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Here it is delightful to linger at night among the palm-trees, and listen to the melody in the branches above, while the moon seems to shine an accompaniment to the song.

6. The mocking-bird has its own notes, which are bold and musical. Besides this, it can assume the tone of every other animal in the woods, from the wolf to the raven.

7. It seems even to take sport in leading other animals astray. It will allure the smaller birds with the call of their mates, and then suddenly terrify them with the screams of the hawk.

8. There is no bird in the forest that it cannot deceive. It often deceives even the sportsman, and sends him in search of birds that are perhaps not within miles of him.

9. While it is engaged in its imitations, a bystander destitute of sight would suppose that all the feathered songsters had assembled on a trial of skill, each striving to make its highest effort.

10. Listen to those notes! Yes, the birds are all there! Hear them warble, chirp, and trill! How they crowd upon each other! Hark! that rich, clear whistle! Bob White, is it you? That sudden scream! Is it a hawk? Ah, what a gush! My dainty redbreast, thou art early at thy morning song? Mew! What! pussy? No, it is the cat-bird. Hear its liquid notes along the garden-walk!

11. Listen! listen to the trill of that little wren! What now? Quack! quack! come back! come back! cock-a-doodle-doo! What! the whole barn-yard! Squeak! squeak! squeak!-pigs and all! Hark that melancholy plaint! Whip-poor-will! How sad it comes from the shadowy distance! There too is the red-bird's lively whistle! And there is the orchard-oriole's riot of sweet sounds.

12. Hear that! It is the rain-crow croaking for a storm! Jay! jay! jay! There is the dandy blue-jay! Ah! the delicious notes of the song-sparrow! The inspiring whistle of the Carolina-wren! Hear the dove's mournful coo! How they are all poured forth in a torrent from one little throat!

"A multitudinous melody, like a rain

Of glossy music under echoing trees
Over a ringing lake."

13. Well has the poet Southey described this bird as

"That cheerful one who knoweth all
The songs of all the winged choristers,
And in one sequence of melodious sounds
Pours all their music."

14. The mocking-bird loses little of the power and energy of its voice in confinement. In its domesticated state, when it commences its career of song, it is impossible to stand by uninterested. It whistles for the dog-Cæsar starts up, wags his tail, and runs to meet his master.

15. It squeaks out like a hurt chicken -the hen hurries about with hanging wings and bristled feathers, clucking to protect her injured brood. The barking of the dog, the mewing of the cat, the screaking of the passing wheelbarrow, or the whistle of the idle school-boy, follow with great truth and rapidity.

16. It repeats fully and faithfully the tune taught it by its master, though of considerable length. It runs over the quiverings of the canary-bird and the clear whistling of the red-bird with such superior execution and effect that the mortified songsters feel their own inferiority, and become altogether silent.

17. During this exhibition of its powers it spreads its wings, expands its tail, and throws itself around the cage in all the ecstasy, of enthusiasm, seeming not only to sing, but to dance, keeping time to the measure of its own music.

18. Both in its native and its domesticated state, during the solemn stillness of night, as soon as the moon rises in silent majesty, it begins its delightful solo; and serenades us the livelong night with a full display of its vocal powers, making the whole neighborhood ring with its inimitable melody.

COMPILED.

LESSON CLXIV.

BREEZ'Y, fanned with breezes.

GRATE FUL, agreeable, pleasing,

RILL, a small brook, a streamlet.
TAN GLING, mingling confusedly.

PLAINT IVE, lamenting, expressing sor TRANS-PORT ED, ravished with delight.

row.

WAIL, lamentation.

PRONUNCIATION.-Po'et 1b, for'est 1b, dew 16, catch 33, heard 33, choir 33.

THE MOCKING-BIRD'S SONG.

1. EARLY on a pleasant day

In the poet's month of May,
Field and forest looked so fair,

So refreshing was the air,
That, despite of morning dew,
Forth I walked where tangling grew
Many a thorn and breezy bush;
Where the red-breast and the thrush
Gayly raised their early lay,
Thankful for returning day.

2. Every thicket, bush, and tree,
Swelled the grateful harmony;
As it mildly swept along,
Echo seemed to catch the song;
But the plain was wide and clear,
Echo never whispered near!

From a neighboring mocking-bird
Came the answering notes I heard.
3. Soft and low the song began;
I scarcely caught it as it ran
Through the melancholy trill
Of the plaintive whip-poor-will;
Through the ring-dove's gentle wail,
Chattering jay, and whistling quail,
Sparrow's twitter, cat-bird's cry,
Red-bird's whistle, robin's sigh;
Blackbird, blue-bird, swallow, lark,
Each his native note might mark.

4. Oft he tried the lesson o'er,

Each time louder than before.
Burst at length the finished song;
Loud and clear it poured along;
All the choir in silence heard,
Hushed before this wondrous bird.

5. All transported and amazed,
Scarcely breathing, long I gazed.
Now it reached the loudest swell;
Lower, lower, now it fell;
Lower, lower, lower still;
Scarce it sounded o'er the rill.

6. Now the warbler ceased to sing;
Then he spread his downy wing;
And I saw him take his flight,
Other regions to delight.

J. R. DRAKE.

LESSON CLXV.

VOCAL GYMNASTICS.

REFER TO CAUTION 26.-The following exercise contains words which are often improperly accented :—

(1.) The ally of the pacha was his support in the ravine. (2.) The costume of the coquette showed her caprice. (3.) When she made her debut, she was an adept in burlesque. (4.) We went to the depot at recess. (5.) Giraffes are found in the desert, but not in the dessert. (6.) His exploits are like those of the heroes of romance. (7.) He was harassed by the foe that continually menaced him. (8.) The cement unites the bricks. (9.) No work of his is extant. (10.) He is coming toward me. (11.) Do not construe my words thus. (12.) Arion sought an asylum. (13.) He is looking at the constellation of Orion. (14.) There is bitumen in the museum. (15.) To make such an inquiry is not decorous. (16) She showed her coquetry in the lyceum. (17.) The duke takes precedence of the earl. (18.) This is a precedent question.

LESSON CLXVI.

E-MERGE', to come forth, to rise into
view.

EN-THU SI-ASM, ardent zeal.
IN-FLICT', to lay on, to impose.
FRIEZE, a coarse woolen cloth with a
nap on one side.

ME-THINKS', it seems to me.

ME-TROP'O-LIS, (Greek, mother city,) the chief city.

PU'RI-TAN, (from pure,) one of a class

of people who professed to follow the
pure word of God.

QUAK ER, (from quake, to tremble,) a
name applied to the people who call
themselves Friends. George Fox, the
founder of this society,having exhorted
some persons to quake at the word of
the Lord, the name Quaker was ap-
plied to him in derision.
SUP-PRESSED', subdued, smothered.

PRONUNCIATION-Twi'light 276, ho-ri'zon 26c, a-cross' lf, suppressed' 3e, ere 33, drear'y 22, in'fan-tile 5b, rep'tile 5a, sup-port' 3e.

THE GENTLE BOY.

1. In the course of the year 1656 several of the people called Quakers made their appearance in New-England.

2. Fines, imprisonments, and stripes were liberally employed to suppress the further intrusion of this rising sect. But these measures were entirely unsuccessful.

3. The Quakers continued to increase in numbers and enthusiasm,-till, in the year 1659, the government of Massachusetts Bay began to inflict the penalty of death on the members of the sect.

4. On the evening of an autumn day that had witnessed the martyrdom of two men of the Quaker persuasion, a Puritan settler was returning from the metropolis to the neighboring country town in which he resided.

5. The air was cool, the sky clear, and the lingering twilight was made brighter by the rays of the young moon, which had now nearly reached the verge of the horizon.

6. The traveler, a man of middle age, wrapped in a gray frieze cloak, quickened his pace when he had reached the outskirts of the town, for a gloomy extent of nearly four miles lay between him and his home.

7. The low, straw-thatched houses were scattered at considerable intervals along the road; and the country having been settled but about thirty years, the tracts of original forest still bore no small proportion to the cultivated ground.

8. The autumn wind wandered among the branches, whirling away the leaves from all except the pine-trees, and moaning as if it lamented the desolation of which it was the instrument.

9. The road had penetrated the mass of woods that lay nearest to the town, and was just emerging into an open space, when the traveler's ears were saluted by a sound more mournful than even that of the wind.

10. It was like the wailing of some one in distress, and it seemed to proceed from beneath a tall and lonely fir-tree, in the center of a cleared, but uninclosed and uncultivated field.

11. The Puritan could not but remember that this was the very spot which had been made accursed, a few hours before, by the execution of the Quakers, whose bodies had been thrown together into one hasty grave beneath the tree on which they suffered.

12. He struggled, however, against the superstitious fears which belonged to the age, and compelled himself to pause and listen.

13. "The voice is most likely mortal, nor have I cause to tremble, if it be otherwise," thought he, straining his eyes through the dim moonlight. "Methinks it is like the wailing of a child; some infant, it may be, which has strayed from its mother, and chanced upon this place of death. For the ease of mine own conscience, I must search this matter out."

14. He therefore left the path, and walked somewhat fearfully across the field. Though now so desolate, its soil was pressed down and trampled by the thousand footsteps of those who had witnessed the spectacle of that day, all of whom had now retired, leaving the dead to their loneliness.

15. The traveler at length reached the fir-tree, which from the middle upward was covered with living branches, although a scaffold had been erected beneath, and other preparations made for the work of death.

16. Under this unhappy tree, which in after times was believed to drop poison with its dew, sat the one solitary mourner for innocent blood.

17. It was a slender and light-clad little boy, who leaned his face upon a hillock of fresh-turned and half-frozen earth, and wailed bitterly, yet in a suppressed tone, as if his grief might receive the punishment of crime.

18. The Puritan, whose approach had been unperceived, laid his hand upon the child's shoulder, and addressed him compassionately. 19. "You have chosen a dreary lodging, my poor boy, and no wonder that you weep," said he. "But dry your eyes, and tell me where your mother dwells. I promise you, if the journey be not too long, I will leave you in her arms to-night."

20. The boy had hushed his wailing at once, and turned his face upward to the stranger. It was a pale, bright-eyed countenance, certainly not more than six years old; but sorrow, fear, and want had destroyed much of its infantile expression. The Puritan, seeing the boy's frightened gaze, and feeling that he trembled under his hand, endeavored to reassure him.

21. "Nay, if I intended to do you harm, little lad, the readiest way were to leave you here. What! you do not fear to sit beneath

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