THE CRICKET ON THE HEARTH.

245

seemed a natural and inevitable consequence, for which it had expressly labored.

12. There was all the excitement of a race about it. Chirp, chirp, chirp! Cricket a mile ahead. Hum, hum, hum-m-m! Kettle making play in the distance, like a great top. Chirp, chirp, chirp! Cricket round the corner. Hum, hum, hum-m-m! Kettle sticking to him in his own way; no idea of giving in. Chirp, chirp, chirp! Cricket fresher than ever. Hum, hum, hum-m-m! Kettle slow and steady. Chirp, chirp, chirp! Cricket going in to finish him. Hum, hum, hum-m-m! Kettle not to be finished. Until at last, they got so jumbled together, in the hurry-skurry, helter-skelter of the match, that whether the Kettle chirped and the Cricket hummed, or the Cricket chirped and the Kettle hummed, or they both chirped and both hummed, it would have taken a clearer head than yours or mine to decide with anything like certainty.

13. But of this there is no doubt, that the Kettle and the Cricket, at one and the same moment, and by some power of amalgamation best known to themselves, sent each his fireside song of comfort streaming into a ray of the candle that shone out through the window, and a long way down the lane. And this light, bursting on a certain person who, on the instant, approached towards it through the gloom, expressed the whole thing to him, literally in a twinkling, and cried, Welcome home, old fellow! Welcome home, my boy! Dickens, abridged.

EXERCISE.

1. Let me narrate exactly how it happened.

2. I should have proceeded to do so, but for this plain consideration. [Reason.]

3. She went clicking over the wet stones in a pair of pattens. [Wooden shoes or clogs standing on iron rings.]

4. The lid turned topsy-turvy, and then with an ingenious pertinacity dived in. [Artful obstinacy.]

5. It looked sullen and pig-headed enough.

6. The kettle burst into a song so cosey and hilarious as never maudlin nightingale sung. [Intoxicated.]

CL-TEE KEEPING OF THE BRIDGE.

I spute the Cnsil roundly:

Ο
() -

The true must straight go down;

Fir, stock fine it is hist.

Nese cat sive the town.”
Then 41 US are Hiritus,
The Captain of the Gate :

THE KEEPING OF THE BRIDGE.

And when above the surges

They saw his crest appear,

All Rome sent forth a rapturous cry,
And even the ranks of Tuscany

Could scarce forbear to cheer.

XIII.

"Out on him!" quoth false Sextus;
"Will not the villain drown?
But for this stay, ere close of day
We should have sacked the town!"
"Heaven help him!" quoth Lars Por ́sena,
"And bring him safe to shore;
For such a gallant feat of arms
Was never seen before."

1. Straight against that great array forth went the dauntless three.

2. A great shout of laughter from all the vanguard rose.

3. Now the bridge hangs tottering above the boiling tide.

4. The mighty wreck lay right athwart the stream.

5. The yellow foam was splashed to the tops of the highest turrets.

6. He turned round, as not deigning to see those craven ranks. 7. With his harness on his back he plunged headlong in the tide.

8. Friends and foes in dumb surprise stood gazing.

9. They saw his crest appear above the surges.

10. All Rome sent forth a rapturous cry.

11. The ranks of Tuscany could scarce forbear to cheer.
12 We should have sacked the town, but for this stay.
13. The Fathers throng around him to press his gory hands.