4. What cause withholds you then to mourn for him? -- My heart is in the coffin there with Cæsar; And I must pause till it come back to me. But yesterday the word of Cæsar might Have stood against the world: now lies he there, O masters! if I were disposed to stir I will not do them wrong; I rather choose 5. But here's a parchment, with the seal of Cæsar; And, dying, mention it in their wills, 6 If you have tears, prepare to shed them now. Look, in this place ran Cassius' dagger through- And as he plucked his cursed steel away, 7. This, this was the unkindest cut of all. 8. O, what a fall was there, my countrymen! 9. Good friends, sweet friends, let me not stir you up They that have done this deed are honorable: But, as you know me all, a plain, blunt man, 10. For I have neither wit, nor words, nor worth, Action, nor utterance, nor power of speech, Show you sweet Cæsar's wounds, poor, poor, dumb mouths, And bid them speak for me. But, were I Brutus XCV.-SELLING OLD THINGS. 1. Sell that old table? No; I will not sell it! It is only a pine table, it is true; and it costs but eighteen shillings twenty-five years ago, but your ten-dollar bill is no temptation; and I would not swap it either, for the prettiest mahogany or cherry table that you could bring me. If it has plain turned legs, instead of a pillar in the middle, with lion's claws, and if the marble top is only varnished paper, still, I will not sell or swap it. 2. It has been to me a very profitable investment. From the day it came home it has been earning dividends and increasing its own capital. My children made a playhouse and drank tea in their toy cups under it, for which I thank the four legs; and when they were tired of it for that purpose, they turned it upside down and made a four-post bedstead with curtains, or pulled it round the carpet for a sleigh. 3. Then they climbed on it for an observatory; and I never counted the glorious romps they had round it. And also all along for twenty-five years it has paid its dividends of happiness to my family circle. These dividends could never be separated from it until its value is not told in money. It has had its quiet use, also; for nobody could tell it from a round table of agate and cornelian, with its salmon bordered green cover. 4. Nothing lasts forever. The top of the table was loosened by the hard use it got, so I took a punch, drove in the eightpenny nails below the surface, added a few screws, puttied them over, and pasted marble-paper checkers over the top. Then it was a really handsome table. It has had hard usage since, but bears it all; and the checkers want renewing, which will make it worth more yet. 5. My watch is thirty years old. It is one of those thick silver levers which some poor wits call "turnips." It has been several times suggested to me that I might exchange it for a thin modern gold watch, which wears easier in the pocket. When I do, you may set me down for a barbarian! No, the best gold and jeweled "hunter" in existence would not tempt me to swap. 6. The watch marked the time when my children were born, and the record is set down in the family bible; it has ticked on their ears when they could only speak by laughing at it and kicking up their heels. It has marked the hours when the doctor's medicines were to be given, and counted their pulses when they beat low at midnight, and when the heart ached. It has made many records that are fast sealed up, to be opened only when another time comes. 7. Twenty-seven years have passed since my wife and I went out one evening and bought a tea-kettle. The fitting of the lid was a little imperfect, so that the escape of steam shook it and caused a peculiar noise, nearly enough resembling the chirping of some insect, to suggest the name by which it has now been known in the family for a long time-our "cricket on the hearth." 8. Like the table and the watch, the kettle has been adding dividends to its capital every day since its first purchase; and, though nothing but iron, it could not be bought for its weight in silver. It has sung so long and regularly and cheerfully, that not only the kitchen, but the whole house would be lonely without it. It has given us its fragrant blessing morning and evening, and come to be regarded as almost a living and talking creature. 9. It is never a good fortune that sells such old friends out of the family, and takes in new ones that have no history and no tongue. In all changes that have so far taken place, I have kept these silver bowls unbroken, and surely no change in the future shall break them. Century. XCVI. TELL'S ADDRESS TO THE MOUNT AINS. 1. Ye crags and peaks; I'm with you once again! 2. Ye are the things that tower, that shine; whose smile With all my voice! I hold my hands to you, |