air in the room; never to sit with wet feet; never to go out in the cold weather without being properly wrapped up; never to go out of a hot room into the cold out-door air, without putting on some extra wrap; never to eat or drink an unwholesome thing; never to let a day pass without at least two good hours of exercise in the open air; never to read a word by twilight or in the cars; never to let the sun be shut out of

rooms.

13. This is a pretty long list of nevers, but "never" is the only word that wins. After you have once made up your mind "never" to do a certain thing, that is

the end of it, if you are a sensible person.

14. But if you only say, "This is a bad habit: I will be a little on my guard, and not do it too often," you will find temptation knocking at your door twenty times a day, and you will have to be fighting the same old battle over and over again as long as you live. But when you have once laid down to yourself the rules you mean to keep,-the things you will always do and the things you will "never" do, your life at once arranges itself in beautiful order.

15. Do not think it would be a sort of slavery to give up so much for the sake of keeping your body in order. It is the only real freedom, though at first it does not look so much like freedom as the other way.

16. I think the difference between a person who has kept all the laws of health, and thereby has a good,

strong, sound body that can do whatever he wants to do, and a person who has let his body get all out of order, so that he has to lie in bed half his time and suffer, is quite as great a difference as there is between a creature with wings and a creature without wings. Don't you?

LANGUAGE EXERCISE.

I. What expression (2) means it would be difficult? What word (5) is the opposite of "comfortable" (5)? What is the author's definition of "an invalid"? What expression (14) means you will find yourself tempted?

Explain "fall asleep" (10); "extra wrap" (12).

II. In the first paragraph select two simple interrogative sentences; two complex interrogative sentences.

III. In paragraph 8 we have hints of nine rules of health. Write these out as complete imperative sentences: thus, — Never sit up late at night.

Never have close, bad air in the room.

hues, tints, colors.

79.-The Better Land.

|rā'di-ant, bright, brilliant.

I.

"I HEAR thee speak of the better land;
Thou call'st its children a happy band.
Mother! O where is that radiant shore?
Shall we not seek it, and weep no more?

Is it where the flower of the orange blows,

And the fire-flies dance through the myrtle boughs?" "Not there, not there, my child!"

II.

"Is it where the feathery palm-trees rise,

And the date grows ripe under sunny skies?
Or midst the green islands of glittering seas,
Where fragrant forests perfume the breeze,
And strange bright birds, on their starry wings,
Bear the rich hues of all glorious things?'
"Not there, not there, my child!"

III.

"Is it far away in some region old,

Where the rivers wander o'er sands of gold?
Where the burning rays of the ruby shine,
And the diamond lights up the secret mine,
And the pearl gleams forth from the coral strand?
Is it there, sweet mother, that better land?"

"Not there, not there, my child!”

IV.

"Eye hath not seen it, my gentle boy;
Ear hath not heard its deep songs of joy;
Dreams cannot picture a world so fair;
Sorrow and death may not enter there;
Time doth not breathe on its fadeless bloom:
For beyond the clouds, and beyond the tomb,
'Tis there, 'tis there, my child!”

LANGUAGE EXERCISE.

I. What expression (ii) means cause the air to smell sweet? What three gems are named in stanza (iii)? What word (iv) means unfading?

What is meant by "the better land"? (i) (Compare the saying, "There is another and a better world.")

Explain "the flower of the orange blows" (i). Explain "their starry wings" (ii).

-

fadeless

Select a simple interrogative sentence, a complex interrogative sentence.

III. This poem is in the form of a dialogue: who are the speakers?

Write the refrain of the first three sentences. Supply the words to make it a complete sentence. What change of answer is made at the close of the fourth stanza? Which statement is negative? Which affirmative?

80.-The Skater and the Wolves.

ap-palled', terrified.
ĕn'er-ġies, powers, strength.

ex-ert'ed, put forth.

PART I.

in-erŭst-ed, covered with a crust (of ice).

zōne, a girdle.

1. SOME forty years ago I passed the winter in the wilderness of northern Maine. I was passionately fond of skating, and the numerous lakes and rivers, frozen by the intense cold, offered an ample field to the lover of this pastime.

2. Sometimes my skating excursions were made by moonlight; and it was on such an occasion that I met with an adventure which even now I cannot recall without a thrill of horror.

3. I had left our cabin one evening just before dusk, with the intention of skating a short distance up the Kennebec, which glided directly before the door. The night was beautifully clear with the light of the full moon and millions of stars. Light also came glinting from ice and snow-wreath and incrusted branches, as the eye followed for miles the broad gleam of the river, that like a jewelled zone swept between the mighty forests that bordered its banks.

4. And yet all was still. The cold seemed to have frozen tree, air, water, and every living thing. Even the ringing of my skates echoed back from the hill with a startling clearness; and the crackle of the ice, as I passed over it in my course, seemed to follow the tide of the river with lightning speed.

5. I had gone up the river nearly two miles, when, coming to a little stream which flows into the larger, I turned into it to explore its course. Fir and hemlock of a century's growth met overhead, and formed an archway radiant with frost-work. All was dark within; but I was young and fearless, and I laughed and shouted with excitement and joy.

6. My wild hurrah rang through the silent woods, and I stood listening to the echoes until all was