"Nay, if thou shake a spear, thou shouldst break it, lad; but come, Shakespeare, with thine Elizabeth, to Kenilworth." And hereupon the Queen mounted with speed and dashed off for Kenilworth at such a round pace that Shakespeare 5 had great ado in following at a respectful distance.

And thus it was that young William Shakespeare came to see the "princely pleasures of Kenilworth," which he, in Midsummer Night's Dream, afterwards recalled to the mind of Queen Eliza- 10 beth by Oberon's vision of Cupid, all armed, flying betwixt the cold moon and the earth.

NOTE. In this sketch Marlowe has been put ahead of his time.

burgesses: freemen of a borough. dicing house: a gambling house. roisterer: a noisy fellow. salvage: an old word for rude or savage. — livery: uniform.-belike: probably. - prank: dress in a gay fashion. - bravest : finest. arms: the family coat of arms.—thorp: a farm village. - fared: went.-fantastic: imaginary.- vigils: watchings. toward going on.cavalcade a troop of mounted persons. pungent: piercing. an: if. — chagrin: vexation.—rallied: teased. — caprice: freak.— Oberon: the king of the fairies. Cupid: the little blind son of the goddess Venus. His darts could pierce even the gods.

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LOST IN THE SNOW

CHRISTOPHER NORTH

CHRISTOPHER NORTH (1785-1854) was the pen name of one of Scotland's gifted writers, John Wilson. He was for years the leading spirit of the famous Blackwood's Magazine, a magazine enriched by articles from such men as Scott, Coleridge, Words5 worth, Hogg, and Sir David Brewster. To this magazine Wilson contributed the witty and brilliant conversations known as Noctes Ambrosiana. He is also the author of a collection of stories called Lights and Shadows of Scottish Life.

Two cottagers, husband and wife, were sitting 10 by their cheerful peat fire one winter evening, in a small, lonely hut on the edge of the wide moor, at some miles' distance from any other habitation. The affairs of the small household were all arranged for the night. The little rough pony that 15 had drawn in a sledge from the heart of the Black Moss the fuel by whose blaze the cotters were now sitting cheerily, and the little Highland cow, whose milk enabled them to live, were standing amicably together under cover of a rude shed. The spades 20 and the mattocks of the laborer were collected into one corner, and showed that the succeeding day was the Sabbath.

The father, and the mother were sitting together without opening their lips, but with their hearts.

overflowing with happiness; for on this Saturday night they were, every minute, expecting to hear at the latch the hand of their only daughter, a maiden of about fifteen years, who was at service with a farmer over the hills.

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The father rose from his seat and went to the door to look out into the night. The stars were in thousands, and the full moon was risen. It was almost as light as day, and the snow, that seemed incrusted with diamonds, was so hardened by the 10 frost that his daughter's homeward feet would leave no mark on its surface. He had been toiling all day among the distant Castle woods, and, stiff and wearied as he now was, he was almost tempted to go to meet his child; but his wife's kind voice 15 dissuaded him, and, returning to the fireside, they began to talk of her whose image had been so long passing before them in their silence.

While the parents were speaking of their daughter a loud sough of wind came suddenly over the cot- 20 tage, and the leafless ash tree, under whose shelter it stood, creaked and groaned dismally as it passed by. The father started up, and, going again to the door, saw that a sudden change had come over the face of the night. The moon had nearly dis- 25 appeared, and was just visible in a dim, yellow,

glimmering den in the sky. All the remote stars were obscured, and only one or two faintly shone in the sky that half an hour before was perfectly cloudless, but that was now driving with rack and 5 mist and sleet, the whole atmosphere being in commotion. He stood for a single moment to observe the direction of this unforeseen storm, and then hastily asked for his staff. "I thought I had been more weatherwise. A storm is coming down from 10 the mountain, and we shall have nothing but a wild night." He then whistled to his dog and set off to meet his daughter, who might then, for aught he knew, be crossing the Black Moss. The mother accompanied her husband to the door and took a 15 long, frightened look at the angry sky. As she kept gazing it became still more terrible. The last shred of blue was extinguished; the wind went whirling in roaring eddies, and great flakes of snow circled about in the middle air.

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Little Hannah Lee had left her master's house as soon as the rim of the great moon was seen by her eyes, that had been long anxiously watching it from the window, rising, like a joyful dream, over the gloomy mountain tops; and all by herself she 25 tripped along beneath the beauty of the silent heaven. She saw her own little fireside, — her

parents waiting for her arrival, the Bible opened for worship, her own little room kept so neatly for her, with its mirror hanging by the window, in which to braid her hair by the morning light; her bed prepared for her by her mother's hand; the primroses 5 in the garden peeping through the snow; old Tray, who ever welcomed her home with his dim, white eyes; the pony and the cow.

eye

She had now reached the edge of the Black Moss, which lay halfway between her master's and her 10 father's dwelling, when she heard a loud noise. coming down the glen, and in a few seconds she felt on her face some flakes of snow. She looked up the glen and saw the snowstorm coming down, fast as a flood. She felt no fears, but she ceased her 15 song; and had there been a human to look upon her there, it might have seen a shadow on her face. She continued her course, and felt bolder and bolder every step that brought her nearer to her parents' house. But the snowstorm had now reached the 20 Black Moss, and the broad line of light that had lain in the direction of her home was soon swallowed up, and the child was in utter darkness. She saw nothing but the flakes of snow interminably intermingled and furiously wafted in the air, close to 25 her head; she heard nothing but one wild, fierce,