of bed and hugged her! I larfed and hollered, I crowed like a rooster, I danced round there, and I cut up more capers than you ever heerd tell on, till dad thought I was crazy, and got a rope to tie me with. "Dad," sez I, “I'm goin' to be married!" "Married!" bawled dad. Married!" squalled mam. "Married!" screamed aunt Jane. "Yes, married," sez I; "married all over, married for sure, married like a flash-joined in wedlock, hooked on for life, for worser or for better, for life and for death-to SALL! I am that very thing-me! Peter Sorghum ESQUIRE !" With that ups and tells 'em all about it from Alfer to Ermeger! They was all mighty well pleased, and I went to bed as proud as a young rooster with his first spurs. EXTRACT FROM THE DEDICATORY ODE FOR THE GETTYSBURG NATIONAL CEMETERY, July 1st, 1869.-Bayard Taylor. After the eyes that looked, the lips that spake What voice may fitly break The silence, doubly hallowed, left by him? The phrase his martyrdom has made complete, Ourselves to the unfinished work, which they Let us, upon this field where they, the brave, Of their own Sovereignty, shall never wane And into wandering music turn Its virtue, simple, sorrowful and stern? His voice all elegies anticipated; For whatsoe'er the strain, We hear that one refrain; "We consecrate ourselves to them, the consecrated!" After the thunder-storm our heaven is blue; In silver folds the clouds of battle lie, With soft consoling sunlight shining through ; Have faded from the memory of the air; And Summer pours from unexhausted fountains The camps are tenantless, the breastworks bare; Oh, not till now-oh, now we dare, at last, One keen regret, one throb of pain, unequalled, We stood beside their graves with brows abased, Immortal Brothers, we have heard! Our lips declare the reconciling word: And both, from fields no longer alien, come, Marshalled by Learning's trump, by Labor's drum, We force to build, the powers that would destroy; We bring not grief to you, but solemn joy! Look forward with your eyes, divinely clear The People's Union in heart and name! This they have done for us who slumber here— Building, but never sitting in the shade Of the strong mansion they have made; Speaking their word of life with mighty tongue, From all our river-vales and mountains flung? Open your ranks, let every shining troop, Its phantom banners droop, To hail Earth's noblest martyrs, and her last Who, dying, conquered in thy name; And, with a grateful hand, Inscribe their deeds who took away thy blame Give, for their grandest all, thine insufficient fame! Take them, O God! our Brave, The glad fulfillers of Thy dread decree; Who grasped the sword for Peace, and smote to save, And, dying here for Freedom, died for Thee! THE RUM MANIAC.-Allison. "SAY, Doctor, may I not have rum, I ask not health, nor even life- "But, doctor, may I not have rum ? "A thousand curses on his head "Lost-lost-I know forever lost! "Say, don't you see this demon fierce! Down to But there! my bed's on fire! * "Fire! water! help! come, haste-I'll die; "There stands his burning coach of fire; One sound, and one alone, came forth- "Why longer wait? I'm ripe for hell; WASHINGTON'S SWORD AND FRANKLIN'S STAFF.-J. Q. Adams. THE sword of Washington! The staff of Franklin! O, Sir, what associations are linked in adamant with these names! Washington, whose sword was never drawn but in the cause of his country, and never sheathed when wielded in his country's cause! Franklin, the philosopher of the thunderbolt, the printing-press, and the ploughshare!-- What names are these in the scanty catalogue of the benefactors of human kind! Washington and Franklin! What other two men, whose lives belong to the eighteenth century of Christendom, have left a deeper mpression of themselves upon the age in which they lived, and upon all after time? Washington, the warrior and the legislator! In war, contending, by the wager of battle, for the independence of his country, and for the freedom of the human race— ever manifesting, amidst its horrors, by precept and by example, his reverence for the laws of peace, and for the tenderest sympathies of humanity; in peace, soothing the ferocious spirit of discord, among his own countrymen, into harmony and union, and giving to that very sword, now presented to his country, a charm more potent than that attributed, in ancient times, to the lyre of Orpheus. Franklin! The mechanic of his own fortune; teaching, in early youth, under the shackles of indigence, the way to |