through an occasional fleecy cloud, the stars twinkled in the sky, and every frost-covered tree and shrub sparkled with rare brilliancy. Light also came glinting from ice, and snow-wreath, and incrusted branches, as the eye followed for miles the broad gleam of the river, that, like a jeweled zone, swept between the mighty forests that bordered its banks. 3. And yet all was still. The cold seemed to have frozen tree, air, water, and every living thing. Even the ringing of my skates echoed back from the hill with a startling clearness; and the crackle of the ice, as I passed over it in my course, seemed to follow the tide of the river with lightning speed. I had gone up the river nearly two miles, when, coming to a little stream which empties into the larger, I turned into it to explore its course. Fir and hemlock of a century's growth met overhead, and formed an archway radiant with frost-work. All was dark within; but I was young and fearless, and, as I peered into an unbroken forest that reared itself on the borders of the stream, I laughed with very joyousness. 4. My wild hurrah rang through the silent woods, and I stood listening to the echo that reverberated again and again, until all was hushed. Suddenly a sound arose! It seemed to me to come from the ice beneath my feet. It was low and tremulous at first; but it ended in one long wild yell. I was appalled. Never before had such a noise met my ears. Presently I heard the brushwood on shore crash, as though from the tread of some animal. The blood rushed to my forehead. My energies returned, and I looked around me for some means of escape. The moon shone through the opening, at the mouth of the creek, by which I had entered the forest; and, considering this the best way of escape, I darted toward it like an arrow. COLLEGE 5. The opening was hardly a hundred yards distant, and the swallow could scarcely have excelled me in flight; yet, as I turned my eyes to the shore, I could see two dark objects dashing through the brushwood, at a pace nearly double in speed to my own. By their great speed, and the short yells which they occasionally gave, I knew at once that these were the much-dreaded gray wolves. I had never met with these ferocious animals; but, from the description given of them, I had little pleasure in making their acquaintance. Their untamable fierceness and untiring strength render them objects of dread to every benighted traveler. 6. The bushes that skirted the shore now seemed to rush past me with the velocity of lightning, as I dashed on in my flight to pass the narrow opening. The outlet was nearly gained; a few seconds more, and I. would be comparatively safe; but in a moment my pursuers appeared on the bank above me, which here rose to the hight of ten or twelve feet. There was no time for thought. I bent my head, and dashed wildly forward. The wolves sprang; but, miscalculating my speed, fell behind, while their intended prey glided out upon the river! 7. I turned toward home. The light flakes of snow spun from the iron of my skates, and I was some distance from my pursuers, when their fierce howl told me I was still their fugitive. I did not look back, nor feel afraid. I thought of home, of the bright faces awaiting my return, and then all the energies of body and mind were exerted for escape. I was perfectly at home on the ice. Many were the days that I had spent on my good skates, never thinking that they would thus prove my only means of safety in such imminent peril. 8. Every half minute a furious yelp from my fierce at tendants made me but too certain that they were in close pursuit. Nearer and nearer they came. I heard their feet pattering on the ice; I even felt their very breath, and heard their snuffing scent! Every nerve and muscle in my frame was stretched to the utmost tension. The trees along the shore seemed to dance in an uncertain light, and my brain turned with my own breathless speed; yet still my pursuers seemed to hiss forth their breath with a sound truly horrible, when an involuntary motion on my part turned me out of my course. 9. The wolves, close behind, unable to stop, and as unable to turn on the smooth ice, slipped and fell, still going on far ahead. Their tongues were lolling out; their white tusks were gleaming from their bloody mouths; their dark shaggy breasts were fleeced with foam; and, as they passed me, their eyes glared, and they howled with fury. The thought flashed on my mind, that, by this means, I could avoid them,—namely, by turning aside whenever they came too near; for, by the formation of their feet, they are unable to run on ice except in a straight line, 10. I immediately acted upon this plan. The wolves, having regained their feet, sprang directly toward me. The race was renewed for many yards up the stream: they were already close on my back, when I glided round and dashed directly past them. A fierce yell greeted my evolution, and the wolves, slipping on their haunches, again sailed onward, presenting a perfect picture of helplessness and baffled rage. Thus I gained nearly a hundred yards at each turning. This was repeated two or three times, every moment the animals becoming more excited and baffled. 11. At one time, by delaying my turning too long, my sanguinary antagonists came so near that they threw their white foam over my dress as they sprang to seize me, and their teeth clashed together like the spring of a fox-trap! Had my skates failed for one instant, — had I tripped on a stick, or had my foot been caught in a fissure of the ice,the story I am now telling would never have been told. I thought all the chances over. I thought how long it would be before I died, and then of the search for my body; for oh! how fast man's mind traces out all the dread colors of death's picture, only those, who have been near the grim original, can tell! 12. But I soon came opposite the house, and my hounds -I knew their deep voices-roused by the noise, bayed furiously from their kennels. I heard their chains rattle: how I wished they would break them!-then I should have had protectors to match the fiercest denizens of the forest. The wolves, taking the hint conveyed by the dogs, stopped in their mad career, and, after a few moments, turned and fled. I watched them until their forms disappeared over a neighboring hill; then, taking off my skates, I wended my way to the house with feelings which may be better imagined than described. But even yet, I never see a broad sheet of ice by moonlight without thinking of that snuffing breath and those ferocious objects that followed me so closely down that frozen river. LESSON XXII. PURITY OF CHARACTER. HENRY WARD BEECHER. VER the beauty of the plum and apricot there may be OVER seen a bloom and beauty more exquisite than the fruit itself,—a soft, delicate flush that overspreads its blushing cheek. Now, if you strike your hand over that, and it is once gone, it is gone forever; for it never grows but once. The flower that hangs in the morning, impearled with dew, arrayed with jewels, once shake it, so that the beads roll off, and you may sprinkle water over it as you please, yet it can never be made again what it was when the dew fell lightly upon it from heaven. 2. On a frosty morning, you may see the panes of glass covered with landscapes, mountains, lakes, and trees, blended in a beautiful, fantastic picture. Now, lay your hand upon the glass, and, by the scratch of your fingers, or by the warmth of the palm, all the delicate tracery will be immediately obliterated. So, in youth, there is a purity of character, which, when once touched and defiled, can never be restored, a fringe more delicate than frostwork, and which, when torn and broken, will never be re-embroidered. 3. A man who has spotted and soiled his garments in youth, though he may seek to make them white again, can never wholly do it, even were he to wash them with his tears. When a young man leaves his father's house, with the blessing of his mother's tears still wet upon his forehead, if he once loses that early purity of character, it is a loss that he can never make whole again. Such is the consequence of crime. Its effects can not be eradicated; they can only be forgiven. LESSON XXIII. AL'LE GO RY is a word of Greek origin. It is made up of two parts, ALL, other; and EGORY, discourse; the literal meaning of the compound being discourse about other things; that is, things other than those expressed by the words, literally interpreted. Allegory is, therefore, the |