Alb. YOU'RE at the gate of Altorf.

Ges. Tarry,' boy!

Alb. I would be gone; I'm waited for.

Ges. Come back!

Who waits for thee? Come, tell me; I am rich

And powerful, and can reward.

Alb. 'Tis close

On evening; I have far to go! I'm late.

Ges. Stay, I can punish, too.

Alb. I might have left you,

When on the hill I found you fainting, and

The mist around you; but I stopped and cheered you Till to yourself you came again. I offered

To guide you, when you could not find the way,

And I have brought you to the gate of Altorf.
Ges. Boy, do you know me?

Alb. No.

Ges. Why fear you, then,

To trust me with your father's name?

Alb. Why

Do you desire to know it?

Ges. You have served me,

Speak.

And I would thank him, if I chanced to pass
His dwelling.

Alb. 'Twould not please him that a service
So trifling should be made so much of!

Ges. Trifling!

You've saved my life.

Ges. [To soldiers.] Seize him! Wilt thou tell me

Thy father's name?

Alb. No!

Ges. I can bid them cast thee

3

Into a dungeon. Wilt thou tell it now?

Alb. No!

Ges. I can bid them strangle thee! Wilt tell it?
Alb. Never!

Ges. Away with him!

[Soldiers take off Albert through the gate.]

Behind that boy I see the shadow of

4

A hand must wear my fetters, or 'twill try

To strip me of my power. I have felt to-day
What 'tis to live at others' mercy.

I

Have tasted fear to very sickness, and

Owed to a peasant boy my safety — ay,

My life! and there does live the slave can say
Gesler's his debtor !5

How I loathed the free
And fearless air with which he trod the hill?
Yea, though the safety of his steps was mine,
Oft as our path did brink the precipice,

*

I wished to see him miss his footing, and

* Brink the precipice. Lead along the brink or edge of the precipice.

Roll over! But he's in my power!- Some way
To find the parent nest of this fine eaglet,*

7

And harrow it! I'd like to clip the broad

And full-grown wing that taught his tender pinion
So bold a flight!

1. ALL is action, all is motion
In this mighty world of ours!
Like the current of the ocean,
Man is urged by unseen powers.

2. Duty points with outstretched' fingers
Every soul to action high;

3. Onward, onward, onward, ever!
Human' progress none may stay;
All who make the vain endeavor,
Shall like chaff be swept away.

1 ÖÛT-STRETCHED' (-strěcht). Stretch- 2 BE-TĪDE'. Happen to, befall.

ed out, extended.

3 HU'MAN. Relating to mankind.

GEORGE P. MORRIS.

1. OLD IRONSIDES* at anchor' lay

In the harbor of Mahon; †

A dead calm rested on the bay,

The waves to sleep had gone;

The United States frigate Constitution.

† Mahon (pronounced Ma hōre is a port in the Mediterranean Sea.

When little Hal, the Captain's son,

A lad both brave and good,
In sport, up shroud and rigging ran,
And on the main truck stood!

2. A shudder shot through every vein, All eyes were turned on high! There stood the boy, with dizzy brain, Between the sea and sky;

No hold had he above, below,

Alone he stood in air;

To that far height none dared to go, -
No aid could reach him there,

3. We gazed, but not a man could speak; With horror all aghast,

In groups, with pallid brow and cheek,
We watched the quivering mast.
The atmosphere3 grew thick and hot,
And of a lurid1 hue,

4. The father came on deck; -he gasped, "O God! thy will be done!"

Then suddenly a rifle grasped,

66

And aimed it at his son.

Jump, far out, boy, into the wave?
Jump, or I fire," he said;

"That only chance your life can save;

Jump, jump, boy!" He obeyed.