15. No sound was heard, except, from far away,
The ringing of the whitwall's shrilly laughter,
Or now and then the chatter of the jay,
That Echo murmured after;

16. But Echo never mocked the human tongue.

Some weighty crime that heaven could not pardon,
A secret curse on that old building hung,
And its deserted garden.

17. The beds were all untouched by hand or tool;
No footstep marked the damp and mossy gravel,
Each walk as green as is the mantled pool,
For want of human travel.

18. The pear and quince lay squandered on the grass; The mould was purple with unheeded showers Of bloomy plums: a wilderness it was

Of fruits and weeds and flowers.

19. The marigold amidst the nettles blew ;

The gourd embraced the rose-bush in its ramble;
The thistle and the stock together grew,
The hollyhock and bramble.

20. The fountain was a-dry: neglect and time
Had marred the work of artisan and mason;
And efts and croaking frogs, begot of slime,
Sprawled in the ruined basin.

21. On every side the aspect was the same,

All ruined, desolate, forlorn, and savage;
No hand or foot within the precinct came
To rectify or ravage.

22. For over all there hung a cloud of fear;
A sense of mystery the spirit daunted,
And said, as plain as whisper in the ear,
The place is haunted.

DEFINITIONS.-1. Fle'tions, things invented or imagined. 3. Băn curse. Ex com mū ni eã ́tion, expulsion from the communion of a church. 5. De mure'ly, with a show of gravity. 6. Păr a pět, a wall or rampart. 7. Cop'Ing-stone, the highest or covering course of masonry in a wall. 9. Es pi'al, notice. Păr a sĭt ́ie, living on or deriving nourishment from some other living thing. Di'al, an instrument for showing the time of day from a shadow cast by the sun. 15. Whit'wall, the great spotted woodpecker. 17. Măn'tled, covered with a scum. 20. Efts, small lizards. Be got', born.

NOTE.-12. Shocking tameness refers to the following stanza from Cowper's poem of Alexander Selkirk:

"The beasts that roam over the plain

My form with indifference see:
They are so unacquainted with man,
Their tameness is shocking to me."

48. THE SUMMER MONTHS.

WILLIAM MOTHERWELL was born in Glasgow, Scotland, October 13, 1797. He was educated at the grammar-school of Paisley. In 1819 he published the Harp of Renfrewshire, which contained biographical sketches of the poets of that district. His Minstrelsy, Ancient and Modern, appeared in 1827. He was connected with several magazines, and in 1830 became editor of the Glasgow Courier. He possessed a rich and powerful imagination and great tenderness of feeling. His Jeanie Morrison is a poem of surpassing pathos and beauty. He died November 1, 1835.

1. THEY come, the merry summer months
Of beauty, song, and flowers;

They come, the gladsome months that bring
Thick leafiness to bowers.

2. Up, up, my heart, and walk abroad;
Fling cark and care aside :

Seek silent hills, or rest thyself
Where peaceful waters glide;

3. Or, underneath the shadow vast
Of patriarchal tree,

Scan through its leaves the cloudless sky
In rapt tranquillity.

4. The grass is soft: its velvet touch
Is grateful to the hand;

And, like the kiss of maiden love,
The breeze is sweet and bland;

5. The daisy and the buttercup
Are nodding courteously:

It stirs their blood with kindest love
To bless and welcome thee.

6. And mark how with thine own thin locksThey now are silvery gray

That blissful breeze is wantoning,
And whispering, "Be gay!"

7. There is no cloud that sails along
The ocean of yon sky

But hath its own winged mariners
To give it melody;

8. Thou seest their glittering fans outspread
All gleaming like red gold;

And hark! with shrill pipe musical
Their merry course they hold.

9. God bless them all, those little ones,
Who far above this earth

Can make a scoff of its mean joys
And vent a nobler mirth.

10. But soft! Mine ear upcaught a sound •
From yonder wood it came;

The spirit of the dim green glade
Did breathe his own glad name.

11. Yes, it is he,-the hermit-bird,
That apart from all his kind
Slow spells his beads monotonous
To the soft western wind.

12. Cuckoo! cuckoo! he sings again:
His notes are void of art;

But simplest strains do soonest sound
The deep founts of the heart.

13. Good Lord, it is a gracious boon,

For thought-crazed wight like me,
To smell again these summer flowers
Beneath this summer tree;

14. To suck once more in every breath
Their little souls away,

And feed my fancy with fond dreams
Of youth's bright summer day,

15. When, rushing forth like untamed colt,
The reckless truant boy

Wandered through green woods all day long,
A mighty heart of joy.

16. I'm sadder now: I have had cause;
But, oh, I'm proud to think

That each pure joy-fount loved of yore
I yet delight to drink :

17. Leaf, blossom, blade, hill, valley, stream,
The calm, unclouded sky,

Still mingle music with my dreams,
As in the days gone by.

18. When summer's loveliness and light
Fall round me dark and cold,

I'll bear indeed life's heaviest curse,―
A heart that hath waxed old.

DEFINITIONS.-2. ۊrk, anxiety; solicitude. 9. Scoff, ridicule.

49. ROBERT BURNS.

THOMAS CARLYLE was born at the town of Ecclefechan, Dumfriesshire, Scotland, December 4, 1796. He was educated at Annan, and afterward spent some time at the Edinburgh University. He wrote a num. ber of historical and biographical works, and a great variety of critical and miscellaneous essays and translations. His historical writings combine great depth of feeling with the most careful research. His critical essays always show a complete mastery of the subject. In his biographical essays he displays great power in the portrayal of character. He died in 1881. The extract is from his Essay on Burns.

1. BURNS first came upon the world as a prodigy, and was in that character entertained by it, in the usual fashion, with loud, vague, tumultuous wonder, speedily subsiding into censure and neglect, till his early and most mournful death again awakened an enthusiasm for him which—especially as there was now nothing to be done, and much to be spoken-has prolonged itself even to our own time.

2. It is true, the "nine days" have long since elapsed: