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Alas! they all are in their graves; the gentle race of flowers Are lying in their lowly beds, with the fair and good of ours. The rain is falling where they lie, but the cold November

rain

Calls not, from out the gloomy earth, the lovely ones again.

The wind-flower and the violet, they perished long ago, And the brier-rose and the orchis died amid the summer glow;

But on the hill the golden-rod, and the aster in the wood, And the yellow sun-flower by the brook, in autumn beauty stood,

Till fell the frost from the clear, cold heaven, as falls the plague on men,

And the brightness of their smile was gone, from upland, glade and glen.

And now, when comes the calm, mild day, as still such days will come,

To call the squirrel and the bee from out their winter home; When the sound of dropping nuts is heard, though all the trees are still,

And twinkle in the smoky light the waters of the rill;
The south wind searches for the flowers whose fragrance

late he bore,

And sighs to find them in the wood and by the stream no

more.

And then I think of one who in her youthful beauty died, The fair, meek blossom that grew up and faded by my side: In the cold, moist earth we laid her, when the forest cast the leaf,

And we wept that one so lovely should have a life so brief: Yet not unmeet it was, that one, like that young friend of

ours,

So gentle and so beautiful, should perish with the flowers.

3*

LESSON XV.

Hurricane in Demerara -HARRIET MARTINEAU. ✅✔✅

THERE was a mass of clouds towering in a distant quarter of the heavens, not like a pile of snowy peaks, but now rent apart, and now tumbled together, and bathed in a' dull, red light. The sun, too, looked large and red, while the objects on the summits of the hills wore a bluish cast, and looked larger and nearer than usual. There was a dead calm. The pigeon had ceased her cooing, no parrots were showing off their gaudy plumage in the sunlight, and not even the hum of the enamelled beetle was heard.

"What is the moon's age?" asked Mr. Bruce of the

overseer.

"She is full to-night, sir, and a stormy night it will be, I fear." He held up his finger, and listened.

"Hark!" said Mary, "there is the thunder already." "It is not thunder, my dear."

"It is the sea," said Louisa; "I never heard it here but once before; but I am sure it is the same sound."

"The sea, at this distance!" cried Mary.

The whites have not yet become as weatherwise, between the tropics, as the negroes; and both fall short of the foresight which might be attained, and which was actually possessed, by the original inhabitants of these countries.

A negro cannot, like them, predict a storm twelve days beforehand; but he is generally aware of its approach some hours sooner than his master. It depends upon the terms he happens to be on with the whites, whether or not he gives them the advantage of his observations.

Every star looked crimson, and had its halo like the moon. It was as if a bloody steam had gone up from the earth. Not a breath of air could yet be felt; yet here and there a cedar, taller than the rest, stooped and shivered on the summit of the hills; and the clouds, now rushing, now poised motionless, indicated a capricious commotion in the upper air.

The lightning flashes came thick and fast. Still there was neither wind nor rain; but the roar of the distant sea rose louder in the intervals of the thunder.

Suddenly, a whole field of sugar-canes whirled in the air.

Before they had time to fall, the loftiest trees of the forest were carried up in like manner. The mill disappeared, a hundred huts were levelled; there was a stunning roar, a rumbling beneath, a rushing above. The hurricane was upon them in all its fury.

The sound was hushed, and the warring lights were quenched for a time, by the deluge which poured down. from the clouds. After a while, the roaring of water was heard very near, and some of the blacks separated from the rest to see in what direction the irregular torrents which usually attend a hurricane were taking their course. There was a strip of low ground between the sloping field where the negroes were collected, and the opposite hill, and through the middle of this ground a river rushed along where a river had never been seen before. A tree was still standing here and there in the midst of the foaming waters, and what had, a few minutes ago, been a hillock with a few shrubs growing out of it, was now an island.

The negroes thought they heard a shout from this island, and then supposed it must be fancy; but when the clouds were swept away, and allowed the moon to look down for a moment, they saw that some one was certainly there, clinging to the shrubs, and in imminent peril of being carried away, if the stream should continue to rise.

It was Horner, the overseer, who was making his way to the field when the waters overtook him in the low ground, and drove him to the hillock to seek a safety which was likely to be short enough. The waters rose every moment; and, though the distance was not thirty feet from the hillock to the sloping bank on which the negroes had now ranged themselves to watch his fate, the waves dashed through in so furious a current, that he did not dare to commit himself to them.

Another gale came. The tree in which Horner had found refuge bowed, cracked,—but before it fell, the wretch was blown from it like a flake of foam, and swallowed up finally in the surge beneath.

LESSON XVI.

Convent of Mount Sinai.-BURCKHARDT.

THE Convent of mount Sinai is situated in a valley, so narrow that one part of the building stands on the side of the western mountain, while a space of twenty paces only is left between its walls and the eastern mountain. The valley is open to the north, from whence approaches the road from Cairo ; to the south, close behind the convent, it is shut up by a third mountain, less steep than the other, over which passes the road to Sherm.

The convent is an irregular quadrangle, of about one hundred and thirty paces, enclosed by high and solid walls, built with blocks of granite, and fortified with several small towers. The convent contains eight or ten small courtyards, some of which are neatly laid out in beds of flowers and vegetables; a few date-trees and cypresses also grow there, and great numbers of vines. The distribution of the interior is very irregular, and cannot be otherwise, considering the slope on which the building stands, but the whole is very clean and neat. There are a great number of small rooms in the upper and lower stories, most of which are at present unoccupied.

The principal building in the interior is the great church, which, as well as the convent, was built by the emperor Justinian, but it has subsequently undergone frequent repairs. The form of the church is an oblong square; the roof is supported by a double row of fine granite pillars, which have been covered with a coat of white plaster, perhaps because the natural color of the stone was not agreeable to the monks, who saw granite on every side of them.

The dome over the altar still remains as it was constructed by Justinian, whose portrait, together with that of his wife, Theodora, may yet be distinguished on the dome, together with a large picture of the transfiguration, in honor of which event the convent was erected. An abundance of silver lamps, paintings and portraits of saints adorn the walls round the altar. The floor of the church is finely paved with slabs of white marble.

In a small chapel, adjoining the church, is shown the place where the Lord is supposed to have appeared to Moses

in the burning bush. It is considered as the most holy spot in mount Sinai. Besides the great church, there are twenty-seven smaller churches, in many of which daily masses are read, and, in all of them, at least one every Sunday.

The convent formerly resembled, in its establishment, that of the holy sepulchre at Jerusalem, which contains churches of various sects of Christians. Every principal sect, except the Calvinists and Protestants, had its churches in the convent of Sinai. But what is more remarkable than the existence of so many churches is, that, close by the great church, stands a Mohammedan mosque, spacious enough to contain two hundred people at prayers.

In the convent are two deep and copious wells of spring water. One of them is called the well of Moses, because it is said that he first drank of its water.

None of the churches or chapels have steeples. There is a bell, which, I believe, is rung only on Sundays. The usual mode of calling the monks to morning prayers, is by striking with a stick upon a long piece of granite, suspended from ropes, which produces a sound heard all over the convent; close by it hangs a piece of dry wood, which emits a different sound, and summons to vespers.

LESSON XVII.

The Little Slave.-HARRIET MARTINEAU.

HESTER was only ten years old when she was first put under old Robert and Sukey, according to the custom by which novices in bondage are made to serve a sort of apprenticeship to those who have been longer under the yoke. The children prefer, at the outset, being instructed by their own people; and the elderly people find pleasure, some in the exercise of authority, and others in reviving their impressions of their own young days of friendless slavery.

Little Hester seemed to wither fast under the treatment of her master and mistress, as they called themselves; but a tone of voice gentler than usual, a mild word, a look of encouragement, would revive and strengthen her till the next gleam came. There was no end to her troubles but

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