20. I began to be heartily ashamed of myself, and was casting about how I might slip away from hearing these pleasant reproaches; but curiosity and listlessness together, kept me quiet, while they continued to discuss the best mode of destroying the tyrant. There was, as is usual in such cases, great diversity of opinion.

21. “I'll bury my talons in his brain," said the eagle. "I'll tear his eyes out," screamed the hawk. "I'll whip him to death with my tail," barked the fox. "I'll sting him home," hissed the rattlesnake. "I'll poison him," said the spider. "I'll flyblow him," buzzed the fly. "I'll drown him, if he'll only come into my brook, so I will," quoth the trout.

66

22. "I'll drag him into my hole, and do his business there, I warrant," said the ant; and thereupon there was a giggle among the whole set. "And I'll-I'll" said the worm. "What will you do, you poor Satan?" exclaimed the rest in a titter. What will I do? Why I'll eat him after he's dead," replied sir worm; and then he strutted about, until he unwarily came so near that he slipped into the brook, and was snapped up in a moment by the trout.

23. The example was contagious. "Oho! you are for that sport," mewed the cat, and clawed the trout before he could get his head under water. "Tit for tat," barked Reynard, and snatching pussy up in his teeth, was off like a shot. "Since 'tis the fashion," said the spider, "I'll have a crack at that same blue-bottle," and thereupon he nabbed the poor fly in a twinkling. "By your leave," said the toad, and snapped up the spider in less than no time. "You ugly thief of the world," hissed the rattlesnake in great wrath, and indignantly laying hold of the toad, managed to swallow him about half way, where he lay in all his glory.

24. "What a nice morsel for my poor fatherless ones," cooed the dove, and, pecking at the ant, was just flying away with it in quite a sentimental style, when the hawk, seeing this, screamedout, "what a pretty plump dove for a dinner! Providence has ordained that I should eat her." He was carrying her off, when the eagle darted upon him, and soaring to his aerie on the summit of an inaccessible rock, composedly made a meal of both hawk and dove. Then picking his teeth with his claws, he exclaimed with great complacency, "What a glorious thing it is to be king of birds!"

25. "Humph," exclaimed I, rubbing my eyes, for it seemed I had been half asleep, humph, a man is not so much worse

than his neighbors, after all," and shaking off the spell that was over me, bent my steps homeward, wondering why it was, that it seemed as if all living things were created for the sole purpose of preying on each other.

PAULDING.

QUESTION s.- By what authority does man hold dominion over animals? Does this include the right to torture them, or to kill them unnecessarily? Under what circumstances is it right to kill them? On what account are the animals, in this fable, supposed to be incensed at man? How did they show, by their own conduct, the folly of finding fault with others? When we see faults in others, where should our attention be directed? In what way can we make the best use of the faults of others?

ARTICULATION. - Utter distinctly all the consonants in the following words: frequently, rambling, recline, listlessly, rippling, branches, abstracted, middle, inscrutable, croaking, cruel, relaps'd, traps, commingled, grudges, scratch, indispensable, privileges, giggle, crack, rattlesnake, inaccessible, composedly.

SPELL AND DEFINE. 1. Rambling: 3. dog-star, twittering: 4. reverie: 5. unconsciousness: 6. lapse: 7. commingled: 9, pounce: 12. spiral: 16. insatiable: 18. sympathized: 20. discuss: 22. unwarily: 23. contagious: 25. preying.

LESSON XLVIII.

RULE. In reading poetry, be careful to avoid that sort of sing-song tone which is made by marking too strongly with the voice the poetic accent. This fault may be perceived by reading the following lines as they are italicized.

Sweet is the work, my God my King,
To praise thy name, give thanks and sing.

Words to be Spelled and Defined

1. Wail'-ing, a. lamenting, mourning. Sear, a. dry, withered.

3. Glade, n. an open place in the forest. Glen, n. a valley, a dale.

THE DEATH OF THE FLOWERS.

1. THE melancholy days are come,
The saddest of the year,

Of wailing winds, and naked woods,
And meadows, brown and sear.

Heaped in the hollows of the grove,
The withered leaves lie dead;
They rustle to the eddying gust,
And to the rabbit's tread.
The robin and the wren have flown,
And from the shrub the jay,
And from the wood-top calls the crow
Through all the gloomy day.

2. Where are the flowers, the fair young flowers,
That lately sprang and stood
In brighter light and softer airs,
A beauteous sisterhood?
Alas! they all are in their graves;
The gentle race of flowers
Are lying in their lowly beds,

With the fair and good of ours.
The rain is falling where they lie,
But the cold November rain
Calls not from out the gloomy earth
The lovely ones again.

3. The wall-flower and the violet,
They perished long ago,

And the brier-rose and the orchis died
Amid the summer's glow;

But on the hill, the golden rod,

And the aster in the wood,

And the yellow sun-flower by the brook

In autumn beauty stood,

Till fell the frost from the clear, cold heaven,
As falls the plague on men,

And the brightness of their smile was gone
From upland, glade, and glen.

4. And now, when comes the calm, mild day,
As still such days will come,

To call the squirrel and the bee
From out their winter home;

When the sound of dropping nuts is heard,

Though all the trees are still,

And twinkle in the smoky light

The waters of the rill,

The south wind searches for the flowers

Whose fragrance late he bore,

And sighs to find them in the wood

And by the stream no more.

5. And then I think of one, who in

Her youthful beauty died,
The fair, meek blossom that grew up
And faded by my side;

In the cold, moist earth we laid her,
When the forest cast the leaf,
And we wept that one so lovely
Should have a life so brief:
Yet not unmeet it was that one,
Like that young friend of ours,
So gentle and so beautiful,
Should perish with the flowers.

W. C. BRYANT.

QUESTIONS.- To what season of the year do these lines refer? Why are they called melancholy days? How are the woods and leaves described? What birds are common at this

What is meant by the "eddying gust?"

after the other?

What is said of

season? What flowers are mentioned as having died one What is said about the squirrel, and the bee, and the nuts? the south wind? Describe, in your own language, the event referred to, in the last stanza.

Explain the inflections, and point out the emphatic words in this lesson. Parse "To call," in the 4th stanza. Parse "twinkle," in the same. (It has "waters" for its nominative.) Name all the adjectives in the 1st stanza, and compare each. Which verbs in the last stanza are in the potential mood? Which are the adjectives in the same stanza, and what does each one qualify? What does the word adjective mean?

PRONUNCIATION.-Mel-an-chol-y, not mel-un-chul-y: meadows, not mead-ers: hol-lows, not hol-luz: rust-le, pro. rus'l: beau-te-ous, not beau-che-ous: up-land, not up-lund: youth-ful, not youth-f'l: cold, not cole : moist, not mois: friend, not fren: flowers, not flow-uz.

SPELL AND DEFINE.- 1. Melancholy, meadows, eddying: 2. beauteous, sisterhood: 3. orchis, upland: 4. twinkle, smoky, rill, searches, fragrance: 5. blossom, faded, brief, unmeet, beautiful, perish.

LESSON XLIX.

RULE.- Avoid reading in a faint and low tone. fault, and should be carefully guarded against.

This is a very common

Words to be Spelled and Defined.

1. Trow, v. suppose, think.

Trap'-pings, n. ornaments.

[person.

2 Im'-be-cile, n. (pro. im'-be-sil) a sick

3. In-ter-ve'-ned, p. situated between. 4. Tint'-ings, n. colorings.

5. Sti'-fled, v. suppressed, checked.

1.

IT SNOWS.

Ir snows!" cries the School-boy, “Hurrah!” and his shout
Is ringing through parlor and hall,

While swift as the wing of a swallow, he's out,
And his playmates have answered his call;
It makes the heart leap but to witness their joy,
Proud wealth has no pleasures, I trow,

Like the rapture that throbs in the pulse of the boy,
As he gathers his treasures of snow;

Then lay not the trappings of gold on thine heirs,
While health, and the riches of nature, are theirs.

2. "It snows!" sighs the Imbecile, "Ah!" and his breath
Comes heavy, as clogged with a weight;
While, from the pale aspect of nature in death,
He turns to the blaze of his grate;

And nearer and nearer, his soft-cushioned chair
Is wheeled toward the life-giving flame;

He dreads a chill puff of the snow-burdened air,
Lest it wither his delicate frame;

Oh! small is the pleasure existence can give,
When the fear we shall die only proves that we live!

3. " It snows!" cries the Traveler,

Ho!" and the word

Has quickened his steed's lagging pace;

The wind rushes by, but its howl is unheard;
Unfelt the sharp drift in his face;

For bright through the tempest his own home appeared,
Ay, though leagues intervened, he can see:

There's the clear, glowing hearth, and the table prepared,
And his wife with her babes at her knee;

Blest thought! how it lightens the grief-laden hour,
That those we love dearest are safe from its power!