and welded and finished, and at last the great chain was completed.

2. Years passed. One night there was a terrible storm, and the ship was in sore peril of being dashed upon the rocks. Anchor after anchor was dropped, but none of them held. At last the mighty sheet anchor was cast into the sea, and the old chain quickly uncoiled and ran out till it grew taut. All watched to see if it would bear the awful strain.

3. It sang in the wild storm as the vessel's weight surged upon it. It was a moment of intense anxiety. The ship with its cargo of a thousand lives depended upon this one chain. What now if the old smith had wrought carelessly even one link of his chain'!

4. But he had put honesty and truth and invincible strength into every part of it, and it stood the test, holding the ship in safety until the storm was

over.

Selected.

XVIII. MRS. GRAMMAR'S BALL

1. Mrs. Grammar once gave a fine ball,
To the nine different parts of our speech;
To the short and the tall,

To the stout and the small,

There were pies, plums, and puddings for each.

2. And first little Articles came,

In a hurry to make themselves known,
Fat a, an, and the ;

But none of the three

Could stand for a minute alone.

3. Then Adjectives came to announce

That their dear friends the Nouns were at hand,

Rough, rougher, and roughest,

Tough, tougher, and toughest,

Fat, merry, good-natured, and grand.

4. The Nouns were indeed on their way,

Tens of thousands, and more I should think;

For each name that we utter

Shop, shoulder, or shutter,

Is a noun; lady, lion, or link.

5. The Pronouns were hastening past
To push the Nouns out of their places;
I, thou, he, and she,

You, it, they, and we,

With their sprightly, intelligent faces.

6. Some cried out, "Make way for the Verbs!
A great crowd is coming in view!"
To light and to smite,

To fight and to bite,

To be, and to have, and to do.

7. The Adverbs attend on the Verbs, Behind as their footmen they run; As thus, "to fight badly,"

And "run away gladly,"

Show how fighting and running were done.

8. Prepositions came, in, by, and near; With Conjunctions, a small little band, As either you or he,

But neither I nor she;

They held their great friends by the hand.

9. Then in, with a hip, hip, hurrah! Rushed in Interjections uproarious; Dear me! well-a-day!

When they saw the display,

"Ha! ha!" they all shouted out, "glorious!"

10. But alas! what misfortunes were nigh: While the fun and the feasting pleased each, Pounced on them at once

A monster-a DUNCE!

And confounded the Nine Parts of Speech.

II. Help! friends! to the rescue! on you
For aid Verb and Article call;

Oh! give your protection

To poor Interjection,

Noun, Pronoun, Conjunction, and all. —Selected.

XIX. A REMARKABLE TREE

1. We were sailing under the burning sky of the tropics, when we came in sight of one of those little islands which had been formed by the coral insect.

2. As we approached, the island seemed covered with vegetation. But after we had landed we found nothing but a few species of grass and some ferns. The groves contained but a single kind of tree.

3. "What ugly, crooked trees are those?" said I to the surgeon, who was our botanist; "they seem. to be half fallen, and to support themselves only by leaning on each other. I have hardly ever seen so ungraceful a tree." "They are cocoa trees," replied he.

4. What!" exclaimed I, "do you mean to say that that is the cocoa-nut tree?-the cocoa tree, which I have seen represented as rising so magnificently, and gracefully waving its verdant head in the air at the height of eighty or a hundred feet?

5. "It is nothing else," replied he, "except that the height is only about the half of eighty or a hundred feet, the trunk is never erect, and the verdant head is rather of the color of hay."

6. Just then we saw a column of smoke rising above a grove of cocoa palms, and toward that we directed our steps. Here we found some of the

natives cooking around a fire of dry grass. After they had recovered from the alarm caused by our appearance, they invited us to share their repast. This invitation we gladly accepted, as we were quite hungry.

7. To refresh us, they offered us a cool, mild, sweet, limpid liquor, somewhat like milk, but to us much more agreeable. What is that?" asked I of the doctor. "It is," replied he, "the milk of the cocoa-nut." "Ah, indeed!"

8. A moment afterward one of the women brought a black pitcher, polished, shining, and carved, though somewhat rudely. It was made of a wood very hard and very solid, resembling ebony. "It is the shell of the cocoa-nut," said the doctor, "and these islanders have no other dishes."

9. This pitcher was then filled with a liquor which I believe would intoxicate a man as com

pletely as champagne. "To make this palm-wine," said the doctor, "they cut the young cocoa-nut, and suffer the juice which comes out to ferment twentyfour hours, when it forms this liquor."

10. Next they laid on the grass, which served as a table-cloth, a large basket, woven with so much art that it would have held water. This basket contained an enormous stewed cabbage, with an excellent sauce made of butter and milk. This dish I