heartburning. The story got out among the boys of the village, and it was a long time before I heard the last of it. Boys enjoy the misery of their companions, at least village boys in that day did, and in later life I have found that not all adults are free from the peculiarity.

15. I kept the horse until he was four years old, when he went blind, and I sold him for twenty dollars. When I went to school in Maysville, in 1836, at the age of fourteen, I recognized my colt as one of the blind horses working on the treadwheel of the ferryboat.

16. I have described enough of my early life to give an impression of the whole. I did not like to work; but I did as much of it, while young, as grown men can be hired to do in these days, and attended school at the same time. I had as many privileges as any boy in the village, and probably more than most of them.

17. I have no recollection of ever having been punished at home, either by scolding or by the rod. But at school the case was different. The rod was freely used there, and I was not exempt from its infliction. I can see the school-teacher now, with his long beech switch always in his hand. It was not always the same one, either.

18. Switches were brought in bundles, from a

beech wood near the schoolhouse, by the boys for whose benefit they were intended. Often a whole bundle would be used up in a single day. I never had any hard feelings against my teacher, either while attending the school, or in later years when reflecting upon my experience. He was a kindhearted man, and was much respected by the community in which he lived. He only followed the universal custom of the period, and that under which he had received his own education.

LXXXVI. KING CANUTE

1. King Canute was weary-hearted: he had reigned for years a score,

Battling, struggling, pushing, fighting, killing much and robbing more;

And he thought upon his actions, walking by the wild seashore.

2. On that day a something vexed him; that was clear to old and young;

Thrice his Grace had yawned at table when his favorite gleemen sung;

Once the Queen would have consoled him, but he bade her hold her tongue.

3. "Something ails my gracious master," cried the Keeper of the Seal.

4.

"Sure, my lord, it is the lampreys served at dinner, or the veal?"

Pshaw!" exclaimed the angry monarch. "Keeper, 'tis not that I feel.

"Tis the heart and not the dinner, fool, that doth my rest impair:

Can a king be great as I am, prithee, and yet know no care?

Oh, I'm sick, and tired, and weary." Some one cried, "The King's armchair!"

5. Then towards the lackeys turning, quick my Lord the Keeper nodded:

Straight the King's great chair was brought him, by two footmen able-bodied;

Languidly he sank into it: it was comfortably wadded.

6. "Ah! I feel," said old King Canute, "that my end is drawing near."

"Don't say so," exclaimed the courtiers (striving each to squeeze a tear):

"Sure your Grace is strong and lusty, and may live this fifty year."