And so, from a brown homestead, where the Sound1
Drinks the small tribute of the Mianas,

Waved over by the woods of Rippowams,
And hallowed by pure lives and tranquil deaths,
Stamford sent up to the councils of the State
Wisdom and grace in Abraham Davenport.

'Twas on a May-day of the far old year
Seventeen hundred eighty,2 that there fell
Over the bloom and sweet life of the spring,
Over the fresh earth and the heaven of noon,
A horror of great darkness, like the night
In day of which the Norland sagas tell,-
The Twilight of the Gods. The low-hung sky

1 Sound: that is, Long Island | changed, rejoiced in the sunshine, Sound.

...

and looked calmly over the night. But at last, during one sunrise, a wolf came, and began to howl at the sun. The sun did not seem to heed him, but walked majestically up the sky to her midday point; then the wolf began to run after her, and chased her down the sky again to the low west. There the sun opened her bright eye wide and turned round at bay; but the

2 'Twas. eighty. The exact date was the 12th of May, 1780. "On that day," say the historians, "a remarkable darkness overspread all New England. In some sections persons could not read common printed matter in the open air; barn-yard fowls went to roost, and cattle sought their accustomed evening resorts; houses were lighted with candles, and nearly all out-of-wolf came close up to her, and doors work was suspended. The cause of the darkness has never been ascertained."

opened his mouth, and swallowed her up. The earth shuddered, and the moon rose. Another wolf was 8 Norland sagas... Gods. By waiting for the moon, with wide Northern sagas are meant the prose jaws open; and while yet pale and poetic lore of the Northmen and young he too was devoured. (Norsemen), and in one of these The earth shuddered again; it occurs the following legend re- was covered with cold and darkspecting the Twilight of the Gods: ness. Confusion rioted in the “Odin watched the seasons as they darkness."

Was black with ominous clouds, save where its rim
Was fringed with a dull glow, like that which climbs
The crater's sides from the red hell below.

Birds ceased to sing, and all the barn-yard fowls
Roosted; the cattle at the pasture bars

Lowed, and looked homeward; bats on leathern wings
Flitted abroad; the sounds of labor died;

Men prayed, and women wept; all ears grew sharp
To hear the doom-blast of the trumpet shatter
The black sky, that the dreadful face of Christ
Might look from the rent clouds, not as he looked
A loving guest at Bethany, but stern

As Justice and inexorable Law.

Meanwhile in the old State House,2 dim as ghosts, Sat the lawgivers of Connecticut,

Trembling beneath their legislative robes.

"It is the Lord's Great Day!3 Let us adjourn,” 4
Some said; and then, as if with one accord,
All eyes were turned to Abraham Davenport.
He rose, slow cleaving with his steady voice
The intolerable hush. "This well may be
The Day of Judgment which the world awaits;
But, be it so or not, I only know

My present duty, and my Lord's command

To occupy till he come. So at the post

1 guest at Bethany. What is jour, day), to postpone till another

the reference?

2 State House. At Hartford.

8 Lord's Great Day. Explain the expression.

day.

5 occupy, etc. In what part of the New Testament does there occur the injunction, "Occupy till

4 adjourn (ad, to, and French I come"?

Where he hath sent me in his providence,
I choose, for one, to meet him face to face,
No faithless servant frightened from my task,
But ready when the Lord of the harvest calls;
And therefore, with all reverence, I would say,
Let God do his work, we will see to ours.
Bring in the candles." And they brought them in.

Then by the flaring lights the Speaker read,
Albeit with husky voice and shaking hands,
An act to amend an act to regulate
The shad and alewive1 fisheries. Whereupon
Wisely and well spake Abraham Davenport,
Straight to the question, with no figures of speech
Save the ten Arab signs,2 yet not without
The shrewd dry humor natural to the man;
His awe-struck colleagues listening all the while,
Between the pauses of his argument,

To hear the thunder of the wrath of God
Break from the hollow trumpet of the cloud.

And there he stands in memory to this day,
Erect, self-poised, a rugged face, half seen
Against the background of unnatural dark,
A witness to the ages as they pass,

That simple duty hath no place for fear.

|

1 alewive (a corruption of the Indian name aloof), a species of herring. 2 the ten Arab signs. Give the what is Abraham Davenport signification. witness"?

8 And there he stands, etc. A very striking picture. What is the moral that the poet draws? Of

a

5.- MAUD MULLER.

MAUD MULLER, on a summer's day,
Raked the meadow sweet with hay.

Beneath her torn hat glowed the wealth
Of simple beauty and rustic health.

Singing she wrought, and her merry glee
The mock-bird echoed from his tree.

But when she glanced to the far-off town,
White from its hill-slope looking down,

The sweet song died, and a vague unrest
And a nameless longing filled her breast,-

A wish, that she hardly dared to own,
For something better than she had known.

The Judge rode slowly down the lane,
Smoothing his horse's chestnut mane.

He drew his bridle in the shade
Of the apple-trees to greet the maid,

And ask a draught from the spring that flowed
Through the meadow, across the road.

She stooped where the cool spring bubbled up,
And filled for him her small tin cup,

And blushed as she gave it, looking down
On her feet so bare, and her tattered gown.

"Thanks!" said the Judge: "a sweeter draught From a fairer hand was never quaffed."

He spoke of the grass and flowers and trees,
Of the singing birds and the humming bees;

Then talked of the haying, and wondered whether
The cloud in the west would bring foul weather.

And Maud forgot her brier-torn gown,
And her graceful ankles bare and brown,

And listened, while a pleased surprise
Looked from her long-lashed hazel eyes.

At last, like one who for delay
Seeks a vain excuse, he rode away.

Maud Muller looked and sighed: “Ah me!
That I the Judge's bride might be!

He would dress me up in silks so fine,
And praise and toast me at his wine.

My father should wear a broadcloth coat,
My brother should sail a painted boat.

I'd dress my mother so grand and gay,
And the baby should have a new toy each day.

And I'd feed the hungry, and clothe the poor,
And all should bless me who left our door."

The Judge looked back as he climbed the hill,
And saw Maud Muller standing still: