THIRD READER

THE SEA

Barry Cornwall

HE sea! the sea! the open sea!

THE

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 should 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 southwest 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 his 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 wild unbounded sea!

THE TEN FAIRY SERVANTS

(Gotland Legend)

LSA was a little Swedish girl whose

ELSA

parents were very fond of her, for she was their only child. They lived in the country, and as soon as Elsa was old enough they sent her into the city to learn how to sew and to learn city ways and manners. But she foolishly gave much of her time to adorning herself, and she became scornful of housework and manual labor.

When she was twenty years old she married an industrious, honorable farmer named Gunner. At first all went well and they were happy, but soon Elsa became weary of her household duties. One morning, a few days before Christmas, there were many things to do; one servant came into the kitchen, saying, “Dear mistress, get ready our bags, for we are going to the woods, and must be off if we are to get back before the evening."