IV.—THE BUILDERS.

LONGFELLOW.

RY WADSWORTH Longfellow, one of the most popular poets of the day in every English-speaking land, was born in Portland, Maine, y 27, 1807, and died at Cambridge, Mass., March 24, 1882. A graduBowdoin College at the age of eighteen, he became the Professor of Languages there, after having studied and traveled several years in From 1836 to 1854 he filled a similar position in the University at lge, where he went to reside.

y of Longfellow's shorter poems have become favorites with all of poetry. No other poet is so welcome a visitant at the fireside. his longer poems, all of which have met with popular approval, we Evangeline," "The Song of Hiawatha," "The Courtship of Miles ," and "Tales of a Wayside Inn." He has also written several › of prose which has much the charm of poetry. His writings are ished by rich and delicate fancy, and pure sentiment, expressed in beautiful diction.

1. ALL are architects of fate,

Working in these walls of time;
Some with massive deeds and great,
Some with ornaments of rhyme.

2. Nothing useless is, or low;

Each thing in its place is best;
And what seems but idle show
Strengthens and supports the rest.

3. For the structure that we raise, Time is with materials filled;

Our to-days and yesterdays

Are the blocks with which we build.

4. Truly shape and fashion these;

Leave no yawning gaps between ;

V.-SHOOTING THE OSWEGO FALLS.

COOPER.

ES FENIMORE COOPER, the chief of American novelists, was born in rsey in 1789, but lived nearly all his life at Cooperstown, New York, anks of the beautiful Otsego Lake. He died in 1851.

best of Cooper's stories are about the sea, or about wild life on the , and portray the period when this country was at war with England, en the Indian was still dreaded by the settlers.

ng his most admired works are "The Spy," "The Pilot," "The the Mohicans," "The Pathfinder," and "The Deerslayer."

el Dunham and Master Cap, her seafaring uncle, are under the escort mous scout Pathfinder, the young man Jasper, or Eau-douce (o-dooce'), Indians. They are descending the Oswego River.

THE vessel in which Cap and his niece had emd for their long and adventurous journey was one canoes of bark which the Indians are in the habit structing. Its workmanship was neat; the timvere small, and secured by thongs; and the whole , though it was so slight and precarious to the eye, probably capable of conveying double the number rsons it now contained.

Cap was seated on a low thwart, in the center of noe; the Big Serpent knelt near him. Arrowhead his wife occupied places forward of both. Mabel reclining on some of her own effects, behind her , while the Pathfinder and Eau-douce stood erect, ne in the bow, the other in the stern, each using a e, with a long, steady, noiseless sweep.

Just at this moment a dull, heavy sound swept up venue formed by the trees, borne along by a light at hardly produced a ripple on the water.

hat sounds pleasant." said Cap, pricking up his ears

the shores of your lake, I suppose? "Not so, not so," answered th merely this river tumbling over so below us."

4. "Master Pathfinder, had you canoe a sheer and get nearer to the falls generally have rapids above as well get into the Maelstrom at their suction."

"Trust to us, trust to us, friend finder; "we are but fresh-water sa cannot boast of being much even c stand rifts, and rapids, and cataract 5. "You do not dream of going this egg-shell of bark!" exclaimed "The path lies over the falls, and shoot them than to unload the cand all it contains around a portage of a

6. Mabel turned her pallid cou young man in the stern of the ca moment a fresh roar of the falls v by a new current of the air, and i rific, now that the cause was und

We thought that by landing the Indians," Jasper quietly observed, " all of whom are used to the water, 1 over in safety, for we often shoot th

7. Cap was puzzled. The idea o fall was perhaps more serious in hi have been in those of one totally pertained to boats; for he underst element, and the total feebleness o

fury. Still his pride revolted at the thought of ing the boat, while others not only courageously, polly, proposed to continue in it.

Sheer in, Eau-douce, sheer in," said the Path; “we will land the Sergeant's daughter on the f that log, where she can reach the shore with a pot."

- injunction was obeyed, and in a few minutes the party had left the canoe, with the exception of nder and the two sailors. Notwithstanding his sional pride, Cap would have gladly followed, but I not like to exhibit so unequivocal a weakness in resence of a fresh-water sailor.

"I call all hands to witness," he said, as those had landed moved away, "that I do not look on ffair as anything more than canoeing in the woods. is no seamanship in tumbling over a waterfall, is a feat the greatest lubber can perform as well oldest mariner."

Nay, nay, you need n't despise the Oswego put in Pathfinder, "for though they may not iagara, nor the Genesee, nor the Cohoes, they are h for a beginner. Let the Sergeant's daughter on yonder rock, and she will see the way in we ignorant backwoodsmen get over a difficulty we can't get under. Now, Eau-douce, a steady and a true eye, for all rests on you, seeing that we ount Master Cap for no more than a passenger."

As soon as the boat was in the stream, Pathfinder on his knees, continuing to use the paddle, though s slowly, and in a manner not to interfere with the is of his companion. The latter still stood erect, as he kept his eye on some object beyond the falls