admit readily the tongue of the bee, and the distance into the nectar is about the length of a bee's tongue; there are no sticky guards to preserve the honey, and so the bees and small beetles and other tiny insects often crawl into the tube, eat the honey, and even devour the flower itself. 5 Tropaeolum has a fine large tube full of rich honey for bees and humming birds. This tube no doubt corresponds to some tongue or bird bill in her own South America; but in our country the bees are her guests. The bumblebee is fond of Tropæolum honey, and fertilizes the flower, 10 while an occasional rubythroat may be seen taking a sip.

Jewelweed's horn is a humming-bird tube and a bee tube too. The flowers are so delicately balanced on tiny stalks that wingless insects would not find an easy entrance.

Pelargonium also has a tube suited to some long slim- 15 tongued visitor. In her own native land in far-away Africa she probably loves the butterflies that live there, and so they have grown tongue and tube to fit each other. For the flower is not the only one to change: the insect changes to suit the flower at the same time that the flower 20 changes to suit the insect. Even a delicate butterfly has its work to do, and the world is changed, though ever so little, because it has lived.

Adapted.

Tropæ'olum nasturtium, a native of Peru. - Pelargo ́nium: the commonly cultivated geranium, a native of South Africa.

COLUMBUS1

JOAQUIN MILLER

JOAQUIN MILLER (1841

) is an American poet who has written mainly of the West. His real name is Cincinnatus Hiner Miller.

Behind him lay the gray Azores,
Behind, the Gates of Hercules,
Before him not the ghost of shores,

Before him only shoreless seas.

The good mate said, "Now must we pray,
For lo! the very stars are gone;
Brave Admiral, speak, what shall I say?"
"Why, say, 'Sail on! sail on! and on!'"

66

My men grow mutinous day by day,

My men grow ghastly wan, and weak."
The stout mate thought of home; a spray
Of salt wave washed his swarthy cheek.
"What shall I say, brave Admiral, say,
If we sight naught but seas at dawn?"
"Why, you may say, at break of day,

'Sail on! sail on! sail on! and on!"

They sailed and sailed as winds might blow,
Until at last the blanched mate said:

1 By permission of the Whitaker & Ray Company, San Francisco, Publishers of the Complete Poetical Works of Joaquin Miller.

"Why, now not even God would know
Should I and all my men fall dead.
These very winds forget their way,

For God from these dread seas is gone.
Now speak, brave Admiral, speak and say
He said, "Sail on! sail on! and on!"

They sailed.
They sailed. Then spoke the mate:
"This mad sea shows his teeth to-night;
He curls his lips, he lies in wait

With lifted teeth as if to bite;

?"

Brave Admiral, say but one good word,
What shall we do when hope is gone?'
The words leaped like a leaping sword,
"Sail on! sail on! sail on! and on!"

Then, pale and worn, he kept his deck,

And peered through darkness. Ah, that night

Of all dark nights! and then a speck,

"A light! A light! A light! A light!"

It grew, a starlit flag unfurled!

It grew to be Time's burst of dawn.

He gained a world; he gave that world
Its grandest lesson: "On! sail on!"

Azores' islands west of Spain. the Gates of Hercules: Gibraltar and the opposite cliffs. These were once supposed to mark the end of the world, and to have been split apart by the Greek hero Hercules.

5

THE DESTRUCTION OF SENNACHERIB

LORD BYRON

GEORGE GORDON, LORD BYRON (1788-1824) was one of the great English poets. His best work may be ranked with what is most worthy of admiration in English literature, though many of his poems are lacking in moral quality.

NOTE.

Sennacherib was a king of Assyria who invaded Judea during the reign of Hezekiah. According to the Bible story, the Jewish king and his prophet Isaiah implored divine favor to save them from coming under the Assyrian yoke. The "angel of the Lord" smote the invading army so that one hundred and eighty-five thousand died in a single night. 10 Sennacherib himself returned to his home in safety, but was killed by his sons 681 B.C. See 2 Kings xviii., xix., and Isaiah xxxvii.

Byron's poem is said to be the finest sacred lyric in the English language. Its strength and simplicity are remarkable.

The Assyrian came down like the wolf on the fold, 15 And his cohorts were gleaming in purple and gold, And the sheen of their spears was like stars on the sea, When the blue wave rolls nightly on deep Galilee.

Like the leaves of the forest when summer is green, That host with their banners at sunset were seen; 20 Like the leaves of the forest when autumn hath blown, That host on the morrow lay withered and strown.

For the Angel of Death spread his wings on the blast, And breathed in the face of the foe as he passed; And the eyes of the sleepers waxed deadly and chill, 25 And their hearts but once heaved, and forever grew still.

And there lay the steed with his nostril all wide,
But through it there rolled not the breath of his pride;
And the foam of his gasping lay white on the turf,
And cold as the spray of the rock-beating surf.

And there lay the rider, distorted and pale,

5

With the dew on his brow, and the rust on his mail;
And the tents were all silent, the banners alone,
The lances unlifted, the trumpet unblown.

And the widows of Ashur are loud in their wail,
And the idols are broke in the temple of Baal,
And the might of the Gentile, unsmote by the sword,
Hath melted like snow in the glance of the Lord!

10

Ash'ur: Assyria. - Ba'al: the chief god of the idolaters. Gen'tile: foreigner. To the Jews all other races were Gentiles.