20 25 30 35 40 There came a man from the neighboring town And bade the stranger hail. "Now art thou a bachelor, stranger?" quoth he, The happiest draught thou hast drank this day Or has your good woman, if one you have, For an if she have, I'll venture my life She has drank of the well of St. Keyne." "I have left a good woman who never was here," The stranger he made reply; "But that my draught should be better for that, I pray you answer me why." "St. Keyne," quoth the countryman, "many a time Drank of this crystal well, And before the angel summoned her She laid on the water a spell. "If the husband of this gifted well For he shall be master for life. "But if the wife should drink of it first, God help the husband then!" The stranger stooped to the well of St. Keyne, 45 50 "You drank of the well, I warrant, betimes?" But the countryman smiled as the stranger spake, "I hastened as soon as the wedding was done, But i' faith she had been wiser than me, For she took a bottle to church." HELPS FOR STUDY How does the poet describe the well of St. Keyne? Why was the well pleasant to the eye of the traveler when he came to it? Explain "bade the stranger hail.” What else did the countryman say to the stranger? Explain "happiest draught.' Why did the countryman consider the stranger fortunate to have drunk from the well if he were a bachelor? Do you notice any peculiarity in lines 22 and 27? Explain "before the angel summoned her," and "laid on the water a spell." Why do you think the countryman "sheepishly shook his head"? NOTES This poem is founded on a legend connected with a well in Cornwall, England. This well was said to be overarched with four kinds of trees, a willow, an oak, an elm, and an ash, and whoever drank first of its waters, whether husband or wife, should gain the mastery thereby. 1 West-country. The country in the western part of England. 22 An. An old form of "and." 26 Cornwall. A county in the southwestern part of England. ADDITIONAL SELECTIONS The Battle of Blenheim LOVE OF HOME HENRY WOODFIN GRADY Henry Woodfin Grady was born in Athens, Georgia, May 17, 1851. Just as he was entering his teens, his father, a major in the Confederate Army, was killed on the battlefield of Petersburg, Virginia. Soon after this, young Grady entered the University of Georgia, where he was chosen commencement orator at his graduation. Following this, he took a post-graduate course at the University of Virginia, returning to his native State to engage in journalism. He began by reporting or writing special articles for various newspapers. His first business venture was the purchasing and combining two papers in Rome, Georgia, which proved a failure. He then went to Atlanta and founded the Daily Herald, which was also unsuccessful. After this, he secured employment on the New York Herald, at the same time serving as reporter on the Atlanta Constitution. A few years later he purchased an interest in the Constitution. Grady had often spoken to his fellow-citizens in Atlanta and elsewhere in Georgia, but he obtained national fame as an orator by his speech before the New England Society of New York City in 1886. This address gained for him a place among the foremost orators of America. His last speech was delivered before the Boston Merchants' Association, in December, 1889. On his return from this visit to Boston, he contracted pneumonia, and died December 23, 1889. The man who kindles the fire on the hearthstone of an honest and righteous home burns the best incense to liberty. He does not love mankind less who loves his neighbor most. The germ of the best patriotism is in the love that a man has for the home he inhabits, for the soil he tills, for the trees that give him shade, and the hills that stand in his pathway. I teach my son to love Georgia to love the soil that he stands on the broad acres that hold her 10 substance, the dimpling valleys in which her beauty rests, the forests that sing her songs of lullaby and of praise, and the brooks that run with her rippling laughter. The love of home-deep-rooted and abiding - that blurs the eyes of the dying soldier with the vision of an old homestead amid green fields and clustering trees, that follows 5 the busy man through the clamoring world, persistent though put aside, and at last draws his tired feet from the highway and leads him through shady lanes and wellremembered paths until, amid the scenes of his boyhood, he gathers up the broken threads of his life and owns the 10 soil of his conqueror this, lodged in the heart of the citizen, is the saving principle of our government. We note the barracks of our standing army with its rolling drum and its fluttering flag as points of strength, and protection. But the citizen standing in the doorway of his home, con15 tented on his threshold, his family gathered about his hearthstone, while the evening of a well-spent day closes in scenes and sounds that are dearest - he shall save the Republic when the drum tap is futile and the barracks are exhausted. 20 This love shall not be pent up or provincial. The home should be consecrated to humanity, and from its roof-tree should fly the flag of the Republic. Every simple fruit gathered there, every sacrifice endured, and every victory won should bring better joy and inspiration in the knowl25 edge that it will deepen the glory of our Republic and widen the harvest of humanity. Be not like the peasant of France, who hates the Paris he cannot comprehend, but emulate the example of your fathers in the South, who, holding to the sovereignty of the States, yet gave to the 30 Republic its chief glory of statesmanship, and under Jackson at New Orleans, and Taylor and Scott in Mexico, saved it twice from the storm of war. Inherit without fear or shame the principle of local self-government by which your fathers stood. For though entangled with an insti35 tution foreign to this soil, which, thank God, not planted by their hands, is now swept away, that principle holds the imperishable truth that shall yet save this Republic. Exalt the citizen. As the State is the unit of the government, he is the unit of the State. Teach him that his home 5 is his castle, and his sovereignty rests beneath his hat. Make him self-respecting, self-reliant, and responsible. Let him lean on the State for nothing that his own arm can do, and on the government for nothing that his State can do. Let him cultivate independence to the point of sac10 rifice, and learn that humble things with unbartered liberty are better than splendors bought with its price. Let him neither surrender his individuality to government nor merge it with the mob. Let him stand upright and fearless, a freeman born of freemen, sturdy in his own strength, 15 dowering his family in the sweat of his brow, loving to his State, loyal to his Republic, earnest in his allegiance wherever it rests, but building his altar in the midst of his household gods and shrining in his own heart the uttermost temple of its liberty. HELPS FOR STUDY How is Henry W. Grady regarded among the orators of America? Why did the orator teach his son to love Georgia? Explain "broad acres that hold her substance,' "when the drum tap is futile and the barracks are exhausted," "provincial," eignty of States." Name some of the great statesmen of the South. Sover What have you learned in your history about "Jackson at New Orleans, and Taylor and Scott in Mexico"? To what does " an institution foreign to this soil" refer? Explain "his sovereignty rests beneath his hat,' " "unbartered liberty," "dowering his family in the sweat of his brow." NOTE Household gods. In Roman mythology, the household gods, known as Lares and Penates, presided over families and were worshiped in the interior of every dwelling. |