ing a new phase"? "assented-inquiringly"? "planetary burying-ground"? What is the source of thought? How does printing keep a man alive? XXIX. THE WEAKEST THING. 1. Which is the weakest thing of all 2. The cloud, a little wind can move The wind, a little leaf above, 3. What time that yellow leaf was green, My days were gladder; But now, whatever spring may mean, I must grow sadder. 4. Ah me! a leaf with sighs can wring My lips asunder Then is mine heart the weakest thing 5. Yet, Heart, when sun and cloud are pined, And at a blast which is not wind The forests wither, 6. Thou from the darkening, deathly curse To glory breakest,— 1. Ponder, listeth, asunder, wither, universe. 2. Mention the steps by which the poet tries to prove that the heart is the weakest thing. Because the cloud can veil the sun, is it the greater? Does not the sun still shine? Does this mean physically "the weakest thing"? Who is the "Strongest of the Universe"? What is the "blast which is not wind"? XXX. THE QUARREL OF SQUIRE BULL AND HIS SON. 1. John Bull was a choleric old fellow, who held a good manor in the middle of a great mill pond, which, by reason of its being quite surrounded by water, was generally called Bullock Island. Bull was an ingenious man, an exceedingly good blacksmith, a dextrous cutler, and a notable weaver, and was in fact a sort of jack-of-all-trades, and good at each. In addition to these, he was a hearty good fellow, and passably honest as times go. 2. But what tarnished all these qualities was a quarrelsome, overbearing disposition, which was always getting him into some scrape or other. The truth is, he never heard of a quarrel going on among his neighbors but his fingers itched to be in the thickest of it; so that he hardly ever was seen without a broken head, a black eye, or a bloody nose. Such was Squire Bull, as he was commonly called by the country people, his neighbors-one of those odd, testy, grumbling, boasting old codgers that never get credit for what they are because they are always pretending to be what they are not. 3. The squire was as tight a hand to deal with indoors as out; sometimes treating his family as if they were not the same flesh and blood, when they happened to differ with him in certain matters. One day he got into a dispute with his youngest son Jonathan, who was familiarly called Brother Jonathan, about whether churches ought to be called churches or meetinghouses; and whether steeples were not an abomination. The squire, either having the worst of the argument or being naturally impatient of contradiction (I can't tell which), fell into a great passion, and said he would physic such notions out of the boy's noddle. 4. So he went to some of his doctors and got them to draw up a prescription, made up of thirtynine different articles, many of them bitter enough to some palates. This he tried to make Jonathan swallow; and finding he made villainous wry faces and would not do it, fell upon him and beat him like fury. After this he made the house so dis agreeable to him, that Jonathan, though as hard as a pine knot and as tough as leather, could bear it no longer. Taking his gun and his ax, he put himself in a boat and paddled over the mill pond to some new land to which the squire pretended some sort of claim, intending to settle there, and build a meetinghouse without a steeple as soon as he grew rich enough. 5. When he got across the pond, Jonathan found that the land was quite in a state of nature, covered with wood and inhabited by nobody but wild beasts. But, being a lad of mettle, he took his ax on one shoulder, and his gun on the other, marched into the thickest of the wood, and, clearing a place, built a log hut. Pursuing his labors, and handling his ax like a notable woodman, he in a few years cleared the land, which he laid out into thirteen good farms; and building himself a fine farmhouse, about half furnished, began to be quite snug and comfortable. 6. But Squire Bull, who was getting old and stingy, and, besides, was in great want of money on account of his having lately to pay swinging damages for assaulting his neighbors and breaking their heads the squire, I say, finding Jonathan was getting well to do in the world, began to be very much troubled about his welfare; so he demanded that Jonathan should pay him a good rent for the land which he had cleared and made good for something. He trumped up I know not what claim against him, and under different pretences managed to pocket all Jonathan's honest gains. In fact, the poor lad had not a shilling left for holiday occasions; and, had it not been for the filial respect he felt for the old man, he would certainly have refused to submit to such impositions. 7. But, for all this, in a little time Jonathan grew up to be very large of his age, and became a tall, stout, double-jointed, broad-footed fellow, awkward in his gait and simple in his appearance, but showing a lively, shrewd look, and having the promise of great strength when he should get his full growth. He was rather an odd-looking chap, in truth, and had many queer ways; but everybody that had seen John Bull saw a great likeness between them, and said he was John's own boy, and a true chip of the old block. Like the old squire, he was apt to be blustering and saucy, but in the main was a peaceable sort of careless fellow that would quarrel with nobody if you would only let him alone. 8. While Jonathan was outgrowing his strength, Bull kept on picking his pockets of every penny he could scrape together; till at last one day when the squire was even more than usually pressing in his demands, which he accompanied with threats, |