"Let us go home quickly, for I have a problem to solve." NOTES 1. The above extract is taken from Edmondo De Amicis' "Cuore," or Italian Schoolboy's Diary. 2. Via Dora Grossa, an Italian street. 3. Look up the meanings of the following words and expressions: escorts, canted, belabor, lunging, sorry plight, tranquil, scrutinized. EXERCISES 1. To what extent do you think Stardi was justified in telling on Franti? 2. What punishment was given to Franti? 3. What revenge did Franti seek? 4. What is shown of Franti in the manner in which he attempted to start the fight? 5. What did Franti think Stardi would do? 6. Explain "Stardi never paused to reflect." 7. What is shown of Stardi in that he was willing to attack so large a boy? 8. What is shown of Stardi in the words "he roared"? 9. How did the onlookers regard this fight? 10. What did Franti finally attempt to do? 11. Explain, “Franti took to his heels in a sorry plight." 12. Why did the bystanders commend Stardi? 13. Explain, "thinking more of his satchel than of his victory." 14. What had Stardi's last words shown? 15. Do you think it was right for Stardi to fight under such circumstances? ADDITIONAL READINGS BROWNING: Count Gismond, Incident of a French Camp. HUGHES: Tom Brown at Rugby. THE BIBLE: David and Goliath. HUNT: The Glove and the Lions. MRS. HEMANS: Bernardo del Carpio. SCOTT: Lady of the Lake - The Combat. TENNYSON: Charge of the Light Brigade. J. G. ADAMS: The Soldier. ALDRICH: Story of a Bad Boy. SMILES: Character. DE AMICIS: The Sardinian Drummer Boy. ARNOLD: Sohrab and Rustum. A SIMPLE RECIPE1 To be a wholly worthy man, As you, my boy, would like to be,This is to show you how you can — This simple recipe. Be honest - both in word and act Be strictly truthful through and through. Fact cannot fail. You stick to fact, And fact will stick to you. Be clean, outside and in, and sweep Both hearth and heart, and hold them bright. Wear snowy linen -aye, and keep Your conscience snowy white. Do right, your utmost, good must come And work will do the rest. - James Whitcomb Riley. 1From His Pa's Romance. Copyright 1903. Used by special permission of the publishers, The Bobbs-Merrill Company. IT HOME, SWEET HOME T remained for an American who died in foreign lands to sing us our choicest home song. John Howard Payne was born in New York in 1791, and spent his childhood in a humble home in East Hampton, Long Island. At the age of thirteen, while clerk in a New York mercantile house, he secretly edited the Thespian Mirror. For a while he attended Union College, but the bankruptcy of his father caused the young man to quit college and to seek to support himself as an actor. At eighteen, he played the part of Young Norval in "Douglas" in the Park Theatre, New York, and later appeared in Boston, Philadelphia, and Baltimore. Ten In 1813, he sailed for England where he appeared in the Drury Lane Theatre, London, successively as actor, manager, and playwright. He proved a very unsuccessful business manager, and hence suffered many financial embarrassments. In 1832, he returned to America. years later, he was appointed as American Consul at Tunis, was recalled in 1845, and reappointed in 1851. He died in Tunis April 9, 1852, and was buried there in the cemetery of St. George. It was not until 1883 that his remains were at last brought to America, where they were finally interred in Washington with due ceremony, and with proper recognition of the wandering actor's home song. The song "Home, Sweet Home," is a solo in Payne's Opera of Clari, or the Maid of Milan, which was first produced in Covent Garden Theatre in May, 1823. The music was adapted by Henry R. Bishop from an old melody which Payne had heard in Italy. The publisher of the song cleared two thousand guineas the first year, but Payne himself received very little of the profit. Men everywhere have loved this exquisite home song. The soldier on the battlefield, the sailor on the trackless sea, and the lonely traveler with tear-dimmed eyes, have heard with thrills of delight the sweet strains of "Home, Sweet Home." We prize the song more highly because the author himself was a wanderer with no home he could call his own. His very loneliness, by way of contrast, seems to give this ideal home picture its truth and makes it touch deeply the hearts of men. HOME, SWEET HOME 'Mid pleasures and palaces, though we may roam, Be it ever so humble, there's no place like home; A charm from the skies seems to hallow us there, Which, seek through the world, is ne'er met with elsewhere. An exile from home, splendor dazzles in vain; Give me them, and that peace of mind, dearer than all. Home, home, sweet, sweet home, There's no place like home. -John Howard Payne. The above is the song as originally written. Later the following stanzas were added: I gaze on the moon as I tread the drear wild, me no more. If I return home overburdened with care, The heart's dearest solace I'm sure to meet there; Makes no other place seem like that of sweet home. NOTES 1. The best biographies of the author of this poem are Harrison's "John Howard Payne," Washington, 1885, and Brainard's "John Howard Payne," Philadelphia, 1885. These were called forth by reason of the great honor with which the remains of the wanderer were interred permanently at Washington. |