nal destinies. Thence he must have learned to reverence himself and his profession, and to look upon its otherwise illrequited toils as their own exceeding great reward.

8. If such are the difficulties and the discouragementssuch the duties, the motives, and the consolations of teachers who are worthy of that name and trust, how imperious then the obligation upon every enlightened citizen who knows and feels the value of such men to aid them, to cheer them, and to honor them!

9. But let us not be content with barren honor to buried merit. Let us prove our gratitude to the dead by faithfully endeavoring to elevate the station, to enlarge the usefulness, and to raise the character of the schoolmaster amongst us. Thus we shall best testify our gratitude to the teachers and guides of our own youth, thus best serve our country, and thus, most effectually, diffuse over our land light, and truth, and virtue.

Pěd'ant ry, a vain show of learning; a boastful display of knowledge of any kind.

Big'ot ry, unreasonable zeal or warmth

in favor of a party, sect, or opinion; the practice or belief of a bigot.. Fa nǎt'i çişm, religious frenzy; enthusiasın; superstition.

LESSON XXII.

THE ARIEL AMONG THE SHOALS.

BY JAMES F. COOPER.

James Fenimore Cooper was born in Burlington, N. J., 1789. His father, a gentleman of wealth, culture, and energy, was the owner of large tracts of land on the shores of Lake Otsego, N. Y., then on the border of the wilderness, where the boyhood of the future novelist was principally passed. He was sent to Yale at the age of thirteen, but remained only three years, and then entered the U. S. Navy as a common sailor. After two years service he was promoted to the rank of midshipman, and eventually to that of lieutenant. Having married in 1811, he left the service and began his career as an author. He was the first American who wielded the pen of fiction with acknowledged power. His practical knowledge of the sea, and the romantic life of the frontier furnished him with unbounded resources, and the novels he rapidly produced were received with the wildest enthusiasm. His most popular works are The Pilot, The Red Rover, The Spy, The Pioneers, The Deerslayer, The Pathfinder, The Prairie, and The Last of the Mohicans. His works are based on

nature and have a permanent charm. He died in 1851. The following is from The Pilot, and illustrates an incident in the life of Paul Jones.

THE

PART FIRST.

HE extraordinary activity of Griffith, which communicated itself with promptitude to the whole crew, was produced by a sudden alteration in the weather. In place of the well-defined streak along the horizon that has been already described, an immense body of misty light appeared to be moving in with rapidity from the ocean, while a distinct but distant roaring announced the sure approach of the tempest that had so long troubled the waters.

2. Even Griffith, while thundering his orders through the trumpet, and urging the men by his cries to expedition, would pause for instants to cast anxious glances in the direction of the coming storm, and the faces of the sailors who lay on the yards were turned instinctively toward the same quarter of the heavens.

3. The pilot alone, in that confused and busy throng, where voice rose above voice and cry echoed cry in quick succession, appeared as if he held no interest in the important stake. With his eyes steadily fixed on the approaching mist, and his arms folded together in composure, he stood calmly awaiting the result.

The ship had fallen off with her broadside to the sea, and was become unmanageable, and the sails were already brought into the folds necessary to her security, when the quick and heavy fluttering of canvas was thrown across the water with all the gloomy and chilling sensations that such sounds produce, where darkness and danger unite to appall the seaman.

4. "The schooner has it!" cried Griffith; "Barnstable has held on, like himself, to the last moment-God send that the squall leave him cloth enough to keep him from the shore!"

"His sails are easily handled," the commander observed, "and she must be over the principal danger. We are falling off before it, Mr. Gray; shall we try a cast of the lead?”

The pilot turned from his contemplative posture, and moved

slowly across the deck before he returned any reply to this question—like a man who not only felt that everything depended on himself, but that he was equal to the emergency.

5. 'Tis unnecessary," he at length said; 'twould be certain destruction to be taken aback, and it is difficult to say, within several points, how the wind may strike us."

“'Tis difficult no longer," cried Griffith; "for here it comes, and in right earnest!"

The rushing sounds of the wind were now indeed heard at hand, and the words were hardly passed the lips of the young lieutenant before the vessel bowed down heavily to one side, and then, as she began to move through the water, rose again majestically to her upright position, as if saluting, like a courteous champion, the powerful antagonist with which she was about to contend.

6. All on board anxiously waited for the fury of the gale; for there were none so ignorant or inexperienced in that gallant frigate as not to know that they as yet only felt the infant efforts of the winds. Each moment, however, it increased in power, though so gradual was the alteration, that the relieved mariners began to believe that all their gloomy forebodings were not to be realized.

7. "It blows fresh," cried Griffith, who was the first to speak in that moment of doubt and anxiety; "but it is no more than a capful of wind, after all. Give us elbow room and the right canvas, Mr. Pilot, and I'll handle the ship like a gentleman's yacht in this breeze."

"Will she stay, think ye, under this sail?" said the low voice of the stranger.

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8. She will do all that man in reason can ask of wood and iron," returned the lieutenant; "but the vessel don't float the ocean that will tack under double-reefed topsails alone against a heavy sea. Help her with the courses, pilot, and you'll see her come round like a dancing-master."

"Let us feel the strength of the gale first," returned the man who was called Mr. Gray, moving from the side of Grif

fith to the weather gangway of the vessel, where he stood in silence, looking ahead of the ship with an air of singular coolness and abstraction.

9. It was evident to every one that the ship was dashing at a prodigious rate through the waves; and, as she was approaching, with such velocity, the quarter of the bay where the shoals and dangers were known to be situated, nothing but the habits of the most exact discipline could repress the uneasiness of the officers and men within their own bosoms. At length the voice of Captain Munson was heard calling to the pilot.

"Shall I send a hand into the chains, Mr. Gray," he said, "and try our water?"

10. "Tack your ship, sir, tack your ship; I would see how she works before we reach the point where she must behave well, or we perish."

Griffith gazed after him in wonder, while the pilot slowly paced the quarter-deck, and then, rousing from his trance, gave forth the cheering order that called each man to his station to perform the desired evolution. The confident assurances which the young officer had given to the pilot respecting the qualities of his vessel, and his own ability to manage her, were fully realized by the result.

11. The helm was no sooner put alee, than the huge ship bore up gallantly against the wind, and, dashing directly through the waves, threw the foam high into the air as she looked boldly into the very eye of the wind, and then, yielding gracefully to its power, she fell off on the other tack with her head pointed from those dangerous shoals that she had so recently approached with such terrifying velocity. The heavy yards swung round as if they had been vanes to indicate the current of the air, and, in a few moments, the frigate again moved with stately progress through the water, leaving the rocks and the shoals behind her on one side of the bay, but advancing toward those that offered equal danger on the other.

12. During this time the sea was becoming more agitated, and the violence of the wind was gradually increasing. The latter no longer whistled amid the cordage of the vessel, but it seemed to howl surlily as it passed the complicated machinery that the frigate obtruded on its path. An endless succession of white surges rose above the heavy billows, and the very air was glittering with the light that was disengaged from the ocean.

13. The ship yielded each moment more and more before the storm, and, in less than half an hour from the time that she had lifted her anchor, she was driven along with tremendous fury by the full power of a gale of wind. Still the hardy and experienced mariners who directed her movements held her to the course that was necessary to their preservation, and still Griffith gave forth, when directed by their unknown pilot, those orders that turned her in the narrow channel where alone safety was to be found.

respon

14. So far, the performance of his duty appeared easy to the stranger, and he gave the required directions in those still calm tones that formed so remarkable a contrast to the sibility of his situation. But when the land was becoming dim, in distance as well as darkness, and the agitated sea was only to be discovered as it swept by them in foam, he broke in upon the monotonous roaring of the tempest with the sounds of his voice, seeming to shake off his apathy and rouse himself to the occasion.

15. "Now is the time to watch her closely, Mr. Griffith," he cried, "here we get the true tide and the real danger. Place the best quarter-master of your vessel in those chains, and let an officer stand by him and see that he gives us the right water."

"I will take that office on myself," said the captain; "pass a light into the weather main-chains."

"Stand by your braces!" exclaimed the pilot with startling quickness. 'Heave away that lead!"

16. These preparations taught the crew to expect the crisis,