creek; and sure enough, it was shrunk into a little trickle of water, through which I dashed, not above my knees, and landed with a shout on the main island.

A sea-bred boy would not have staid a day on Earraid, which is only what they call a tidal islet; and except in the bottom of the neaps, can be entered and left twice in every twenty-four hours, either dry-shod or at the most by wading. Even I, who had the tide going out and in before me in the bay, and even watched for the ebbs, the better to get my shellfish even I, I say, if I had sat down to think, instead of raging at my fate, must have soon guessed the secret and got free.

It was no wonder the fishers had not understood me. The wonder was rather that they had ever guessed my pitiful illusion, and taken the trouble to come back. I had starved with cold and hunger on that island for close upon one hundred hours. But for the fishers, I might have left my bones there, in pure folly. And even as it was, I had paid for it pretty dear, not only in past sufferings, but in my present case, being clothed like a beggar man, scarce able to walk, and in great pain of my sore throat.

I have seen wicked men and fools, a great many of both; and I believe they both get paid in the end, but the fools first.

Self reverence, self knowledge, self control,
These three alone lead life to sovereign power.
And because right is right, to follow right
Were wisdom in the scorn of consequence.

SPRING

BY HENRY TIMROD

Spring, with that nameless pathos in the air
Which dwells with all things fair,

Spring, with her golden suns and silver rain,
Is with us once again.

Out in the lonely woods the jasmine burns
Its fragrant lamps, and turns

Into a royal court with green festoons
The banks of dark lagoons.

In the deep heart of every forest tree

The blood is all aglee,

And there's a look about the leafless bowers

As if they dreamed of flowers.

Yet still on every side we trace the hand

Of winter in the land,

Save where the maple reddens on the lawn,

Flushed by the season's dawn;

Or where, like those strange semblances we find

That age to childhood bind,

The elm puts on, as if in Nature's scorn,

The brown of autumn corn.

As yet the turf is dark, although you know
That, not a span below,

A thousand germs are groping through the gloom,
And soon will burst their tomb.

Already, here and there, on frailest stems

Appear some azure gems,

Small as might deck, upon a gala day,

The forehead of a fay.

In gardens you may note amid the dearth

The crocus breaking earth;

And near the snowdrop's tender white and green, The violet in its screen.

But many gleams and shadows needs must pass
Along the budding grass,

And weeks go by, before the enamored South
Shall kiss the rose's mouth.

Still there's a sense of blossoms yet unborn

In the sweet airs of morn ;

One almost looks to see the very street

Grow purple at his feet.

At times a fragrant breeze comes floating by,

And brings, you know not why,

A feeling as when eager crowds await

Before a palace gate

Some wondrous pageant; and you scarce would start, If from some beech's heart,

A blue-eyed dryad, stepping forth, should say, "Behold me, I am May!"

Ah, who would couple thoughts of war and crime
With such a blessed time?

Who, in the west wind's aromatic breath,

Could hear the call of death?

Yet not more surely shall the spring awake

The voice of wood and brake,

Than she shall rouse, for all her tranquil charms,

A million men to arms.

There shall be deeper hues upon her plains

Than all her sunlit rains,

And every gladdening influence round

Can summon from the ground.

Oh! standing on this desecrated mold,

Methinks that I behold,

Lifting her bloody daisies up to God,

Spring kneeling on the sod,

And calling, with the voice of all her rills,

Upon the ancient hills

To fall and crush the tyrants and the slaves

Who turn her meads to graves.

SELECTIONS FROM THREE AMERICAN

ORATORS

The period preceding the War between the States was a time of uncertainty and discord. The Southern states felt themselves aggrieved by the action of the government, especially on the questions of the tariff and of slavery, but were, for the most part, seeking peaceful solution of the difficulties. Such solution was rendered impossible by violent partisans of slavery in the South and of antislavery in the North, and in the South secession was coming to be more and more looked forward to as a remedy for the evils of an inharmonious union. Meanwhile, in the Congress of the United States, eloquent statesmen, of whom the greatest were Webster, Calhoun, and Clay, were arguing public questions from the standpoint of different sections.

Webster, senator from Massachusetts, was the greatest of all American orators, but he was a man of less moral than intellectual power. To one cause, however, he was always true,"the union, the glorious union," and his eloquence inspired others with lofty patriotism. Some of his famous speeches such as the two Bunker Hill orations and the eulogy on Adams and Jefferson - should be read by all young Americans.

Calhoun, an eloquent statesman from South Carolina, upheld the cause of state's rights as ably as did Webster that of the union. Calhoun was a man of unquestioned public and private integrity, and for more than a third of a century he was the leader in Southern councils. He held that the union was only a compact of states to be dissolved at will, and he indorsed the principles of nullification and secession.

Clay was a great orator and statesman who identified his interests and life with his adopted state, Kentucky. He is called "the Great Pacificator," because of his constant endeavors to make peace between the opposing sections. He could not prevent the coming conflict, but the compromise measures, proposed by him and passed through his influence, postponed war for many years.