everything that had been spoken during the whole three weeks that we had been silent, if I may use that expression. It was now very early in the morning, and yet, to my surprise, I heard somebody say, 'Sir John, it is midnight, and time for the ship's crew to go to bed.' This I knew to be the pilot's voice; and, upon recollecting myself, I concluded that he had spoken these words to me some days before, though I could not hear them until the present thaw. "My reader will easily imagine how the whole crew was amazed to hear every man talking, and see no man opening his mouth. In the midst of this great surprise we were all in, we heard a volley of oaths and curses, uttered in a very hoarse voice, which I knew belonged to the boatswain, who had taken his opportunity of cursing and swearing at me, when he thought I could not hear him. "When this confusion of voices was pretty well over, though I was afraid to offer at speaking, as fearing I should not be heard, I proposed a visit to the Dutch cabin, which lay about a mile farther up in the country. My crew were extremely rejoiced to find they had again recovered their hearing, though every man uttered his voice with the same apprehensions that I had done. "At about half a mile's distance from our cabin we heard the groanings of a bear, which at first startled us; but, upon inquiry, we were informed by some of our company, that he was dead, and now lay in salt, having been killed upon that very spot about a fortnight before, in the time of the frost. Not far from the same place we were likewise entertained with some posthumous snarls of a fox. "We at length arrived at the little Dutch settlement; and, upon entering the room, found it filled. with sighs that smelt of brandy, and several unsavory sounds, that were altogether inarticulate. My valet, who was an Irishman, fell into so great rage at what he heard, that he drew his sword; but not knowing where to lay the blame, he put it up again. We were stunned with these confused noises, but did not hear a single word until about half an hour after; this phenomenon I ascribed to the harsh and obdurate sounds of that language, which wanted more time than ours to melt and become audible. "After having here met with a very hearty welcome, we went to the cabin of the French, who, to make amends for their three weeks' silence, were talking and disputing with greater rapidity and confusion than I ever heard in an assembly, even of that nation. Their language, as I found, upon the first giving of the weather, fell asunder and dissolved. "I was here convinced of an error into which I had before fallen; for I fancied that for the freezing of the sound, it was necessary for it to be wrapped up, and, as it were, preserved in breath; but I found my mistake when I heard the sound of a kit playing a minuet over our heads. I asked the occasion of it, upon which one of the company told me that it would play there about a week longer; 'for,' says he, finding ourselves bereft of speech, we prevailed upon one of the company who had his musical instrument about him to play to us from morning to night; all which time was employed in dancing in order to dissipate our chagrin." Here Sir John gives very good philosophical reasons why the kit could not be heard during the frost; but, as they are somewhat prolix, I pass them over in silence, and shall only observe that the honorable author seems, by his quotations, to have been well versed in the ancient poets, which perhaps raised his fancy above the ordinary pitch of historians, and very much contributed to the embellishments of his writings. parts, faculty, talent. Sir John Man'de ville (1300-1371 ?), a famous English traveller. His book abounds in marvellous and extravagant stories. Fer'di nand Men'dez Pin'to, a Portuguese adventurer and traveller. Ho'mer, the greatest of the ancient Greek poets. He wrote the "Iliad" and the "Odyssey." The latter describes the wanderings of Ulysses. Spen'ser, Edmund Spenser (15521599) was a famous English poet. His longest and best poem, "The Faerie Queene," describes in its first book the adventures of the Red-Cross Knight, who fought and conquered sin. Hu'di bras, a political poem written by Samuel Butler, in the seven teenth century. sim'ile, an imaginative comparison. in clem'en cies, roughness, storminess. liq'ue fied, melted. con gealed', frozen. post'hu mous, occurring or continuing in ar tic'u late, indistinct. pro lix', extending to great length. INDIAN SUMMER JOHN GREENLEAF WHITTIER FROM gold to gray Our mild sweet day Of Indian summer fades too soon; But tenderly Above the sea Hangs, white and calm, the hunter's moon. In its pale fire, The village spire Shows like the zodiac's spectral lance; Whereon it falls Transfigured stand in marble trance! Zod'i ac, the so-called zodiacal light, trans fig'ured, changed in appearsometimes seen near the horizon just after twilight or before dawn. ance. BRIGHT FLAG OF STARS! N. P. WILLIS BRIGHT flag at yonder tapering mast, NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE THOMAS WENTWORTH HIGGINSON NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE was born in Salem, Massachusetts, July 4, 1804. He was all his life shy, modest, and retiring. After his father died— when he was a very little boy his mother shut herself up in her room, not even coming downstairs for her meals, and never seeing any one outside her own family. She lived in this way for forty years, and it is not surprising that so sensitive a boy as Nathaniel should have adopted early in life this same habit of living by himself. Because of his loneliness, Hawthorne' childhood was not a very happy one. He used in after years to say that in those days "it was as if there were a ghost in the house," meaning his mother. Sometimes the boy used to threaten to run away to sea, as many boys have wanted to do before and since. He never carried out his threat, but remained quietly at home instead, reading all the books he could get. He used to lie flat on the floor absorbed in one of Shakespeare's plays or in one of Milton's poems. Most small boys do not care to spend their time reading Shakespeare and Milton, but Hawthorne liked nothing better. On Sundays he used to read "Pilgrim's Progress" hour after hour, never seeming to weary of it. |