harp and the Christmas carol, and their ample boards groaned under the weight of hospitality. 5. Even the poorest cottager welcomed the festive season with green decorations of bay and holly; the cheerful fire gleamed its rays through the lattice, inviting the passenger to raise the latch, and join the knot of gossips huddled round the hearth, beguiling the long evening with legendary jokes and oft-told Christmas-tales. 6. Christmas is still a period of delightful excitement in England. It is gratifying to see that home-feeling completely aroused which holds so powerful a place in every English bosom. 7. The preparations making on every side for the social board that is again to unite friends and kindred; the presents of good cheer passing and repassing,-those tokens of regard, and quickeners of kind feelings; the evergreens distributed about houses and churches, emblems of peace and gladness; all these have the most pleasing effect in producing fond associations, and kindling benevolent sympathies. 8. The following stanza is a specimen of the old Christmas carols:— "Lo! now is come our joyful feast, Each room with ivy-leaves is dressed, Now all our neighbors' chimneys smoke, CHRISTMAS IN THE NORTH OF GERMANY. W. IRVING. 9. There is a Christmas-custom here which pleased and interested The children make little presents to their parents and to each other; and the parents to the children. me. 10. For three or four months before Christmas the girls are all busy, and the boys save up their pocket-money to make or purchase these presents. 11. What the present is to be is cautiously kept secret, and the girls have a world of contrivances to conceal it-such as working when they are out on visits and the others are not with them, getting up in the morning before daylight, and the like. 12. Then, on the evening before Christmas one of the parlors is lighted up by the children, into which the parents must not go. A great bough of a yew-tree is fastened on the table at a little distance from the wall, a multitude of little tapers are fastened in the bough, but so as not to set fire to it till they are nearly burnt out, and colored paper hangs and flutters from the twigs. 13. Under this bough the children lay out in great order the presents they mean for their parents, still concealing in their pockets what they intend for each other. 14. Then the parents are introduced, to whom the children present their little gifts. The children then bring out of their pockets the gifts intended for each other, and present them with kisses and embraces. 15. Where I witnessed this scene there were eight or nine children, and the eldest daughter and the mother wept aloud for joy and tenderness. The tears ran down the face of the father, who clasped all his children so tight to his breast that it seemed as if he did it to stifle the sob that was rising within him. I was very much affected. 16. The shadow of the bough and its appendages on the wall made a very pretty picture. And then the raptures of the little ones when at last the twigs began to take fire and snap!-oh, it was a delight for them! 17. On the next day, in the great parlor, the parents lay out on the table the presents for the children. A scene of more sober joy succeeds; as on this day the mother tells privately to each of her daughters what she has observed most praiseworthy and most faulty in that daughter's conduct, the father taking the same course with his sons. COLERIDGE. LESSON CXLII. CLAM OR-OUS, Vociferous, calling loudly. | TA'PER, a small wax-candle, a light. VA'POR, a substance floating in the at DES'O-LATE, comfortless. GLARE, a dazzling light. GREET ING, salutation at meeting. RIG'ID, stiff, not to be bent. mosphere, smoke. VI'ANDS, meat dressed, food. WRAP, to cover. PRONUNCIATION. Yellow 6, forehead 33, shiv'er-ing 3b, clam ́or-ous 3d, rig'id 1, kin'dred 11, children 11, maid'en 4d, warm 9. THE LITTLE MATCH GIRL. 1. LITTLE Maggie, little Maggie wanders up and down the street; The snow upon her yellow hair, the frost upon her feet; 2. With the little box of matches she could not sell all day, And the thin, thin, tattered mantle which the wind blows every way. 3. The rows of large, dark houses without look cold and drear; But within glad hearts are waiting for Christmas to appear. 4. By the bright and cheerful firelight smile the father and the mother, While the children talk of presents, in whispers to each other. 5. But no one talks to Maggie, and no one hears her speak; No breath of little whisperers comes warmly to her cheek. 6. No little arms are round her-alas! that there should be, With so much happiness on earth, so much of misery! 7. Little Maggie, little Maggie goes shivering on her way; There's no one looketh out at her, there's no one bids her stay; 8. Her home is cold and desolate no smile, no food, no fire; But sisters clamorous for bread, and an impatient sire. 9. She sits down in a corner where two great houses meet; And she curleth up beneath her, for warmth, her little feet. 10. And she remembers the loved tales her mother used to tell, And the cradle-songs she sang, when the summer twilight fell; 11. Of good men, and of angels, and of the Holy Child Who was cradled in a manger when winter was so wild. 12. Colder it grows and colder; but she does not feel it now, 14. The single match was kindled; and by the light it threw, It seemed to little Maggie that the wall was rent in two. 15. And she could see the room within, the room all warm and light, With the fire-glow red and blazing, and the tapers burning bright. 16. And kindred there were gathered round the table richly spread, With heaps of goodly viands, red wine, and pleasant bread. 17. She could smell the fragrant odor; she could hear them talk and play; Then all was darkness once again—the match had burned away. 18. She struck another hastily, and now she seemed to see, Within the same warm chamber a glorious Christmas-tree. 19. The branches all were laden down with things that children prize; Bright gifts for boy and maiden they showed before her eyes. 20. And she almost seemed to touch them, and to join the welcome shout; Then darkness fell around her, for the little match was out. 21. Another, yet another she has tried - they will not light; Then all her little store she took, and struck with all her might. 22. And the whole place around her was lighted with the glare! And lo! there hung a little Child before her in the air! 23. There were blood-drops on his forehead, and a spear-wound in his side, And cruel nail-prints in his feet and in his hands spread wide. 24. And he looked upon her kindly, and she felt that he had known Pain, hunger, cold, and sorrow, still greater than her own. 25. And he pointed to the laden board, and to the Christmas-tree, Then up to the blue sky, and said, "Will Maggie come with me? 26. And she folded both her thin-white hands, and turned from that bright board, And from the golden gifts, and said, “With thee, with thee, O Lord!” 27. The chilly winter morning breaks in the cold gray skies, On the city wrapped in vapor, on the spot where Maggie lies. 28. In her scant and tattered garment, with her back against the wall, She sitteth cold and rigid — she answers not their call. 29. Then they lifted her up carefully; they shuddered as they said, "It was a bitter, bitter night—the child is frozen dead." 30. While angels sang their greeting to another saved from sin, Men said, "It was a bitter night would no one let her in?" HANS ANDERSEN. LESSON CXLIII. AL'LAH, the Arabic name for God. BAS-TI-NA'DO, a sound beating with a stick; among the Turks it is commonly OB-SERV-A'TION, (s sounded like x,) a inflicted on the soles of the feet. | DER VISE, (der'vis,) a kind of monk or priest among the Turks. taking notice. CA'DI, (ca'dy,) a Turkish judge or ma-O-RI-ENT AL, (Latin oriens, rising,) Eastgistrate. ern, Asiatic. PRONUNCIATION.-Ven'i-son (s like z), Ind'ian 18, pur-sued' 16 and 19, a-gainst 33, Ar'a-bic 26d, the 31, a 31. THE HABIT OF OBSERVATION. 1. THOSE Who attend closely to what passes around them acquire a habit of observation which is often very remarkable. The following anecdotes show to what perfection this habit may be carried. I. 2. An Indian, on returning home to his cabin, discovered that some of his meat had been stolen. After a moment of deep thought he carefully examined the various objects around his dwelling. 3. Some white men coming up at this time, he asked them whether they had seen a short, old, white man, with a short gun, and a small bob-tailed dog. They replied that they had. They replied that they had. "That man," said the Indian, "stole my venison; which way did he go?” 4. Having learned the direction, the Indian pursued the thief, and recovered his meat. The white men meeting the Indian some time afterward asked him how he had so readily found out the thief. 5. The Indian replied: "I knew the thief was a little man by his having made a pile of stones to stand upon, in order to reach the venison. That he was an old man I knew by the short steps which I saw he had taken. That he was a white man I knew by his turning out his toes when he walks, which an Indian never does. 6. "His gun I knew to be short from the mark it made on the bark of a tree against which it had leaned. The dog's tracks showed him to be small; and the mark made by his tail in the dust where he was sitting showed that he was bob-tailed." II. 7. The following is an Oriental story. A dervise traveling in the desert was met by a company of merchants. "Holy man," said they, "we have lost a camel." 8. "Is he blind in his right eye, and lame in his left fore leg?" asked the dervise." He is," said the merchants. 9. "Has he lost a front tooth?"-" He has," replied they. 10. "Was your camel loaded with wheat on one side and honey on the other?"—"That is our camel." exclaimed the merchants; "where is he?”—“I know not," said the dervise. 66 11. "But where did you see him?”—“I have not seen him at all." 12. "Then tell us where is the man who described him to you, so that we may inquire of him."-"No one described him to me," replied the dervise. 13. The merchants now became very much enraged. "You lying dervise," said they, "you are connected with the thieves, and have received part of the money and jewels. Villain, come with us to the cadi." 14. The dervise attempted to say something; but they were so much enraged that they would not listen to him, and dragged him to the cadi. 15. "This wicked dervise," said they to the cadi, "has seen our camel; for he described all its marks, saying it was blind in the right eye, and lame in the left fore leg; that it had lost a front tooth; that it was loaded with wheat on one side and honey on the other. Now says he knows nothing about it. The thieves have bought his he silence with part of the spoils." 16. "Give him the bastinado," said the cadi to an officer. 17. "Listen to me a moment, cadi," said the dervise; "hear what I have to say." |