don't choose to make myself all black and blue, tumbling flat as you do. If I can go down easily, I'll drop; if I can't, I shall fall into a chair and be graceful; I don't care if Hugo does come at me with a pistol," returned Amy, who was not gifted with dramatic power, but was chosen because she was small enough to be borne out shrieking by the hero of the piece. 14. "Do it this way; clasp your hands so, and stagger across the room, crying frantically, 'Roderigo! save me! save me!'" and away went Jo, with a melodramatic scream which was truly thrilling. 15. Amy followed, but she poked her hands out stiffly before her, and jerked herself along as if she went by machinery; and her "Ow!" was more suggestive of pins being run into her than of fear and anguish. Jo gave a despairing groan, and Meg laughed outright, while Beth let her bread burn as she watched the fun with interest. 16. "It's no use! do the best you can when the time comes, and if the audience shout, don't blame me. on, Meg." Come 17. Then things went smoothly, for Don Pedro defied the world in a speech of two pages without a single break; Hagar, the witch, chanted an awful incantation over her kettleful of simmering toads, with weird effect; Roderigo rent his chains asunder manfully, and Hugo died in agonies of remorse and arsenic, with a wild "Ha! ha!' 18. "It's the best we 've had yet," said Meg, as the dead villain sat up and rubbed his elbows. 19. I don't see how you can write and act such splendid things, Jo. You 're a regular Shakespeare!" exclaimed Beth, who firmly believed that her sisters were gifted with wonderful genius in all things. 20. "Not quite," replied Jo, modestly. "I do think 'The Witch's Curse, an Operatic Tragedy,' is rather a nice thing; but I'd like to try Macbeth, if we only had a trap door for Banquo. I always wanted to do the killing part. 'Is that a dagger that I see before me?'" muttered Jo, rolling her eyes and clutching at the air, as she had seen a famous tragedian do. 21. "No, it's the toasting-fork, with ma's shoe on it instead of bread. Beth's stage-struck," cried Meg, and the rehearsal ended in a general burst of laughter. L. M. Alcott. XXXI. - THE GIANT. I. HERE came a Giant to my door, TH A Giant fierce and strong; His step was heavy on the floor, His arms were ten yards long. He scowled and frowned; he shook the ground: At length I looked him in the face II. The mighty Giant, as I spoke, Grew pale and thin and small, And through his body, as 't were smoke, His blood-red eyes turned blue as skies, "Is this," I cried, with growing pride, - III. He sank before my earnest face, He vanished quite away, Between me and the day. Such Giants come to strike us dumb But, weak in every part, They melt before the strong man's eyes, And fly the true of heart. Charles Mackay. XXXII. THE FARMER AND THE FOX. A a trap. FARMER, whose poultry-yard had suffered severely from the foxes, succeeded at last in catching one in 'Ah, you rascal!" said he, as he saw him struggling, "I'll teach you to steal my fat geese! you shall hang on the tree yonder, and your brothers shall see what comes of thieving!" 2. The Farmer was twisting a halter to do what he threatened, when the Fox, whose tongue had helped him in hard pinches before, thought there could be no harm in trying whether it might not do him one more good turn. 3. "You will hang me," he said, "to frighten my brother foxes. On the word of a fox they won't care a rabbit-skin for it; they'll come and look at me; but you may depend upon it, they will dine at your expense before they go home again!" 4. "Then I shall hang you for yourself, as a rogue and a rascal," said the Farmer. 5. "I am only what Nature, or whatever you call the thing, chose to make me," the Fox answered. “I did n't make myself." 6. "You stole my geese," said the man. 7. Why did Nature make me like geese, then?" said the Fox. "Live and let live; give me my share, and I won't touch yours but you keep them all to yourself." 8. "I don't understand your fine talk," answered the Farmer ; "but I know that you are a thief, and that you deserve to be hanged." 9. His head is too thick to let me catch him so, thought the Fox; I wonder if his heart is any softer ! 66 You are taking away the life of a fellow-creature," he said; "that's a responsibility, it is a curious thing, that life, and who knows what comes after it? You say I am a rogue. I say I am not; but at any rate I ought not to be hanged, - for if I am not, I don't deserve it; and if I am, you THE FARMER AND THE FOX. 105 should give me time to repent!" I have him now, thought the Fox; let him get out if he can. 10. " Why, what would you have me do with you?" said the man. 11. "My notion is that you should let me go, and give me a lamb, or goose or two, every month, and then I could live without stealing; but perhaps you know better than I, and I am a rogue; my education may have been neglected; you should shut me up, and take care of me, and teach me. Who knows but in the end I may turn into a dog?" 12. "Very pretty," said the Farmer; "we have dogs enough, and more, too, than we can take care of, without you. No, no, Master Fox, I have caught you, and you shall swing, whatever is the logic of it. There will be one rogue less in the world, anyhow." 13. "It is mere hate and unchristian vengeance," said the Fox. 14. "No, friend," the Farmer answered; "I don't hate. you, and I don't want to revenge myself on you; but you and I can't get on together, and I think I am of more importance than you. If nettles and thistles grow in my cabbage-garden, I don't try to persuade them to grow into cabbages. I just dig them up. I don't hate them; but I feel somehow that they must n't hinder me with my cabbages, and that I must put them away; and so, my poor friend, I am sorry for you, but I am afraid you must swing. J. A. Froude. EXERCISE. 1. You will hang me to frighten my brother foxes. 2. They will dine at your expense before they go home. 3. Give me my share, and I won't touch yours. 4. I don't understand your fine talk. 5. That is a responsibility. [Something to be accounted or answered for.] 6. My notion is that you should let me go. 7. Then I could live without stealing. XXXIII. THE VOICE AND PEN. O I. THE orator's Voice is a mighty power, As it echoes from shore to shore ; And the fearless Pen has more sway o'er men Than the murderous cannon's roar. What bursts the chain far o'er the main, "T is the fearless Voice and the Pen of power: Hurrah! Hurrah for the Voice and Pen! II. The tyrant knaves who deny our rights, "No arms have ye, Nor cannon, nor sword, nor spear! Your hills are ours; with our forts and towers Though your III. horsemen stand with bridle in hand, And your sentinels walk around; Though your matches flare in the midnight air, brazen trumpets sound; And your O, the orator's tongue shall be heard among And they'll quickly say, "Why should we slay IV. When the Lord created the earth and sea, The Godhead spoke, and the universe woke, |