WORD ANALYSIS AND DEFINITIONS.

Ce ru'le an, blue; sky-colored.

Cha'os, a confused mass of things; disorder.

In cum'bent (cumb, to lie down), lying down upon; pressing as a duty.

ence.

LESSON LXII.

DESCRIPTION OF A SNOW-STORM.

1. The recent snow-storm brings back our boyhood experiReared among the hills of Western Connecticut, we were brought up in the very school of the snow. We remember the dreamy snow-falls, when great flakes came down wavering through the air as if they had no errand, and were sauntering for mere laziness.

2. The air thickens. One by one familiar objects are hidden as by a mist. Paths disappear. Voices of teamsters are Like a fog, the

heard; but nothing in the road can be seen.

snow, fast falling, hides all things. It comes straight down; not a breath of wind disturbs its descent. All day long it falls. The fences are grotesquely muffled; evergreens bend, being burdened. Even the bare branches of deciduous trees are clothed as with wool.

3. Still the noiseless flakes fill the sky. The eye is bewildered in looking out upon the weird haze, so calm, so still, so full of movement, and yet with a sense of death in it! But, as one looks, a change is taking place. The snow-flake has become smaller. It has lost its calm and leisurely motion. It begins to pelt down, as if shot by some force from above. Now and then around the corner comes a puff of wind, which drives the snow off in long, slanting lines; or whirls of wind come, mixing them up in a strange medley.

4. Night is shutting in. Every moment the air darkens. The wind is coming in earnest. The chimney roars with a hollow and shuddering sound. There is no use looking out any more; all is black. Drop the curtains. Throw on the logs. The flames fill the whole room with a warm glow. Draw round the table; for now one has the full sense of home security. The wind comes in gusts, and smites the house till it groans; and at times you distinctly feel that it rocks under you. The blacker the night, the more turbulent the wind, the wilder the storm, all the more does each one within rejoice in the contrast. No such night at home in the country as a real stormy night.

5. But the young imagination is keen, and summons all its treasures. It hears in the wind voices of distress. Then come stories of wolves and benighted travelers. As the wind comes shrilly through cracks or key-holes, one starts, as if a shriek sounded in his very ear. Now and then comes a buffet against the window, a straining and tugging at the side of the house, as if the night were seeking to storm the castle, and break in all its defenses.

6. At length, one by one, we creep off to bed. We cuddle close together, and pull the clothes over our heads to deaden the sound, as well as to keep out the snow. For no double windows protected the old-fashioned house, and fine snow, sifting in, filled the air; and often the morning found scarfs of snow upon the bed.

7. But what a morning! The sun is up. The wind has now gone down. The snow has ceased to fall, but not to move. It is drifting in every direction. It hangs over the eaves. It has buried the kitchen door. Fences are all gone.

It is a new land, a fairy land. Yonder is the top of a haystack, and beyond, the roofs of the sheds.

The barn yet towers up in sight. Woe to them who have no wood-sheds, and who now must dig out the unsheltered pile!

8. A way must be cut through the drift that bur front door. Paths must be opened. Every one in the n borhood is busy. All intercourse is cut off. It will be la in the day before one can get to another, and perhaps several days before one village can communicate with another. For the roads are to be "broken out." The people turn out one and all. Men, boys, cattle, all work with a will. Indeed, it is more like play than work.

9. Now, then, we are ready for settled winter! Two or three feet of snow on a level, that will lie for two months! As soon as the snow hardens a little, one can take his own direction across the country. Not a fence can be seen. Swamps can now be entered safely. The streams need no bridges. The woods are full of men getting out the year's fuel. Every one is glad. Snow now is the poor man's friend, and the working-man's helper; while all the young people who love frolic are getting ready for sleigh-rides. Winter in the country is the year's holiday.

DEFINITIONS.

H. W. Beecher.

De cid ́u ous, falling off, like the leaves of trees; having leaves that fall off every year.

Säun'ter ing, wandering about idly.

Weird, suggesting witchcraft; wild; unearthly.

LESSON LXIII.

UNDER THE SNOW.

1. The brown old earth lies quiet and still
Under the snow,

The furrows are hid on the broken hill
Under the snow,

Everything is fringed with mossy pearl,
The drooping cedars bend to the ground,
The rose-bush is drifted into a mound,

And still from the silent sky to the ground
The white flakes noiselessly whirl.

2. The roads and fields are buried deep
Under the snow,

The hedges lie in a tangled heap
Under the snow.

And the little gray rabbits under them creep,
While the twittering sparrows cunningly peep
From the sheltering briers, and cosily sleep
Under the snow.

3. The rough old barn and the sheds near by,
The mounted straw of the wheat and rye,
Are covered with snow;

The straggling fences are softened with down,
Every post is white, with a beautiful crown
Of drifted snow.

4. And I think, as I sit in the gloaming here, Watching the objects disappear,

How many things are folded low

Under the drifts of the falling snow:

There are hearts that once were full of love
Under the snow;

There are eyes that glowed with the soul of love
Under the snow;

There are faded tresses of golden hair;

There are locks that were bleached with the frost of care;

There are lips that once were like the rose;

There are bosoms that once were stung with woes;

There are breasts that once were true and strong;
There are forms that once were praised in song:

O, there's a strange and a mighty throng
Under the snow!

5. Another mound will soon lie deep
Under the snow,

And I shall with the pale ones sleep
Under the snow.

O God! stream on my soul Thy grace,
That in the love-light of Thy face
I may rejoice, when death shall place
My pulseless heart and body low

Under the snow!

John H. Bonner.

LESSON LXIV.

WINTER BEAUTY.

1. Nature is very exacting. You may make her a flying visit in August, and she will, indeed, unfold to you the beauties of dew-drop, and thunder-shower, and evening sky; but to know her in her wholeness, to drink in full measure the "life that hides in marsh and wold," to conceive all her magnificent possibilities, you must woo her from New Year to New Year, and every New Year shall bring you a fairer picture, a richer blessing, than the last.

2. You shall look out upon a gray, frozen earth, and a gray, chilling sky. The trees stretch forth to you their naked branches as if imploringly. The air pinches and pierces you; a homesick desolation clasps around your shivering, shrinking heart; and then God works a miracle. The windows of