in spite of their difference of colour and race, by
loyalty to the British crown and heart-hatred of foreign aggression.
This division advanced in gallant style. After delivering a volley, the
whole line of white, red, and black charged the enemy, and drove in his
right wing at the point of the bayonet.
General Sheaffe now led on the main body, and forced the lately
victorious Americans to retreat rapidly over the ridge. The struggle on
their part was of short duration. In front was a foe thirsting for
revenge; behind, the steep banks and swiftly-flowing waters of Niagara.
The "Green Tigers," the Indians, their most despised slaves, and last,
but certainly not least, the gallant Canadian militia, were objects of
terror to them. Some few in despair threw themselves over the precipices
into the river; but the majority of the survivors surrendered themselves
prisoners of war, to the number of nine hundred and fifty, among whom
was their commander, General Wadsworth. The leader of the expedition,
General Van Rensselaer, had retired to Lewiston--as he said, for
reinforcements--in the early part of the day. The loss of the Americans
in this memorable action was about five hundred killed and wounded;
while that of the Canadian forces amounted to one hundred and fifty.
Throughout Canada the news of the victory of Queenston Heights awakened
universal joy and enthusiasm, second only to that with which the taking
of Detroit was hailed. But the joy and enthusiasm were damped by the sad
tidings, that he who had first taught Canada's sons the way to victory
had given his life for her defence, and slept in a soldier's grave with
many of her best and bravest.
UNKNOWN
THE BUGLE SONG
The splendour falls on castle walls
And snowy summits old in story:
The long light shakes across the lakes,
And the wild cataract leaps in glory.
Blow, bugle, blow, set the wild echoes flying,
Blow, bugle; answer, echoes, dying, dying, dying.
O hark, O hear! how thin and clear,
And thinner, clearer, farther going!
O sweet and far from cliff and scar
The horns of Elfland faintly blowing!
Blow, let us hear the purple glens replying:
Blow, bugle; answer, echoes, dying, dying, dying.
O love, they die in yon rich sky,
They faint on hill or field or river:
Our echoes roll from soul to soul,
And grow for ever and for ever.
Blow, bugle, blow, set the wild echoes flying,
And answer, echoes, answer, dying, dying, dying.
TENNYSON
CHARITY
Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not
charity, I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal. And though
I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries, and all
knowledge; and though I have all faith, so that I could remove
mountains, and have not charity, I am nothing. And though I bestow all
my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, and
have not charity, it profiteth me nothing.
Charity suffereth long, and is kind; charity envieth not; charity
vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up, doth not behave itself unseemly,
seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil; rejoiceth
not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth; beareth all things,
believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things. Charity
never faileth: but whether there be prophecies, they shall fail; whether
there be tongues, they shall cease; whether there be knowledge, it shall
vanish away. For we know in part, and we prophesy in part. But when that
which is perfect is come, then that which is in part shall be done away.
When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I
thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things.
For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I
know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known. And now
abideth faith, hope, charity, these three; but the greatest of these is
charity.
I. CORINTHIANS, XIII.
A CHRISTMAS CAROL
"What means this glory round our feet,"
The Magi mused, "more bright than morn?"
And voices chanted clear and sweet,
"To-day the Prince of Peace is born."
"What means that star," the Shepherds said,
"That brightens through the rocky glen?"
And angels, answering overhead,
Sang, "Peace on earth, good-will to men!"
'Tis eighteen hundred years and more
Since those sweet oracles were dumb;
We wait for Him, like them of yore;
Alas, He seems so slow to come!
But it was said, in words of gold
No time or sorrow e'er shall dim,
That little children might be bold
In perfect trust to come to Him.
All round about our feet shall shine
A light like that the wise men saw,
If we our living wills incline
To that sweet Life which is the Law.
So shall we learn to understand
The simple faith of shepherds then,
And, clasping kindly, hand in hand,
Sing, "Peace on earth, good-will to men."
And they who do their souls no wrong,
But keep at eve the faith of morn,
Shall daily hear the angel song,
"To-day the Prince of Peace is born!"
LOWELL
THE BARREN LANDS
Long before the treeless wastes are reached, the forests cease to be
forests except by courtesy. The trees--black and white spruce, the
Canadian larch, and the gray pine, willow, alder, etc.--have an
appearance of youth; so that the traveller would hardly suppose them to
be more than a few years old, at first sight. Really this juvenile
appearance is a species of second childhood; for, on the shores of the
Great Bear Lake, four centuries are necessary for the growth of a trunk
not as thick as a man's wrist. The further north the more lamentably
decrepit becomes the appearance of these woodlands, until, presently,
their sordidness is veiled by thick growths of gray lichens--the
"caribou moss," as it is called--which clothe the trunks and hang down
from the shrivelled boughs. And still further north the trees become
mere stunted stems, set with blighted buds that have never been able to
develop themselves into branches; until, finally, the last vestiges of
arboreal growth take refuge under a thick carpet of lichens and mosses,
the characteristic vegetation of the Barren Grounds.
Nothing more dismal than the winter aspect of these wastes can be
imagined. The Northern forests are silent enough in winter time, but the
silence of the Barren Grounds is far more profound. Even in the depths
of midwinter the North-Western bush has voices and is full of animal
life. The barking cry of the crows (these birds are the greatest
imaginable nuisance to the trapper, whose baits they steal even before
his back is turned) is still heard; the snow-birds and other small
winged creatures are never quiet between sunset and sunrise; the
jack-rabbit, whose black bead-like eye betrays his presence among the
snow-drifts in spite of his snow-white fur, is common enough; and the
childlike wailing of the coyotes is heard every night. But with the
exception of the shriek of the snow-owl or the yelping of a fox emerged
from his lair, there is no sound of life during seven or eight or nine
months of winter on the Barren Grounds; unless the traveller is able to
hear the rushing sound--some can hear it, others cannot--of the shifting
Northern lights.
In May, however, when the snows melt and the swamps begin to thaw, the
Barren Grounds become full of life. To begin with, the sky is literally
darkened with enormous flights of wild-fowl, whom instinct brings from
the southern reaches of the Mississippi and its tributaries to these
sub-Arctic wildernesses, where they find an abundance of food, and at
the same time build their nests and rear their young in safety. The
snow-geese are the first to arrive; next come the common and eider-duck;
after them the great northern black-and-red-throated divers; and last of
all the pin-tail and the long-tail ducks. Some of these go no further
than just beyond the outskirts of the forest region; others, flying
further northward, lay their eggs in the open on the moss. Eagles and
hawks prey on these migratory hosts; troops of ptarmigan (they are said
to go to no place where the mercury does not freeze) seek food among the
stunted willows on the shores of the lakes and sloughs; and in sunny
weather the snow-bunting's song is heard.
Soon after the arrival of the migratory birds the wilderness becomes
newly clothed in green and gray. The snow, which never once thaws during
the long winter, forms a safe protection for vegetable life.
As soon as the lengthening summer's day has thawed this coverlet of
snows, vegetation comes on at a surprising rate--a week's sunshine on
the wet soil completely transforming the aspect of the country. It is
then that the caribou leave their winter quarters in the forest region
and journey to the Barren Grounds.
Just as the prairies might have been called "Buffalo-land" thirty years
ago, and the intervening enforested country may still be styled
"Moose-land"--not that the moose is nearly so common in Saskatchewan and
Athabaska as it was before the rebellion of 1885 opened up that
country--so from the hunter's point of view "Caribou-land" would be an
exceedingly apt name for the _tundra_ of Greater Canada. Only the
Indians and the Eskimos (the former living on the confines of the
forests, and the latter along the far Arctic coasts) visit these
territories, and but for the presence of the vast herds of caribou, it
is pretty certain that such mosquito-haunted wastes would never be
trodden by man. It is true that the musk-ox is an important inhabitant
of the wastes, but the numbers of that strange beast, which seems to be
half sheep, half ox, are not nearly so great, and there are reasons to
believe that it is being slowly but surely driven from its ancient
pastures by the caribou, just as, in so many parts of the world, the
nations of the antelope have receded before the deer-tribes.
E. B. OSBORN: "Greater Canada."
A SPRING MORNING
There was a roaring in the wind all night;
The rain came heavily and fell in floods:
But now the sun is rising calm and bright,
The birds are singing in the distant woods,
Over his own sweet voice the stock-dove broods,
The jay makes answer as the magpie chatters,
And all the air is filled with pleasant noise of waters.
All things that love the sun are out of doors,
The sky rejoices in the morning's birth,
The grass is bright with rain-drops;--on the moors
The hare is running races in her mirth;
And with her feet, she from the plashy earth
Raises a mist, that, glittering in the sun,
Runs with her all the way, wherever she doth run.
WORDSWORTH
For, lo, the winter is past, the rain is over and gone; the flowers
appear on the earth; the time of the singing of birds is come, and the
voice of the turtle is heard in our land.
SOLOMON'S SONG. II, 11, 12
CROSSING THE BAR
Sunset and evening star,
And one clear call for me!
And may there be no moaning of the bar,
When I put out to sea,
But such a tide as moving seems asleep,
Too full for sound and foam,
When that which drew from out the boundless deep
Turns again home.
Twilight and evening bell,
And after that the dark!
And may there be no sadness of farewell,
When I embark;
For tho' from out our bourne of Time and Place
The flood may bear me far,
I hope to see my Pilot face to face
When I have crost the bar.
TENNYSON
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