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state of comparative rest, the former gave a signal to his crew to ply their oars once more. A few long and vigorous strokes sent the boat directly up to the broadside of the whale, with its bows pointing towards one of the fins, which was, at times, as the animal yielded sluggishly to the action of the waves, exposed to view. The coxswain poised his harpoon with 70 much precision, and then darted it from him with a violence that buried the iron in the blubber of their foe. The instant the blow was made, long Tom shouted, with singular earnestness,—

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"Starn all!"

"Stern all!" echoed Barnstable; when the obedient seamen, by united efforts, forced the boat in a backward direction beyond the reach of any blow from their formidable antagonist. The alarmed animal, however, meditated no such resistance; ignorant of his own power, and of the insignificance of his enemies, he sought refuge in flight. One moment of stupid surprise succeeded the entrance of the iron, when he cast his huge tail into the air, with a violence that threw the sea around him into increased commotion, 85 and then disappeared with the quickness of lightning, amid a cloud of foam.'

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"Snub him!" shouted Barnstable; "hold on, Tom; he rises already."

"Aye, aye, sir,” replied the composed coxswain, seizing the line, which was running out of the boat with a velocity that rendered such a maneuver rather hazardous, and causing it to yield more gradually

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round the large loggerhead that was placed in the bows of the boat for that purpose. Presently the line stretched forward, and rising to the surface with 95 tremulous vibrations, it indicated the direction in which the animal might be expected to reappear. Barnstable had cast the bows of the boat towards that point, before the terrified and wounded victim rose once more to the surface, whose time was, how- 1 ever, no longer wasted in his sports, but who cast the waters aside, as he forced his way, with prodigious velocity, along the surface. The boat was dragged violently in his wake, and cut through the billows with a terrific rapidity, that at moments appeared to bury 105 the slight fabric in the ocean. When long Tom beheld his victim throwing his spouts on high again, he pointed with exultation to the jetting fluid, which was streaked with the deep red of blood, and cried,

"Aye, I've touched the fellow's life! It must be 110 more than two foot of blubber that stops my iron from reaching the life of any whale that ever sculled the ocean!"

"I believe you have saved yourself the trouble of using the bayonet you have rigged for a lance," 115 said his commander, who entered into the sport with all the ardor of one whose youth had been chiefly passed in such pursuits: "Feel your line Master Coffin; can we haul alongside of our enemy? I like not the course he is steering, as he tows us from 120 the schooner."

''Tis the creatur's way, sir," said the coxswain;

"you know they need the air in their nostrils, when they run, the same as a man; but lay hold, boys, and 125 let's haul up to him."

The seamen now seized the whale line, and slowly drew their boat to within a few feet of the tail of the fish, whose progress became sensibly less rapid, as he grew weak with the loss of blood. In a few minutes 130 he stopped running, and appeared to roll uneasily on the water, as if suffering the agony of death.

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"Shall we pull in, and finish him, Tom?" cried Barnstable; "a few sets from your bayonet would do it."

The coxswain stood examining his game with cool discretion, and replied to this interrogatory,

"No, sir, no-he's going into his flurry; there's no occasion for disgracing ourselves by using a soldier's weapon in taking a whale. Starn off, sir, starn off! 140 the creatur's in his flurry!"

The warning of the prudent coxswain was promptly obeyed, and the boat cautiously drew off to a distance, leaving to the animal a clear space, while under its

dying agonies. From a state of perfect rest, the 145 terrible monster threw its tail on high, as when in sport, but its blows were trebled in rapidity and violence, till all was hid from view by a pyramid of foam, that was deeply dyed with blood. The roarings of the fish were like the bellowing of a herd of bulls; 150 and to one who was ignorant of the fact, it would have

appeared as if a thousand monsters were engaged in deadly combat, behind the bloody mist that obstructed

the view. Gradually, these effects subsided, and when the discolored water again settled down to the long and regular swell of the ocean, the fish was seen, 155 exhausted, and yielding passively to its fate. As life departed, the enormous black mass rolled to one side; and when the white and glistening skin of the belly became apparent, the seamen well knew that their victory was achieved.

From "The Pilot."

GLOSSARY. Strongway; hearties; harpoon; spontaneously; coxswain; stern sheets; unshipped; flukes; formidable; starboard; evolution; blubber; maneuver; hazardous; loggerhead; prodigious; sculled; flurry.

STUDY. This passage is an episode in Cooper's novel, The Pilot. Barnstable is a young lieutenant on an American frigate off the coast of England during the Revolution. Having no important duty at hand, he gives Long Tom Coffin, the remarkable old cockswain, a chance to indulge in his favorite sport of whale hunting. The passage is one of the most famous accounts in literature of an encounter with a whale.

Imagine yourself one of the party in the boat and take special note of all the incidents, from the opening preparations to the death of the whale. Would you call it all exciting, or terrifying? Point out the most stirring moments. What impression do you form of Long Tom?

Let a man possess himself of any one of the works of the great poets, and no matter whatever else he may fail to know, he is not without education.

CHARLES ELIOT NORTON.

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JAMES FENIMORE COOPER

This is the story of how Cooper became a writer of romances. One day in 1820, as he sat reading an English novel, disgusted with its dullness, he remarked that he could write a better story himself. His wife challenged 5 him to try it, and he did. The novel that he wrote was not a good one-in fact, Cooper did not choose to include it when issuing his complete works—but in making the effort Cooper, at the age of thirty-one, learned something which he had not known before. He learned that he could 10 really tell a story. For the remaining thirty years of his life he sent forth one tale after another.

Cooper was born at Burlington, New Jersey, in 1789. His family shortly afterward moved to a large tract of land which his father had acquired on the shores of Otsego 15 Lake in New York. Here the village of Cooperstown was founded and a home built which was called Otsego Hall. Cooper's childhood was thus spent in the midst of beautiful, natural surroundings, quite on the outskirts of civilization. He was prepared for and entered Yale College, 20 where he continued until his junior year, when he was dismissed for reasons that have not been reported to us. Then after a few years of service in the navy he married and settled down at Otsego Hall as a landed gentleman.

After his discovery that he had some natural talent 25 as a spinner of yarns, Cooper wrote The Spy, in 1821. This was his first successful story, and is still a favorite with many readers. A few years later came The Pilot, the first of his many sea stories. It centers about an episode in the career of Paul Jones, and was a result of reading Scott's 80 novel, The Pirate. Being acquainted with the sea, Cooper