ME

LXXXIII. CLEAR THE WAY.

FIRST VOICE.

EN of thought! be up and stirring, night and day:
Sow the seed,—withdraw the curtain,—CLEAR THE WAY!

SECOND VOICE.

Men of action, aid and cheer them, as ye may!

There's a fount about to stream,
There's a light about to beam,
There's a warmth about to glow,
There's a flower about to blow;

There's a midnight blackness changing into gray.

FIRST VOICE.

Men of thought and men of action, CLEAR THE WAY!

THIRD VOICE.

Once the welcome light has broken, who shall say
What the unimagined glories of the day?
What the evil that shall perish in its ray?

FOURTH VOICE.

Aid the dawning, tongue and pen;

Aid it, hopes of honest men;

Aid it, paper; aid it, type;

Aid it, for the hour is ripe,

And our earnest must not slacken into play.

FIRST VOICE.

Men of thought and men of action, CLEAR THE WAY!

SECOND VOICE.

Lo! a cloud's about to vanish from the day;
And a brazen wrong to crumble into clay.
Lo! the right's about to conquer: CLEAR THE WAY!

THIRD VOICE.

With the right shall many more

Enter smiling at the door;

With the giant wrong shall fall

Many others, great and small,

That for ages long have held us for their prey.

ALL.

Men of thought and men of action, CLEAR THE WAY!

Charles Mackay.

THE CHAMPION SPELLER.

201

LXXXIV.

THE CHAMPION SPELLER.

THE

HE most extraordinary spelling, and, indeed, reading machine in our school was a boy whom I shall call Mem'orus Wordwell. He was mighty and wonderful in the acquisition and remembrance of words, of signs without the ideas signified. The alphabet he acquired at home before he was two years old. What exultation of parents, what exclamation from admiring visitors! 'There was never anything like it."

2. He had almost accomplished his a-b, abs, before he was thought old enough for school. At an earlier age than usual, however, he was sent; and then he went from Ache to Abomination in half the summers and winters it took the rest of us to go over the same space. It was astonishing how quickly he mastered column after column, section after section, of obstinate orthographies.

3. Those martial terms I have just used, together with our hero's celerity, put me in mind of Cæsar; so I will quote him. Memorus might have said, in respect to the hosts of the spelling-book, "I came, I saw, I conquered." He generally stood at the head of a class every member of which was two years his elder. Poor creatures! they studied hard, some of them, but it did no good; Memorus Wordwell was born to be above them, as some men are said to have been "born to command."

4. Master Wordwell was a remarkable reader, too. When but five years old he could rattle off a word as extensive as the name of a Russian noble as easily as the schoolmaster himself. "He can read in the hardest chapters of the Testament as fast ag'in as I can," said his mother. "I never did see anything beat it!" exclaimed his father; "he speaks up as loud as a minister."

5. But I have said enough about this prodigy. I have said thus much because, although he was thought so surpassingly bright, he was the most decided ninny in the school. The fact is, he did not know what the sounds he

uttered meant. It never entered his head, nor the heads of his parents and most of his teachers, that words and sentences were written, and should be read, only to be understood.

6. One little anecdote about Memorus Wordwell before we let him go. It happened one day that the "cut and split" wood for the fire fell short, and Jonas Patch was out wielding the axe in school-time. He had been at work about half an hour, when Memorus, who was perceived to have less to do than the rest, was sent out to take his place. He was about ten years old, and four years younger than Jonas. Memorus," said the teacher, "you may go out and spell Jonas."

7. Our hero did not think of the Yankee sense in which the master used the word spell. Indeed, Memorus had attached but one meaning to it whenever it was used with reference to himself. He supposed the master was granting him a ride extraordinary on his favorite hobby. So he put his spelling-book under his arm and was out at the wood-pile with the speed of a boy rushing to play.

8. "Have you learnt your spellin'-lesson, Jonas?" was his first salutation. "I have n't looked at it yit," was the reply. "I mean to cut up this plaguy great log, spellin' or no spellin', before I go in. I had as lief keep warm here choppin' wood as freeze up there in that cold back seat." Well, the master sent me out to hear you spell." "Did he? Well, put out the words, and I'll spell."

9. Memorus being so distinguished a speller, Jonas did not doubt but that he was really sent out on this errand. So our deputy spelling-master mounted the top of the wood-pile, just in front of Jonas, to put out words to his temporary pupil, who still kept the chips flying.

10. "Do you know where the lesson begins, Jonas?" No, I don't; but I s'pose I shall find out now. Well, here 't is." (They both belonged to the same class.) “Spell A-bom-i-na'tion." Jonas spells: A b-o-m, bom, a-bom, -in the mean time up goes the axe high in air,

· i, a-bom-i, ·

THE CHAMPION SPELLER.

203

down it goes again into the wood,— n-a, na, a-bom-i-na, — up it goes again, -t-i-o-n, tion, a-bom-i-na-tion. Chuck goes the axe again, and at the same time out flies a furious chip, and hits Memorus on the nose.

11. At this moment the master appeared just at the corner of the school-house, with one foot still on the threshold. 'Jonas, why don't you come in? Did n't I send Memorus out to spell you?" "Yes, sir; and he has been spelling me. How could I come in if he spelt me here?"

12. At this the master's eye caught Memorus perched up on the top stick, with his book open upon his lap, rubbing his nose, and just in the act of putting out the next word of the column. "Ac-com-mo-da'tion," pronounced Memorus, in a broken but louder voice than before; for he had caught a glimpse of the master, and he wished to let him know that he was doing his duty.

13. This was too much for the master's gravity. He perceived the mistake, and, without saying more, wheeled back into the school-room, almost bursting with the most tumultuous laugh he ever tried to suppress. The scholars wondered at his looks, and grinned in sympathy.

14. In a few moments Jonas came in, followed by Memorus with his spelling-book, who exclaimed, “I have heard him spell clean through the whole lesson, and he did n't spell one quarter of 'em right." The master could hold in no longer. The scholars, too, perceived the blunder, and there was one simultaneous roar from teacher and pupils; the scholars laughing twice as loud and uproariously in consequence of being permitted to laugh in school-time, and to do it with the accompaniment of the master.

15. It was some time before Memorus could be made to see where the joke lay. At last the teacher told him to look out the word spell in the dictionary. He did so, and found among the definitions under spell, when a transitive verb, the following: "To take the turn or place of." Light began to dawn on the mind of the champion.

Warren Burton.

LXXXV. — CHEERS AND TEARS.

I.

I bronzed

T was a Sergeant old and gray,

Well singed and bronzed from siege and pillage,

Went tramping in an army's wake,

Along the turnpike of the village.

For days and nights the winding host

Had through the little place been marching,

And ever loud the rustics cheered,

Till every throat was hoarse and parching.

II.

The Squire and farmer, maid and dame,

All took the sight's electric stirring,
And hats were waved, and staves were sung,
And kerchiefs white were countless whirring.
They only saw a gallant show

Of heroes stalwart under banners,

And in the fierce heroic glow,

'T was theirs to yield but wild hosannas.