of May was always an eventful month to him. He was born in May, married in May, and was laid to rest under the pink and white blossoms of May.

JAMES T. FIELDS.

Spell and pronounce:— Thackeray, gruel, unsullied, guinea, nutritious, beneficent, neighborly, rheumatism, enumerate, repined, overhaul, vulgarity, indelicacy, decency, solitude, and society.

Synonyms. -odious-hateful; detestable; abominable; disgusting; loathsome; invidious; repulsive; forbidding; unpopular. abetted-aided; assisted; supported; encouraged; sustained; connived at. fortitude—courage; resolution; endurance; bravery. frailty-frailness; infirmity; imperfection; failing; foible.

When Freedom, from her mountain height,
Unfurled her 'standard to the air,

She tore the azure robe of night,

And set the stars of glory there.
She mingled with its gorgeous dyes
The milky baldric of the skies,
And striped its pure, celestial white,
With streakings of the morning light.
Then, from his mansion in the sun,
She called her eagle bearer down,
And gave into his mighty hand

The symbol of her chosen land!

Majestic monarch of the cloud!

Who rear'st aloft thy regal form, To hear the tempest trumpings loud, And see the lightning-lances driven

When strive the warriors of the storm, And rolls the thunder-drum of Heaven! Child of the Sun! to thee 'tis given To guard the banner of the free; To hover in the sulphur smoke, To ward away the battle-stroke; And bid its blendings shine afar, Like rainbows on the cloud of war, The harbingers of victory!

Flag of the brave! thy folds shall fly,
The sign of hope and triumph high,
When speaks the signal trumpet tone,
And the long line comes gleaming on,-
Ere yet the life-blood, warm and wet,
Has dimmed the glistening bayonet,-
Each soldier's eye shall brightly turn
To where thy sky-born glories burn;
And, as his springing steps advance,
Catch war and vengeance from the glance.
And, when the cannon-mouthings loud
Heave in wild wreaths the battle shroud,
And gory sabers rise and fall

Like shoots of flame on midnight's pall,
Then shall thy meteor-glances glow,

And cowering foes shall fall beneath Each gallant arm that strikes below That lovely messenger of death.

Flag of the seas! on ocean's wave
Thy stars shall glitter o'er the brave,

When Death, careering on the gale,
Sweeps darkly round the bellied sail,
And frighted waves rush wildly back,
Before the broadside's reeling rack,

Each dying wanderer of the sea

Shall look at once to Heaven and thee;
And smile to see thy splendors fly,
In triumph, o'er his closing eye.

Flag of the free heart's hope and home,
By angel hands to Valor given!
Thy stars have lit the welkin dome,

And all thy hues were born in Heaven!
Forever float that standard sheet!

Where breathes the foe but falls before us,
With Freedom's soil beneath our feet,

And Freedom's banner streaming o'er us?*
J. R. DRAKE.

EXERCISE IN FIGURES OF SPEECH.

Select the passages in which you find the figure of personification, name the thing personified, and describe the attributes and actions with which it is represented. Recite the instances of apostrophe, and name the objects addressed. To what figures of speech belong the following:

"That lovely messenger of death."

"And gory sabers rise and fall

Like shoots of flame on midnight's pall."

"And bid its blendings shine afar,

Like rainbows on the cloud of war."

"The harbingers of victory."

*The last four lines were written by Halleck.

LESSON XXXVIII.

vět'er an, one who has been long
in service.
phăn’tom, a specter; a ghost.

Im'po tent, wanting strength or vigor.

rev'er ençe, solemn respect.

DEATH OF LONG TOM COFFIN.

Lifting his broad hands high into the air, his voice was heard in the tempest. "God's will be done with me," he cried; "I saw the first timber of the ‘Ariel' laid, and shall live just long enough to see it turn out of her bottom; after which I wish to live no longer." But his shipmates were far beyond the sounds of his voice before these words were half uttered. All command of the boat was rendered impossible, by the numbers it contained, as well as the raging of the surf; and as it rose on the white crest of a wave, Tom saw his beloved little craft for the last time. It fell into a trough of the sea, and in a few moments more, its fragments were ground into splinters on the adjoining rocks.

The coxswain, Tom, still remained where he had cast off the rope, and beheld the numerous heads and arms that appeared rising, at short intervals, on the waves; some making powerful and welldirected efforts to gain the sands, that were becoming visible as the tide fell, and others wildly tossed in the frantic movements of helpless despair. The honest old seaman gave a cry of joy as he saw Barnstable, the commander whom Tom had forced into the boat, issue from the surf, where one by one, several seamen appeared also, dripping and exhausted.

Many others of the crew were carried in a similar manner to places of safety; though, as Tom returned to his seat on the bowsprit, he could not conceal from his reluctant eyes the lifeless forms that were, in other spots, driven against the rocks with a fury that soon left them but few of the outward vestiges of humanity.

Dillon and the coxswain were now the sole occupants of their dreadful station. The former stood, in a kind of stupid despair, a witness of the scene; but as his curdled blood began again to flow more warmly to his heart, he crept close to the side of Tom, with that sort of selfish feeling that makes even hopeless misery more tolerable, when endured in participation with another.

"When the tide falls," he said in a voice that betrayed the agony of fear, though his words expressed the renewal of hope, "we shall be able to walk to land."

"There was One and only One to whose feet the waters were the same as a dry deck," returned the Coxswain; "and none but such as have His power will ever be able to walk from these rocks to the sands." The old seaman paused, and turning his eyes, which exhibited a mingled expression of disgust and compassion, on his companion, he added, with reverence: "Had you thought more of Him in fair weather, your case would be less to be pitied in this tempest."

"Do you still think there is much danger?” asked Dillon.

"To them that have reason to fear death. Listen! Do you hear that hollow noise beneath ye?"

""Tis the wind driving by the vessel!"

""Tis the poor thing herself," said the affected