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should give Barent a receipt, and Barent should give Wandle a receipt, and the constable should pay the

costs.

This decision being straightway made known, diffused 5 general joy throughout New Amsterdam, for the people immediately perceived that they had a very wise and equitable magistrate to rule over them. But its happiest effect was that not another lawsuit took place throughout the whole of his administration; and the office of con10 stable fell into such decay that there was not one of those losel scouts known in the province for many years. I am the more particular in dwelling on this transaction, not only because I deem it one of the most sage and righteous judgments on record and well worthy the atten15 tion of modern magistrates, but because it was a miraculous event in the history of the renowned Wouter- being the only time he was ever known to come to a decision in the whole course of his life.

Abridged.

a man of quick parts: one of ready abilities.-The Hague: a famous town of Holland; the usual residence of the court. It was at one time a hunting seat, in the heart of a beautiful forest. - timmerman: a worker in wood, or timmer. - on the carpet: under consideration. New Amsterdam: the old name for New York. The town was so called until its capture by the English in 1664, when the name was changed to New York. — Harunal-Rash'id: a celebrated Eastern monarch whose adventures are told in the "Arabian Nights." He died in A.D. 809.— true believers: the name given to themselves by Mussulmans. — learned: this, when used as an adjective, is pronounced learnèd. — losel scout: a worthless, spying fellow.

SONG FROM COMUS

JOHN MILTON

NOTE.-A lady lost in a wood has come under the power of an enchanter, Comus. A friendly spirit appeals for help to the water nymph, Sabrina.

Sabrina fair,

Listen where thou art sitting

Under the glassy, cool, translucent wave,
In twisted braids of lilies knitting

The loose train of thy amber-dropping hair;
Listen for dear honor's sake,

Goddess of the silver lake,

Listen and save!

Listen, and appear to us,
In name of great Oceanus,

By all the nymphs that nightly dance
Upon thy streams with wily glance;
Rise, rise, and heave thy rosy head
From thy coral-paven bed,

And bridle in thy headlong wave,
Till thou our summons answered have. ·
Listen and save!

Oceanus one of the sea gods of Greek mythology.

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JOHN MILTON

WILLIAM WORDSWORTH

WILLIAM WORDsworth (1770-1850) was one of the greatest of English poets. Wordsworth, Coleridge, and Southey are known as the Lake Poets, because they lived in the lake district of England and described that region. Wordsworth was a poet of remarkable but unequal powers. 5 He succeeded Southey as poet laureate, and was himself succeeded by Tennyson.

NOTE. This sonnet was written after a visit which Wordsworth had made to France, then slowly recovering from the great Revolution. "I was struck," he says, "with the vanity and parade of my own country. 10 This must be borne in mind or else the reader may think that I have exaggerated the mischief fostered among us by undisturbed wealth."

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Milton! thou should'st be living at this hour:
England hath need of thee: she is a fen
Of stagnant waters: altar, sword, and pen,
Fireside, the heroic wealth of hall and bower,
Have forfeited their ancient English dower

Of inward happiness. We are selfish men;
Oh! raise us up, return to us again;
And give us manners, virtue, freedom, power.
Thy soul was like a Star, and dwelt apart :
Thou hadst a voice whose sound was like the sea:

Pure as the naked heavens, majestic, free,

So didst thou travel on life's common way,

In cheerful godliness; and yet thy heart
The lowliest duties on herself did lay.

THE EAGLE'S FLIGHT

WILLIAM J. LONG

A shadow fell on the water, and I looked up to watch the great eagle, breasting, balancing, playing with the mighty air currents above, as the fishes played in the swift rush of water below.

He set his wings square to the wind at first and slanted 5 swiftly up, like a well-hung kite. But that was too fast for leisure hours. He had only dropped down to the pool in idle curiosity to see what was doing. Then, watching his wing tips keenly through my glass, I saw the quills turn ever so slightly, so as to spill the wind from their 10 underside, as a skipper slacks sheets to deaden his boat's headway, and the wonderful upward spiral flight began.

Over me sweeps my eagle in slow, majestic circles; ever returning upon his last course, yet ever higher than his last wheel, like a life with a great purpose in it; slid- 15 ing evenly upward on the wind's endless stairway as it slips from under him. Without hurry, without exertion, -just a twist of his wide-set wing quills, so slight that my eye can no longer notice it, he swings upward; while the earth spreads wider and wider below him, and 20 rivers flash in the sun, like silver ribbons, across the green forest carpet that spreads away over mountain and valley to the farthest horizon.

Smaller and smaller grow the circles now, till the vast spiral reaches its apex, and he hangs there in the air, like a tiny humming bird poised over the earth's great flower cup. So high is he that one must think he glances 5 over the brim of things and sees our earth as a great bubble floating in the blue ether, with nothing whatever below it and only himself above. And there he stays, floating, balancing, swaying in the purring currents of air that hold him fast in their soft arms and brush his great 10 wings tenderly with a caress that never grows weary, like a great, strong mother holding her little child.

He had fed, he had drunk to the full from a mountain spring. Now he rested over the world that nourished him and his little ones, with his keen eyes growing sleepy, and 15 never a thought of harm to himself or any creature within his breast. For that is a splendid thing about all great creatures, even the fiercest of them: they are never cruel. They take only what they must to supply their necessities. When their wants are satisfied there is truce which they 20 never break. They live at peace with all things, small and great, and, in their dumb, unconscious way, answer to the deep harmony of the world which underlies all its superficial discords, as the music of the sea is never heard till one moves far away from the uproar along the shore.

From "School of the Woods."

slacks sheets: loosens ropes.

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