"Halt !"-the dust-brown ranks stood fast. "Fire!"-out blazed the rifle blast. It shivered the window, pane and sash; It rent the banner with seam and gash. 6. Quick as it fell from the broken staff, Dame Barbara snatched the silken scarf; She leaned far out on the window-sill, And shook it forth with a royal will: "Shoot, if you must, this old gray head,— But spare your country's flag !" she said. 7. A shade of sadness, a blush of shame, Over the face of the leader came; The nobler nature within him stirred Ever its torn folds rose and fell On the loyal winds that loved it well; 9. Barbara Frietchie's work is o'er, And the Rebel rides on his raids no more. Honor to her'!-and let a tear 10. Over Barbara Frietchie's grave, Peace, and order, and beauty, draw And ever the stars above look down LESSON XIII. THE PAUPER'S DRIVE. A Descriptive Baliad."-THOMAS NOEL. [As the first requisite of good reading is to give a truthful expression to the thoughts and feelings of the writer, so in the following ballad, which is one of great power and beauty, a sing-song tone of reading the driver's refrain is required, to harmonize with the sense, the poetic movement of the words, and the scene represented. Indeed, as we read the dirge which the driver sings, we can scarcely avoid singing it too, and with a kind of careless sadness, which, in the closing of the fifth verse, changes to a plaintive, pathetic, and impressive reproof. The reading of the piece should gradually change from a rapid movement, and the tone of light and trivial description at the beginning, to slow movement, and the expression of solemn and deep feeling in the fifth verse. Observe the force of the rhetorical pauses.] 1. There's a grim one-horse hearse, in a jolly round trot; To the church-yard a pauper is going, I wot; The road it is rough, and the hearse has no springs, 2. Oh where are the mourners'? alas! there are none; He's only a pauper', whom nobody owns'." 3. What a jolting, and creaking, and splashing, and din! The whip how it cracks, and the wheels how they spin! How the dirt right and left o'er the hedges is hurled! The pâuper at length makes a noise in the world! 136 Rattle his bones over the stones'; He's only a pauper', whom nobody owns'." 4. Poor a The bal'lad. See Lyric Poetry, p. 332. He's taking a drive in his carriage at last, But it will not be long if he goes on so fast: 136 Rattle his bones over the stones'; He's only a pauper', whom nobody owns'." 5. But a truce to this strain', for my soul it is sad, [owns. 13 Though a păuper, he's one whom his MAKER yet LESSON XIV. GROWTH OF CALIFORNIA.-1858. F. P. TRACY. 1. A LITTLE more than ten years ago, California lay in the indolence and silence of that summer noonday in which she had been basking for ages. A few idle villages slept by the shores of her bays; a few squalid ranches dotted the interior with patches of wretched cultivation. There were herds of cattle in her valleys, but they were almost valueless for the want of a market. There were churches, but their chiming bells woke only the echoes of a vast solitude. a 2. The sun ripened only the harvest of wild oats on the hills, and the beasts of prey made their lairs in security close by the abodes of men. Seldom did a merchant ship spread her white wings in the offing; seldom did the vaque'ro, in his solitary rounds, hear the dip of the oar upon our rivers. Silence, deep and everlasting, brooded over all the land; and the lone oaks on the hills appeared like sentinels keeping guard around the sleeping camp of nature. 3. The cession of the country to the United States by Mexico, in 1848, and the discovery of gold in the early part of the same year, changed the whole scene as if by the power of magic. As in the Naumachiab of old time, the dry arena was instantly converted into a great lake, on which contending navies struggled for the mastery'; so, instantly, on the discovery of gold, California was filled with people, as if they had risen from the earth. с 4. The port of San Francisco was crowded with vessels. The rivers were alive with the multitudes that made them their highway; and the din of commerce broke forever the silence of centuries. It seemed as if the people had stolen the lamp of Aladdin, and wished for the creation, not of palaces merely, but of royal cities, and an empire of which these should be the chief places; and, at their wish, the cities of our state arose, not by slow, toilsome growth, but complete and princely at their very birth. 5. The rattle of the shovel and the pick was heard in every mountain gorge, and a wide stream of gold flowed from the sierra to the sea. The plains, rejoicing in their marriage to industry, bore fruitfully their yellow harvests. Villages, hamlets, farm-houses, schools, and churches sprung up every where; wharves were built, roads were opened; stagecoaches and steamers crowded all profitable routes; lands, houses, and labor rose to an enormous value; and plenty, with her blessings, crowned the rolling year. (See also Lesson LXXIII., p. 184.) a Va que'ro (va kā'ro, Spanish), a cowherd, or cattle-keeper. b Nau mǎeh'i ä (Greek), a spectacle representing a sea-fight. A lăd'din, a character in the "Arabian Nights Entertainments," who becomes possessed of a lamp of magical powers. LESSON XV. THE OLD CONTINENTALS. GUY HUMPHREY MACMASTER. [The "Old Continentals"-soldiers of the Revolution.-The reading of this descriptive piece requires strong force and pure tone, with the most sonorous orotund where the emphasis rises to a climax. Very much can be made of this piece by a good reader or declaimer.] 1. In their ragged regimentals Yielding not, When the grenadiers were lunging, And like hail fell the plunging Cannon-shot; When the files Of the Isles,a From the smoky night encampment bore the banner of the [rampant And grummer, GRUMMER, GRUMMER rolled the roll of the Unicorn ;b Through the morn! 2. Then with eyes to the front all, And with guns horizontal, Stood our sires; And the balls whistled deadly, And in streams flashing redly Blazed the fires; As the roar, [drummer Swept the strong battle-breakers o'er the green-sodded acres Of the plain; And louder, LOUDER, LOUDER cracked the black gunpowCracking amain! 3. Now, like smiths at their forges, And the" villainous saltpetre,"d As the swift [der, With hot sweeping anger came the horse-guards' clangor On our flanks. Then higher, HIGHER, HIGHER burned the old-fashioned fire Through the ranks! 4. Then the old-fashioned colonel And his broad sword was swinging, Then the blue |