Scarcely willing to believe his own vision, he directs the attention of his companions.

The terrible news spreads like lightning, and in a few minutes, the bridge and the surrounding shore are covered with thousands of spectators. "Who is he?" "How did he get there?" are questions every person proposed, but answered by none.

No voice is heard above the awful flood, but a spy-glass shows frequent efforts to speak to the gathering multitude. Such silent appeals exceed the eloquence of words; they are irresistible, and something must be done.

A small boat is soon upon the bridge, and with a rope attached, sets out upon its fearless voyage, but is instantly sunk. Another and another are tried, but they are all swallowed up by the angry waters. A large one might possibly survive; but none is at hand.

Away to Buffalo a car is dispatched, and never did the iron-horse thunder along its steel-bound track on such a godlike mission. Soon the most competent life-boat is upon the spot.

All eyes are fixed upon the object, as, trembling and tossing amid the boiling white waves, it survives the roughest waters. One breaker past and it will have reached the object of its mission. But being partly filled with water, and striking a sunken rock, the next wave sends it hurling to the bottom.

An involuntary groan passes through the dense 'multitude, and hope scarcely nestles in a single bosom. The sun goes down in gloom, and as darkness comes on and the crowd begins to scatter, methinks the angels looking over the battlements on high, drop a tear of pity on the scene.

The

silvery stars shine dimly through their curtain of blue.

Long before morning he must be swept over that dreadful abyss; he clings to that rock with all the tenacity of life, and as he surveys the horrors of his position, strange visions in the air come looming up before him. He sees his home, his wife and children there; he sees the home of his childhood; he sees that mother as she used to soothe his childish fears upon her breast; he sees a watery grave, and then the vision closes in tears.

Soon a

No sooner does morning dawn, than the multitude again rush to the scene of horror. shout is heard; he is there he is still alive! Just now a carriage arrives upon the bridge, and a woman leaps from it and rushes to the most favorable point of observation.

All eyes are turned for a moment toward the anxious woman, and no sooner is the glass handed to her, fixed upon the object, than she shrieks, “Oh, my husband!" and sinks senseless to the earth.

The excitement, before intense, seems now almost unendurable, and something must again be tried. A small raft is constructed, and, to the surprise of all, swings up beside the rock to which the sufferer has clung for the last forty-eight hours. He instantly throws himself full length upon it.

Thousands are pulling at the end of the rope, and, with skillful management, a few rods are gained toward the nearest shore.

What tongue can tell, what pencil can paint, the anxiety with which that little bark is watched, as, trembling and tossing amid the roughest waters, it nears that rock-bound coast!

Save Niagara's eternal roar, all is silent as the

grave.

His wife sees it, and is only restrained by force from rushing into the river. Hope instantly springs into every bosom, but it is only to sink into deeper gloom. The angel of death has spread his wings over that little bark; the poor man's strength is almost gone; each wave lessens his grasp, but all will be safe if that nearest wave is past.

But that next surging billow breaks his hold upon the pitching timbers, and hurls him to the awful verge, where, with body erect, hands clenched, and eyes that are taking their last look of earth, he sinks forever from the gaze of man.

Synonyms. -competent-qualified; adequate; sufficient; fit; capable. restrain — check; hinder; stop; withhold; repress; curb; suppress; abridge; restrict; limit; confine. lessen-diminish; reduce; abate; decrease; lower; impair; weakness; degrade. attached — affixed; bound; tied; fastened; connected; annexed; subjoined.

up braid', to blame.

LESSON

răn’dỏm, without aim.

LXX.

reck, to care; to heed.
răm'pärt, fortification.

BURIAL OF SIR JOHN MOORE.

Not a drum was heard, nor a funeral note,
As his corse to the rampart we hurried;
Not a soldier discharged his farewell shot
O'er the grave where our hero we buried.

We buried him darkly, at dead of night,
The sod with our bayonets turning;
By the struggling moonbeams' misty light,
And our lantern dimly burning.

No useless coffin inclosed his breast,

Nor in sheet nor in shroud we wound him;
But he lay like a warrior taking his rest,
With his martial cloak around him!

Few and short were the prayers we said,

And we spoke not a word of sorrow;

But we steadfastly gazed on the face of the dead, And we bitterly thought of the morrow.

We thought, as we hollowed his narrow bed,
And smoothed down his lonely pillow,

That the foe and the stranger would tread o'er his head,

And we far away on the billow!

Lightly they'll talk of the spirit that's gone,
And o'er his cold ashes upbraid him;

But little he'll reck, if they let him sleep on,
In the grave where a Briton has laid him!

But half of our heavy task was done,

When the bell tolled the hour for retiring, And we heard the distant and random gun, That the foe was sullenly firing.

Slowly and sadly we laid him down,

From the field of his fame, fresh and gory! We carved not a line, we raised not a stoneBut we left him alone with his glory!

CHARLES WOLFE.

Spell and pronounce : — martial, corse, struggling, lantern, tolled, warrior (yur), buried, gory, funeral, bayonets, glory, sullenly, steadfastly, Briton, distant, and misty.

Synonyms. —martial—warlike; soldier-like. rampart-bulwark; defense; security; guard; fortification. buried-entombed; interred; covered; concealed; overwhelmed; repress; keep down.

va nĭl'lå, a plant used for fla- | pre çĬp'i tātes, throws

down.

[rapidly.

WEST INDIAN SCENERY.

As we landed from our boat, a truck was waiting for us on a tramway; and we scrambled ashore on a bed of rich black mud, to be received, of course, in true West Indian fashion, with all sorts of courtesies and kindness.

A long-legged mule, after gibbing enough to satisfy his own self-respect, condescended to trot off with us up the tramway, which lay along a green drive. But in the ditches grew a pea with large, yellow flower-spikes, and beyond the ditches rose on either side, not wheat and beans, but sugar-cane ten and twelve feet high.

And a noble grass it is, with its stems as thick as one's wrist, tillering out below in bold curves over the well-hoed, dark soil, and its broad, bright leaves falling and folding above in curves as bold as those of the stems; handsome enough thus, but more handsome still, I am told, when the arrow,"