31. Em. Live, live to be a man, and love your mother! [They embrace. -Albert runs off.] Why should my heart shrink! 'Tis for this we rear them! — Cherish their tiny limbs, pine if a thorn But mar their tender skin,-gather them to us To brave its flaws and tempests! Nestling as He is, he is the offspring of a bird That owns no cowering wing! [Re-enter Albert with a bow and arrows, and a rude target, which he sets up, laying the bow and quiver on the ground.] What have you there? 32. Alb. My bow and arrow, mother. 33. Em. 34. Alb. When will you use them like your father, boy? 35. Em. You boast! There's not an archer In all Helvetia * can compare with him! I 36. Alb. But I'm his son; and when I am a man may be like him. Mother, do I boast To think I some time may be like my father? If so, then is it he that teaches me! For, ever as I wonder at his skill, He calls me boy, and says I must do more, Not quarrel with its work; yet 't will content me, How I can shoot. [Shoots at the target.] Look, mother! there's within An inch! 39. Em. O fie! it wants a hand. [Goes out.] * Hel-ve'ti-a, the Latin,name for Switzerland. 40. Alb. A hand's An inch for me. I'll hit it yet. Now for it!'[Shoots again.] [Enter Tell, watching Albert some time in silence.] 41. Tell. That's scarce a miss that comes so near the mark! Well aimed, young archer! With what ease he bends The bow! To see those sinews, who'd believe Such strength did lodge in them? That little arm, His mother's palm can span, may help anon To pull a sinewy tyrant from his seat; And from their chains a prostrate people lift Living to see that day. What, Albert! 42. Alb. Ah! My father! [Running to his father.] 43. Em. [Wife of Tell coming from the cottage.] William, welcome! Welcome, William ! I did not look for you till noon, and thought 44. Tell. You raise the bow You're come ! Too fast. [To Albert, who has returned to his practice.] Bring 't slowly to the eye. [Albert shoots.] You've missed! How often have you hit the mark to-day? 45. Alb. Not once yet. 46. Tell. You're not steady. I perceived Stand like the sculptor's statue on the gate 47. Em. William, William! O, To be the parents of a boy like that! — Why speak you not? and wherefore do you sigh? [Albert shoots.] 48. Tell. You've missed again! Dost see the mark? Rivet your eye to it! •There let it stick, fast as the arrow would, Could you but send it there. 49. Em. Why, William, don't You answer me? [Albert shoots.] 50. Tell. Again! How would you fare To miss the wolf! You said the other day, Were you a man, you'd not let Gesler live. 'Twas easy to say that. Suppose you now, Your life or his depended on that shot! Take care! That's Gesler! -Now for liberty! Right to the tyrant's heart! [Albert shoots and hits the mark.] done, my boy! Come here! Now, Emma, I will answer you. Do I not love you ? Do I not love our child? Is not that cottage dear to me, where I Was born? How many acres would I give Well Have we not liberty? that precious ore, That pearl, that gem, the tyrant covets most, Yea, makes a pawn of his own soul to strip The wearer of it? Emma, we have that; 53. Em. Then, indeed, My William, we have much to fear! 54. Tell. We have ; And best it is we know how much. Then, Emma, Remember Make up thy mind, wife, make it up! What wives and mothers, on these very hills, 55. Em. O William ! 56. Tell. Emma, let the boy alone; Don't clasp him so; 't will soften him. Go, sir, See if the valley sends us visitors To-day. Some friend, perchance, may need thy guidance. Her arms, as if they'd done with such endearments, 57. Em. William, you are right! The task you set me, I will try to do. I would not live myself to be a slave! No! woman as I am, I would not, William ! QUESTIONS. Who was William Tell? 3-12. What questions did Albert's mother ask him, and what answers did he give? 15-17. What did they say about content? 18-22. What, about his father? Where is Altorf? 26-30. What next did they talk about? 31. What were her reflections? 32-40. What did they talk about after Albert returned? Where, and what, is Helvetia? 41. What was Albert doing when his father came up? 44-48. What instruction did his father give him? 50. What did he say to him here? 50-55. What did Tell fear? 56. Why did he want Albert to leave his mother? LESSON XC.0 3 CA-PRICIOUS, difficult to please. 1. QUER/U-LOUS, complaining. 4. GOR'GET, defense for the throat. 4. MON-TE'RO, riding-cap. 5. CU'LI-NA-RY, used in kitchens. 9. LOITER-ING, delaying. ERRORS. Or'inge for Or'ange; scar'lut and scar'lit for scar'let; hick"ry for hick'o-ry; punk'in for pump'kin. AN AUTUMN SCENE. - IRVING. 1. It was a fine autumnal day. The sky was clear and serene; and nature wore that rich and golden livery which we always associate with the idea of abundance. The forests had put on their sober brown and yellow; while some trees, of the tenderer kind, had been nipped, by the frosts, into brilliant dyes of orange, purple, and scarlet. 2. Streaming files of wild ducks began to make their appearance high in the air; the bark of the squirrel might be heard from the groves of beech and hickory; and the pensive whistle of the quail, at intervals, from the neighboring stubblefield. 3. The small birds were taking their farewell banquets. In the fullness of their revelry, they fluttered, chirping and frolicking, from bush to bush, and tree to tree, capricious from the very profusion and variety around them. 4. There was the honest cock-robin, the favorite game of stripling sportsmen, with its loud, querulous note; and the twittering blackbirds flying in sable clouds; and the goldenwinged woodpecker, with his crimson crest, his broad black gorget, and splendid plumage; and the cedar-bird, with its red-tipped wings and yellow-tipped tail, and its little montero cap of feathers; and the blue jay, that noisy coxcomb, in his gay light-blue coat and white underclothes, screaming and chattering, nodding and bobbing and bowing, and pretending to be on good terms with every songster of the grove. * 5. As Ichabod jogged slowly on his way, his eye, ever open to every symptom of culinary abundance, ranged with delight over the treasures of jolly autumn. On all sides he * ICHABOD, the hero of the story ("Sleepy Hollow") from which this piece is taken. |