O, shall I catch it? is it tame?
What is it, father? what's its name?

10. Poor Philip knew not what to say,
But tried to turn his eyes away;
He crossed himself and made a vow,
""Tis as I feared, all's over now;
Then, pr'ythee have thy wits let loose?
It is a bird, men call a goose."
"A goose! O pretty, pretty thing!
And will it sing, too, will it sing?
O come, come quickly, let us run,
That's a good father, catch me one!
We'll take it with us to our cell,
Indeed, indeed, I love it well!"

LESSON XV.

A POLITICAL STUMP SPEECH.

OBADIAH PARTINGTON SWIPES.

1. FELLOW CITIZENS :-We have met here to investigate the etherial contaminations of this terraqueous government of the firmament below. We may elucidate the praises of the invisible Scott, who has fought with wise and deleterious conflagration over the plains of Mexico, through Bhering's straits to Hudson's bay. And let me tell you, that the names of the invincible Pierce, and the oleaginous Van Buren, shall travel down to receding generations, gloriously enrolled on the records of perpetuity and glory. Yes, they shall live on, and shine on, when the Columbian principles of Hale and Julien shall be disembogued into the unforgotten regions of ambiguous fame.

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2. But I have been accused of going for the sub-treasury and the fugitive slave labor. Now, that's a lie! and I am prepared to come down upon that base calumniator of innocence and beauty, like a thousand of brick! I'll hurl at him the gauntlet of egotism and pomposity, through the innumerable regions of Mozambique and Santa Fe De Bogota; and rush down on him like an avalanche on the plains of De Laplata, before I'll stand the charge! The sub-treasury means to watch the money. Now I say one man is enough to watch our money. I had rather have one man to watch my money, my life, and my country, too, than to have a thousand, because Homer, the greatest poet that ever flourished in umbrageous England, says, in beautiful ambidexter, Latin verse—

'He thal steals my purse, steals trash."

The

3. But about our eternal improvements. What, in the name of the invisible Jackson, do we want to make so many railWhat do we want any more water for roads and canals for? in these United States? We have got water enough. water in canals aint good for nothing but to float boats in, the best way you can fix it. They want to go on making railroads and canals, until our country shall equal in magnanimity the great and philosophic Pacific ocean.

4. And now, to conclude, fellow-citizens, let me tell you, that the memory of the whig and democratic democracy of our great democratic constitution, shall be hung upon a star and shine forever in odoriferous amalgamation in the terraqueous firmament on high, in one eternal bustification!

LESSON XVI.

THE LITTLE ORATOR-A PARODY.

ANONYMOUS.

1. You'd scarce a expect a boy like me,
To get up here where all can see,
And make a speech as well as those
Who wear the largest kind of clothes.

2. I think it was in olden time,

That some one said in funny rhyme, Tall aches from little toe-corns grow, Large screams from little children flow.

3. And if that rhymer told the truth, Though I am now a little youth, Perhaps I'll make as great a noise,

As some who are much older boys.

4. I will not speak of Greece and Rome,

But tell you what I've learned at home; And what was taught me when at school, While sitting on a bench or stool.

5. I've learned to talk, and read, and spell, And don't you think that's pretty well For such a little boy as I?

But I must leave you-so good bye!

LESSON XVII.

SOLILOQUY OF A HOUSEMAID.

FANNY FERN.

1. Он, dear, dear! Wonder if my mistress ever thinks 1 am made of flesh and blood? Five times, within half an hour, I have trotted up stairs, to hand her things that were only four feet from her rocking-chair. Then, there's her son, Mr. George, it does seem to me, that a great able-bodied man like him, needn't call a poor tired woman up four pair of stairs to ask "what's the time of day?" Heigho!-its "Sally do this," and "Sally do that," till I wish I never had been baptized at all; and I might as well go farther back, while I am about it, and wish I had never been born.

2. Now, instead of ordering me round so like a dray horse, if they would only look up smiling-like, now and then; or ask me how my "rheumatiz" did; or say good morning Sally; or show some sort of interest in a fellow-cretur, I could pluck up a bit of heart to work for them. A kind word would ease the wheels of my treadmill amazingly, and wouldn't cost them anything, either.

3. Look at my clothes, all at sixes and sevens. I can't get a minute to sew on a string or button, except at night; and then I'm so sleepy it is as much as ever I can find the way to bed; and what a bed it is, to be sure! Why, even the pigs are now and then allowed clean straw to sleep on; and as to bed-clothes, the less said about them the better; my old cloak serves for a blanket, and the sheets are as thin as a charity school soup. Well, well; one would n't think it, to see all the fine glittering things down in the drawing-room. Master's span of horses, and Miss Clara's diamond ear-rings, and mistress's rich dresses. I try to think it is all right, but it is no use.

4. To-morrow is Sunday-"day of rest," I believe they call

it. H-u-m-p-h!-more cooking to be done-more company-more confusion than on any other day in the week. If I own a soul I have not heard how to take care of it for many a long day. Wonder if my master and mistress calculate to pay me for that, if I lose it? It is a question in my mind. Land of Goshen! I aint sure I've got a mind-there's the bell again!

LESSON XVIII.

THE COLD WATER MAN.

JOHN G. SAXE.

1. There lived an honest fisherman,
I knew him passing well-
Who dwelt hard by a little pond,
Within a little dell.

2. A grave and quiet man was he,
Who loved his hook and rod;
So even ran his line of life,

His neighbors thought it odd.

3. For science and for books, he said,
He never had a wish;

No school to him was worth a fig,
Except a "school" of fish.

4. This single-minded fisherman
A double calling had,—
To tend his flocks, in winter-time,

In summer fish for shad.

5. In short this honest fisherman,
All other toils forsook;

And though no vagrant man was he,

He lived by "hook and crook.