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"Hadn't time," said the Gryphon, in a low, gruff voice. "I went to the classical master, though he was an old crab, he was."

"I never went to him," the Mock-Turtle said, with a sigh; "he taught laughing and grief, they used to say.” "So he did! so he did!" said the Gryphon, sighing in his turn; and both creatures hid their faces in their paws.

7. "And how many hours a day did you do lessons?" said Alice, in a hurry to change the subject.

"Ten hours the first day," said the Mock-Turtle, "nine the next, and so on."

"What a curious plan!" exclaimed Alice.

"That's the reason they're called lessons," the Gryphon remarked-" because they lessen from day to day."

8. This was quite a new idea to Alice, and she thought it over a little before she made her next remark.

"Then the eleventh day must have been a holiday." "Of course it was!" said the Mock-Turtle.

"And how did you manage on the twelfth?" Alice went on, eagerly.

9. "That's enough about lessons," the Gryphon interrupted, in a very decided tone. "Tell her something about the games now."

"Oh! a song, please-if the Mock-Turtle would be so kind," Alice replied, so eagerly that the Gryphon said, in a rather offended tone:

"H'm! no accounting for tastes! Sing her 'TurtleSoup'-will you, old fellow?"

The Mock-Turtle sighed deeply, and began, in a voice sometimes choked with sobs, to sing this:

10. "Beautiful soup, so rich and green,
Waiting in a hot tureen!

Who for such dainties would not stoop?
Soup of the evening, beautiful soup!

Soup of the evening, beautiful soup!
Beau-oo-tiful soo-oop!

Beau-oo-tiful soo-oop!

Soo-oop of the e-e-evening,
Beautiful, beautiful soup!"

Lewis Carroll.

FOR PREPARATION.-I. From "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland," Chapters IX. and X. "Mock-turtle soup" is made from veal, instead of real turtle. The humor of this piece consists partly in introducing an animal shaped like a turtle, but having a calf's head, hind legs, and tail, instead of a turtle's head, flappers, and tail.

II. Tôr'-toise (-tis), be-lieve', re-lief', writh'-ing (rith'-), an'-cient (-shěnt), Gryph'-on.

III. Would you say, Dare to write, or, Dare write ?-Bid him to come, or, Bid him come ?-Let him to go, or, Let him go? Correct the following: "Make him to write;" "I heard him to call;" "See him to write; " "Feel the pulse to beat;" "I wish him go;" "It is best walk;" "We had better to walk."

IV. "Classical master," tureen, dainties.

V. "Tortoise (pronounced tór ́tis) taught us!" (this pun is worthy of a mock-turtle). "Mystery" (for history). "Drawling, stretching, and fainting," etc. (drawing, sketching, and painting in oils). "Laughing and grief” (Latin and Greek). "Beautiful Soup" (sung to the tune of "Star of the Evening, Beautiful Star," gives frequent opportunity for the "voice choked with sobs" to relieve itself).

CXII. EVENING.

1. Day hath put on his jacket, and around
His burning bosom buttoned it with stars.
Here will I lay me on the velvet grass,
That is like padding to earth's meagre ribs,
And hold communion with the things about me.

Ah, me! how lovely is the golden braid
That binds the skirt of Night's descending robe!
The thin leaves, quivering on their silken threads,
Do make a music like to rustling satin,

As the light breezes smooth their downy nap.

2. Ha! what is this that rises to my touch,
So like a cushion? Can it be a cabbage?
It is! it is that deeply-injured flower,

Which boys do flout us with; but yet I love thee,
Thou giant rose, wrapped in a green surtout !
Doubtless in Eden thou didst blush as bright
As these, thy puny brethren; and thy breath
Sweetened the fragrance of her spicy air;
But now thou seemest like a bankrupt beau,
Stripped of his gaudy hues and essences,
And growing portly in his sober garments.

3. Is that a swan, that rides upon the water?
Oh, no! it is that other gentle bird,

Which is the patron of our noble calling.
I well remember, in my early years,

When these young hands first closed upon a goose;
I have a scar upon my thimble-finger,

Which chronicles the hour of young ambition.
My father was a tailor, and his father,

And my sire's grandsire-all of them were tailors.
They had an ancient goose; it was an heirloom
From some remoter tailor of our race.

It happened I did see it on a time

When none was near, and I did deal with it,
And it did burn me, oh, most fearfully!

4. It is a joy to straighten out one's limbs,
And leap elastic from the level counter,

Leaving the petty grievances of earth,

The breaking thread, the din of clashing shears,
And all the needles that do wound the spirit,
For such a pensive hour of soothing silence.
Kind Nature, shuffling in her loose undress,
Lays bare her shady bosom. I can feel
With all around me; I can hail the flowers
That sprig earth's green mantle; and yon quiet bird,
That rides the stream, is to me as a brother.
The vulgar know not all the hidden pockets
Where Nature stows away her loveliness.
But this unnatural posture of the legs
Cramps my extended calves, and I must go
Where I can coil them in their wonted fashion.

Oliver Wendell Holmes.

FOR PREPARATION.-I. What other pieces of this author have you read? (LIV.) Were they humorous, or serious? Note the character of wit that turns on two meanings of the same word (ambiguity), and that which turns on a non-agreement between intention and accomplishment (the antics of a drunkard, or a weak-headed man). This piece represents a tailor writing a poem on Evening, and drawing all of his poetic figures from the objects familiar to his vocation. Whereas poetry should use figures that ennoble the subject by relieving it of narrow limitations and vulgar associations, to connect it with the instruments of a trade or appliances of an industry is to rob it entirely of the ideal element which poetry should have. The effect of such an attempt is shown in this poem with the happiest strokes of humor.

II. Mea'-gre (mēʼğur), eom-mūn'-ion, eụsh'-ion (koosh'un), hūeş, ès'senç-eş, ehrŏn'-i-eleş (krŏn'i-klz), tai'-lors, an'-cient (-shěnt), straight'-en (strāt'n), griēv'-anç-es.

III. Explain th for s in hath ;-'s in earth's, and s in ribs ;-" about me," instead of "about I";-their threads for they threads;-deeply injured for deep injured;-us for we;-thee for thou.

IV. Quivering, " downy nap," injured, flout, surtout, gaudy, portly, patron, ambition, race, elastic, petty, din, pensive.

V. Explain the allusions to the objects familiar to a tailor in jacket, buttoned, velvet, padding, braid, skirt, robe, silken threads, satin, nap, etc.

In what sense is "cabbage" used by a tailor? Why a "deeply injured flower"? What is the witty point in calling it a flower, and "giant rose wrapped in a green surtout"? What "puny brethren are referred to ? Double meaning of "goose"? Why "a joy to straighten out his limbs"? Why does the continued sitting in one position make any other position seem unnatural? What is there laughable in the idea that the tailor shall come to call a standing posture unnatural ?

CXIII. BENEFITS OF INVENTIONS AND DISCOVERIES.

1. All these have led to important results. Through the invention of the mariner's compass, the globe has been circumnavigated and explored, and all who inhabit it, with but few exceptions, brought within the sphere of an all-pervading commerce, which is daily diffusing over its surface the light and blessings of civilization.

2. Through that of the art of printing, the fruits of observation and reflection, of discoveries and inventions, with all the accumulated store of previously-acquired knowledge, are preserved and widely diffused. The application of gunpowder to the art of war has forever settled the long conflict for ascendency between civilization and barbarism, in favor of the former, and thereby guaranteed that, whatever knowledge is now accumulated, or may hereafter be added, shall never again be lost.

3. The numerous discoveries and inventions, chemical and mechanical, and the application of steam to machinery, have increased manifold the productive powers of labor and capital, and have thereby greatly increased the number who may devote themselves to study and improvement, and the amount of means necessary for commercial exchanges, especially between the more and

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