The fiend gives the more friendly counsel: I will run, fiend; my heels are at your command; I will run.

(SHAKESPEARE: Merchant of Venice)

THE BOAT RACE

What a babel of cheers and exclamations bursts forth from the waving, transported crowd along the bank! They begin to know who is who now, and can tell beyond the shadow of a doubt that the crimson and black and the blue and white are having a noble struggle for the lead.

Hall!

No, he isn't!
Hurrah for

"Jack Hall is ahead! Hall! Hit her up, Doctor! Hurrah for Hall! the Doctor! Tom, where are you! Bonsall! Bonsall!

The tumult is maddening. Can it be possible that Jack Hall, who, on the whole, before the race, was rated lowest of the three, is going to break the school record and beat the invincible Doctor in one and the same breath? It looks like it if he can hold his own for two hundred yards more. It looks like it decidedly, and there is plenty of clear water still between the winning goal and the foremost shell; and see, the Doctor is spurting with a vengeance-look! - look! — and is he not gaining, too?

The Doctor has crept up, no doubt about that. The nose of his shell is now well beyond Jack's out-rigger, and he is speeding like the wind. Jack is feeling terribly tired, his throat that he thought parched at the start burns as if it were on fire, and his eyes seem ready to start out of his head. His crimson handkerchief has fallen over his eyes, but he gives himself a shake and it

falls to his neck, leaving his brow refreshingly free. He has vanquished Tom anyway. So much to be thankful for. Tom is a length behind, struggling still, like the man he is, but hopelessly vanquished all the same. Jack turns his head, remembering to keep cool if he can, and sights the goal. Not more than one hundred and fifty yards left! The reverberating yells and cheers are setting his blood ablaze. He can scarcely see, but he knows he has not spurted yet. He is neck and neck with the Doctor now. There can be nothing to choose between them.

The time has come now, our hero knows, to put in any spurt that is left in him. Gripping the handles of his oars like a vise and shutting his eyes, Jack throws all his vital powers into one grand effort, which, to his supreme happiness, is answered by a great roar from the shore.

Hall! Hall! Hurrah! Nobly done, Hall! Hall wins!

(GRANT: The Boat Race)

GRATTAN'S REPLY

3

eng

The right honorable gentleman has called me "an unimpeached traitor." I ask, why not "traitor” unqualified by any epithet? I will tell him; it was because he dare not! It was the act of a coward, who raises his arm to strike, but has not the courage to give the blow! I will not call him villain, because it would be unparliamentary, and he is a Privy Councilor. I will not call him fool, because he happens to be Chancellor of the Exchequer. But I say he is one who has abused the privilege of Parliament and freedom of debate, in uttering language, which, if spoken out of the House, I

should answer only with a blow. I care not how high his station, how low his character, how contemptible his speech; whether a privy councilor or a parasite, my answer would be a blow. He has charged me with being connected with the rebels. The charge is utterly, totally, and meanly false! Does the honorable gentleman rely on the report of the House of Lords for the foundation of his assertion? If he does, I can prove to the committee there was a physical impossibility of that report being true. But I scorn to answer any man for my conduct, whether he be a political coxcomb, or whether he brought himself into power by a false glare of courage or not.

I have returned, not, as the honorable member has said, to raise another storm,- I have returned to discharge an honorable debt of gratitude to my country, that conferred a great reward for past services, which, I am proud to say, was not greater than my desert. I have returned to protect that Constitution, of which I was a parent and founder, from the assassination of such men as the honorable gentleman and his unworthy associates. They are corrupt - they are seditious,— and they, at this very moment, are in a conspiracy against their country! I have returned to refute a libel, as false as it is malicious, given to the public under the appellation of a report of the committee of the Lords. Here I stand for impeachment or trial! I dare accusation! I defy the honorable gentleman! I defy the Government! I defy their whole phalanx! - let them come forth! I tell the ministers I shall neither give quarter nor take it!

(GRATTAN: Reply to Corry)

SCROOGE IN A JOYFUL MOOD

"I don't know what to do!" cried Scrooge, laughing and crying in the same breath; and making a perfect Laocoon of himself and his stockings. "I am as light as a feather, I am as happy as an angel, I am as merry as a school-boy. I am as giddy as a drunken man. A Merry Christmas to everybody! A happy New Year to all the world! Hallo there! Whoop! Hallo!"

He had frisked into the sitting-room, and was now standing there; perfectly winded.

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There's the saucepan that the gruel was in!" cried Scrooge, starting off again, and going round the fireplace. There's the door by which the ghost of Jacob Marley entered! There's the corner where the Ghost of Christmas Present sat! There's the window where I saw the wandering spirits! it all happened! Ha, ha, ha!

It's all right, it's all true,

Really, for a man who has been out of practice for so many years, it was a splendid laugh, a most illustrious laugh. The father of a long, long line of laughs!

"I don't know what day of the month it is,” said Scrooge. "I don't know how long I have been among the spirits. I don't know anything. I'm quite a baby. Never mind. I don't care. I'd rather be a baby. Hallo! Whoop! Hallo there!"

He was checked in his transports by the churches ringing out the lustiest peals he had ever heard. Clash, clang, hammer; ding, dong, bell. Bell, dong, ding, hammer, clang, clash! Oh, glorious, glorious!

Running to the window, he opened it, and put out his head. No fog, no mist; clear, bright, jovial, stirring, cold; cold, piping for the blood to dance to; Golden sun

light; Heavenly sky; sweet fresh air; merry bells. Oh, glorious! Glorious!

"What's to-day?" cried Scrooge, calling downward to a boy in Sunday clothes, who perhaps had loitered in to look about him.

"Eh?" returned the boy with all his might of wonder. "What's to-day, my fine fellow?" said Scrooge. To-day!" replied the boy. Why, CHRISTMAS

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DAY."

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(DICKENS: A Christmas Carol)

PREPARING FOR FEZZIWIG'S PARTY

"Yo ho, my boys!" said Fezziwig. "No more work to-night. Christmas Eve, Dick. Christmas, Ebenezer! Let's have the shutters up," cried old Fezziwig, with a sharp clap of his hands, "before a man can say Jack Robinson!"

You wouldn't believe how those two fellows went at it! They charged into the street with the shutters — one, two, three had 'em up in their places-four, five, six -barred 'em and pinned 'em — seven, eight, nine — and came back before you could have got to twelve, panting like race-horses.

"Hilli-ho!" cried old Fezziwig, skipping down from the high desk with wonderful agility. "Clear away, my lads, and let's have lots of room here! Hilli-ho, Dick! Chirrup, Ebenezer ! "

Clear away! There was nothing they wouldn't have cleared away, or couldn't have cleared away, with old Fezziwig looking on. It was done in a minute. Every movable was packed off; as if it were dismissed from public life for evermore; the floor was swept and watered, the lamps were trimmed, fuel was heaped upon the fire;