When, lo, as they reached the mountain side,

A wondrous portal opened wide,

As if a cavern was suddenly hollowed;

And the Piper advanced and the children followed And when all were in, to the very last,

The door in the mountain-side shut fast.

VI.

Did I say all? No! one was lame,

And could not dance the whole of the way;
And in after years he was used to say,

"It's dull in our town since my playmates left.
I can't forget that I'm bereft

Of all the pleasant sights they see,

Which the Piper also promised me,

For he led us, he said, to a joyous land,

Joining the town, and just at hand,

Where waters gushed and fruit-trees grew,
And flowers put forth a fairer hue,

And everything was strange and new:

The sparrows were brighter than peacocks here,
And their dogs outran our fallow deer,

And honey-bees had lost their stings,
And horses were born with eagles' wings;

And just as I became assured

My lame foot would be speedily cured,
The music stopped, and I stood still,

And found myself outside the hill,
Left alone against my will,

To go, now limping as before,

And never hear of that country more!

VII.

Alas! alas! for Hamelin!

There came into many a burgher's pate
A text which says, that Heaven's gate
Opes to the rich at as easy rate

As the needle's eye takes the camel in.
The Mayor sent east, west, north and south,

To offer the Piper by word of mouth,

Wherever it was men's lot to find him,
Silver and gold to his heart's content
If he'd only return the way he went,

And bring the children behind him.
But when they saw 'twas a lost endeavor,
And Piper and dancers were gone forever,
They made a decree, that lawyers never

Should think their records dated duly,
If, after the day of the month and year,
These words did not as well appear,
"And so long after what happened here
On the twenty-second of July,
Thirteen hundred and seventy-six;"
And the better in memory to fix
The place of the children's last retreat
They called it the Pied Piper's Street.

Spell and use in sentences:

What is meant by sharps and flats? Describe the looks of the piper. How did the rats follow him? How did the Mayor treat the Piper? What happened to the What is meant by a

children?

opening?

cavern in the mountain

Dictation.

Lately on yon swelling bush,
Big with many a coming rose,
This early bud began to blush,

And did but half itself disclose;
I plucked it, though no better grown,
And now you see how full 'tis blown.

EDMUND WALLER (1605-1687).

XL. LITTLE CHARLEY.

1. It is hard to lie upon a bed of sickness, even though that bed be of down. Nauseous, too, is the healing draught, though sipped from a silver cup held by a loving hand. Wearisome are the days and nights, even with the speaking eye of love over your pillow.

2. But what if the hand of disease lie heavily on the poor? What if the "barrel of meal and cruse of oil" fail? What if emaciated limbs shiver under a tattered blanket? What if lips parched with fever mutely beg for a permitted but unattainable luxury? What if the tones of the voice be never modulated to the delicately sensitive ear? What, if at every inlet of the soul, come sighs and sounds, harsh and dissonant? Ah! who shall measure the sufferings of the sick poor?

3. Dear little Charley, you were as much out of place in that low, dark, wretched room, as an angel could well be on earth. Meekly, in the footsteps of Him who loveth little children, were those tiny feet treading. Patiently, unmurmuringly, uncomplainingly, were those racking pains endured. A tear, a contraction of the brow, a slight, involuntary clasping of the

attenuated fingers, were the only visible signs of agony.

4. What a joy to sit beside him; to take that little feverish hand in mine, to smooth that rumpled pillow, to part the tangled locks on that transparent forehead, to learn of one of whom the Savior says, "Of such is the Kingdom of Heaven." But never did I bless God so fully, so gratefully for the gift of song as when-with that little sensitive heart held close to mine-I made him forget his pain by some simple strain.

5. I had sung for my own amusement. I had sung when dazzling lights, and fairy forms, and festal hours were inspiration; but never with such a zest, and with such a thrill of happiness, as when, in that wretched room, I soothed the sufferings of "Little Charley." The garland-crowned prima donna, with half the world at her feet, might have envied me the tightened clasp of that little hand, the suffused, earnest gaze of that sparkling eye, and that half-whispered, plaintive, "Once more, Charley is so happy now."

6. Aye! Charley is happy now! Music, such as only the blessed hear, fills his soul with

rapture. Never a discordant note comes from the harp swept by that cherub hand, while forever that majestic anthem rolls on, in which his infant voice is joining, "Worthy the Lamb."

FANNY FERN (Mrs. Sara Payson Parton, nee Willis). (1811-1872).

What is the difference between riches and poverty?

Describe the sufferings of the sick poor.

How did Miss

Willis minister to the wants of Little Charley?

XLI. THE SKY-LARK.

I.

Bird of the wilderness,

Blithesome and cumberless,

Sweet be thy matins o'er moorland and lea!
Emblem of happiness,

Blest is thy dwelling place—

O, to abide in the desert with thee!

II.

Wild is thy lay and loud,
Far in the dawny cloud,

Love gives it energy, love gave it birth!
Where, on thy dewy wing,

Where art thou journeying?

Thy lay is in heaven, thy love is on earth!