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2. One man, West Evans, who has furnished the Central Company with two hundred and fifty thousand ties, and who had furnished the first tie put down, was there with the last, -a beautiful specimen of the California laurel, which was duly

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laid down, and then taken up and preserved. The ties of the Central road were all sawed, of red wood; those of the Union were hewed.

3. At the appointed time, the master spirits of the two roads meet. White workmen from the East and olive Chinamen from the West meet, bearing the last sleepers and the last rails. A few boards, set up like a roof, is the telegraph office. A few tents, bearing the sign of "Saloon," or "Restaurant," compose the place. A rough flag-staff, with our dear

old flag on it, tells us we are yet in our country, and the glorious flag is a witness of the scene. A regiment of soldiers, on their way to Alaska, are present, to see the occasion. Telegraph arrangements have been made, so that every telegraph in the land shall be connected.

4. A skillful officer has been detailed by the government to carry the wire down to the "Golden Gate," below San Francisco, and attach it to a fifteen-inch Parrott gun, to see if a gun can be fired eight hundred miles off. At the appointed hour the last tie is laid; the telegraph flashes through the country, "Are you all ready?" Back, from scores of cities, comes the echo, "All ready!" Again the telegraph says, "At the third tap it will be done." We understand," say the wires.

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5. In Washington, Cincinnati, Chicago, all the Western cities, in New York, Boston, even in Halifax,- in all the Pacific cities, people stand grouped and breathless around the telegraph offices. "We are now going to attend prayers, hats off!" say the wires; and in all these places they take off hats, and listen to the prayer as it leaps over the wires, sentence by sentence, to places four thousand miles apart.

6. The officer at the fort at the Golden Gate can hardly retain his seat for excitement. What a place in which to pray! Was prayer ever offered there before? Was ever

prayer heard by mortal ears four thousand miles away, before? The occasion would have been overwhelming, had we not felt that God, who had lifted up this continent, and had placed us on the summit, and who had given to man his skill, God, God alone is great!

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or Territories, with their

each golden one having And now the last rail is

7. The Governors of four States gold and silver spikes, are there, nearly four hundred dollars in it. laid and spiked. A telegraph wire is coiled around a silver hammer, and the President of the Central Pacific just taps

the head of the golden spike. That tap proclaimed to the country, and through Europe, that the work is done! The railroads are wedded into one! That gentle tap fired the big gun which the officer was watching at the fort, and instantly set all the bells in the land a ringing, and announced that the greatest work ever attempted in railroads was a suc

cess.

8. In three minutes the telegrams came back from all the cities, "The bells are ringing, and the people rejoicing." The whole thing seemed a wild dream. The telegraphing seemed to be magic; and we could hardly realize that creatures so small and feeble as men had accomplished a work so great. It made all other works of the kind seem small and insignificant. This was May 10, 1869. And thus the marriage was consummated, under the bright sun, in the desert place, and under the eye of Promontory Point, - hereafter to become historical.

Rev. John Todd, D. D.

WORD ANALYSIS AND DEFINITIONS.

Con' sum māt ed, completed; finished.

Pla teau' (pla-to), an elevated plain.

Prom' on to ry (pro, before; mons, a mountain), a high point of land or rock projecting into the sea; a headland.

Sleep'ers, pieces of timber laid to support the rails.
Tel'e gram, a dispatch sent by telegraph..

LESSON V.

WORK AND PLAY.

1. Labor is the lot of man and the law of his being. All men have to earn their bread by the sweat of the brow or the toil of the brain. 'If any man will not work, neither shall

he eat." All must work, the school-boy at his book, the carpenter at his bench, the draper in his shop, the author in his study. All must work either with hand or with head.

2. Work is essential to our health. It is the industrious man, not the sluggard, that is hale and strong. The muscle which is seldom strung shrinks; the joint which is seldom moved stiffens; the limb which is left unused grows flaccid and feeble. And it is the same with the mind. You must exercise your memory and your judgment, if you wish these powers to be of use to you. You must consult and obey your conscience, if you would not have it become seared and silent. However great your talents, they will shrivel up, if not called out by exercise and study. Just as water, when not kept running, grows unwholesome, so the man or boy who gives way to sloth soon sinks into torpor of both body and mind.

3. Before the fall, work was a pleasure to man; and, by God's mercy, it is still so, when we go about it willingly. When busied with our task, time passes quickly, sorrows are forgotten, and our feelings are agreeable. We can not at the same time be diligent and unhappy. We feel pleasure in the very act of working, — in the mere play and exercise of our bodily and mental powers. And usually, too, the pleasure felt while doing our work is even greater than that of having done it. The sportsman relishes the hunt more than the venison.

4. On the contrary, the most irksome of all tasks is the task of doing nothing. The school-boy soon tires of his holidays, and wishes they were over. The idle man often knows not what to do with himself, and chides the weary hours for the slow pace at which they creep along. No work is ever found to be the hardest work. And hence, rather than be wholly idle, people rush into sin and crime.

5. But you ask, "Are we to be always at work, and never to play? Must we attend to our lessons and labors all the

day long, and never enjoy any pastime with our companions, or a game at cricket, or a ramble in the green fields'?" By no means! Idleness is forbidden, but not recreation. Indeed, recreation within due limits is as necessary to health and happiness as labor, especially in the case of the young, whom "all work and no play" would soon enfeeble both in body and mind. And, happily, so far are labor and recreation from clashing, that, when taken at proper intervals and in due proportion, they become helpmates each of the other. Previous work gives relish to play, and after play we return with new zest to our work.

-to the body; to the

ANALYSIS. Who must work. Benefits of work, mind. Effects of sloth and inaction. Pleasure found in work. The most irksome of all tasks. Relation of recreation to work.

LESSON VI.

LABOR'S SONGS.

1. From the mountain and the valley,
From the wayside and the glen,
From the street and from the alley,
Come the songs of working-men.

2. Where the fire is brightly glowing,
By the furnace and the mold,
Where the lurid flame is flowing,
Labor's songs are sung and told.

3. Where the hammers ply the quickest,
And the anvil's notes resound,
Where the sparks are flying thickest,
There do labor's songs abound.

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