in its erect manhood, rises a man from his chair, which is covered with pillows, and totters to the window, spreading forth his thin, white hands. Did you ever see an old man's face that combines all the sweetness of childhood with the vigor of mature intellect? Snow-white hair, in waving flakes, around a high and open brow; eyes that gleam with clear light, a mouth moulded in an expression of benignity almost divine!

3. It is the fourteenth of November, 1832; the hour is sunset, and the man, Charles Carroll, of Carrollton, THE LAST OF THE SIGNERS. Ninety-five years of age, a weak and trembling old man, he has summoned all his strength, and gone along the carpeted chamber to the window, his dark gown contrasting with the purple curtains.

4. He is the last! Of the noble fifty-six who in the Revolution stood forth undismayed by the ax or gibbet —their mission, the freedom of an age, the salvation of a country-he alone remains! One by one, the pillars have crumbled from the roof of the temple, and now the lasta trembling column-glows in the sunlight, as it is about to fall.

5. But for the pillar that crumbles there is no hope that it shall ever tower aloft in its pride again, while for this old man, about to sink into the night of the grave, there is a glorious hope. His memory will live. His soul will live, not only in the presence of its God, but on the tongues and in the hearts of millions. The band in which he counts one can never be forgotten.

6. The last! As the venerable man stands before us, the declining day imparts a warm flush to his face, and surrounds his brow with a halo of light. His lips move without a sound: he is recalling the scenes of the Declaration he is murmuring the names of his brothers in the

good work. All gone but he! Upon the woods dyed with the rainbow of the closing year, upon the stream darkened by masses of shadow, upon the home peeping out from among the leaves, falls mellowing the last light of the declining day.

7. He will never see the sun rise again! He feels that the silver cord is slowly, gently loosening; he knows the golden bowl is crumbling at the fountain's brink. But death comes on him as a sleep, as a pleasant dream, as a kiss from beloved lips! He feels that the land of his birth has become a mighty people, and thanks God that he was permitted to behold its blossoms of hope ripen into full life.

8. In the recesses near the window, you behold an altar of prayer; above it, glowing in the fading light, the image of Jesus seems smiling, even in agony, around that death-chamber. The old man turns aside from the window. Tottering on, he kneels beside the altar, his long dark robe drooping over the floor. He reaches forth his white hands-he raises his eyes to the face of the Crucified.

9. There, in the sanctity of an old man's last prayer, we will leave him. There where, amid the deepening shadows, glows the image of the Saviour; there where the light falls over the mild face, the wavy hair and tranquil eyes of the aged patriarch. The smile of the Saviour was upon that perilous day, the 4th of July, 1776; and now that its promise has brightened into fruition, He seems to He does smile on it again-even as His sculptured image meets the dying gaze of Charles Carroll, of Carrollton, THE GEO. LIPPARD.

LAST OF THE SIGNERS.

Charles Carroll, of Carrollton, the last of the signers of the Declaration of Independence, was born in 1737 and died November 14, 1832. He was an ardent patriot, a devout Catholic. "I have lived," he said, "to my ninety-sixth year. I have enjoyed continued

health. I have been blessed with great wealth, prosperity, and most of the good things which the world could bestow-public approbation, esteem, applause-but that upon which I now look back with the greatest satisfaction to myself is that I have practiced the duties of religion."

"

What is the meaning of the expression "by the ax or gibbet"? (4). The sentence the silver cord is slowly, gently loosening; he knows the golden bowl is crumbling at the fountain's brink" (7) is a paraphrase of the verse from Ecclesiastes, xii. 6: "Before the silver cord be broken, and the golden fillet shrink back, and the pitcher be crushed at the fountain."

LESSON XLVI.

1. lung' ing; v. thrusting.

2. hor' I zŎn'tàl; a. on a level.

1. grùm' mẽr; a. more rumb- | 3. mē’tēr; n. a regular succes

From the smoky night encampment, bore the banner of

the rampant

Unicorn,

And grummer, grummer, grummer rolled the roll of the drummer,

Through the morn!

2. But with eyes to the front all,
And with guns horizontal,

Stood our sires;

And the balls whistled deadly,
And in streams flashing redly

Blazed the fires;

As the roar

On the shore

Swept the strong battle-breakers o'er the green-sodded

acres

Of the plain;

And louder, louder, louder cracked the black gunpowder. Cracking amain!

3. Now like smiths at their forges
Worked the red St. George's
Cannoneers;

And the "villainous saltpeter"
Rang a fierce, discordant meter
Round their ears;

As the swift

Storm-drift,

With hot sweeping anger came the Horse-guards' clangor On our flanks.

Then higher, higher, higher burned the old-fashioned fire Through the ranks!

4. Then the old-fashioned Colonel
Galloped through the white infernal
Powder-cloud;

His broad sword was swinging,

And his brazen throat was ringing

Trumpet loud.

Then the blue

Bullets flew,

And the trooper-jackets redden at the touch of the leaden

Rifle-breath,

And rounder, rounder, rounder roared the iron six pounder,

Hurling death.

GUY HUMPHREY MCMASTER.

"The Old Continentals" (1) here referred to are the soldiers of our Revolutionary war, the men of the Continental army; the "files of the Isles" (1) are the rows of British soldiers, men from the British Isles. "The banner of the rampant Unicorn " (1) is the English flag, on which appears the unicorn, a fabulous animal. "St. George's cannoneers (3) are the British gunners, St. George being the patron saint of England. "Villainous saltpeter" (3) means gunpowder, being so called by Hotspur when in Shakespeare's "King Henry IV." he quotes the fop who was sent to demand prisoners.

LESSON XLVII.

1. à quǎť le; a. frequenting | 6. ǎs' sĨ dū’I ties; n. close at

3. 1 děn' ti fied; v. united in 6. u şûrp'ing; v. seizing withinterest.

out right.

3. eu pĭd'I tỷ; n. eager desire 7. whîr'ring; v. flying with a to possess something.

4. tŭs'sôèk; n. a knot or bunch of grass, twigs, or the like.

buzzing sound.

8. plain'tĭvè; a. sad.
9. dễ vì Qus; a. winding.

Quail.

1. The quail is peculiarly a domestic bird, and is attached to his birthplace and the home of his forefathers. The various members of the aquatic families educate their children in the cool summer of the far north, and bathe their warm bosoms in July in the iced waters of Hudson Bay; but when Boreas scatters the rushes where they had builded their bed-chambers they desert their fatherland, and fly to disport in the sunny waters of the south.