• ĮN-VESTMENT. The laying out of | 11 CHECK. An order for the payment money or capital in some perma of money. void. nent form, so as to produce an in- 12 CAN'CELLED. come. Annulled; made 10 LĪ-A-BÏL'I-TIES. Pecuniary indebted- 13 PA'PER. A written promise to pay ness; sums of money which a per- money; notes, bills of exchange, &c. son may be called upon to pay. XV. THE CHINESE PRISONER. PERCIVAL. [Thomas Percival was an English physician, born in 1740, died in 1804. He wrote a number of works on medicine and on morals.] 1. A CERTAIN emperor of China, on his accession' to the throne of his ancestors, commanded a general release of all those who were confined in prison for debt. Amongst that number was an old man, who had fallen an early victim to adversity, and whose days of imprisonment, reckoned by the notches which he had cut on the door of his gloomy cell, expressed the annual circuit of more than fifty suns. 2. With trembling limbs and faltering steps, he departed from his mansion of sorrow: his eyes were dazzled with the splendor of the light, and the face of nature presented to his view a perfect paradise. The jail in which he had been imprisoned stood at some distance from Pekin, and to that city he directed his course, impatient to enjoy the caresses of his wife, his children, and his friends. 3. Having with difficulty found his way to the street in which his decent mansion had formerly stood, his heart became more and more elated at every step he advanced. With joy he proceeded, looking eagerly around; but he observed few of the objects with which he had been formerly conversant3. A magnificent edifice was erected on the site of the house which he had inhabited; the dwellings of his neighbors had assumed a new form; and he beheld not a single face of which he had the least remembrance. 4. An aged beggar who, with trembling knees, stood at the gate of a portico, from which he had been thrust by the insolent domestic who guarded it, struck his attention. He stopped, therefore, to give him a small pittance3 out of the bounty with which he had been supplied by the emperor, and received, in return, the sad tidings, that his wife had fallen a lingering sacrifice to penury and sorrow; that his children were gone to seek their fortunes in distant or unknown climes; and that the grave contained his nearest and most valued friends. 5. Overwhelmed with anguish, he hastened to the palace of his sovereign, into whose presence his hoary locks and mournful visage soon obtained his admission; and, casting himself at the feet of the emperor, "Great Prince," he cried, "send me back to that prison from which mistaken mercy has delivered me! I have survived my family and friends, and, even in the midst of this populous city, I find myself in a dreary solitude. The cell of my dungeon protected me from the gazers at my wretchedness; and whilst secluded from society, I was the less sensible of the loss of its enjoyments. I am now tortured with the view of pleasure in which I cannot participate1o; and die with thirst, though streams of delight surround me." 1 AC-ÇES'SION. Act of coming to; arrival; also, increase by something added; that which is added. • FÂL'TER-ING. Tottering; feeble; unsteady; wavering. • CON/VER-SANT. Acquainted; familiar; versed. POR'TI-CO. A covered space, surrounded by columns, at the entrance of a building. 5 PIT'TANCE. Small allowance or por tion; a trifle. 6 TI'DINGS. News. 7 Ō-VER-WHELMED'. Swallowed up, as by the sea; overpowered; crushed. 8 DUN'ĢEON. A strong, close, dark prison, or room in a prison. 9 SE-CLUDED. Shut out or kept apart. 10 PAR-TIÇ'I-PĀTE. l'artake; take part. XVI. -THE LAKE OF THE DISMAL SWAMP. MOORE. [Thomas Moore was born in Dublin, Ireland, in 1779, and died in 1852. He was a very brilliant lyric poet and song writer. In the latter part of his life he wrote many prose works. When a very young man, he visited America, and the following poem was one of the results of that visit. The subjoined introduction is by the author. "They tell of a young man, who lost his mind upon the death of a girl he loved, and who, suddenly disappearing from his friends, was never afterwards heard of. As he had frequently said in his ravings, that the girl was not dead, but gone to the Dismal Swamp, it is supposed he had wandered into that dreary wilderness, and had died of hunger, or been lost in some of its dreadful morasses.' The Great Dismal Swamp is mostly in the north-eastern part of North Caro. lina, but extends into Virginia. It is thirty miles long, and about ten miles wide. Lake Drummond is in the centre, and is about twenty miles in circuit.] 1. “THEY made her a grave too cold and damp And she's gone to the Lake of the Dismal Swamp, She paddles her white canoe. 2. "And her firefly lamp I soon shall see, 3. Away to the Dismal Swamp he speeds; His path was rugged and sore Through tangled juniper, beds of reeds, 4. And when on the earth he sank to sleep, If slumber his eyelids knew, He lay where the deadly vine doth weep 5. And near him the she-wolf stirred the brake, And the copper-snake breathed in his ear; Till, starting, he cried, from his dream awake, "O, when shall I see the dusky lake, And the white canoe of my dear?" в 6. He saw the lake, and a meteor bright "Welcome," he said, "my dear one's light," 7. Till he hollowed a boat of the birchen bark, Far, far he followed the meteor spark; 8. But oft, from the Indian hunter's camp, This lover and maid so true Are seen, at the hour of midnight damp, To cross the lake by a firefly lamp, I FEN. A low land partly covered with | 5 CŎP'PER-SNAKE. A copperhead; ■ water; boggy land. VEN'OM-OUS. Poisonous; noxious. BRAKE. A thicket of brambles, reeds, or ferns. venomous serpent found in the Southern States. • ME'TE-OR. A luminous body seen in the air, or floating over moist places; will-o'-the-wisp. XVII.-WOODMAN, SPARE THAT TREE. MORRIS. [George P. Morris, an American writer, was born October 10, 1802, and died July 6, 1864. He was one of the editors of the Home Journal, and was the author of many popular songs.] 1. WOODMAN, spare that tree; Touch not a single bough; 2 2. That old, familiar tree, Whose glory and renown3 And wouldst thou hew it down? Cut not its earth-bound ties; |