8. There stands the old school-house, hard by the old

church;

That tree by its side had the flavor of birch;

O, sweet were the days of his juvenile tricks,
Though the prairie of youth had so many

licks"!

"big

9. By the side of yon river he weeps and he slumps;

The boots fill with water, as if they were

pumps;

Till, sated with rapture, he steals to his bed, With a glow in his heart, and a cold in his head.

10. Tis past, he is dreaming, I see him again;

The ledger returns as by legerdemain; 5

His mustache is damp with an easterly flaw,
And he holds in his fingers an omnibus straw.

6

11. He dreams the chill gust is a blossoming gale, That the straw is a rose from his dear native

vale;

And murmurs, unconscious of space and of

time,

"A 1.7-Extra super. Ah! isn't it prime!"

12. O, what are the prizes we perish to win,

To the first little "shiner " we caught with a pin!

No soil upon earth is so dear to our eyes

As the soil we first stirred in terrestrial pies!

13. Then come from all parties, and parts, to our

feast;

Though not at the "Astor," we'll give you

at least

A bite at an apple, a seat on the grass,

And the best of old

water

IP'E CAC. A contraction of ipecacuanha, a South American plant used as an emetic.

2 DŎDG'ER. One guilty of sly, mean tricks; here, a sly thief.

at nothing a glass!

the art of performing tricks which depend chiefly on nimbleness of hand, a juggle.

6 ŎM'NI-BŪS. A large public carriage used in cities.

3 BĂN-DĂN'NẠ. A kind of pocket hand- A 1. Signs used in insuring a vessel to kerchief.

4 SAT'ED. Filled or gratified to the ex

tent of desire: glutted.

denote that it is of the first class;

hence, colloquially applied to anything of the best quality.

LEG-ER-DE-MAIN'. Sleight of hand; 8 TER-RES TRI-AL. Earthy, or earthly.

XLVII. TWILIGHT.

LONGFELLOW.

1. THE twilight is sad and cloudy,
The wind blows wild and free,
And like the wings of sea-birds
Flash the white caps of the sea.

2. But in the fisherman's cottage
There shines a sudden light,
And a little face at the window
Peers1 out into the night.

3. Close, close it is pressed to the window,
As if those childish eyes
Were looking into the darkness,
To see some form arise.

* A large hotel in New York city.

4. And a woman's waving shadow
Is passing to and fro,
Now rising to the ceiling,

Now bowing and bending low.

5. What tale do the roaring ocean,

And the night-wind, bleak and wild,
As they beat at the crazy 2 casement,
Tell to that little child?

6. And why do the roaring ocean,

And the night-wind, wild and bleak, As they beat at the heart of the mother, Drive the color from her cheek?

1. LET sailors sing the windy deep,

Let soldiers praise their armor;
But in my heart this toast I'll keep,
The Independent Farmer.

When first the rose, in robe of green,
Unfolds its crimson lining,

And round his cottage porch is seen

The honeysuckle twining,

When banks of bloom their sweetness yield
To bees that gather honey,-

He drives his team across the field,

Where skies are soft and sunny.

2. The blackbird clucks behind his plough,
The quail pipes loud and clearly;
Yon orchard hides behind its bough
The home he loves so dearly;
The gray old barn, whose doors infold
His ample store in measure,

More rich than heaps of hoarded gold,
A precious, blessed treasure;
But yonder in the porch there stands
His wife, the lovely charmer,

The sweetest rose on all his lands

The Independent Farmer.

3. To him the Spring comes dancing gay, To him the Summer blushes,

The Autumn smiles with mellow ray,
His sleep old Winter hushes.
He cares not how the world may move;
No doubts or fears confound him;
His little flock are linked in love,

And household angels round him.
He trusts in God and loves his wife;
Nor grief nor ill may harm her;
He's nature's nobleman in life—

The Independent Farmer.

XLIX. THE STAGE-COACH.

IRVING.

[Washington Irving, author of "The Sketch Book,"

Bracebridge Hall," * Astoria," "Life of Columbus," "Life of Washington," and various other wellknown works, was born in the city of New York, April 8, 1783, and died November 28, 1859. Of all our writers, no one is so generally popular; and the universal favor with which his works are received is due, not merely to their great literary merits, their graceful style, rich humor, and unaffected pathos, but also to the fact that they are so strongly marked by the genial and amiable traits of the writer, which were conspicuous in his life, and made him beloved by all who knew him. The following extract is a portion of a paper in the Sketch Book.]

1. IN the course of a December tour in Yorkshire, I rode for a long distance in one of the public coaches, on the day preceding Christmas. I had three fine rosy-cheeked boys for my fellow-passengers, full of the buxom health and manly spirit which I have observed in the children of this country. They were returning home for the holidays in high glee, and promising themselves a world of enjoyment. It was delightful to hear the gigantic plans of the little rogues, and the impracticable feats they were to perform during their weeks' emancipation from the abhorred thraldom 1 of book, birch, and pedagogue.

2. They were full of anticipations of the meeting with the family and household, down to the very cat and dog, and of the joy they were to give their little sisters by the presents with which their pockets were crammed; but the meeting to which they seemed to look forward with the greatest impatience was with Bantam, which I found to be a pony, and, according to their talk, possessed of more virtues than any steed since the days of Bucephalus. How he could trot! How he could run! And then such