McGuffey's Fourth Eclectic Reader Part 24

10. It was not needed: two other boys besides Arthur had already followed his example, and he went down to the great school with a glimmering of another lesson in his heart,--the lesson that he who has conquered his own coward spirit has conquered the whole outward world; and that other one which the old prophet learned in the cave at Mount h.o.r.eb, when he hid his face, and the still, small voice asked, "What doest thou here, Elijah?"--that however we may fancy ourselves alone on the side of good, the King and Lord of men is nowhere without his witnesses; for in every society, however seemingly corrupt and G.o.dless, there are those who have not bowed the knee to Baal.

[Transcriber's Footnote: Baal--Various fertility and nature G.o.ds of the ancient Semitic peoples considered to be false G.o.ds by the Hebrews.]

11. He found, too, how greatly he had exaggerated the effect to be produced by his act. For a few nights there was a sneer or a laugh when he knelt down, but this pa.s.sed off soon, and one by one all the other boys but three or four followed the lead.

DEFINITIONS.--l. Leav'en, to make a general change, to imbue. 4. Loathed, hated, detested. Brag'gart, a boaster. 5. Vow'ing, making a solemn promise to G.o.d. Tes'ti-mo-ny, open declaration. 6. Fal'tered, hesitated. Mo'tive, that which causes action, cause, reason. 7. Sub'tle (pro. sut'l), artful, cunning. Stud'y, a private room devoted to study. 10. Glim'mer-ing, a faint view.

NOTES.--1. Arnold's. Dr. Thomas Arnold was head master at Rugby nearly fifteen years. His influence on the character of the boys was very marked, and soon made the school celebrated throughout England. The Schoolhouse was the name of one of the numerous buildings belonging to Rugby.

EXERCISES.--Relate Tom's early experience at Rugby. Was it courageous in him to stop saying his prayers? How did he feel over it? What did he resolve to do? Did he carry out his resolve? What two lessons was he taught?

LXIX. THE WRECK OF THE HESPERUS. (190)

By Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, one of the greatest of American poets. He was born in Portland, Me., in 1807. For some years he held the professorship of Modern Languages in Bowdoin College, and later a similar professorship in Harvard College. He died March 21th, 1882.

1. It was the schooner Hesperus, That sailed the wintry sea; And the skipper had taken his little daughter, To bear him company.

2. Blue were her eyes as the fairy flax, Her checks like the dawn of day, And her bosom white as the hawthorn buds, That ope in the month of May.

3. The skipper, he stood beside the helm, His pipe was in his mouth, And he watched how the veering flaw did blow The smoke now west, now south.

4. Then up and spake an old sailor, Had sailed to the Spanish Main, "I pray thee, put into yonder port, For I fear the hurricane.

5. "Last night, the moon had a golden ring, And to-night no moon we see!"

The skipper, he blew a whiff from his pipe, And a scornful laugh laughed he.

6. Colder and louder blew the wind, A gale from the northeast; The snow fell hissing in the brine, And the billows frothed like yeast.

7. Down came the storm, and smote amain The vessel in its strength; She shuddered and paused, like a frighted steed, Then leaped her cable's length.

8. "Come hither! come hither! my little daughter, And do not tremble so; For I can weather the roughest gale That ever wind did blow."

9. He wrapped her warm in his seaman's coat, Against the stinging blast: He cut a rope from a broken spar, And bound her to the mast.

10. "O father! I hear the church bells ring, Oh say, what may it be?"

"'Tis a fog bell on a rock-bound coast!"

And he steered for the open sea.

11. "O father! I hear the sound of guns, Oh say, what may it be?"

"Some ship in distress, that can not live In such an angry sea!"

12. "O father! I see a gleaming light, Oh say, what may it be?"

But the father answered never a word, A frozen corpse was he.

13. Lashed to the helm, all stiff and stark, With his face turned to the skies, The lantern gleamed through the gleaming snow On his fixed and gla.s.sy eyes.

14. Then the maiden clasped her hands, and prayed That saved she might be; And she thought of Christ, who stilled the wave On the lake of Galilee.

15. And fast through the midnight dark and drear, Through the whistling sleet and snow, Like a sheeted ghost, the vessel swept Tow'rds the reef of Norman's Woe.

16. And ever the fitful gusts between A sound came from the land: It was the sound of the trampling surf On the rocks and the hard sea sand.

17. The breakers were right beneath her bows, She drifted a dreary wreck, And a whooping billow swept the crew Like icicles from her deck.

18. She struck where the white and fleecy waves Looked soft as carded wool, But the cruel rocks, they gored her side Like the horns of an angry bull.

19. Her rattling shrouds, all sheathed in ice, With the masts, went by the board; Like a vessel of gla.s.s, she stove and sank, Ho! ho! the breakers roared!

20. At day break, on the bleak seabeach, A fisherman stood aghast, To see the form of a maiden fair Lashed close to a drifting mast.

21. The salt sea was frozen on her breast, The salt tears in her eyes; And he saw her hair, like the brown seaweed, On the billows fall and rise.

22. Such was the wreck of the Hesperus In the midnight and the snow: Heav'n save us all from a death like this On the reef of Norman's Woe!

DEFINITIONS.--l. Skip'per, the master of a small merchant ves-sel. 3.

Veer'ing, changing. Flaw, a sudden gust of wind. 4. Port, harbor. 6.

Brine, the sea. 7. A-main', with sudden force. 8. Weath'er, to endure, to resist. 9. Spar, a long beam. 13. Helm, the instrument by which a ship is steered. 18. Card'ed, cleaned by combing. 19. Shrouds, sets of ropes reaching from the mastheads to the sides of a vessel to support the masts.

Stove, broke in.

NOTES.--This piece is written in the style of the old English ballads. The syllables marked (') have a peculiar accent not usually allowed.

4. The Spanish Main was the name formerly applied to the northern coast of South America from the Mosquito Territory to the Leeward Islands.

15. The reef of Norman's Woe. A dangerous ledge of rocks on the Ma.s.sachusetts coast, near Gloucester harbor.

19. Went by the board. A sailor's expression, meaning "fell over the side of the vessel."

LXX. ANECDOTES OF BIRDS. (193)

1. I had once a favorite black hen, "a great beauty," as she was called by everyone, and so I thought her; her feathers were so jetty, and her topping so white and full! She knew my voice as well as any dog, and used to run cackling and bustling to my hand to receive the fragments that I never failed to collect from the breakfast table for "Yarico," as she was called.

2. Yarico, by the time she was a year old, hatched a respectable family of chickens; little, cowering, timid things at first, but, in due time, they became fine chubby ones; and old Norah said, "If I could only keep Yarico out of the copse, it would do; but the copse is full of weasels and of foxes.

3. "I have driven her back twenty times; but she watches till some one goes out of the gate, and then she's off again. It is always the case with young hens, Miss; they think they know better than their keepers; and nothing cures them but losing a brood or two of chickens." I have often thought since that young people, as well as young hens, buy their experience equally dear.

4. One morning; after breakfast, I went to seek my favorite in the poultry yard; plenty of hens were there, but no Yarico. The gate was open, and, as I concluded she had sought the forbidden copse, I proceeded there, accompanied by the yard mastiff; a n.o.ble fellow, steady and sagacious as a judge.

5. At the end of a lane, flanked on one side by a quickset hedge, on the other by a wild common, what was called the copse commenced; but before I arrived near the spot I heard a loud and tremendous cackling, and met two young, long-legged pullets, running with both wings and feet toward home.

Jock p.r.i.c.ked up his sharp ears, and would have set off at full gallop to the copse; but I restrained him, hastening onward, however, at the top of my speed, thinking I had as good a right to see what was the matter as Jock.