wood. The sentinel was gone! The surprise was great; but the circumstance had occurred before. They left another man and departed, wishing him better luck. "You need not be afraid," said the man with warmth, “I shall not desert." 5. The relief-company returned to the guard-house. The sentinels were replaced every four hours, and at the appointed time the guard again marched to relieve the post. To their inexpressible astonishment, the man was gone! they searched round the post, but no traces could be found of his disappearance. It was necessary that the station, from a stronger motive than ever, should not remain unoccupied ;m they were compelled to leave another man and returned, ruminating upon this strange circumstance, to the guard-house. The superstitionn of the soldiers was awakened, and terror ran through the regiment. The colonel being apprised of the occurrence, signified his intention to accompany the guard, when they relieved the sentinel they had left. At the appointed time they all marched together, and to their unutterable wonder, they found the post vacant, and the man gone! 6. Under these circumstances, the colonel hesitated whether he should again submit the post to a single sentinel. The cause of these repeated disappearances of men, whose courage and honesty were never suspected, must be discovered,g and it seemed not likely that this discovery could be obtained by persisting in the old method. Three brave men were now lost to the regiment, and to assign the post to a fourth, seemed nothing else but giving him up to destruction. The poore fellow, whose turn it was to take the station, though a man in other respectse of incomparable resolution," trembled from head to foot. "I must do my duty," said he to the officer, "I know that; but I should like to lose my life with more credit." 7. "I will leave no man," said the colonel, "against his will." A man immediately stepped from the ranks, and desired to take the post. Every mouth commended his resolution. "I will not be taken alive," said he, "and you shall hear of me on the least alarm.g At all events I will fire my piece if I hear the least noise. If a crow chatters, or a leaf falls, you shall hear my musket. You may be alarmed when nothing is the matter; but you must take the chance of that, as the condition of my making the discovery." The colonel applauded his courage, and told him he would be right to fire upon the least noisee which was ambiguous. His comrades shook hands with him, and left him with a melancholy fore-boding. The company marched back, and waited the event in the guard-house with the most anxiouse curiosity. 8. An hour had elapsed, and every ear was upon the rack for the discharge of the musket, when, upon a sudden, the, report was heard. The guard immediately marched, accompanied, as before, by the colonel, and some of the most experienced officers of the regiment. As they approached the post, they saw the man advancing towards them, draggingo another man on the ground by the hair of his head. When they came up to him, it appeared to be an Indian whom he had shot. An explanation was immediately required. "I told your honor," said the man, “I should fire if I heard the least noise. The resolution I had taken has saved my life and led to the discovery. I had not been long on my post when I heard a rustling at some short distance; I looked and saw an American hog, such as are common in the woods, crawling along the ground, and seemingly looking for nuts under the trees and among the leaves. 9. "As these animals are so very common, I ceased to consider it for some minutes; but being on the constant alarm and expectation of attack, and scarcely knowing what was to be considered a real cause of apprehension, or what was not, I kept my eyes vigilantly fixed upon it, and marked its progress among the trees. Still there was no need to give the alarm, and my thoughts were, notwithstanding, directed to danger from another quarter. It struck me, however, as somewhat singular, to see this animal making, by a circuitous passage, for a thick coppice immediately behind my post. I therefore kept my eye more intently fixed upon it, and as it was now within a few yards of the coppice, hesitated whether I should not fire. My comrades, thought I, will laugh at me for alarming them by shooting a pig! I had almost resolved to let it alone, when, just as it approached the thicket, I thought I observed it give an unusual spring. 10. "I no longer hesitated; I took my aim; discharged my piece, and the animal was instantly stretched before me, with a groan which I conceived to be that of a human creature. I went up to it, and judge my astonishment, when I found I had killed an Indian.e He had enveloped himself with the skin of one of these wild hogs, so artfully and completely, his hands and feet were so entirely concealed in it, and his gait and appearance were so exactly correspondent to that of the animal's, that, imperfectly as they are always seen through the trees and jungles, the disguisee could not be penetrated at a distance, and scarcely discovered upon the nearest inspection. He was armed with a dagger and a tomahawk.” Such was the substance of this man's relation. The cause of the disappearance of the other sentinels was now apparent. The Indians, sheltered in this disguise, secreted themselves in the coppice,e watched the moment when they could throw it off, burst upon the sentinels without previous alarm, and, too quick to give them an opportunity to discharge their pieces, slew them with their tomahawks, and bore their bodies away, which they concealed among the leaves at some distance. Whatever circumstances of wonder may appear in the present relation, there are many now alive who can attest its authenticity. a Why a capital? b Sound of g? c Sound of ie? d § 45. e Give the sound of the vowel. f Use of these commas? g Give the reason for the punctuation. m § 49. 1. n Sound of ti? ο ξ 47. No. 1. What was the American war considered to be? What did Washington say to his soldiers? How did the Indians carry on war? Where were some of the sentinels stationed? Why was this dangerous? What is said of the disappearance of some of the soldiers? What was this imputed to? How many men did they lose in this way? What did the next man say he would do? What happened in about an hour? Who went to the place? What did they see? Give a description of this man's adventure. How was the Indian armed? How was the disappearance of the other sentinels accounted for? No. 2. Surprise, contend, impenetrable, useful, combined, committed, swiftness, hazardous, disappearance, distance, unoccupied, persisting, obtain, explanation, imperfectly, inspection, boundless, depart. No. 3. Ver-dur for verd-yure, rid-gi-ment for reg-i-ment, con-sate for conceit. No. 6. What is the use of these marks, ;:.!?[]() in composition? No. 7. Right and rite, ear and ere, lid and lead, hair and hare, groan and grown. No. 10. Analyze the first verse. No. 12. Spell and define all the words in the second verse. LESSON XXXVII. THE TOWN PUMP. 1. Noon, by the north clock! Noon, by the east a High noonb too, by those hot sun-beams which fall, scarcely aslope,b upon my head, and almost make the water bubble and smoke in the trough under my nose.f Truly we public characters have a tough time of it! And, among all the town officers, chosen at March meeting, where is he that sustains, for a single year, the burden of such manifold duties as are imposed, in perpetuity, upon the Town Pump ?c 2. The title of town-treasurer, is rightfully mine, as guardian of the best treasure that the town has. The overseers of the poor ought to make me their chairman, since I provide bountifully for the pauper, without expense to him that pays taxes. I am at the head of the fire department, and one of the physicians of the board of health. As a keeper of the peace, all water drinkers will confess me equal to the constable. I perform some of the duties of the town clerk, by promulgating public notices, when they are pasted on my front.b 3. To speak within bounds, I am chief person of the municipality, and exhibit, moreover, an admirable pattern to my brother officers, by the cool,b steady, upright, downright, and impartial discharge of my business, and the constancy with which I stand to my post. Summer or winter, nobody seeks me in vain; for all day long I am seen at the busiest corner, just above the market, stretching out my arms, to rich and poor alike;d and at night I hold a lantern over my head, both to show where I am, and keep people out of the gutters.a 4. At this sultry noon-tide,a I am cup-bearer to the parched populace, for whosef benefit an iron globe is chained to my waist. Like a dram-seller on the mall, on muster-day," I cry aloud to all and sundry, in my plainest accents and at the very tip-top of my voice, Here it is, gentlemen! Here is the good liquord Walk up, walk up, gentlemen, walk up, walk up!a Here is the superior stuff! Here is the unadulterated ale of father Adamd better than Cogniac, Hollands, Jamaica, strong beer, or wine of any price; here it is, by the hogshead or the single glass, and not a cent to pay! Walk up, gentlemen, walk up, and help yourselves! 5. It were a pity, if all this out-cry should draw no customers. Here they come. A hot day, gentlemen! Quaff and away again, so as to keep yourselves in a nice cool sweat. You, my friend, will need another cup-full to wash the dust out of your throat, if it be as thick there as it is on your cow-hide shoes. I see that you have trudged half a score of miles, today, and, like a wise man, have passed by the taverns, and stopped at the running-brooks and well-curbs. Otherwise, betwixt heat without and fire within, you would have been burnt to a cinder, or melted down to nothing at all, in the fashion of a jelly-fish. 6. Drink, and make room for that other fellow, who seeks my aid to quench the fiery fever of last night's potations, which he drained from no cup of mine. Welcome, most rubicund Sir! You and I have been great strangers, hitherto; nor, to confess the truth, will my nose be anxious for a closer intimacy, till the fumes of your breath be a little less potent. Fill 7. Mercy on you, man! The water absolutely hisses down your red hot gullet, and is converted quite into steamm in the miniature Tophet, which you mistake for a stomach. again, and tell me, on the word of an honest toper,b did you ever, in cellar, tavern, or any other kind of dram shop, spend the price of your children's food, for a swig half so delicious? Now, for the first time these ten years, you know the flavor of cold water. Good bye; and, whenever you are thirsty, recollect that I keep a constant supply, at the old stand. 8. Who next? Oh, my little friend, you are let loose from school, and come hither to scrub your blooming face, and drowna the memory of certain taps of the ferule, and other school-boy troubles, in a draught from the Town Pump. Take it, pure as the current of your youngb life, take it, and may your heart and tongue never be scorched with a fiercer thirst than now! 9. There, my dear child, put down the cup, and yield your place to this elderly gentleman, who treads so tenderly over the paving-stones, that I suspect he is afraid of breaking them. What! he limps by, without so much as thanking me, as if my hospitable offers were meant only for people who have no winecellars. 10. Well, well, sir-no harm done, I hope! Go draw the cork, tip the decanter; but, when your great foe shall set you a-roaring, it will be no affair of mine. If gentlemen love the pleasant titillation of the gout, it is all one to the Town Pump. |