could be more touching than this struggle between pious affection and utter poverty; a black ribbon or so a faded black handkerchief, and one or two more such humble attempts to express by outward signs that grief which passes show.

12. When I looked round upon the storied monuments, the stately hatchments, the cold marble pomp, with which grandeur mourned magnificently over departed pride, and turned to this poor widow, bowed down by age and sorrow, offering up the prayers and praises of a pious though a broken heart, I felt that this living monument of real grief was worth them all.

13. I related her story to some of the wealthy members of the congregation, and they were moved by it. They exerted themselves to render her situation more comfortable, and to lighten her afflictions. It was, however, but smoothing a few steps to the grave. In the course of a Sunday or two after, she was missed from her usual seat at church, and before I left the neighbourhood, I heard, with a feeling of satisfaction, that she had quietly breathed her last, and had gone to rejoin those she loved, in that world where sorrow is never known, and friends are never parted.

Washington Irving.

de-ceased', the person dead.

des-o-la'-tion, loneliness.

rur'-al oc-cu-pa'-tions, country work. pal'-let, bed; mattress.

lan'-guished, suffered wearily.

come'-ly, good-looking.
ag-ri-cul'-tur-al, belonging to field de-spond'-en-cy, hopelessness.

labour.

press'-gang, a body of sailors that
used to carry men off by force
for service in the navy.
mel'-an-chol-y, sad; low-spirited.
sol'-i-tar-y, alone.

re-past', meal.

e-ma'-ci-at-ed, very thin.

ex-haust'-ed, worn out.

ad-min'-is-tered, attended to.
tran-scends', goes beyond; exceeds.
in-grat'-i-tude, unthankfulness.
tran-quil'-li-ty, calmness.
pe-cun'-i-ar-y as-sist'-ance, money
given to help any one.

hatch'-ment, the coat of arms of a
dead person, placed in front of
the house.

EXERCISES.-1. Make adjectives from the following adjectives: Comfortable, happy, fortunate, firm, certain, sufficient, convenient, black (blackish), white, probable.

2. Make nouns from the following nouns: Widow, woman, neighbour, sea, cot, garden, cottage, village.

3. Name the verbs from which these nouns are formed: Occupation, assistance, service, permission, despondency, administration, visitor, impulse, inquiry, departure, satisfaction, exertion.

4. Make sentences of your own, and use in each sentence one or more of the following words: Agricultural, ingratitude, deceased, administer.

THE SOLDIER'S DREAM.

[This is one of the short and well-known poems by Thomas Campbell, author of The Pleasures of Hope, and the splendid naval odes, Ye Mariners of England, and the Battle of the Baltic.]

1. Our bugles sang truce-for the night-cloud had lowered,
And the sentinel stars set their watch in the sky;
And thousands had sunk on the ground overpowered-
The weary to sleep, and the wounded to die.

2. When reposing that night on my pallet of straw,
By the wolf-scaring fagot that guarded the slain;
At the dead of the night a sweet vision I saw,
And thrice ere the morning I dreamed it again.

3. Methought, from the battlefield's dreadful array,
Far, far I had roamed on a desolate track;
'Twas autumn-and sunshine arose on the way

To the home of my fathers, that welcomed me back.

4 I flew to the pleasant fields, traversed so oft

In life's morning march, when my bosom was young; I heard my own mountain-goats bleating aloft,

And knew the sweet strain that the corn-reapers sung. 5. Then pledged we the wine-cup, and fondly I swore,

From my home and my weeping friends never to part; My little ones kissed me a thousand times o'er,

And my wife sobbed aloud in her fullness of heart:
6. 'Stay, stay with us-rest, thou art weary and worn ;'
And fain was their war-broken soldier to stay-
But sorrow returned with the dawning of morn,
And the voice in my dreaming ear melted away.

Campbell.

truce, peace for a time between two | wolf-scar'-ing fag'-ot, a fire in the

I

1. About the latter end of December, which was our second harvest of the year, I reaped my corn. was sadly put to it for a scythe or a sickle to cut it down, and all I could do was to make one as well as I could, out of one of the broadswords, or cutlasses, which I saved among the arms out of the ship.

How

ever, as my crop was but small, I had no great difficulty to cut it down. In short, I reaped it my own way, for I cut nothing off but the ears, and carried it away in a great basket which I had made, and so rubbed it out with my hands; and, at the end of all my harvesting, I found that, out of my half-peck of seed I had near two bushels of rice, and above two bushels and a half of barley—that is to say, by my guess, for I had no measure at that time.

2. However, this was a great encouragement to me; and I foresaw that in time it would please God to supply me with bread. And yet here I was perplexed again, for I neither knew how to grind nor make meal of my corn, nor, indeed, how to clean it and part it; nor, if made into meal, how to make bread of it; and if how to make it, yet I knew not how to bake it. These things being added to my desire of having a good quantity for store, and to secure a constant supply, I resolved not to taste any of this crop, but to preserve it all for seed against the next season, and, in the meantime, to employ all my study and hours of working to accomplish this great work of providing myself with corn and bread.

3. It might be truly said, that I now worked for my bread. It is a little wonderful, and what I believe few people have thought much upon, namely, the strange multitude of little things necessary in the providing, producing, curing, dressing, making, and finishing this one article of bread.

4. I, that was reduced to a mere state of nature, found this to be my daily discouragement, and was made more and more sensible of it every hour, even

after I got the first handful of seed corn, which, as I have said, came up unexpectedly, and indeed to a surprise.

5. First, I had no plough to turn the earth, no spade or shovel to dig it. Well, this I conquered by making I observed before; but this did

a wooden spade, as my work but in a wooden manner; and though it cost me a great many days to make it, yet, for want of iron, it not only wore out the sooner, but made my work the harder, and made it be performed much

worse.

6. However, this I bore with too, and was content to work it out with patience, and bear with the badness of the performance. When the corn was

sowed, I had no harrow, but was forced to go over it myself, and drag a great heavy bough of a tree over it, to scratch the earth, as it may be called, rather than rake or harrow it.

7. When it was growing or grown, I have observed already how many things I wanted, to fence it, secure it, mow or reap it, cure or carry it home, thresh, part it from the chaff, and save it. Then I wanted a mill to grind it, sieves to dress it, yeast and salt to make it into bread, and an oven to bake it in; and all these things I did without, as shall be observed; and yet the corn was an inestimable comfort and advantage to me too.

8. But all this, as I said, made everything laborious and tedious to me, but that there was no help for it: neither was my time so much loss to me, because, as I had divided it, a certain part of it was every day appointed to these works. And as I resolved to use