coat. At last, a thick bar of vapor being past, what a scene was disclosed! A storm was sweeping through the sky, nearly a mile beneath; and I looked down upon an ocean of rainbows, rolling in indescribable grandeur, to the music of the thunder peal, as it moaned afar and near, on the coming and dying wind. A frightened eagle had ascended through the tempest and sailed for minutes by my side, looking at me with panting weariness and quivering mandibles, but with a dilated eye, whose keen iris flashed unsubdued. Proud emblem of my country! As he fanned me with his heavy wing, and looked with a human intelligence at the car, my pulse bounded with exulting rapture. Like the genius of my native land, he had risen above every storm, unfettered and FREE. But my transports were soon at an end. He attempted to light on the balloon, and my heart sank; I feared his huge claws would tear the silk. I pulled my cord; he rose, as I sank, and the blast swept him from my view in a moment. A flock of wild fowl, beat by the storm, were coursing below, on bewildered pinions; and, as I was nearing them, I knew I was descending. A breaking rift now admitted the sun. The rainbows tossed and gleamed; chains of fleecy rack, shining in prismatic rays of gold and purple and emerald, "beautiful exceedingly," spread on every hand. Vast curtains of clouds pavilioned the immensity brighter than celestial roses; masses of mist were lifted on high, like strips of living fire, more radiant than the sun himself, when his glorious noontide culminates from the equator. A kind of aerial Euroclydon now smote my car, and three of the cords parted, which tilted my gondola I caught the broken to the side, filling me with terror. The storm below was now rapidly passing away, and beneath its waving outline, to the southeast, I saw the ocean. Ships were speeding on their course, and their bright sails melting into distance; a rainbow hung afar; and the rolling anthems of the Atlantic came like celestial hymnings to my ear. Presently all was clear below me. The fresh air played around. I had taken a noble circuit; and my last view was better than the first. I was far over the bay, "a-floating sweetly to the west." The city, colored by the last blaze of day, brightened remotely to the view. Below, the far country lay smiling like an Eden. Bright rivers ran like ribbons of gold and silver, till they were lost in the vast inland, stretching beyond the view; the gilded mountains were flinging their purple shadows over many a vale; bays were blushing to the farewell day beams; and now I was passing over a green island. I sailed to the mainland; saw the tall, old trees waving to the evening breeze; heard the rural lowing of herds and the welcome sound of human voices; and, after sweeping over forest tops and embowered villages, at last descended with the sun, among a kind-hearted, surprised, and hospitable community, in as pretty a town as one could desire to see, "safe and well." DEFINITIONS. As sem'blage, company. In com'par a blỹ, not to be compared with anything else. Gon'do lá, a kind of boat used in Venice; the word here means the car or basket attached to the balloon. A'er ō stăt, a balloon. Ba rõm'e ter, an instrument for measuring the pressure of air. Eū ròc'lỹ don, a tempestuous northwest wind which blows on the Mediter ranean. E'den, the garden of Paradise. RAIN UPON THE ROOF. BY COATES KINNEY. When the humid shadows gather Of the soft rain overhead. Every tinkle on the shingles Weave their bright hues into woof, As I listen to the patter Of the rain upon the roof. There, in fancy, comes my mother, Which is played upon the shingles Then my little seraph sister, With her wings and waving hair, And her bright-eyed cherub brother, Glide around my wakeful pillow, Of the soft rain on the roof. There is naught in art's bravuras That subdued, subduing strain, DEFINITIONS.-Hu'mid, moist, damp. Spheres, globes. Woof, a woven fabric. A gone', long past. Sĕr'aph, angel. Chĕr'ub, angel. Se rene', bright. Bra vū'raş, music written for effect. A STORY OF CHIEF JUSTICE MARSHALL. BY JOHN ESTEN COOKE. Among the great men of Virginia, John Marshall will always be remembered with honor and esteem. He was the son of a poor man, and his early life was spent in poverty; but he was not afraid of labor, and everybody saw that he was a person of more than common ability. Little by little he rose to distinction, and there was scarcely any public office in the gift of the people that he might not have had for the asking. He served in the legislature of Virginia; he was sent as envoy to France; he was made Secretary of State; and finally he became Chief Justice of the United States. The greatest judges looked up to him and listened to what he said, as if that decided everything. When he died at the age of eighty, he was one of the greatest and most famous men in America. My father knew him well and loved him, and told me many things about him. He was very tall and thin, and dressed very plainly. He wore a suit of plain black cloth and common yarn stockings, which fitted tightly to his legs and showed how thin they were. He was a very great walker, and would often walk out to his farm which was several miles from Richmond. But sometimes he went on horseback, and once he was met riding out with a bag of clover seed on the saddle before him. His manners were plain and simple, and he liked to talk about everyday matters with plain country people, and laugh and jest with them. He never seemed to remember that he was a great man at all, and he often played quoits and other games with his coat off, as full of fun as a boy, and ready to laugh with everybody. In a word, he was so great a man that he never thought of appearing greater than other people, but was always the same unpretending John Marshall. It was a fashion among the gentlemen of Richmond to walk to market early in the morning and buy fresh meats and vegetables for their family dinners. This was a good old fashion, and some famous gentlemen continued to do so to the end of their lives. It was the habit of Judge Marshall, and very often he took no servant with him. He would buy what he wanted and return home, carrying his purchases on his arm; and on |