2.

3.

As at the door he stood, and welcomed in
Jesus and his disciples. All was still.
The echoing vestibule gave back the slide-
Of their loose sandals, and the arrowy beam
Of moonlight, slanting to the marble floor,
Lay like a spell of silence in the rooms,
As Jairus led them on.

With hushing steps

He trod the winding stair; but ere he touched
The latchet, from within a whisper came,
"Trouble the master not; for she is dead!"
And his faint hand fell nerveless at his side,
And his step faltered, and his broken voice
Choked in its utterance; but a gentle hand
Was laid upon his arm, and in his ear
The Saviour's voice sunk thrillingly and low,
"She is not dead, but sleepeth."

They passed in.

The spice-lamps in the alabaster urns

Burned dimly, and the white and fragrant smoke
Curled indolently on the chamber walls.

The silken curtains slumbered in their folds, -
Not even a tassel stirring in the air, -

And, as the Saviour stood beside the bed,
And prayed inaudibly, the ruler heard
The quickening division of his breath

As he grew earnest inwardly.

There came,

A gradual brightness o'er his calm, sad face;
And drawing nearer to the bed, he moved
The silken curtains silently apart,

And looked upon the maiden."

NOTE.--a The maiden was an only daughter, about twelve years of age. See Luke viii. 42.

4.

5.

Like a form

Of matchless sculpture in her sleep she lay,-
The linen vesture folded on her breast,
And over it her white transparent hands,
The blood still rosy in their tapering nails.
A line of pearl ran through her parted lips,
And in her nostrils, spiritually thin,
The breathing curve was mockingly like life;
And round beneath the faintly tinted skin
Ran the light branches of the azure veins;
And on her cheek the jet lash overlay,
Matching the arches penciled on her brow.
Her hair had been unbound, and falling loose
Upon her pillow, hid her small round ears
In curls of glossy blackness, and about

Her polished neck, scarce touching it, they hung,
Like airy shadows floating as they slept.
'T was heavenly beautiful.

The Saviour raised

Her hand from off her bosom, and spread out
The snowy fingers in his palm, and said,
"Maiden! arise!" and suddenly a flush
Shot o'er her forehead, and along her lips
And through her cheek the rallied color ran;
And the still outline of her graceful form
Stirred in the linen vesture; and she clasped
The Saviour's hand, and, fixing her dark eyes
Full on his beaming countenance,

AROSE!

QUESTIONS. Who was Jairus? 1. Whom did he welcome into his house? 2. What did they say to him of his daughter? 2. What did Jesus say? 3. What did he do as he stood beside her bed? 3. What was the age of the maiden? 5. What did Christ say to her? 5. Did she arise?

28

ERRORS. 3. Hurth for hearth; 3. quinch'ed for quench'ed; 3. jin'ed for join'ed 5. voilence for vi'o-lence; 6. phi-lan'thro-py for phi-lan'thro-py; 6. pol-er-ti'cian for politician; 8. hul'ly for wholly; 8. spiles for spoils.

REMOVAL OF THE CHEROKEES WEST OF THE MISSISSIPPI. P. SPRAGUE.

[The pupil may repeat the rule for modulation, which applies to this piece, and read it accordingly. See Modulation, p. 68.]

1. I AM aware, sir, that their white neighbors desire the absence of the Indians, and if they can find safety and subsistence beyond the Mississippi, I should rejoice exceedingly at their removal, because it would relieve the states of their presence. I would do much to effect a consummation so devoutly to be wished. But let it be by their own free choice, unawed by fear, unseduced by bribes.

2. Let us not compel them, by withdrawing the protection which we have pledged. Theirs must be the pain of departure, and the hazard of the change. They are men, and have the feelings and attachments of men; and if all the ties which bind them to their country and their homes, are to be rent asunder, let it be by their own free hand.

3. If they are to leave forever the streams in which they have drank, and the trees under which they have reclined; if the fires are never more to be lighted up in the council-house

NOTES. -a Cher-o-kees; a tribe of Indians formerly living principally in the northern part of Georgia. They are the noblest of the American Indians, and dis. tinguished for their progress in the arts of civilized life. They have been removed to the Indian territory, by order of the United States government. b See Indians, p 31, note b.

of their chiefs, and must be quenched forever upon the domestic hearth, by the tears of the inmates who have there joined the nuptial feast, and the funeral wail; if they are to look for the last time upon the land of their birth which drank up the blood of their fathers, shed in its defense, and is mingled with the sacred dust of children and friends, to turn their aching vision to distant regions, enveloped in darkness and surrounded by dangers, let it be by their own free choice, not by coercion. or a withdrawal of the protection of our plighted faith.

4. They can best appreciate the dangers, and difficulties which beset their path. It is their fate which is impending; and it is their right to judge, while we have no warrant to falsify our promises.

5. It is said that their existence cannot be preserved; that it is the doom of Providence that they must perish. So, indeed, must we all; but let it be in the course of nature, not by the hand of violence. If, in truth, they are now in the decrepitude of age, let us permit them to live out all their days, and die in peace; not bring down their gray hairs in blood to a foreign grave.

6. I know, sir, to what I expose myself. To feel any solicitude for the fate of the Indians, may be ridiculed as false philanthropy, and morbid sensibility. Others may boldly say, "Their blood be upon us," and sneer at scruples as weaknesses, unbecoming the stern character of a politician.

7. If, sir, in order to become such, it is necessary to divest the mind of the principles of good faith and moral obligation, and harden the heart against every touch of humanity, I confess that I am not, and by the blessing of Heaven, will never be, a politician.

It

8. Sir, we cannot wholly silence the monitor within. may not be heard amidst the clashings of the arena, in the tempest and convulsions of political contentions, but its "still small voice" will speak to us, when we meditate alone at eventide; in the silent watches of the night; when we lie

down and when we rise up from a solitary pillow; and in that dread hour, when "not what we have done for ourselves, but what we have done for others," will be our joy and our strength, and when to have secured, even to the poor and despised Indian, a spot of earth upon which to rest his aching head, to have given him but a cup of cold water in charity, will be a greater treasure, than to have been the conqueror of kingdoms, and lived in luxury upon their spoils.

QUESTIONS. Who were the Cherokees? How did they compare with other American Indians? For what are they distinguished? Where were they removed?

ERRORS.-1. Dil'i-gunt for dil'i-gent; 1. sol'umn for sol'emn; 4. skurce for scarce, 4. but'nut for but'ter-nut; 7. patridge for partridge; 9. swifly for swiftly, 10. bär ren for barren.

THE OLD MAN'S COUNSEL.

W. C. BRYANT.

1. AMONG Our hills and valleys, I have known

Wise and grave men, who, while their diligent hands
Tended or gathered in the fruits of earth,

Were reverent learners in the solemn school
Of nature. Not in vain to them were sent
Seed-time and harvest, or the vernal shower
That darkened the brown tilth, or snow that beat
On the white winter hills. Each brought, in turn,
Some truth; some lesson on the life of man,