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Squire. There; in two words of as good old English as I ever penned.

Cur. Pretty well, too, Mr. Squire, if we must be sent for to be made a laughingstock of. She shall pay for every ride she has had out of my chaise, I promise you.

Swipes. And for every drop of my beer. Fine times, if two sober, hard-working citizens are to be brought here to be made the sport of a graceless profligate. But we will manage his property for him, Mr. Currie; we will make him feel that trustees are not to be trifled with.

Cur. That we will.

Squire. Not so fast, gentlemen; for the instrument is dated three years ago; and the young gentleman must be already of age, and able to take care of himself. Is it not so, Francis ?

Frank. It is, your worship.

Squire. Then, gentlemen, having attended to the breaking of the seal, according to law, you are released from any further trouble about the business.

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Grãçe'less, depraved, Lăck'ey, an attending

corrupt. Rep'ro-bate, one morally lost. servant, a footman. De-çeased', dead. Con-vened', met together, assembled. Im-pri'mis (Latin), in the first place. Chaise (pro. shāz), a kind of two-wheeled carriage. Re-fôrmed', returned to a good state. Prof'li-gate, a person openly and shamelessly vicious. In'stru-ment (a term in law), a writing expressive of some act, contract, etc.

NOTES.

Terms having the same, or nearly the same, meaning, as, "will and testament," "give and bequeath," "to have and to ," "sole and exclusive," are commonly joined in this way in legal documents.

hold,"

Personal property usually consists of things temporary and movable, while real property includes things fixed and immovable, such as lands and tenements.

LV. THE NOSE AND THE EYES.

William Cowper (b. 1731, d. 1800) was the son of an English clergyman, and was born in Great Berkhampstead, Hertfordshire, England. He was sent to Westminster School when he was ten years of age, and he remained there, a diligent student, eight years. He then studied law, and was admitted to the bar, but he never practiced his profession. He was appointed to a clerkship in the House of Lords when he was about thirty years old, but he never entered upon the discharge of his duties. He became insane, and was sent to a private asylum. After his recovery, he found a home in the family of the Rev. Mr. Unwin. On the death of this gentleman, he resided with the widow till her death Olney. His first writings were published in 1782. hymns, a number of minor poems, and his translations of Homer, composed his published works. His insanity returned at times, and darkened a pure and gentle life at its close.

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most of the time at "The Task," some

1. BETWEEN Nose and Eyes a strange contest arose;
The spectacles set them, unhappily, wrong;
The point in dispute was, as all the world knows,
To which the said spectacles ought to belong.

2. So Tongue was the lawyer, and argued the cause, With a great deal of skill and a wig full of learning. While chief baron Ear sat to balance the laws,

So famed for his talent in nicely discerning.

3. "In behalf of the Nose, it will quickly appear,

And your lordship," he said, "will undoubtedly find, That the Nose has the spectacles always to wear, Which amounts to possession, time out of mind.”

4. Then, holding the spectacles up to the court,

"Your lordship observes, they are made with a straddle As wide as the ridge of the Nose is; in short, Designed to sit close to it, just like a saddle.

5. "Again, would your lordship a moment suppose ('T is a case that has happened, and may happen again) That the visage or countenance had not a Nose,

Pray, who would or who could wear spectacles then?

6. "On the whole it appears, and my argument shows, With a reasoning the court will never condemn, That the spectacles plainly were made for the Nose, And the Nose was as plainly intended for them."

7. Then shifting his side (as a lawyer knows how),
He pleaded again in behalf of the Eyes:
But what were his arguments, few people know,
For the court did not think them equally wise.

8. So his lordship decreed, with a grave, solemn tone, Decisive and clear, without one if or but,

That whenever the Nose put his spectacles on,

By daylight or candlelight,-Eyes should be shut.

DEFINITIONS.

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2. Ar'gued, discussed, treated by reasoning. Diş çern'ing (pro. diz-zērn'ing), marking as different, distinguishing. 3. Be-hälf', support, defense. 8. De-ereed', determined judicially by authority, ordered.

LVI. AN ICEBERG.

Louis Legrand Noble (b. 1813, d. 1882) was born in Otsego County, New York. When twelve years of age, he removed with his family to the wilds of Michigan, but after the death of his father he returned to New York to study for the ministry, which he entered in 1840. About this time he published his first productions, two Indian romances in the form of poems, entitled "Pewatem" and "Nimahmin." Mr. Noble lived for a time in North Carolina, and later at Catskill on the Hudson, where he became a warm friend of the artist Cole. After the latter's death he wrote a memorial of him. Other works of this author are "The Hours, and other Poems," and "After Icebergs with a Painter," from which this selection is taken.

1. WE have just passed a fragment of some one of the surrounding icebergs that had amused us. It bore the resemblance of a huge polar bear, reposing upon the base of an inverted cone, with a twist of a seashell, and whirling slowly round and round. The ever-attending green

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water, with its aërial clearness, enabled us to see its spiral folds and horns as they hung suspended in the deep.

2. The bear, a ten-foot mass in tolerable proportion, seemed to be regularly beset by a pack of hungry little swells. First, one would take him on the haunch, then whip back into the sea over his tail and between his legs. Presently a bolder swell would rise and pitch into his back with a ferocity that threatened instant destruction. It only washed his satin fleece the whiter.

3. While Bruin was turning to look the daring assailant in the face, the rogue had pitched himself back into his cave. No sooner that, than a very bulldog of a billow would attack him in the face. The serenity with which the impertinent assault was borne was complete. It was but a puff of silvery dust, powdering his mane with fresher brightness. Nothing would be left of bull but a little froth of all the foam displayed in the fierce onset. He too would turn and scud into his hiding place.

4. Persistent little waves! After a dash, singly, all around, upon the common enemy, as if by some silent agreement underwater, they would all rush on at once, with their loudest roar and shaggiest foam, and overwhelm poor bear so completely that nothing less might be expected than to behold him broken in four quarters, and floating helplessly asunder. Mistaken spectators! Although, by his momentary rolling and plunging, he was evidently aroused, yet neither Bruin nor his burrow was at all the worse for all the wear and washing.

5. The deep fluting, the wrinkled folds, and cavities, over and through which the green and silvery water rushed back into the sea, rivaled the most exquisite sculpture. And nature not only gives her marbles, with the finest lines, the most perfect lights and shades, she colors them also. She is no monochromist, but polychroic, imparting such touches of dove tints, emerald, and azure as she bestows upon her gems and skies.

6. We are bearing up under the big berg as closely as we dare. To our delight, what we have been wishing and watching for is actually taking place: loud explosions, with heavy falls of ice, followed by the cataract-like roar, and the high, thin seas, wheeling away beautifully crested with sparkling foam. If it is possible, imagine the effect upon the beholder: this precipice of ice, with tremendous cracking, is falling toward us with a majestic and awful motion.

7. Down sinks the long water line into the black deep; down go the porcelain crags and galleries of glassy sculp ture a speechless and awful baptism. Now it pauses, and returns up rise sculptures and crags streaming with the shining white brine; up comes the great encircling line, followed by things new and strange-crags, niches, balconies, and caves; up, up, it rises, higher and higher still, crossing the very breast of the grand ice, and all bathed with rivulets of gleaming foam. Over goes the summit, ridge, pinnacles, and all, standing off obliquely in the opposite air. Now it pauses in its upward roll: back it comes again, cracking, cracking, cracking, "groaning out harsh thunder" as it comes, and threatening to burst, like a mighty bomb, into millions of glittering fragments. The spectacle is terrific and magnificent. Emotion is irrepressible, and peals of wild hurrah burst forth from all.

DEFINITIONS.-1. Cōne, a solid body having a circular base, from which it tapers gradually to a point. 2. Swellş, waves. 3. Se-rĕn'i-ty, quietness, calmness. 5. Ex'qui-şite, exceedingly nice, giving rare satisfaction. Seulp'ture, carved work. Mõn'o-chrō-mist, one who paints in a single color. Pol-y-ehrō'ie, given to the use of many colors. 7. Pin'na-eles, high, spirelike points. Ob-lique'ly, slantingly. Ir-re-press'i-ble, not to be restrained.

NOTE. - Only about one eighth of an iceberg appears above the surface of the water. When one side of it grows heavier than another, through unequal melting and the action of the waves, the whole mass rolls over in the water in the manner so well described in this lesson.

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