our house." The other children parted. Edward set down Roger, and got over the stile. He still, however, kept hold of the boy's hand. He trembled and looked wildly around him.

10. When they approached the house, an old mastiff came running to meet the children. He looked up at Edward rather sourly, and gave a little growl, when all at once his countenance changed; he leaped upon him, licked his hands, and seemed quite overcome with joy. Edward stooped down, patted his head, and cried, " Poor Captain! what, are you alive yet?" Rose was surprised that the stranger and their dog should know each other so well.

11. They all entered the house together. A good-looking, middle-aged woman was busied in preparing the evening meal, assisted by her grown-up daughter. She spoke to the children as they came in, and, casting a look of some surprise on Edward, asked him what his business was.

12. Edward was silent for a short time; at length, with a faltering voice, he cried, "Have you forgotten me, mother?" "Edward! my son Edward!" exclaimed the good woman; and they were instantly locked in each other's arms. "My brother Edward!" said Mary, as she took her turn for an embrace.

13. Are you my brother?" said Rose. "That I am," replied Edward, with an affectionate kiss. Little Roger looked hard at him, but said nothing. News of Edward's arrival soon flew across the yard, and in came his father from the barn, followed by his two brothers Thomas and William. The father fell on his neck, and sobbed out a welcome and his blessing. Edward had not hands enough for them all to shake.

14. An aged, white-haired laborer came in, and held out his shriveled hand. Edward gave it a hearty squeeze. "God bless you!" said old Isaac ; "this is the best day I have seen for many a year." "And where have you been these eight years and more?" said his father. But Edward's heart was too full to be able to speak for some time. Meanwhile, his elder

K

brother took off his knapsack, and Mary drew him a chair. Edward seated himself, and they all gathered around him. The old dog came within the circle, and lay at the returned wanderer's feet.

15. “O, how glad I am to see you all again!" were Edward's first words. 'How well you look, mother! Father's grown thinner, and his hair is gray; but that I expected. As for the rest, I should not have known any of you, except Thomas and old Isaac." "What a sunburnt face you have! but you look brave and hearty," exclaimed his mother. "Ay, mother, I have been enough in the sun, I assure you. From seventeen to twenty-five I have been a wanderer upon the face of the earth, and I have seen more in that time than most men do in the whole course of a long life.

16. "But here I am again at last, — happy in bringing back a sound constitution and a clear conscience. I have also brought enough of the relics of my honest gains to furnish a little farm in the neighborhood, where I mean to settle down, and spend my days in the midst of those whom I love better than all the world besides."

17. "You are come," said his father, "at a lucky time, for this is our harvest supper. We shall have some of our neighbors to make merry with us, who will be almost as glad to see you as we are, for you were always a favorite among them." They soon arrived, and were, indeed, all glad to see him, and gave him many kind and friendly greetings. When all were retired, the returned wanderer went to rest, having first given fervent thanks to Heaven for preserving him to enjoy a blessing so dear to his heart.

Dr. Aikin. (Adapted.)

WORD ANALYSIS AND DEFINITIONS.

Ar'a ble (ar, to plow), fit to be plowed; tillable.

Cham paign' (sham pāne'), a flat, open country.

Transport (trans, across; port, carry), conveyance; an excess of joy.

LESSON LIX.

THE GRAY SWAN.

1. "O, tell me, sailor, tell me true, Is my little lad, my Elihu,

A-sailing with your ship'?"

The sailor's eyes were dim with dew: "Your little lad', your Elihu' ?"

He said with trembling lip:

"What little lad'? What ship'?"

2. "What little lad'? as if there could be Another such a one as he!

What little lad, do you say'?
Why, Elihu, that took to the sea

The moment I put him off my knee!
It was just the other day

The Gray Swan sailed away!"

5. "And did the little, lawless lad,

That has made you sick and made you sad,
Sail with the Gray Swan's crew' ?"
"Lawless! The man is going mad!
The best boy ever mother had ;

Be sure he sailed with the crew!

What would you have him do?"

6. "And he has never written line,

Nor sent you word, nor made you sign,
To say he was alive?"

"Hold! if it was wrong, the wrong is mine;
Besides, he may be in the brine;

And could he write from the grave?

Tut, man! What would you have?"

7. "Gone, twenty years, a long, long cruise!
'T was wicked thus your love to abuse!
But if the lad still live,

And come back home, think you, you can
Forgive him?"-"Miserable man!

You're mad as the sea,

What have I to forgive?"

you rave.

8. The sailor twitched his shirt so blue,
And from within his bosom drew

The kerchief. She was wild.
“O God, my Father! is it true?

My little lad, my Elihu !

My blessed boy, my child!
My dead, my living child!"

Alice Cary.

How should it

What is this

QUESTIONS. Between whom is the dialogue in this piece? be read? Ans. With a great variety of inflections and tones. piece designed to illustrate? Ans. A mother's love and forgiveness.

.

LESSON LX.

THE FATAL VOYAGE OF FRANKLIN.

1. In the spring of 1845, two ships, the Erebus and the Terror, having on board one hundred and thirty-four men, left England for the Arctic regions. The commander of the expedition was Sir John Franklin, then a man of fifty-nine, who had been tried in many different spheres of action, and had won honor in them all. He had explored the icy, barren lands of North America, had fought at Trafalgar,* and had ruled wisely the turbulent colonists of Van Diemen's Land.

2. The object of his present search was the discovery of that Northwest Passage into the Pacific Ocean which had continued, from the days of Queen Elizabeth to those of Queen Victoria, to exercise a powerful fascination over the minds of British mariners, though for commercial purposes such a passage would be useless on account of the vast accumulations of ice in those regions of enduring frost.

3. Although the greater portion of Franklin's voyage is a blank to us on account of its fatal termination, yet we can partly fill the blank, because we know from many log-books and diaries the sights which fill an Arctic voyager with wonder and with fear.

4. Ships sailing round Cape Farewell, which is the southernmost point of Greenland, meet a floating mass of worn and ragged pine-logs, drifting along in what is called the Spitzbergen Current. Then there comes a sudden fall in the temperature of the sea, and a whitish haze is seen on the horizon, which, under the name of the ice-blink, betokens the nearness of a pack or floes of ice.

*

Traf al gar', a promontory on the south coast of Spain. It is memorable for the great naval victory gained near it by the British fleet under Nelson, over the combined fleets of France and Spain, in 1805.