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places for climbing. And the children were happy for a little while, but presently they separated themselves into parties; and then each party declared it would have a piece of the garden for its own, and that none of the 5 others should have anything to do with that piece. Next they quarreled violently as to which pieces they would have; and at last the boys took up the thing and fought in the flower beds till there was hardly a flower left standing; then they trampled down each other's bits of 10 the garden out of spite; and the girls cried till they could

cry no more; and so they all lay down at last breathless in the ruin, and waited for the time when they were to be taken home in the evening.

Meanwhile the children in the house had been making 15 themselves happy also in their manner. For them there had been provided every kind of indoor pleasure: there was music for them to dance to; and the library was open, with all manner of amusing books; and there was a museum full of the most curious shells, and animals, 20 and birds; and there was a workshop, with lathes and carpenter's tools, for the ingenious boys; and there were pretty fantastic dresses for the girls to dress in; and there were microscopes and kaleidoscopes; and whatever toys a child could fancy; and a table, in the dining room, 25 loaded with everything nice to eat.

But, in the midst of all this, it struck two or three of the children that they would like some of the brass-headed

nails that studded the chairs; and so they set to work to pull them out. Presently the others, who were reading or looking at shells, took a fancy to do the like; and in a little while all the children, nearly, were spraining their fingers in pulling out brass-headed nails. With all that 5 they could pull out they were not satisfied; and then everybody wanted some of somebody else's. And at last they declared that nothing was of any real consequence, that afternoon, except to get plenty of brassheaded nails; and that the books, and the cakes, and the 10 microscopes were of no use at all in themselves, but only if they could be exchanged for nail heads. Here and there a despised one shrank away into a corner and tried to get a little quiet with a book in the midst of the noise; but all the practical ones thought of nothing else but counting 15 nail heads all the afternoon,-even though they knew that they would not be allowed to carry so much as one brass knob away with them. But no-it was "Who has most nails? I have a hundred, and you have fifty"; or, "I have a thousand and you have two. I must have as many as you 20 before I leave the house, or I cannot possibly go home in peace." At last they made so much noise that I awoke, and thought to myself, "What a false dream that is of children. The child is the father of the man; and wiser. Children never do such foolish things.'

Abridged.

The child is the father of the man: see Wordsworth's poem "My heart leaps up when I behold.”

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THE PRISONER OF CHILLON

LORD BYRON

George Gordon, Lord Byron (1788-1824) was one of the great English poets. His best work may be ranked with what is most worthy of admiration in English literature, though many of his poems lack moral quality.

NOTE. François de Bonnivard (från-swä deh bo-né-vär'), the "prisoner of Chillon" (shil-lõn'), was born in 1496. He took up the cause of the 5 people of Geneva, in Switzerland, against the duke of Savoy, and was in consequence arrested. For six years he was confined in the castle of Chillon on the bank of Lake Geneva. In 1536 he was set free and received honors and rewards for his patriotism. Byron founded his poem on this incident, but the two brothers in the story are an invention of his own.

A light broke in upon my brain,
It was the carol of a bird;
It ceased, and then it came again,—

The sweetest song ear ever heard;
And mine was thankful till my eyes
Ran over with the glad surprise,

And they that moment could not see
I was the mate of misery.

But then by dull degrees came back
My senses to their wonted track:
I saw the dungeon walls and floor
Close slowly round me as before;
I saw the glimmer of the sun
Creeping as it before had done,—

But through the crevice where it came

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That bird was perched, as fond and tame,
And tamer than upon the tree;
A lovely bird, with azure wings,
And song that said a thousand things,
And seemed to say them all for me!
I never saw its like before,

I ne'er shall see its likeness more:

It seemed like me to want a mate,
But was not half so desolate,
And it was come to love me when
None lived to love me so again,
And cheering from my dungeon's brink
Had brought me back to feel and think.
I know not if it late were free,

Or broke its cage to perch on mine,

But knowing well captivity,

Sweet bird! I could not wish for thine;

Or if it were, in wingèd guise,

A visitant from paradise;

For-Heaven forgive that thought! the while

Which made me both to weep and smile

I sometimes deemed that it might be
My brother's soul come down to me.
But then at last away it flew,

And then 't was mortal well I knew;
For he would never thus have flown,
And left me twice so doubly lone.

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