LXXI. - THE STRAWBERRY GIRL.

BALM'Y, a., fragrant; sweet.

CLUS'TER, n., a bunch.

COURT'LY, a., elegant; polite.
BRILLIANT, a., shining.

In perfume, the accent is on the first syllable when it is a noun; on the second, when it is a verb. Do not say dooey for dew'y.

1. It is summer! it is summer! How beautiful it looks! There is sunshine on the old gray hills, and sunshine on the brooks; a singing-bird on every bough; soft per'fumes on the air; a happy smile on each young lip, and gladness every where. O! is it not a pleasant thing to wander through the woods, to look upon the painted flowers, and watch the opening buds;-or, seated in the deep, cool shade, at some tall ash-tree's root, to fill my little basket with the sweet and scented fruit!

2. They tell me that my father's poor;-that is no grief to me, when such a blue and brilliant sky my up turned eye can see. They tell me, too, that richer girls can sport with toy and gem. It may be so; and yet, methinks, I do not envy them. When forth I go úpon my way, a thousand toys are mine: the clusters of dark violets, the wreaths of the wild vine. My jewels are the primrose pale, the bind-weed, and the rose. O! show me any courtly gem more beautiful than these.

3. And then, the fruit! the glowing fruit! how sweet the scent it breathes! I love to see its crimson cheek rest on the bright green leaves. Summer's own gift of luxury, in which the poor may share,—the wildwood fruit, my eager eye is seeking every where. O! summer is a pleasant time, with all its sounds and sights; its dewy mornings, balmy eyes, and tranquil, calm delights. I sigh when first I see the leaves fall yellow on the plain; and all the winter long I sing, — Sweet summer! come again! MARY HOWITT.

Pronounce Ophir, O'fer · His-pan-i-o'la, as marked; Asia, Ã'she-a.

1. HE was decidedly a visionary, but a visionary of an uncommon and successful kind. The manner in which his ardent imagination and mercurial nature were controlled by a powerful judgment, and directed by an acute sagacity, is the most extraordinary feature in his character. Thus governed, his imagination, instead of wasting itself in idle soarings, lent wings to his judgment, and bore it away to conclusions at which common minds could never have arrived; nay, which they could not perceive when pointed out.

2. To his intellectual vision it was given to read, in the signs of the times and the reveries of past ages, the indications of an unknown world, as soothsayers were said to read predictions in the stars, and to foretell events from the visions of the night. "His soul," observes a Spanish writer, "was superior to the age in which he lived. For him was reserved the great enterprise to plow a sea which had given rise to so many fables, and to decipher the mystery of his time.”

3. With all the visionary fervor of his imagination, its fondest dreams fell short of the reality. He died in ignorance of the real grandeur of his discovery. Until his last breath, he entertained the idea that he had merely opened a new way to the old resorts of opulent commerce, and had discovered some of the wild regions of the East. He supposed Hispaniola to be the ancient Ophir which had been visited by the ships of Solomon, and that Cuba and Terra Firma were but remote parts of Asia.

4. What visions of glory would have broke upon

his mind, could he have known that he had indeed discovered a new continent, equal to the whole of the old world in magnitude, and separated, by two vast oceans, from all the earth hitherto known by civilized man! And how would his magnanimous spirit have been consoled, amid the chills of age and cares of penury, the neglect of a fickle public and the injustice of an ungrateful king, could he have anticipated the splendid empires which were to spread over the beautiful world he had discovered, and the nations and tongues and languages which were to fill its lands with his renown, and to revere and bless his name to the latest posterity! WASHINGTON IRVING.

LXXIII.-THE STORY OF GINEVRA.

NUPTIAL, a., pertaining to marriage. | PAN'IC, n., a sudden fright.

TEN'ANT-LESS, a., unoccupied.

QUEST, n., act of seeking.

Avoid saying sred for shred. In first, nurst, burst, give the sound of er in her. Pronounce Ginevra, Je-në'vra; Francesco, Fran-ches'co.

SHE was an only child, her name Ginevra,—
The joy, the pride, of an indulgent father,-
And in her fifteenth year became a bride,
Marrying an only son, Francesco Doria,
Her playmate from her birth, and her. first love.
She was all gentleness, all gayety,

Her pranks the favorite theme of every tongue.

But now the day was come, - the day, the hour;
Now frowning, smiling, for the hundredth time,
The nurse, that ancient lady, preached decorum;
And, in her shining youth, Ginevra gave
Her hand, with her heart in it, to Francesco.

Great was the joy; but at the nuptial feast,
When all sat down, the bride herself was wanting;
Nor was she to be found! Her father cried,

"'Tis but to make a trial of our love!"
And filled his glass to all; but his hand shook,
And soon from guest to guest the panic spread.

'T was but that instant she had left Francesco,
Laughing and looking back, and flying still,
Her ivory tooth imprinted on his finger;
But now, alas! she was not to be found;
Nor, from that hour, could any thing be guessed,
But that she was not!

Weary of his life,

Francesco flew to Venice, and, embarking,
Flung it away in battle with the Turk.

The father lived, and long might you have seen
An old man wandering as in quest of something,-
Something he could not find, he knew not what.
When he was dead, the house remained a while
Silent and tenantless; then went to strangers.

Full fifty years were past, and all forgotten,
When, on an idle day,- a day of search,
'Mid the old lumber in the gallery,-

A mouldering chest was noticed, and 't was said,
By one as young, as thoughtless, as Ginevra,

'Why not remove it from its lurking-place?"

'Twas done as soon as said; but, on the way,
It burst-it, fell; and, lo! a skeleton,
With here and there a pearl, an emerald stone,
A golden clasp clasping a shred of gold!
All else had perished, save a wedding ring,
And a small seal, her mother's legacy,

Engraven with a name,- the name of both,— Ginevra

There, then, she had found a grave!

Within that chest had she concealed herself,
Fluttering with joy, the happiest of the happy,
When a spring-lock, that lay in ambush there,
Fastened her down forever!

SAMUEL ROGERS. (1760-1857.)

LXXIV. APOSTROPHE TO THE OCEAN.

A-POS'TRO-PHE, n., a digressive ad- | YEST or YEAST, n., the foam or froth

dress.

RAV'AGE, n., desolation; ruin.

TOR'RID, a., violently hot.

AR-MA'DA, n.,

war.

of liquor in fermentation.
LE-VI'A-THAN, n., a sea-monster.

AR'BI-TER, n., an umpire.

a large fleet of ships of TRA-FAL-GAR', n., a cape in Spain, off

UN-KNELLED' (-neld), a., untolled.

which was fought, in 1805, the greas naval battle in which Nelson fell.

Pronounce none, nun; were, wer; been, bin; ne'er, nāre; are, r

THERE is a pleasure in the pathless woods,
There is a rapture on the lonely shore,
There is society, where none intrudes,

By the deep sea, and music in its roar.
I love not man the less, but nature more,
From these our interviews, in which I steal
From all I may be, or have been before,

To mingle with the universe, and feel

What I can ne'er express, yet can not all conceal.

Roll on, thou deep and dark blue ocean · roll!
Ten thousand fleets sweep over thee in vain;
Man marks the earth with ruin; his control
Stops with the shore; upon the watery plain
The wrecks are all thy deed, nor doth remain
A shadow of man's ravage, save his own,
When, for a moment, like a drop of rain,

He sinks into thy depths with bubbling groan, Without a grave, unknelled, uncoffined, and unknown.

The armaments which thunderstrike the walls
Of rock-built cities, bidding nations quake,
And monarchs tremble in their capitols,—
The oak leviathans, whose huge ribs make
Their clay creator the vain title take

Of lord of thee, and arbiter of war;

These are thy toys, and, as the snowy flake, They melt into thy yest of waves, which mar Alike the armada's pride, or spoils of Trafalgar.