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"Something ails my gracious master!" cried the Keeper of the Seal.

"Sure, my lord, it is the lampreys served at dinner, or the veal!"

"Psha!" exclaimed the angry monarch. "Keeper, 't is not that I feel.

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"'Tis the heart, and not the dinner, fool, that doth my rest impair:

Can a king be great as I am, prithee, and yet know no 5 care?

O, I'm sick, and tired, and weary." Some one cried, "The King's armchair!"

Then toward the lackeys turning, quick my Lord the Keeper nodded,

Straight the King's great chair was brought him, by two footmen able-bodied.

Languidly he sank into it; it was comfortably wadded.

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Leading on my fierce companions," cried he, “over 10 storm and brine,

I have fought and I have conquered! Where was glory like to mine?"

Loudly all the courtiers echoed: "Where is glory like to thine?"

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Nay, I feel," replied King Canute, "that my end is drawing near."

"Don't say so," exclaimed the courtiers (striving each to squeeze a tear).

"Sure Your Grace is strong and lusty, and may live this fifty year."

"Live these fifty years!" the Bishop roared, with actions made to suit.

5 "Are you mad, my good Lord Keeper, thus to speak of King Canute!

Men have lived a thousand years, and sure His Majesty will do 't.

"With his wondrous skill in healing ne'er a doctor can

compete,

Loathsome lepers, if he touch them, start up clean upon their feet;

Surely he could raise the dead up, did His Highness think it meet.

10"Did not once the Jewish captain stay the sun upon the

hill,

And the while he slew the foemen, bid the silver moon stand still?

So, no doubt, could gracious Canute, if it were his sacred

will."

"Might I stay the sun above us, good Sir Bishop?" Canute cried;

"Could I bid the silver moon to pause upon her heavenly

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If the moon obeys my orders, sure I can command the tide.

"Will the advancing waves obey me, Bishop, if I make the sign?"

Said the Bishop, bowing lowly, "Land and sea, my lord,

are thine."

Canute turned toward the ocean.

"thou foaming brine.

"Back!" he said,

"From the sacred shore I stand on, I command thee to

retreat;

Venture not, thou stormy rebel, to approach thy master's

seat:

5 Ocean, be thou still! I bid thee come not nearer to my feet!"

But the sullen ocean answered with a louder, deeper roar, And the rapid waves drew nearer, falling, sounding on the shore;

Back the Keeper and the Bishop, back the King and courtiers bore.

And he sternly bade them nevermore to bow to human

clay,

10 But alone to praise and worship That which earth and

seas obey;

And his golden crown of empire never wore he from

that day.

Abridged.

Canute' properly accented on the last syllable, but notice those lines in which the meter seems to require the accent on the first. Keeper of the Seal: an officer of state who had custody of the great seal. — prith ́ee: I pray thee. the Jewish captain: Joshua; see Joshua x. 12-14.

THE BLESSINGS OF POVERTY

J. G. HOLLAND

JOSIAH GILBERT HOLLAND (1819-1881), whose pen name was Timothy Titcomb, was an American writer of some note. He wrote poems and novels and several volumes of advice to young people.

If there is anything in the world that a young man should be more grateful for than another, it is the poverty 5 which necessitates starting life under very great disadvantages. Poverty is one of the best tests of human quality in existence. A triumph over it is like graduating with honor from West Point. It demonstrates stuff and stamina. It is a certificate of worthy labor faith- 10 fully performed. A young man who cannot stand this test is not good for anything. He can never rise above a drudge or a pauper. A young man who cannot feel his will harden as the yoke of poverty presses upon him, and his pluck rise with every difficulty that poverty throws in 15 his way, may as well retire into some corner and hide himself. Poverty saves a thousand times more men than it ruins, for it only ruins those who are not particularly worth saving, while it saves multitudes of those whom wealth would have ruined. . . .

If you are poor, thank God and take courage; for he intends to give you a chance to make something of

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