Графични страници
PDF файл
ePub

used ever afterwards to complain of aches and rheumatism, which she attributed to her exposure for about twenty hours on the tree.

*

*

*

'You may be sure that we never ventured in that luckless hut again, but built another in the paddock up near the chief station, where you will see it.'

[Write from dictation]

It must have been heartrending for the poor shepherd to see the terrific jeopardy in which his family and sheep were placed, miserable at being compelled to remain stationary, suffering indescribable anxiety, desperately determined to save them, if possible. All his agile and courageous efforts, together with his experience, could not prevent the destruction of the sheep, though he had cause to return thanks with solemnity for the safety of his wife and children.

THE FOUNTAIN.

1.

Into the sunshine,

Full of the light,
Leaping and flashing
From morn till night!

2.

Into the moonlight,

Whiter than snow,

Waving so flower-like

When the winds blow!

3.

Into the starlight,

Rushing in spray,

Happy at midnight,

Happy by day!

4.

Ever in motion,

Blithesome and cheery,

Still climbing heavenward, Never aweary;

5.

Glad of all weathers,
Still seeming best,
Upward or downward
Motion thy rest;

6.

Full of a nature

Nothing can tame, Changed every moment, Ever the same;

7.

Ceaseless aspiring,

Ceaseless content,

Darkness or sunshine
Thy element;

8.

Glorious fountain!

Let my heart be

Fresh, changeful, constant, Upward like thee!

ALICE FELL; OR, POVERTY.

1.

The post-boy drove with fierce career,

For threatening clouds the moon had drowned; When, as we hurried on, my ear

Was smitten with a startling sound.

2.

As if the wind blew many ways,

I heard the sound-and more and more;

It seemed to follow with the chaise,

And still I heard it as before.

3.

At length I to the boy called out;

He stopped his horses at the word, But neither cry, nor voice, nor shout, Nor aught else like it, could be heard.

The boy then smacked his whip, and fast
The horses scampered through the rain;
But hearing soon upon the blast

The cry, I made him halt again.

5.

Forthwith alighting on the ground,

'Whence comes,' said I, 'that piteous moan?'

And there a little girl I found,

Sitting behind the chaise alone!

6.

'My cloak !' no other word she spake,
But loud and bitterly she wept,

As if her innocent heart would break;
And down from off her seat she leaped.

7.

'What ails you, child?'—she sobbed, 'Look here!'

I saw it in the wheel entangled,

A weather-beaten rag as e'er

From any garden scarecrow dangled.

8.

There, twisted between nave and spoke,
It hung, nor could at once be freed;
But our joint pains unloosed the cloak-
A miserable rag
indeed!

9.

'And whither are you going, child,
To-night, along these lonesome ways?'
'To Durham,' answered she, half wild-
'Then come with me into the chaise.'

Insensible to all relief

10.

Sat the poor girl, and forth did send Sob after sob, as if her grief

Could never, never have an end.

11.

'My child, in Durham do you dwell?'
She checked herself in her distress,
And said: 'My name is Alice Fell;
I'm fatherless and motherless.

12.

And I to Durham, sir, belong.'
Again, as if the thought would choke
Her very heart, her grief grew strong;
And all was for her tattered cloak !

13.

The chaise drove on; our journey's end
Was nigh; and, sitting by my side,
As if she had lost her only friend,
She wept, nor would be pacified.

14.

Up to the tavern door we post;
Of Alice and her grief I told;
And I gave money to the host,
To buy a new cloak for the old :

15.

'And let it be of duffel gray,

As warm a cloak as man can sell !'
Proud creature was she the next day,
The little orphan, Alice Fell!

BOOTS AND HIS BROTHERS.*

Once on a time there was a man who had three sons

-Peter, Paul, and John. John was Boots, of course, because he was the youngest. I can't say the man had anything more than these three sons, for he hadn't one penny to rub against another; so he told his sons over and over again they must go out into the world and try to earn their bread, for there at home there was nothing to be looked for but starving to death.

Now, a bit off the man's cottage was the king's palace; and, you must know, just against the king's windows a

* This lesson is so easy, that spelling and dictation lessons are superfluous.

« ПредишнаНапред »