3. As the mild air stirs and sways The tree-swung cradle of a child, Rocks the Year. Be calm and mild, 4. January gray is here, Like a sexton by her grave; February bears the bier; March with grief doth howl and rave; And April weeps; but, O ye Hours! Percy Bysshe Shelley. FOR PREPARATION.-I. Separate the above piece into antiphonic portions representing two voices alternating: the one mourning, the other rejoicing. Meaning of antiphonic? (Voices responding to each other.) II. Or'-phan, sigh (si), sŏl'-emn (-em), rough (răf), a-loud. III. Separate the lines of the first stanza into feet, marking the accent. Explain 's, est, and s, in "May's fairest flowers." IV. Untimely, mocking, wail, shroud, corse, sexton, bier. V. “Hours” (personified. The Greeks and Romans represented the Horæ as goddesses of the seasons). In what sense can March be said to "howl and rave," and April to weep"? (March with winds, April with showers.) Point out the other personifications. 66 LXVIII THE MOUND BUILDERS. 1. It is probable that the Mound Builders did not occupy this country till long after the last mammoth was slain. They never saw the mammoth, we may be sure, or else they would have carved or painted its likeness, as they did those of the birds and beasts they knew. 2. They did not make, unfortunately, distinct pictures of themselves, so that we do not know what they looked like. And as they wrote no books, we do not know what language they spoke. The most we know of them is what we learn from certain great mounds of earth they built. From these great works they derive their name. 3. One of the most remarkable of these mounds is to be seen in Adams County, Ohio. It represents a snake a thousand feet long and five feet thick, lying along a bluff that rises above a stream. You can trace all the curves and outlines of the snake, ending in a tail with a triple coil. In the open mouth something in the shape of an egg seems to be held; and this egg-shaped mound is one hundred and sixty feet long. 4. Other mounds have other shapes. Some are like animals, and some like men. Some are earthworks, or fortifications, inclosing in some cases one or two acres, and in others four hundred acres. In some places there are many small mounds, arranged in a straight line, at distances nearly equal, and extending many miles. In others there are single mounds sixty or ninety feet high, with steps cut in the earth upon one side, leading to the top, which is flat, and including from one to five acres of ground. 5. These mounds are scattered all down the valley of the Mississippi and along many of its tributary streams. There are thousands of them in the single State of Ohio. They are not built of earth alone, for some show brickwork and stonework here and there; yet earth is always the chief material. Some have chambers within, and the remains of wooden walls. Sometimes charred wood is found on top, as if fires had been kindled there. This is an important fact, since it seems to show that the higher mounds were built for purposes of worship. 6. These Mound Builders must have been in some ways well advanced in civilization. Their earthworks show more or less of engineering skill. In figure they show the square, the circle, the octagon, the ellipse; and sometimes all these are combined in one series of works. The circle is always a true circle, the square a true square; and there are many squares that measure exactly one thousand and eighty feet on a side; and this shows that the builders had some definite standard of measurement. 7. Besides, there have been found in these mounds many tools and ornaments, made of copper, silver, and valuable stones. There are axes, chisels, knives, bracelets, and beads; there are pieces of thread and of cloth, and gracefully ornamented vases of pottery. The Mound Builders also knew how to model in clay a variety of objects, such as birds, quadrupeds, and human faces. They practiced farming, though they had no domestic animals to help them. 8. As they had no horses, nor oxen, nor carts, all the vast amount of earth required for the mounds must have been carried in baskets or skins. This shows that they must have been very numerous, or they never could have attempted so much. 9. They mined for copper near Lake Superior. In one of their mines, long since deserted, there was found, a few years ago, a mass of copper weighing nearly six tons, partly raised from the bottom, and supported on wooden logs, now nearly decayed. It was evidently to be raised to the surface, nearly thirty feet above. The stone and copper tools of the miners were found lying about, as if the men had just gone away. There is At the 10. When did these Mound Builders live? one sure proof that they lived very long ago. mouth of the mine mentioned above, there are trees about four hundred years old growing on earth that was thrown out in digging the mine. Of course, the mine is older than the trees. On a mound in Ohio there are trees eight hundred years old. Nobody knows how much older the mounds are. This mysterious race may therefore have built these great works more than a thousand years ago. 11. Who were the Mound Builders? It does not seem at all likely that they were the ancestors of our present American Indians. They differed greatly in habits, and most of our Indian tribes show nothing of the skill and industry required for constructing great works. Perhaps they came from Asia, or were descendants of Asiatics accidentally cast on the American shore. Japanese vessels are sometimes driven across the Pacific and wrecked upon our western coast. This might have happened a thousand years ago. But we know neither whence the Mound Builders came nor whither they went. We only know that they came, and built wonderful works, and made way for another race, of whose origin we know almost as little. T. W. Higginson (adapted). FOR PREPARATION.-I. In what part of Ohio is Adams County? Have you read Higginson's "Young Folks' History of the United States "? II. Lăn'-guage, tri'-ple (trip'l), mòd'-el, ĕn-ġi-neer'-ing, vās'-eş. IIL “Brickwork." Correct "painted it's likeness." Wrote, write, written-explain these forms;-en in oxen. IV. Mammoth, bluff, coil, fortifications, tributary, octagon, ellipse. standard, ornaments, quadrupeds, ruined, ancestors, origin. V. Serpent worship existed once throughout a large part of the Eastern Continent; it is therefore not strange to find it in America. (3) How do you think they know that the Mound Builders had no horses or carts? (By the absence of the bones of the horse, as well as of traces of wheels preserved in the mounds. Even so fragile a thing as a basket or a piece of cl th may be preserved for ages under a pile of rubbish, especially where there has been a fire. In Europe such things have been found; also fragm mts of horn with rude pictures carved on them by the "prehistoric” inhy bitants, and indicating the appearance of their wild animals-the mammth, for instance.) (9) Would copper be esteemed a good material in r time for axes, chisels, and other sharp instruments? (The Mound ilders possessed the secret of hardening copper, not now known.) LXIX. THE DESERTED VILLAGE. 1. Sweet Auburn! loveliest village of the plain, 2. How often have I paused on every charm- The never-failing brook, the busy mill, The decent church that topped the neighboring The hawthorn bush, with seats beneath the shade, 3. How often have I blest the coming day, |