1. The folks that on the first of May Wore winter coats and hose Began to say, the first of June,

"Good Lord! how hot it grows!"
At last two Fahrenheits blew up,

And killed two children small,
And one barometer shot dead
A tutor with its ball!

2. Now all day long the locusts sang
Among the leafless trees;
Three new hotels warped inside out;
The pumps could only wheeze;
And ripe old wine, that twenty years
Had cobwebbed o'er in vain,
Came spouting through the rotten corks,
Like Joly's best champagne!

3. The Worcester locomotives did
Their trip in half an hour;
The Lowell cars ran forty miles
Before they checked the power.
Roll brimstone soon became a drug,
And locofocos fell;

All asked for ice, but everywhere
Saltpeter was to sell.

4. Plump men of mornings ordered tights, But, ere the scorching noons,

Their candle molds had grown as loose

As Cossack pantaloons!

The dogs ran mad-men could not try
If water they would choose;

A horse fell dead-he only left
Four red-hot, rusty shoes!

5. But soon the people could not bear
The slightest hint of fire;

Allusions to caloric drew

A flood of savage ire;

The leaves on "Heat" were all torn out
From every book at school,

And many blackguards kicked and caned,
Because they said, "Keep cool!"

6. The gaslight companies were mobbed,
The bakers all were shot;
The penny press began to talk

Of lynching Doctor Nott;
And all about the warehouse steps
Were angry men in droves,
Crashing and splintering through the doors
To smash the patent stoves!

7. The abolition men and maids

Were tanned to such a hue,

You scarce could tell them from their friends,
Unless their eyes were blue;

And when I left, society

Had burst its ancient guards,
And Brattle Street and Temple Place

Were interchanging cards!

Oliver Wendell Holmes.

FOR PREPARATION.-I. Fäh'-ren-heīts (thermometers, so named from their inventor). How does a thermometer differ from a barometer? What is each used for indicating? "Worcester locomotives did their trip" (of 44 miles to Boston; Boston to Lowell, 26 miles).

II. Єŏb'-wěbbed, çham-pagne' (shăm-pān'), lō-eo-mō'-tive, pǎn-taloong', al-lū’-şionş (-zhunz), păt'-ent, ăb-o-lï'-tion (-lish'un), In-ter-chān'ging, guärdş (gärdz), ea-lõr′-ie, Jo'-ly's (zhō'liz), Worces'-ter (wōōs'ter).

III. Explain the use of capital letters wherever they occur in this poem. IV. Tutor, saltpeter, Cossack, patent, lynching, mobbed, abolition, "became a drug" (in the market-no sale for it).

V. Note the order of the ludicrous conceits of this poem: Expansion of quicksilver in thermometer and barometer by heat, so rapid as to cause explosion! Trees leafless from heat. Not boards only, but new buildings, warping "inside out"! Ripe wine-called "ripe" because it has no fermentation-effervesces like champagne (or soda water)! So hot that the force of the steam is increased to an ungovernable degree in the locomotives. Brimstone, saltpeter, locofocos (matches), and fire-producing materials, in no demand, and for sale cheap. Plump men grow thin from perspiration. Dogs run mad for heat. No water to drink. Horse all consumed by heat, except his iron shoes! Scientific treatises on heat (“caloric ”) destroyed by people to whom they suggest the cause of their misery; even an exhortation to keep cool resented for the suggestion it contains! Gas makers, bakers, all who use fire or manufacture combustibles—even Dr. Eliphalet Nott, who invented "patent stoves" and heating apparatus-in danger from the excited mob! Finally, all people tanned to a dark hue, and all social distinctions vanish!

LV. HOW TO RENDER SCORNFUL AND SARCASTIC IDEAS.

This head includes irony, mockery, scoffing, caustic wit and raillery, indirect accusation, insinuation of evil, etc.

"COMPOUND STRESS."-Abrupt stress is sometimes given to the first part of the emphatic vowel (as in command, anger, and energetic statement), and is called "radical" or initial stress. It is sometimes given to the last part of the emphatic vowel (as in impatience, distress, painful anxiety, revenge, defiance, etc.), and is called "vanishing" or final stress.

But sometimes, as in the following class of ideas, these two kinds of abrupt stress come together on the

same emphatic syllables. This occurs in the expression of such ideas only as have the "compound slides"; and then a kind of double emphasis is heard that is, the initial AND final stress together, or, as it is called, the "compound stress."

This "compound abrupt stress" on the "compound slide" is the characteristic vocal element which expresses this scornful spirit. The quantity of the emphatic syllables is often much prolonged, to give ample time for this double stress, and the quality of voice is more or less aspirated, to suit the nature and intensity of the feeling.

EXAMPLE OF SCORN.

"BANISHED from Rome? What's banished, but set

FREE

my

From daily contact of the things I loathe^?
'Tried and convicted traitor'?' Who' says this?
Who'll prove it, at his peril', on my head?
Banished! I thank you for it. It breaks
I held some slack allegiance till this hour;
But now my sword's my own^. Smile on, my lords;
I SCORN^ to count what feelings', withered hopes',
Strong provocations', bitter, burning WRONGS^,
I have within my heart's hot cells shut up,
To leave you in your lazy dignities^.
But here I stand and scoff" you: here I fling
Hatred and full DEFIANCE' in your face.
Your consul's merciful! For this all thanks^!
(From "Catiline," by Croly.)

chain.

What were you to do? rain, to be sure. I'm him that could spoil.

"That's the THIRD^ umbrella^ gone since Christmas! Why, let him go home in the certain there was nothing about Take cold? Indeed! He

does not look like one of the sort to take cold. Besides, he'd have better taken cold^ than take our only UMBRELLAˇ. -Pooh! don't think me a fool, Caudle. Don't insult^ me. H-e^ re-t-u-r-n^ the umbrella! Anybody would think you were born yesterday. As if anybody ever did^ return an umbrella! Men, indeed-call themselves lords of creation! Pretty lords^, when they can't even take care of an UMBRELLA^!”

(From "The Caudle Lectures," by Douglas Jerrold.)

LVI. HYMN TO THE NIGHT.

1. I heard the trailing garments of the Night
Sweep through her marble halls!

I saw her sable skirts all fringed with light
From the celestial walls!

2. I felt her presence, by its spell of might, Stoop o'er me from above

The calm, majestic presence of the Night,
As of the one I love.

3. I heard the sounds of sorrow and delight, The manifold, soft chimes,

That fill the haunted chambers of the Night,
Like some old poet's rhymes.

4. From the cool cisterns of the midnight air
My spirit drank repose ;

The fountain of perpetual peace flows there-
From those deep cisterns flows.

5. O holy Night! from thee I learn to bear What man has borne before!