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happy as when lying at her feet, wrapped in the warm sheepskin, in the little sunny parlour at Sandy Knowe. When you read his books-and it is a great thing to say that children may read them-you will remember all these little stories I have been telling you about his childhood; and that, when he came to die, full of age and honours, this is what he said to his son, as he stood by his bedside: "My dear, be a good man; be virtuous, be religious-be a good man. Nothing else will give you any real comfort when you come to lie here."

FANNY FERN.

'ponder, to weigh in the mind; consider. stratagem, a trick. 3 Horace and Virgil, two famous Latin poets who lived about the time of Christ.

SELECTIONS FROM SCOTT'S POEMS.

THE LAST MINSTREL.

THE way was long, the wind was cold,
The Minstrel was infirm and old;
His withered cheek, and 'tresses gray,
Seemed to have known a better day;
The harp, his sole remaining joy,
Was carried by an orphan-boy.
The last of all the bards was he,
Who sung of 2 Border chivalry;
For, well-a-day! their date was fled,
His tuneful brethren all were dead;
And he, neglected and oppressed,
Wished to be with them, and at rest.
No more on prancing 3palfrey borne,
He carolled, light as lark at morn;
No longer, courted and caressed,
High placed in hall, a welcome guest,
He poured to lord and lady gay

The 'unpremeditated lay:

VI.-Moffatt's Ex. Reader.

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Old times were changed, old manners gone,
"A stranger filled the Stuart's throne ;
The bigots of the iron time

Had called his harmless art a crime.
A wandering harper, scorned and poor,
He begged his bread from door to door;
And tuned, to please a peasant's ear,
The harp a king had loved to hear.

1 tresses, locks of hair. 2 Border chivalry, the valiant deeds of knights on horseback during the wars which took place between England and Scotland on the borders of the two countries, before they were united under one sovereign. 3palfrey, a horse used for purposes of State, and for carrying ladies. unpremeditated, not thought of or composed beforehand; extempore. a stranger, William III., who became King of England and Scotland after James II., who belonged to the Stuart line, had been driven from the throne.

MELROSE ABBEY.

Ir thou would'st view fair 'Melrose aright,
Go visit it by the pale moonlight;
For the gay beams of lightsome day
Gild, but to flout, the ruins gray.

When the broken arches are black in night,
And each shafted 'oriel glimmers white;
When the cold light's uncertain shower
Streams on the ruined central tower;
When buttress and buttress, alternately,
Seemed framed of ebon and ivory;

When silver edges the imagery,

And the scrolls that teach thee to live and die ;

When distant Tweed is heard to rave,

And the owlet to hoot o'er the dead man's grave;

Then go-but go alone the while

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MELROSE ABBEY.

'Melrose, Melrose Abbey, a beautiful ruin situated near the banks of the River Tweed, in Scotland. 2flout, mock, insult. shafted, having shafts, or columns. oriel, a large projecting bay window. 5 buttress, a prop or support to the wall of a building. ebon, ebony, a kind of hard wood, generally deep black in colour, obtained from trees which flourish in the East Indies. "St. David, the Abbey of Melrose was dedicated to St. David. 88oothly, truly.

LOVE OF ONE'S COUNTRY.

BREATHES there the man, with soul so dead,
Who never to himself hath said,

This is my own, my native land!
Whose heart hath ne'er within him burned,
As home his footsteps he hath turned,

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If such there breathe, go, mark him well;
For him no minstrel raptures swell;
High though his titles, proud his name,
Boundless his wealth as wish can claim;
Despite those titles, power, and 2
2 pelf,
The wretch, concentred all in self,
Living, shall forfeit fair renown,
And doubly dying, shall go down
To the vile dust, from whence he sprung
Unwept, unhonoured, and unsung.
O'Caledonia! stern and wild,

Meet nurse for a poetic child!

Land of brown heath and shaggy wood!
Land of the mountain and the flood,
Land of my sires! what mortal hand
Can e'er untie the filial band

That knits me to thy rugged strand?
Still, as I view each well-known scene,
Think what is now, and what hath been,
Seems as, to me, of all 5 bereft :

Sole friends thy woods and streams are left;
And thus I love them better still,

Even in extremity of ill.

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By Yarrow's stream still let me stray,

Though none should guide my feeble way;
Still feel the breeze down' Ettrick break,
Although it chill my withered cheek;
Still lay my head by Teviot stone,
Though there, forgotten and alone,

The Bard may draw his parting groan.

1 strand, shore or bank of the sea, of a lake, or of a large river. 2 pelf, money; riches. 3 concentred in self, having self as the centre of his thoughts; thinking only of himself. * Caledonia, the ancient Roman name of Scotland, as Britannia is that of England. bereft, bereaved, deprived. Yarrow, a beautiful stream flowing into the Ettrick. Ettrick, a tributary of the Tweed.

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YOUNG LOCHINVAR.

OH! young Lochinvar is come out of the west : Through all the wide 'Border his steed was the best; And, save his good broadsword, he weapon had none, He rode all unarmed, and he rode all alone;

So faithful in love, and so dauntless in war,

There never was knight like the young Lochinvar.
He stayed not for brake, and he stopped not for stone,
He swam the 2 Esk river where ford there was none;
But ere he alighted at Netherby gate,

The bride had consented, the gallant came late;
For a laggard in love, and a 'dastard in war,
Was to wed the fair Ellen of brave Lochinvar.
So boldly he entered the Netherby Hall,

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Among brides-men, and kinsmen, and brothers, and all.
Then spoke the bride's father, his hand on his sword
(For the poor craven bridegroom said never a word),
"Oh! come ye in peace here, or come ye in war,
Or to dance at our bridal, young Lord Lochinvar ? "
"I long wooed your daughter, my suit you denied—
Love swells like the Solway, but ebbs like its tide-
And now I am come, with this lost love of mine
To lead but one measure, drink one cup of wine.
There are maidens in Scotland, more lovely by far,
That would gladly be bride to the young Lochinvar."
The bride kissed the goblet; the knight took it up,
He quaffed off the wine, and he threw down the cup.
She looked down to blush, and she looked up to sigh,
With a smile on her lips, and a tear in her eye.
He took her soft hand, ere her mother could bar ;
"Now tread we a measure," said young Lochinvar.
So stately his form, and so lovely her face,
That never a hall such a galliard did grace;
While her mother did fret, and her father did 1o fume,
And the bridegroom stood dangling his bonnet and

plume;

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