No accent on to; but treat to-my-age as one word.-Line 6 : Avoid the accent on let.-Line 7: Of-you-three as one word; and no accent on of.

VERSE 3.-Line 3: Before-your-face as one word.-Line 7: Avoid the accent on that; and make Ere-that one word.

VERSE 4.-Line 2: Avoid the accent on for; and place the emphasis on your.-Line 5: And-serve-your-highness as one word.-Line 7: No accent on the ness in quietness !—Line 8: No accent on may! Make may-remove one word.

VERSE 5.-Line 1: Avoid the accent on so; make saying-so one word.-Line 3: Do not say: But what | say'st thoú? Read: But what-say'st-thoú?-Line 6: No accent on to! Make toyour-grace one word.-Line 7: No accent on be! Make shallbe-the-duty one word.

VERSE 6.-Line 1: Wilt-thou-shew as one word.-Line 2: No accent on doth! Hasten on to duty, which is the emphatic word.-Line 4: No more, which are the emphatic words, should be uttered slowly and weightily.-Line 5: I-banish-thee-my-court, as one word.-Line 6: Avoid the accents on art and child; and read: Thou art-no-child of-mine!'

VERSE 7.-Line 2: No accent on I! Emphasis on well!Line 7: This is a very difficult line to read. The 6th and 7th lines must be taken together and thus read: 'That lovingly I may by-those-thy-sisters be-maintained.' No accent on be!Line 8: Avoid the accent upon Until; and hasten on to dying, which is the emphatic word.

VERSE 8.-Line 2: These-two-sisters, as one word.-Line 4: No accent on was! Make 'was-her-love' one word.

VERSE 9.-Line 3: No accent on she!--Line 5: No accent on when! Make when-the-king, &c., one word.

QUESTIONS.-1. How many daughters had King Lear? 2. What were their names? 3. What did each of them promise their father? 4. Why did he banish Cordelia? 5. What was the condition on which he divided his kingdom between Regan and Gonorell? 6. After wandering about in England, where did Cordelia go? 7. What happened to her there?

DICTATION.-Learn to spell and write out verse 1.

EXERCISES.-1. Learn to spell the following words:

2. Explain the following phrases: (1) So princely seeming. (2) Which of you in plighted troth the kindest will appear. (3) Ere that I see your reverend age the smallest grief sustain. (4) The worst of all extremities. (5) How is thy love allied? (6) My pompal state. (7) Flattering speeches won renown.

3. Write a short account of King Lear and his daughters from the following outline: (1) Lear, an English king, had three daughters. (2) He asked them one day which of them would give him the strongest proof of love. (3) Regan and Gonorell said they would die for him; and Gonorell said she would serve him day and night; but Cordelia would only promise the duty of a child. (4) Lear drives Cordelia away, and divides his kingdom between her sisters. (5) Cordelia wanders about in England, and then goes to France, where the king marries her.

A TALE WITHOUT AN END.

Mon'arch, a king.

Can'didate, a person asking for an
office or honour.

Delib'erate, slow, calm.
Stipula'tions, conditions, bargain.
Gran'ary, storehouse for grain.
Locust, a winged insect, very
destructive to vegetation.

Cubit, an ancient measure equal

to the length of the arm from
the elbow to the tip of the
middle-finger; about a foot
and a half.

Caprice', whim, a foolish fancy.
Ingen'ious, clever.

Device', plan, scheme.

1. An Eastern monarch made a proclamation, that, if any man would tell him a story that should last for ever, he would make him his heir, and give him the princess, his daughter, in marriage; but, if any one should pretend that he had such a story, and should fail-that is, if the story should come to an end-he was to have his head chopped off.

2. For such a prize as a beautiful princess and a kingdom, many candidates appeared; and dreadfully long stories some of them told. Some lasted a week-some a month-some six months. Poor

fellows! they all spun them out as long as they possibly could, you may be sure; but all in vain; sooner or later they all came to an end; and, one after another, the unlucky story-tellers all had their heads chopped off.

3. At last came a man who said that he had a story which would last for ever, if his majesty would be pleased to give him a trial.

He was warned of his danger; they told him how many others had tried and lost their heads; but he said he was not afraid, and so he was brought before the king. 4. He was a man of a very composed and deliberate manner of speaking; and after stipulating for time for his eating, drinking, and sleeping, he thus began his story :

'O king! there was once a king who was a great tyrant; and, desiring to increase his riches, he seized upon all the corn and grain in his kingdom, and put it into an immense granary, which he built on purpose, as high as a mountain.

5. This he did for several years, till the granary was quite full. He then stopped up the doors and windows, and closed it up fast on every side.

'But the bricklayers had, by accident, left a very small hole near the top of the granary; and there came a flight of locusts, and tried to get at the corn. 6. But the hole was so small that only one locust could pass through it at a time. So one locust went in and carried off one grain of corn; and then another locust went in and carried off another grain of corn; and then another locust went in and carried off another grain of corn; and

then another locust went in and carried off another grain of corn; and then another locust went in and carried off another grain of corn; and then another locust went in and carried off another grain of corn; and then another locust went in and carried off another grain of corn'

7. He had gone on thus from morning to night (except while he was asleep, or engaged at his meals) for about a month, when the king, though a very patient king, began to be rather tired of the locusts, and interrupted his story with: 'Well, well, we have had enough of the locusts; we will suppose that they have helped themselves to all the corn they wanted; tell us what happened afterwards.' 8. To which the story-teller answered very deliberately: 'If it please your Majesty, it is impossible to tell you what happened afterwards, before I have told you what happened first.' So he went on again: And then another locust went in and carried off another grain of corn; and then another locust went in and carried off another grain of corn; and then another locust went in and. carried off another grain of corn; and then another locust went in and carried off another grain of corn; and then another locust went in and carried off another grain of corn; and then another locust went in and carried off another grain of corn; and then another locust went in and carried off another grain of corn.' 9. The king listened with unconquerable patience six months more, when he again interrupted him with: 'O friend! I am weary of your locusts! How soon do you think they will

have done?' To which the story-teller made answer: 'O king! who can tell? At the time to which my story has come, the locusts have cleared away a small space, it may be a cubit each way round the inside of the hole; and the air is still dark with locusts on all sides. But let the king have patience, and no doubt we shall come to the end of them in time.'

10. Thus encouraged, the king listened on for another full year, the story-teller still going on as before: 'And then another locust went in and carried off another grain of corn; and then another locust went in and carried off another grain of corn; and then another locust went in and carried off another grain of corn'-till at last the poor king could bear it no longer, and cried out: 'O man, that is enough! Take my daughter!-take my kingdom!—take anything-everything! only let us hear no more of your abominable locusts!'

11. And so the story-teller was married to the king's daughter, and was declared heir to the throne, and nobody ever expressed a wish to hear the rest of his story, for he said it was impossible to come to the other part of it till he had done with the locusts. The unreasonable caprice of the foolish king was thus over-matched by the ingenious device of the wise man.

Letters from an Officer in India, edited by Rev. S. A. Pears,

QUESTIONS.-1. On what conditions did the king offer to make any one who applied to him his heir, and give him his daughter for a wife? 2. What was to be the result of failure? 3. Did any claimants appear? 4. How long did their stories last?