AN OBJECT LESSON. 225 what they are not able to do. O-p-a-k-e ought to be right; but, like not a few things of which we could argue that they must be right, it happened to be wrong; so what was the use of talking? 11. We heard a little boy in the corner whispering the truth, afraid as yet to utter it too boldly. It was not the only truth that has appeared first in a whisper. Yet as truth is great and shall prevail, it was but fit that we all finally determined upon o-p-a-q-u-e; and so we did; and we all uttered those letters from all corners of the room with the more perfect confidence as they grew, by each repetition, more familiar to our minds. 12. A young student in a pinafore, eight years old and short for his age, square and solid, who had been sitting on the front row, nearly opposite the teacher, was upon his legs. He had advanced one or two steps on the floor, holding out his hand; he had thought of another quality, and waited to catch Mr. Speaker's eye. But our eyes wandered among the outstretched hands, and other lips cried, "It is malleable"; so malleable was written on the board. 13. It was not the word that still lurked in the mind of Master Square, who in a solid mood kept his position in advance, ready to put forth his suggestion at the earliest opportunity. What malleable meant was the question over which we were now called upon to hammer, but we soon beat the answer out among ourselves; and then we spelt the word, and malleability into the bargain. 14. Master Square uplifted his hand the moment we had finished; but there rose other hands again, and the young philosopher, biding his time in sturdy silence, listened through the discussion raised as to whether or not copper might be called odorous. This debate over, Square was again ready; but an eager little fellow cried that copper is tenacious, upon which there was a new quality submitted to our notice, which we must discuss, explain, and of which the name had to be spelt. 15. But Master Square's idea had not yet been forestalled, and he, like copper, ranked tenacity among his qualities. At length he caught Mr. Chairman's eye, and said with a small voice, "Please, sir, I know a quality." "And what is that?" the teacher asked. Little Square replied, as he resumed his seat, "It's INORGANIC." 16. Here was a bombshell of a word thrown among us by this little fellow, but we did not flinch. Inorganic of course meant "got no organs," and we all knew what an organ was, and what a function was, and what were the grand marks of distinction between living and dead matter, and between animal and vegetable life. So we went on, with a little information about mining, and display of copper ore; a talk about pyrites, and such matters. Three quarters of an hour had slipped away. Q Charles Dickens. UICK! man the life-boat! See yon bark, Her màin-mast is gone, but she still drives on Quick! man the life-boat! hàrk! the gùn Booms through the vapory air; And see the signal flags are on, ALL. The life-boat! Man the life-boat! And one there stands, and wrings his hands, For his wife and chìld, through the tempest wild, ALL. The life-boat! Man the life-boat! FOURTH VOICE. Speed, speed the life-boat! Off she goes! And dearer than gòld is the wealth untold 227 HE happiest bird of our spring, and one that rivals the European lark in our estima tion, is the bob-o-lincoln, or bobolink as he is commonly called. He arrives when Nature is in all her freshness and fragrance," the rains are over and gone, the flowers appear on the earth, the time of the singing of birds is come, and the voice of the turtle is heard in the land." 2. The trees are now in their fullest foliage and brightest verdure; the woods are gay with the clustered flowers of the laurel; the air is perfumed by the sweet-brier and wild-rose; the meadow is enamelled with clover-blossoms; while the young apple, the peach, and the plum begin to swell, and the cherry to glow, among the green leaves. 3. This is the chosen season of revelry of the bobolink. He comes amidst the pomp and fragrance of the season; his life seems all sensibility and enjoyment, all song and sunshine. He is to be found in the soft bosoms of the freshest and sweetest meadows; and is most in song when the clover is in blossom. 4. He perches on the topmost twig of a tree or on some long flaunting weed, and as he rises and sinks with the breeze, pours forth a succession of rich, tinkling notes, crowding one upon another like the outpouring melody of the skylark, and possessing the same rapturous character. 5. Sometimes he pitches from the summit of a tree, begins his song as he gets upon the wing, and flutters tremulously down to the earth, as if overcome with ecstasy at his own music. Sometimes he is in pursuit of his mate; always in full song, as if he would win her by his melody, and always with the same appearance of intoxication and delight. 6. Of all the birds of our groves and meadows, the bobolink was the envy of my boyhood. He crossed my path in the sweetest weather, and the sweetest season of the year, when all nature called to the fields, and the rural feelings throbbed in every bosom. 7. Had I been then more versed in poetry, I might have addressed him in the words of Logan to the cuckoo : "Sweet bird thy bower is ever green, thy sky is ever clear; 8. Further observation and experience have given me a different idea of this little feathered voluptuary, which I will venture to impart for the benefit of school-boy readers who may regard him with the same unqualified envy and admiration which I once indulged. 9. I have shown him only as I saw him at first, in what I may call the poetical part of his career, when he in at manner devoted himself to elegant pursuits and enjoyments, and was a bird of music and song and taste and sensibility and refinement. |