some of those persons up stairs suggest improper subjects to the child. He was speaking to me last night about-about his bones," said Mr. Dombey, laying stress upon the word. "What on earth has anybody to do with the the bones of my son? He is not a living skeleton, I suppose.'

10. "Very far from it," said Mrs. Chick, "and yet, brother, I must tell you that Dr. Pilkins recommended sea air."

"Sea air," repeated Mr. Dombey, looking at his sister. 11. "There is nothing to make us uneasy in that," said Mrs. Chick.

"Of course," said Mr. Dombey, and taking a book, he sat looking at a single page for a whole hour without speaking one word.

LANGUAGE EXERCISE.

I. What expression (1) means got over his wonder? What word (8) means body? With what word in the same sentence is it contrasted? What phrase (6) means puzzled?

Explain "Oh, the age of the face!" (3); "ghostly puppetshow" (4); "hit the point" (8).

What word (1) is a synonym of "honored" (1)? Give a synonym of: "tiny" (2); "tiring" (4); "inquired" (7); "stress" (9).

II. Write the analysis:

improper

uneasy

conversation

III. From what you have gathered about Paul Dombey by reading these two lessons, write one or more sentences describing him.

1. THE perils which surrounded the earliest settlers of New England were of the most terrible character. None but such a people as were our forefathers could have successfully borne them.

2. In the dangers and the hardihood of that perilous period woman herself shared largely. It was often her task to garrison the dwelling of her absent husband, and hold at bay the fierce savages in their hunt for blood. Many have left behind them a record of their sufferings and trials in the great wilderness, when in the bondage of the heathen.

3. These accounts are full of wonderful and romantic incidents, related plainly and simply, as if the authors felt assured that they had only performed the task which Providence had set before them, and for which they could ask no tribute of admiration.

4. In 1698 the Indians made an attack upon the English settlement at Haverhill, now a beautiful village on the left bank of the Merrimac. They

-

1 That is, in 1831, the period at which this piece was written.

surrounded the house of one Duston, which was a little removed from the main body of the settlement.

5. The wife of Duston was at that time in bed with an infant in her arms. Seven young children were

around her.

6. On the first alarm Duston bade his children flee towards the garrison-house, and then turned to save his wife and babe. By this time the savages were pressing close upon them.

7. The heroic woman saw the utter impossibility of her escape, and she bade her husband hasten to succor his children, and leave her to her fate. It was a moment of terrible trial for the husband, for he hesitated between his affection and his duty; but the entreaties of his wife fixed his determination.

8. He turned away and followed his children. A part of the Indians pursued him, but he held them at a distance by the frequent discharge of his rifle. The children fled towards the garrison, where their friends waited, with breathless anxiety, to receive them.

9. More than once during their flight the savages gained upon them; but a shot from the rifle of Duston, followed as it was by the fall of one of their number, effectually checked their progress. The garrison was reached; and Duston and his children, exhausted with fatigue and terror, were literally dragged into its enclosure by their anxious neighbors.

II.

10. Mrs. Duston, her servant-girl, and her infant were made prisoners by the Indians, and were compelled to proceed before them in their retreat towards their lurking-place. The care of her babe necessarily hindered her progress; and the savages could ill brook delay when they knew the avenger of blood was following close behind them.

11. Finding that the wretched mother was unable to keep pace with her captors, the leader of the band approached her, and wrested the infant from her arms. The savage held it before him for a moment, contemplating with a smile of grim fierceness the terror of its mother, and then dashed it from him with all his powerful strength. Its head smote heavily on the trunk of an adjacent tree, and the dried leaves around were sprinkled with brains and blood.

"Go on!" said the Indian.

12. The wretched mother cast one look upon her dead infant, and another to Heaven, as she obeyed her savage conductor. She has often said that at this moment all was darkness and horror,- that her very heart seemed to cease beating, and to lie cold and dead in her bosom, and that her limbs moved only as involuntary machinery.

13. When, however, she gazed around her, and saw the unfeeling savages, grinning at her and mocking her, and pointing to the mangled body of her infant

with fiendish exultation, a new and terrible feeling came over her.

14. It was the thirst of revenge; and from that moment her purpose was fixed. There was a thought of death at her heart, - an insatiable longing for blood. In a moment a change had been wrought in her very nature, the angel had become a demon; and she followed her captors with a stern determination to embrace the earliest opportunity for a bloody revenge.

III.

15. The Indians followed the course of the Merrimac until they had reached their canoes, a distance of seventy or eighty miles. They then paddled to a small island, a little above the upper falls of the river. Here they kindled a fire, and, fatigued by their long marches and sleepless nights, stretched themselves around it, without dreaming of the escape of their captives. Their sleep was deep, - deeper than any that the white man knows, - a sleep from which they were never to awaken.

16. The two captives lay silent until the hour of midnight; but the bereaved mother did not close her eyes. There was a gnawing of revenge at her heart which shut out slumber. There was a spirit within her which defied the weakness of the body.

17. She rose up and walked around the sleepers, in