Nine times out of ten, the first thing a man's companion knows of his shortcoming is from his apology. It is mighty presumptuous on your part to suppose your small failures of so much consequence that you must make a talk about them.

4. Good dressing, quiet ways, low tones of voice, lips that can wait, and eyes that do not wander,—shyness of personalities, except in certain intimate communions, -to be light in hand in conversation, to have ideas, but to be able to make talk, if necessary, without them, -to belong to the company you are in, and not to yourself, to have nothing in your dress or furniture so fine that you cannot afford to spoil it and get another like it, yet to preserve the harmonies throughout your person and dwelling: I should say that this was a fair capital of manners to begin with.

From Holmes' Professor at the Breakfast-Table.

SUPPLEMENTARY READING. Read to the class, or allow pupils to read in class, the following poems by Oliver Wendell Holmes: "Grandmother's Story of Bunker Hill Battle," "The Deacon's Masterpiece," and "The Boys."

Recommend to your pupils to draw from the library and read "The Autocrat of the Breakfast-Table," and the "Professor at the BreakfastTable."

15. THE CHAMBERED NAUTILUS.

1.

This is the ship of pearl, which, poets feign,
Sails the unshadowed main—

The venturous bark that flings

On the sweet summer wind its purpled wings
In gulfs enchanted, where the siren sings,

And coral reefs lie bare,

Where the cold sea-maids rise to sun their streaming hair.

2.

Its webs of living gauze no more unfurl;
Wrecked is the ship of pearl!

And every chambered cell,

Where its dim dreaming life was wont to dwell,
As the frail tenant shaped its growing shell,
Before thee lies revealed-

Its irised ceiling rent, its sunless crypt unsealed!

3.

Year after year beheld the silent toil
That spread his lustrous coil;

Still, as the spiral grew,

He left the past year's dwelling for the new,
Stole with soft step its shining archway through,
Built up its idle door,

Stretched in its last-found home, and knew the old no more.

4.

Thanks for the heavenly message brought by thee,
Child of the wandering sea,

Cast from her lap forlorn!

From thy dead lips a clearer note is born

Than ever Triton blew from wreathéd horn!

Through the deep caves of thought I hear a voice that sings

5.

Build thee more stately mansions, O my soul,
As the swift seasons roll!

Leave thy low-vaulted past!

Let each new temple, nobler than the last,
Shut thee from heaven with a dome more vast,
Till thou at length art free,

Leaving thine outgrown shell by life's unresting sea!

OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES.

16. GOOD NEWS.

This poem affords a good illustration of fast movement or rate.

1.

I sprang to the stirrup, and Joris, and he;

I galloped, Dirck galloped, we galloped all three; "Good speed!" cried the watch, as the gate-bolts undrew; "Speed!" echoed the wall to us galloping through; Behind shut the postern, the lights sank to rest, And into the midnight we galloped abreast.

2.

Not a word to each other; we kept the great pace,
Neck by neck, stride by stride, never changing our place;
I turned in my saddle, and made its girths tight,
Then shortened each stirrup, and set the pique right,
Rebuckled the check-strap, chained slacker the bit,
Nor galloped less steadily Roland a whit.

3.

'Twas moonset at starting; but, while we drew near
Lokeren, the cocks crew and twilight dawned clear;
At Boom, a great yellow star came out to see;
At Duffeld, 't was morning as plain as could be;
And from Mecheln church-steeple we heard the half-chime,
So Joris broke silence with, "Yet there is time!"

4.

At Aerschot, up leaped of a sudden the sun,
And against him the cattle stood black every one,
To stare through the mist at us galloping past,
And I saw my stout galloper, Roland, at last,
With resolute shoulders each butting away
The haze, as some bluff river headland its spray;

5.

And his low head and crest, just one sharp ear bent back
For my voice, and the other pricked out on his track;
And one eye's black intelligence,-ever that glance
O'er its white edge at me, his own master, askance!
And the thick heavy spume-flakes which aye and anon
His fierce lips shook upwards in galloping on.

6.

By Hasselt, Dirck groaned; and cried Joris, "Stay spur! Your Roos galloped bravely, the fault's not in her, We'll remember at Aix,”—for one heard the quick wheeze Of her chest, saw the stretched neck, and staggering knees, And sunk tail, and horrible heave of the flank,

As down on her haunches she shuddered and sank.

7.

So we were left galloping, Joris and I,

Past Loos and past Tongres, no cloud in the sky;
The broad sun above laughed a pitiless laugh;
'Neath our feet broke the brittle, bright stubble like chaff;
Till over by Dalhem a dome-tower sprang white,
And "Gallop," cried Joris, "for Aix is in sight!"

8.

"How they'll greet us!" and all in a moment his roan
Rolled neck and croup over, lay dead as a stone;
And there was my Roland to bear the whole weight
Of the news which alone could save Aix from her fate,
With his nostrils like pits full of blood to the brim,
And with circles of red for eye-sockets' rim.

9.

Then I cast loose my buff-coat, each holster let fall,
Shook off both my jack-boots, let go belt and all,
Stood up in the stirrup, leaned, patted his ear,
Called my Roland his pet name, my horse without peer;—

Clapped my hands, laughed and sang, any noise, bad or

good,

Till at length into Aix Roland galloped, and stood.

10.

And all I remember is friends flocking round,

As I sate with his head 'twixt my knees on the ground;
And no voice but was praising this Roland of mine,
As I poured down his throat our last measure of wine,
Which (the burgesses voted by common consent)
Was no more than his due who brought good news from
Ghent.

ROBERT BROWNING.

17. THE REIGN OF QUEEN ELIZABETH.

1. The reign of Queen Elizabeth (1558-1603), was a glorious one. It is made memorable by the distinguished men that flourished in it. Apart from the great voyagers, statesmen, and scholars, whom it produced, the names of Bacon, Spenser, and Shakespeare will always be remembered with pride and veneration by the civilized world, and will always impart some portion of their luster to the name of Elizabeth herself.

2. It was a great reign for discovery, for commerce, and for English enterprise and spirit in general. The Queen was very popular, and, in her journeys about her dominions, was received with the liveliest joy.

3. I think the truth is she was not half so good as she has been made out by some, and not half so bad as she has been made out by others. She had many fine qualities, but she was coarse, vain, capricious, and treacherous.

Adapted from DICKENS'S Child's History of England.

COMPOSITION. Close the book, and write all you can remember about Queen Elizabeth.