Messenger [in a gasp of breath]. Your fortification 's finished.
Peisthetairus.
Messenger.

Peisthetairus.

Well! That's well.

And the height (for I made the measurement myself)
Is exactly a hundred fathom.

How could it be?
built it?

Heaven and earth! Such a mass ! Who could have

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15

20

5 Messenger.

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The birds; no creature else, no foreigners.
There came a body of thirty thousand cranes
(I won't be positive, there might be more)
With stones from Africa in their craws and gizzards,
Which the stone curlews and stone chatterers
Worked into shape and finished. The sand martins
And mud larks, too, were busy in their department,
Mixing the mortar, while the water birds,

As fast as it was wanted, brought the water
To temper and work it.

Peisthetairus [in a fidget].

Messenger.

But, who served the masons?

Whom did you get to carry it?

To carry it?

Of course, the carrion crows and carrying pigeons. Peisthetairus. Yes! Yes! But after all, to load your hods — How did you manage that?

Messenger.

Oh, capitally,

I promise you. There were the geese, all barefoot,
Trampling the mortar, and, when all was ready,
They handed it into the hods so cleverly

With their flat feet! . . .

Peisthetairus.

. . Ah, well now, come!

But about the wood

work, eh?

Who were the carpenters? Answer me that!

Messenger.

The woodpeckers, of course: and there they were, Laboring upon the gates, driving and banging, With their hard hatchet beaks, and such a din;

And now their work is finished, gates and all, The sentries at their posts; patrols appointed; The watchmen in the barbican; the beacons Ready prepared for lighting; all their signals Arranged. . . . You'll settle all the rest.

[Exit.]

So the wonderful city is built, and the gods are warned to respect its boundaries.

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10

Chorus.

Notice is hereby given

To the deities of heaven,

Not to trespass here,

Upon our atmosphere.

Take notice from the present day,
No smoke or incense is allowed
To pass this way.

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Visitors, however, are welcome; the envoys from the gods, if they enter with proper humility, are treated with, to the advantage, of course, of the birds, — and 20 colonists from the earth begin to seek this new abode in mid-air. Peisthetairus is exultant; he receives from Jupiter a celestial bride, and the play ends with a call to the marriage feast.

Peisthetairus. Birds of ocean and of air,

Hither in a troop repair,

To the royal ceremony,

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5

Our triumphant matrimony!

Come for us to feast and feed ye!
Come to revel, dance, and sing!-
Lovely creature !
Let me lead ye

Hand in hand, and wing to wing.

Abridged.

The following names are accented as indicated: Aristoph'anes (5 syllables), Peisthetai'rus (5 syllables), Euel'pides (4 syllables), Hoop'oe (2 syllables), Te'reus (2 syllables), Philoc'rates (4 syllables).

hoopoe: a bird common in Europe, and famous in European literature. It has a crest and a long, slender bill. — turn your neck round: notice the absurd dramatic situation. - odds: this exclamation, formerly in common use, was expressive of surprise. - sprin ́ges: snares. Ma'vises: the mavis is the song thrush. - Marathon: a famous battlefield. Aristophanes was born a little less than fifty years after the battle of Marathon, in which King Darius with a mighty army was defeated by the Athenians. - Mew: the seagull. — Dari'us: king of Persia, a great general and ruler. He died in 485 B.C. Si'don: a city of very ancient times. — centrical: central. Babylon: this great city of ancient times was five times as large as modern London, with walls that were more than three hundred feet in height and nearly a hundred feet in thickness. span: a short space. Literally, this is the distance included between the tip of the little finger and the end of the thumb of an outspread hand. — Libyan sands: a part of the Sahara desert. Many European birds, including the cranes and the hoopoes, migrate across the Mediterranean Sea. Muses: nine goddesses who presided over poetry and song, the arts and sciences. ortolans: birds highly prized as a table delicacy. — shrilly: shrill. sacred groves: groves and trees, in ancient times and among many peoples, were considered sacred to the gods.a hundred fathom: as a fathom is a measure of depth, its use here adds to the incongruity of the picture. - barbican: a watchtower.

THE CAPITOL AT WASHINGTON

JOHN D. LONG (1838

JOHN D. LONG

) is an eminent American who has been

speaker, governor of Massachusetts, member of Congress, and Secretary of the Navy.

This is the terrace of the Capitol.

The July sun sets slowly in the west

And with its glow suffuses there the sky

'Gainst which the monument springs high and white. The city roofs are clustered in the green Luxuriant foliage of the summer leaves,

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While near at hand against these marble walls
Sweep up soft lawns like emerald set with pearl.

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The hum of the long summer day is past,

And silence, yet more eloquent, has come-
The silence of the hushing of the earth,
As if in his great arm God gave it rest.
Sweetness and light are laid upon its face,
The sweetness of the light of dying day,
So exquisite that though it seems unwaned

It quenches not the young moon's crescent horn
Which shines serene and clear half up the sky.
Sweetness and light it is, but, more than these
It is the embodied deity of peace,

The peace of nature's love enfolding down,