wit and understanding that a few days afterwards he entrusted him with the care of his household; and my brother acquitted himself very well in that employment for twenty years. From "The Arabian Nights." GLOSSARY. Schacabac; Barmecide; raillery; complaisant; pistachio nut; ragout. STUDY. Why did Schacabac go to the palace of the Barmecide? What reply did he receive to his appeal to the gatekeeper? Describe the room in which he was received. Tell in order how he feasted with his host. Why did he fall in with the apparently merry mood of the Barmecide? Why did he ask to be excused from drinking the wine? Why did he finally agree to drink, and what result followed? How did the Barmecide accept the situation? Do you think he judged wisely in taking Schacabac into his service? (Judging from this story, what would it mean to speak of enjoying a “Barmecide Feast”?) GOODWIN SANDS WILLIAM CANTON Did you ever read or hear How the Aid-(God bless the Aid! More earnest prayer than that was never prayed) How the lifeboat, Aid of Ramsgate, saved the London Fusilier? Crew and captain-when a ship's on Goodwin Sands!) In the smother and the roar Of a very hell of waters-hard and fast She shook beneath the stroke Of each billow as it broke, 10 And the clouds of spray were mingled with the clouds of swirling 15 smoke As the blazing barrels bellowed in the blast! And the women and the little ones were frozen dumb with fear; And the strong men waited grimly for the last; When as the clocks were striking two in Ramsgate town 20 The little Aid came down, The Aid, the plucky Aid The Aid flew down the gale With the glimmer of the moon upon her sail; And the people thronged to leeward; stared and prayed25 Prayed and stared with tearless eye and breathless lip, While the little boat drew near. Ay, and then there rose a shout A clamor, half a sob and half a cheer As the boatmen flung the lifeboat anchor out, 30 And the gallant Aid sheered in beneath the ship, Beneath the shadow of the London Fusilier! "We can carry maybe thirty at a trip." (Hurrah for Ramsgate town!) "Quick, the women and the children!" O'er the side 35 Two sailors, slung in bowlines, hung to help the women down — Poor women, shrinking back in their dismay As they saw their ark of refuge, smothered up in spray, Ranging wildly this and that way in the racing of the tide; As they watched it rise and drop, with its crew of stalwart men, 40 When a huge sea swung it upward to the bulwarks of the ship, And, sweeping by in thunder, sent it plunging down again. Still they shipped them-nine-and-twenty (God be blessed!) When a man with glaring eyes Rushed up frantic to the gangway with a cry choked in his throat — 45 Thrust a bundle in a sailor's ready hands. Honest Jack, he understands Why, a blanket for a woman in the boat! "Catch it, Bill!" And he flung it with a will; And the boatman turned and caught it, bless him!-caught it, 50 tho' it slipped, And, even as he caught it, heard an infant's cries, While a woman shrieked and snatched it to her breast "My baby!" So the thirtieth passenger was shipped! Twice, and thrice, and yet again With the sunrise on her sail ("God bless the lifeboat Aid and all her men!") Brought her thirty at a trip Thro' the hell of Goodwin waters as they raged around the ship, Saved each soul aboard the London Fusilier! If you live to be a hundred, you will ne'er You will ne'er in all your life, Until you die, my dear, Be nearer to your death by land or sea! Why, the baby in the blanket-that was she! GLOSSARY. Goodwin Sands; Ramsgate; sheered; bowlines; ark of refuge; bulwarks; shipped. STUDY. What does the opening question tell you this story is about? What indicates the terrible state of the vessel? What that those on board had little hope of rescue? What justifies the use of the words "plucky" and "gallant" to characterize the Aid? How many could the Aid carry at a trip? Who were taken off first? Describe the loading of the Aid. "So the thirtieth passenger was shipped": How? How many trips did the lifeboat make? What explains the fact that the teller of the story places greater emphasis on the first trip of the Aid than on the others? FROZEN VOICES JOSEPH ADDISON There are no books which I more delight in than in travels, especially those that describe remote countries, and give the writer an opportunity of showing his parts without incurring any danger of being examined or contradicted. Among all the 5 authors of this kind, our renowned countryman Sir John Mandeville has distinguished himself by the copiousness of his invention and greatness of his genius. The second to Sir John I take to have been Ferdinand Mendez Pinto, a person of infinite adventure and unbounded imagination. One reads the voyages of these 10 two great wits with as much astonishment as the travels of Ulysses in Homer, or of the Red-Cross Knight in Spenser. All is enchanted ground and fairy land. I have got into my hands, by great chance, several manuscripts of these two eminent authors, which are filled with greater wonders 15 than any of those they have communicated to the public; and indeed, were they not so well attested, would appear altogether improbable. I am apt to think the ingenious authors did not publish them with the rest of their works lest they should pass for fictions and fables: a caution not unnecessary, when the repu20 tation of their veracity was not yet established in the world. But as this reason has now no further weight, I shall make the public a present of these curious pieces at such times as I shall find 'myself unprovided with other subjects. The present paper I intend to fill with an extract of Sir John's 25 journal, in which that learned and worthy knight gives an account of the freezing and thawing of several short speeches which he made in the territories of Nova Zembla. 30 Not to keep my reader any longer in suspense, the relation put into modern language is as follows: "We were separated by a storm in the latitude of 73, insomuch that only the ship which I was in, with a Dutch and a French vessel, got safe into a creek of Nova Zembla. We landed, in order to refit our vessels and store ourselves with provisions. The crew of each vessel made themselves a cabin of turf and wood, at some distance from each other, to fence themselves against 35 the inclemencies of the weather, which were severe beyond imagination. We soon observed that in talking to one another we lost several of our words, and could not hear one another at above two yards' distance, and that too when we sat very near the fire. 40 "After much perplexity, I found that our words froze. in the air before they could reach the ears of the person to whom they were spoken. I was soon confirmed in this conjecture, when, upon the increase of the cold, the whole company grew dumb, or rather deaf; for every man was sensible, as we afterwards 45 found, that he spoke as well as ever; but the sounds no sooner took air than they were condensed and lost. It was now a miserable spectacle to see us nodding and gaping at one another, every man talking, and no man heard. One might observe a seaman, that could hail a ship at a league distance, beckoning 50 with his hands, straining his lungs, and tearing his throat, but all in vain. 'We continued here three weeks in this dismal plight. At length, upon a turn of wind, the air about us began to thaw. Our cabin was immediately filled with a dry, clattering sound, which 55 I afterwards found to be the crackling of consonants that broke above our heads, and were often mixed with a gentle hissing, which I imputed to the letter S, that occurs so frequently in the English tongue. "I soon after felt a breeze of whispers rushing by my ear; 60 for those being of a soft and gentle substance, immediately liquefied in the warm wind that blew across our cabin. These were soon followed by syllables and short words, and at length by entire sentences, that melted sooner or later, as they were more or less congealed; so that we now heard everything that had been spoken 65 during the whole three weeks that we had been silent, if I may use that expression. |