vo-ca-tion (L. voco, to call], calling, business, employment. laure-ate [L. laurus, the laurel], one who is decked with a wreath of laurel; here the poet-laureate, an officer of the royal household, whose business it is to compose an ode annually for the sovereign's birthday and New Year's day. How does the water come down at Lodore ?

My little boy asked me thus, once on a time,

Moreover, he tasked me to tell him in rhyme ;
Anon at the word there first came one daughter,

And then came another to second and third
The request of their brother, and hear how the water

Comes down at Lodore, with its rush and its roar,
As many a time they had seen it before.

So I told them in rhyme, for of rhymes I had store. And 'twas in my vocation that thus I should sing, Because I was laureate to them and the king.

From its sources which well
In the tarn on the fell,
From its fountain in the mountain,
Its rills and its gills,
Through moss and through brake,
It runs and it creeps,
For awhile, till it sleeps
In its own little lake,
And thence at departing,
Awakening and starting,
It runs through the reeds,
And away it proceeds,
Through meadow and glade;
In sun and in shade,
And through the wood shelter,
Among crags in its flurry,
Helter-skelter-hurry-skurry.

How does the water come down at Lodore ?

Here it comes sparkling,
And there it lies darkling ;
Here smoking and frothing,

Its tumult and wrath in,
It hastens along, conflicting and strong,

Now striking and raging,

As if a war waging,
Its caverns and rocks among.

Rising and leaping,
Sinking and creeping,
Swelling and flinging,
Showering and springing,
Eddying and whisking,
Spouting and frisking,
Twining and twisting,

Around and around,

Collecting, disjecting,

With endless rebound;
Smiting and fighting,
A sight to delight in ;

Confounding, astounding,
Dizzing and deafening the ear with its sound.

Reeding and speeding,
And shocking and rocking,
And darting and parting,
And threading and spreading,
And whizzing and hissing,
And dripping and skipping,
And whitening and brightening,
And quivering and shivering,
And hitting and splitting,
And shining and twining,
And rattling and battling,
And shaking and quaking,
And pouring and roaring,
And waving and raving,
And tossing and crossing,
And flowing and growing,
And running and stunning,
And hurrying and skurrying,
And glittering and frittering,
And gathering and feathering,
And dinning and spinning,
And foaming and roaming,
And dropping and hopping,
And working and jerking,
And heaving and cleaving,

And thundering and floundering;
And falling and crawling and sprawling,
And driving and riving and striving,
And sprinkling and twinkling and wrinkling,
And sounding and bounding and rounding,
And bubbling and troubling and doubling,
Dividing and gliding and sliding,

And grumbling and rumbling and tumbling,

And clattering and battering and shattering ; And gleaming and steaming and streaming and beaming, And rushing and flushing and brushing and gushing, And flapping and wrapping and clapping and slapping, And curling and whirling and purling and twirling, Retreating and beating and meeting and sheeting, Delaying and straying and playing

and spraying, Advancing and prancing and glancing and dancing, Recoiling, turmoiling and toiling and boiling, And thumping and fumping and bumping and jumping, And dashing and flashing and splashing and clashing: And so never ending, but always descending, Sounds and motions for ever and ever are blending, All at once and all o'er, with a mighty uproarAnd this way the water comes down at Lodore.

while the bodies of Cromwell, Ireton, and Bradshaw were exhumed and exposed on the gibbet at Tyburn.

But if the king showed no great desire to punish those who had been his enemies, he was equally slow to reward his friends and adherents. In his thoughtless good-nature he made many promises, few of which he afterwards performed ; and thus he lost the good-will of many who had risked life and limb for the royal cause, and suffered for it in purse as well as in person.

He married Catherine of Braganza, a princess of Portugal, who brought him Bombay in the East Indies, and Tangier in Morocco, as a dowry. Bombay was soon after made over to the East India Company, which was incorporated in 1600, by royal charter, for the purpose of carrying on a trade with the East Indies.

In a war with Holland, which broke out in 1665, a naval victory was gained by his brother, the Duke of York, off Lowestoft. Sums of money were voted by parliament to carry on this war, but Charles devoted them to his private purposes. He had fallen into the very unfortunate fault of the Stuarts, in surrounding himself by worthless associates. These soon led him into shameful extravagance, the result of which was that he was constantly in want of money, and soon became very unscrupulous as to how he obtained it.

By withholding the money voted for the navy, the best ships were obliged to remain in port. The Dutch took advantage of this

, and even sent à fleet up the Thames. They fortunately contented themselves with merely destroying some shipping, but the disgrace was keenly felt. Many thought of the days of Cromwell, and even regretted that he was gone, tightly as he held the reins of power,

The year 1665 was memorable for the great plague, in London. More than 10,000 persons perished, and the town became like a city of the dead. Profound silence reigned for days in her streets, broken only by the carts hurrying off the dead to a hasty burial. Even the nearest relations shunned each other for fear of infection.

The plague was followed, in 1666, by the great fire of London, in which an immense amount of property was de