midnight brought the signal-sound of strife, hunder clouds close o'er it, which when rent, h her own clay shall cover, heaped and pent, and horse, friend, foe, in one red burial lent! noisy mirth. us, delightful. h), small recess. - pent, literally, penned; packed to gether. blent, mingled. (skwŏd'-), a body of troops pi/broch (peʼbrok), the wild martial ge. music of the Scottish bagpipe. Albyn's ick's fated chieftain (3). The Duke of Brunswick fell in the t at Quatre Bras (kät'r brä') the next day (the 16th). His father battle of Auerstädt (ow'er-stet), in 1806, in which the French he Prussians.—mutual eyes (4), eyes exchanging looks of love -"Cameron's gathering" (6), the "war-note" of the Camenders. — Lochiel (lo-keel). The title of the chief of the Came- Albyn (6), the poetic name for Scotland, hence " Highlands of Scotland. - Saxon foes (6), the Lowland Scotch nglish. — Evan's, Donald's fame (6), Sir Evan Cameron and on Donald were conspicuous in the rebellions of 1689 and 1715. s the Lochiel of Campbell's "Lochiel's Waruing.". Ardennes ut here pronounced är'den). The woods of Soignies (swä'nye'), hich the troops had to pass, — supposed to be a reninant of the Ardennes, which in Cæsar's time traversed this part of Belgium, led far into Germany. - which when rent (8), equivalent to -ing rent." n: Death's prophetic ear (3); noon of night (6); Nature's tearliving valor (7); other clay (8). s the figure of speech in the third line of the first stanza? See IV. ¡the abstract, beauty, put for the concrete, beautiful persons). Cher example of this figure. By what forces was the battle of fought? What can you tell of Napoleon after this battle? 16 LXII. -THE BLACK SNAKE A] BURROUGHS. 1. I HARDLY know whether I am annoyed with the catbird. Perhaps common, and her part in the general conspicuous. If you are listening for t bird, she is sure to be prompted to t protracted singing, drowning all othe sit quietly down to observe a favorite comer, her curiosity knows no boun scanned and ridiculed from every poin Yet I would not miss her; I would her a little, make her less conspicuou 2. She is the parodist of the woods, a mischievous, bantering, half-ironical lay, as if she were conscious of mimi certing some envied songster. Ambiti ticing and rehearsing in private, she ye sincere and genuine of the sylvan mi had taken up music only to be in the be outdone by the robins and thrushes. she seems to sing from some outward from inward joyousness. She is a g not a great poet. Vigorous, rapid, cop fine touches, but destitute of any high her performance, like that of Thoreau's implies a spectator. 3. There is a certain air and polish however, like that in the vivacious c well-bred lady of the world, that co aternal instinct, also, is very strong, and that structure of dead twigs and dry grass is the cennuch anxious solicitude. ot long since, while strolling through the woods, ention was attracted to a small densely grown hedged in with eglantine, brambles, and the ing smilax, from which proceeded loud cries of and alarm, indicating that some terrible calamity -eatening my somber-colored minstrel. On effectentrance, and looking around me from a square terra firma, I found myself the spectator of a me, yet fascinating scene. hree or four yards from me was the nest, beneath in long festoons, rested a huge black snake; a o thirds grown was slowly disappearing between anded jaws. As he seemed unconscious of my e, I quietly observed the proceedings. By slow he compassed the bird about with his elastic his head flattened, his neck writhed and swelled, o or three undulatory movements of his glistenly finished the work. hen he cautiously raised himself, his tongue from his mouth the while, curved over the nest, ith wavy, subtle motions, explored the interior conceive of nothing more overpoweringly terrible nsuspecting family of birds than the sudden ape above their domicile of the head and neck of ch enemy. It is enough to petrify the blood in eins. Tot finding the object of his search, he came ng down from the nest to a lower limb, and nced extending his researches in other directions, stealthily through the branches, bent on captur only birds and squirrels are consider himself up, letting himself down, ru yielding boughs, and traversing with the whole length and breadth of the surprising. 8. I could but admire his terrible shining folds, his easy, gliding move eyes glistening, tongue playing like the invisible means of his almost wi 9. The parent birds, in the mean w most agonizing cry, at times flutteri their pursuer, and actually laying hol their beaks and claws. On being th snake would suddenly double upon h his own body back, thus executing a st that at first seemed almost to paralyz place her within his grasp. 10. Not quite, however. Before his upon the coveted prize the bird would t and, apparently faint and sobbing, re branch. His reputed powers of fascina little, though it is possible that a frail bative bird might have been held by th 11. Presently, as he came gliding d body of a leaning alder, his attention. a slight movement of my arm; eying with that crouching, utterly motionles believe only snakes and devils can ass quickly, a feat which necessitated crawling over his own body, -and gl the branches, evidently recognizing i e of the ancient parties he once so cunningly few moments after, as he lay carelessly disthe top of a rank alder, trying to look as much ooked branch as his supple, shining form would he old vengeance overtook him. I exercised my ive, and a well-directed missile, in the shape ne, brought him looping and writhing to the fter I had completed his downfall and quiet n restored, a half-fledged member of the behousehold came out from his hiding-place, and, upon a decayed branch, chirped vigorously, no celebration of the victory. one who turns a serious | sub'tle (sut/l), sly; artful. ong into burlesque. = (-tin), the sweet-brier. common climbing plant. mà, Latin words ineaning d. D-ry, wavy. dom'i-cile (-sil), house; abode. lo-co-mo'tion, act of moving. com′ba-tive (-tiv), disposed to fight. pre-rog'a-tive (-tiv), peculiar right or privilege. D. Thoreau (thō'ro) (?) was an eccentric man and well-known o built himself a small house on the shore of Walden Pond, near ass., and lived there a hermit life for two years, - an observer and her little creatures, the squirrels, fishes, and birds. nce: squirrel, mischievousness, genuine, strategic. : half-ironical undertone (2); everlasting smilax (4); arch eneurch, chief); strategic movement (9), (strategy, skill in military ; the old vengeance (12), see Genesis, chap. iii. tell the difference between "versifier" and "poet"? Explain n at the close of paragraph 11? |