Εικόνες σελίδας
PDF
Ηλεκτρ. έκδοση

3. More rapid than eagles his coursers they came,

And he whistled aud shouted and called them by name: "Now, Dasher! now, Dancer! now Prancer, now, Vixen !

On, Comet! on, Cupid! on, Dunder and Blixen ! To the top of the porch! to the top of the wall! Now dash away! dash away! dash away all!"

[graphic]

4. As dry leaves before the wild hurricane fly,
When they meet with an obstacle mount to the sky,
So up to the house-top the coursers they flew,
With the sleigh full of toys-and St. Nicholas too.
And then, in a twinkling, I heard on the roof,
The prancing and pawing of each little hoof;
As I drew in my head and was turning around,
Down the chimney St. Nicholas came with a bound.

5. He was dressed all in fur, from. his head to his foot, And his clothes were all tarnished with ashes and soot; And a bundle of toys was flung on his back,

And he looked like a peddler just opening his pack;
His eyes, how they twinkled!his dimples, how merry!
His cheeks were like roses, his nose like a cherry;
His droll little mouth was drawn
up like a bow,
And the beard of his chin was as white as the snow.

6. The stump of a pipe he held tight in his teeth,
And the smoke of it circled his head like a wreath;
He had a broad face, and a little round body,
And, though rubicund, he was no lover of toddy;
He was chubby and plump, a right jolly old elf,
And I laughed when I saw him in spite of myself.

7. A wink of his eye and a twist of his head,

[ocr errors]

Soon gave me to know I had nothing to dread;
He spoke not a word, but went straight to his work,
And filled all the stockings; then turned with a jerk,
And laying his finger aside of his nose,

And giving a nod, up the chimney he rose.

He sprang to his sleigh, to his team gave a whistle, And away they all flew like the down of a thistle; But I heard him exclaim, ere he drove out of sight, Merry Christmas to all! and to all a good night !' CLEMENT C. MOORE.

[ocr errors]

NOTE.-St. Nicholas, whose Dutch name is Santa Claus, is the patron saint of boys. He is said to have been Bishop of Myra, and to have died in the year 326. The young were taught to revere him, and fiction represents him as the bearer of presents to children on Christmas eve. His fabled home is among the icebergs and eternal snows of the north.

LESSON LI.

THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS.

VIEW FIRST.

Ad-just'ed, made to correspond; | Év ́a-něs ́çent, vanishing;liable

fitted.

[blocks in formation]

WE

[merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small]

E were all seated on or in the wagon, when our swarthy driver pointed westward across the Plains, now all aflood with the gold of the risen sun, and said, "There are the Rocky Mountains."

[ocr errors]

2. I strained my eyes in the direction of his finger, but for a minute could see nothing. Presently sight seemed adjusted to a new focus, and out against the bright sky dawned slowly the undefined, shimmering trace of something a little bluer. Still, it seemed nothing tangible. It might have passed for a vapor effect on the horizon, had not the driver called it otherwise.

3. Another minute, and it took slightly more certain shape. It cannot be described by any Eastern analogy; no other far mountain view that I ever saw is at all like it. If you have ever seen those sea-side albums which ladies fill with algae during their summer holiday, and

in those albums have been startled, on turning over a page suddenly, to see an exquisite marine ghost appear, almost evanescent in its faint azure, but still a literal existence, you can form some conception of the first view of the Rocky Mountains.

4. It is impossible to imagine them built of earth, rock, - - anything terrestrial; to fancy them, cloven by horrible chasms, or shaggy with giant woods. They are made out of the air and the sunshine which show them. Nature has dipped her pencil in the faintest solution of ultra-marine, and drawn it across the western sky with a hand as tender as Love's.

you

5. Then, when sight becomes still better adjusted, find the most delicate division taking place in this pale blot of beauty, near its upper edge. It is rimmed with a mere thread of opaline and crystalline light. For a moment it sways before you, and is confused. But your eagerness grows steadier, you see plainer, and know that you are looking on the everlasting snow, the ice that never melts.

6. As the entire fact in all its meaning possesses you completely, you feel a sensation which is as new to your life as it is impossible of repetition. To see what they looked, and know what they are, is like a sudden revelation of the truth, that the spiritual is the only real and substantial; that the eternal things of the universe are they which afar off seem dim and faint.

THE BEST PRAYER.

He prayeth best, who loveth best
All things both great and small;
For the dear God who loveth us,
He made and loveth all.

LESSON LII.

THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS.

VIEW SECOND.

Per-spee❜tive, a view; a vista. | Dăl'li-ançe, the act of dallying,

[blocks in formation]

A

fondling, or caressing.

Ŏx'y-ġen,

a gaseous element having strong chemical affinities or attractions, tending to its union with other bodies.

Co-los'sal, of enormous size;
on a large scale.
Am'ber, a yellowish resin; hav-
ing a color like amber.
Mē'di-āte, to interpose between;

to subdue and soften.

Congress, an assembly, particularly of dignitaries.

YET grander sight than the dead sea of the Plains invited us on our right. We had risen so far above the Denver basin, that the foot-hills shrank out of sight, and the mountains behind the town uncovered themselves boldly to our view. From our position they appeared nearly on a level with us, a fact of perspective which enabled us to separate them into five or six distinct or crossing ranges, between the level plains and the highest snow-peak.

2. The arcs described by each range so intersected those of the neighboring ranges, that one of our party quite aptly compared our view to a herd of traveling dromedaries. Equally happy was another favorite illustration of his, frequently used in his explanations of

« ΠροηγούμενηΣυνέχεια »