then the leader of the French Assembly, called him “the sage whom two worlds claim as their own," and proposed that the Assembly should wear mourning on the arm for him during three days, which was done. It was said of him after his death, by a celebrated Frenchman (Turgot), that "he snatched the lightning from the sky, and the scepter from tyrants!" T. W. Higginson.

FOR PREPARATION.-I. From Higginson's "Young Folks' History of the United States." To whom is the word "Americans" applied? Why not to Mexicans and Canadians? The literature relative to the Revolutionary War fixed the word in a national meaning, partly from the difficulty of forming a descriptive word from the name of our nation (United Statesians!).

II. Sçi'-ençe, knŭck'-leş (nůk'ız), al'-ma-năe, out'-break, Mï-ra-beau' (-bō'), Tur-got' (-go').

III. Make a list of ten abbreviations that you remember, and write opposite each the full word, thus: Dr.-Doctor; N. A.-North America; U. S.-United States; Mo.-Missouri; N. Y.-New York, etc.

IV. Rendered, universal, famous, sage, memorial, “electric fluid " (is it really a "fluid "?), partner, capital (money, and other means, to carry on business), lightning rod, "Declaration of Independence."

V. "With no capital" (2). Some capital was furnished by his partner. He withdrew in 1729, and Franklin afterward started the store and the almanac alone. The famous experiment of Franklin "drew electricity from the clouds." Doubtless it can be drawn from the upper air on a cloudless day. Had the lightning really descended his kite string, it would have killed Franklin, as it did the Russian who undertook to repeat the experiment.

LXVI. THE THREE BLACK CROWS.

1. Two honest tradesmen meeting in the Strand,
One took the other briskly by the hand.
"Hark ye," said he, "'tis an odd story, this,
About the crows!" "I don't know what it is,"

Replied his friend. "No? I'm surprised at that. Where I come from, it is the common chat.

2. "But you shall hear an odd affair, indeed!
And that it happened, they are all agreed.
Not to detain you from a thing so strange:
A gentleman, who lives not far from 'Change,
This week, in short, as all the Alley knows,
Taking a vomit, threw up three black crows!"

3. "Impossible!" "Nay, but 'tis really true; I had it from good hands, and so may you." "From whose, I pray?" So, having named the man, Straight to inquire his curious comrade ran :

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"Sir, did you tell—” (relating the affair).

Yes, sir, I did; and, if 'tis worth your care,

'Twas Mr. Such-a-one who told it me.

But, by the bye, 'twas two black crows-not three."

4. Resolved to trace so wondrous an event,

Quick to the third the virtuoso went:

"Sir" (and so forth). "Why, yes-the thing is fact,

Though, in regard to number, not exact:

It was not two black crows-'twas only one.
The truth of that you may depend upon:
The gentleman himself told me the case."
"Where may I find him?"

place."

"Why, in such a

5. Away he went; and, having found him out: "Sir, be so good as to resolve a doubt.”

Then to his last informant he referred,

And begged to know if true what he had heard:

"Did you, sir, throw up a black crow?"
"Bless me, how people propagate a lie!

"Not I!"

Black crows have been thrown up, three, two, and

one;

And here, I find, all comes at last to none!

6. "Did you say anything of a crow at all?"
"Crow ?-crow? Perhaps I might, now I recall
The matter over." "And pray, sir, what was't?"

"Why, I was horrid sick, and, at last,

I did throw up-and told my neighbor so

Something that was as black, sir, as a crow!"

John Byrom.

FOR PREPARATION.-I. What locality is indicated by "the Strand"?— "Change" (Exchange) ?-" Alley"? (Is it London ?)

II. Two (too), straight (strāt), eŏm'-rade (kom'răd), běgged, prop'-agāte, none (nun).

III. Supply omission in 'tis ;—meaning of im in impossible;—of se in whose (like 's, it denotes possession). Of what is Mr. an abbreviation? What punctuation mark must always be placed after an abbreviation? Meaning of n in thrown? (like ed, it denotes past or completed action.) "Horrid sick "—is this proper language to use? (Such expressions are called vulgarisms, or slang.)

IV. "Curious comrade" (curious for anxious, or inquiring), "by the bye," virtuoso, "and so forth" (stands for what remarks in the line where it occurs?), "such a place" (stands for the name of the locality given by the speaker), "resolve a doubt."

V. Make a list of the different steps in reducing this street rumor to its foundation. Which party says, "Bless me, how people propagate a lie!" "All the Alley "-what is meant?

LXVII. THE BIRTHDAY OF WASHINGTON.

MARKED FOR LOGICAL ANALYSIS AND EMPHASIS.

The birthday of the "FATHER OF HIS COUNTRY!". May it ever be freshly remembered by AMERICAN HEARTS! May it ever reawaken in them a filial VENERATION for his memory; ever rekindle the fires of patriotic regard for the COUNTRY he loved so well; to which he gave his youthful vigor and his youthful energy during the perilous period of the early Indian warfare; to which he devoted his life in the maturity of his powers in the field; to which again he offered the counsels of his wisdom and his experience as president of the convention that framed our Constitution; which he guided and directed while in the chair of State; and for which the last prayer of his earthly supplication was offered up, when it came the moment for him so well, and so grandly, and so calmly TO DIE.

He was the FIRST man of the time in which he grew. His memory is first and most SACRED in our LOVE; and ever hereafter, till the last drop of blood shall freeze in the last AMERICAN HEART, his name shall be a spell of power and of might.

Yes, gentlemen, there is one personal, one VAST FELICITY, which no man can share with him. It was the daily beauty and towering and matchless glory of his life which enabled him to CREATE HIS COUNTRY, and at the same time secure an undying love and regard from the WHOLE American people. "The first in the HEARTS of his countrymen!" Undoubtedly there were brave and wise and good men, before his day, in every colony. But the American nation, as a NATION, I do not reckon to have begun before 1774. And the FIRST LOVE of that YOUNG AMERICA was WASHINGTON. Rufus Choate.