NOTES FOR STUDY.

DES POT IC, ruled by an absolute | ROUʼBLE, a Russian coin worth

monarch.

MIT'I GATED,lessened, made easier.
KO'PECK, a Russian coin worth

about one-half a cent.
COU'RI ER, one who carries mes-

sages, an attendant. PAʼTRON ESS, a woman who protects, aids, or assists some person or thing.

AB STAIN', to keep one's self back, to refrain.

PASS'PORT, an official paper guar

anteeing protection to a traveler. DEIGN (dān), to stoop so far as to grant, give, or allow. VAG ́A BONDS, tramps, wanderers.

about 77 cents.

IN HOS PI TAL'I TY, a lack of kind-
ness to strangers.

IN DIG NATION, anger.
IN DIS TINʼGUISH A BLE, not easily
seen, not visible.

CON'VOY, a guard sent to protect

moving property.

PE LISSE', a long outer garment
lined with fur.

BE NEF ́I CENCE, goodness, charity.
PRO TRACT', to lengthen out, to

put off, to defer.

ET'I QUETTE, the rules of polite society.

VIE, to strive for first place.

CXVII. THE PERKIOMEN.

ISAAC R. PENNYPACKER.

Here, in times long gone, October bright
In sombre forests set her glory light;
Where village street leads o'er the bridge's span,
Among brown hills and peaceful meadows ran
The Perkiomen, singing all the day.

For well-tilled fields gave back a hundred-fold,
And well-filled barns could scarce their treasure hold;
The orchards, bending 'neath the weight they bore,
Cast down their golden fruit upon the shore

Of Perkiomen, singing all the day.

There came a change: the leaves upon the wood
Burned brighter with a color as of blood;
The waving northern lights, the camp-fires' glow
Seemed from the heights a tinge of blood to throw
On Perkiomen at the close of day.

At morn a host marched proudly to the fight;
And some returned their camp-fires to relight,
And some to hear awhile the waters flow;
Then ears grew dull in coming death, and low
The Perkiomen sang on that dread day.

distant homes were said

And
in
prayers many
By hearts that ne'er again were comforted;
While here the soldier saw in dreams again
Home scenes, made vivid by the sad refrain
Of Perkiomen, singing all the day.

Yet 'mid the gloom and doubt the living learned
How still defeat to victory might be turned;
Until the cannon thundered from the hill
A conquest's tale, and glad below the mill

The Perkiomen sang on that great day.

But nature soon forgets: that camp is lost;
She hides the graves of all that armed host;
On the same site now stands another mill;
Another miller leans on the white sill

To hear the Perkiomen sing to-day.

Let not our hearts forget. Lo! time makes plain
How from the sacrifice has grown our gain.
Here orchards bloom; each year its harvest brings,
And clearer still of peace and plenty sings
The Perkiomen all the autumn day.

NOTES FOR STUDY.

The Perkiomen is a beautiful stream, flowing through Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, and emptying into the Schuylkill. Before and after the battle of Germantown Washington's army was encamped upon this stream,-General Washington's headquarters being at Pennypacker's Mills. Many soldiers are buried near, among them General Nash of North Carolina. Here, too, Washington announced to his army the defeat of Burgoyne.

CXVIII. LITTLE TOM THE CHIMNEY-SWEEP.
CHARLES KINGSLEY.

Tom and his master did not go into Harthover House by the great iron gates, as if they had been dukes or bishops, but round the back way, and a very long way round it was; and into a little back door, and then in a passage the housekeeper met them, in such a flowered chintz dressing-gown, that Tom mistook her for my lady herself; and she gave Grimes solemn orders about "You will take care of this, and take care of that," as if he were going up the chimneys, and not Tom.

And Grimes listened, and said every now and then, under his voice, "You'll mind that, you little

beggar!" and Tom did mind, at least all that he could. And then the housekeeper turned them into a grand room, all covered up in sheets of brown paper, and bade them begin, in a lofty and tremendous voice and so after a whimper or two, and a kick from his master, into the grate Tom went, and up the chimney, while a housemaid stayed in the room to watch the furniture.

How many chimneys he swept I cannot say; but he swept so many that he got quite tired, and puzzled too, for they were not like the town flues to which he was used, but such as are to be found in old country-houses, large and crooked chimneys, which had been altered again and again, till they ran into one another.

So Tom fairly lost his way in them; not that he cared much for that, though he was in pitchy darkness, for he was as much at home in a chimney as a mole is under ground; but at last coming down as he thought the right chimney, he came down the wrong one, and found himself standing on the hearthrug in a room the like of which he had never seen before.

Tom had never seen the like. He had never been in gentlefolks' rooms but when the carpets were all up and the curtains down, and the furniture huddled together under a cloth, and the pictures covered with aprons and dusters; and he had

had been murdered by savages in foreign parts, and she kept it there for a remembrance." And Tom felt sad, and awed, and turned to look at something else.

The next thing Tom saw, and that, too, puzzled him, was a washing-stand, with jugs and basins, and soap and brushes and towels, and a large bath full of clean water. "What a heap of things all for washing! She must be a very dirty lady," thought Tom, "to want as much scrubbing as all that. But she must be very cunning to put the dirt so well out of the way afterwards, for I don't see a speck about the room, not even on the very towels."

And then, looking towards the bed, he saw that dirty lady, and held his breath with astonishment. Under the snow-white coverlet upon the snowwhite pillow, lay the most beautiful little girl Tom had ever seen. Her cheeks were almost as white as the pillow, and her hair was like threads of gold spread all about over the bed. She might have been as old as Tom, or maybe a year or two older, but Tom did not think of that; he thought only of her delicate skin and golden hair, and wondered if she were a real live person, or one of the wax dolls he had seen in the shops. But when he saw her breathe, he made up his mind that she was alive, and stood staring at her as if she had been an angel out of