answered, “That is well;-but I bargained for twenty." And his wish was prophetic; he had not miscalculated the superiority of his followers; twenty actually surrendered. Having ordered the fleet to be anchored, he now said, "Don't throw me overboard. Kiss me, Hardy." Hardy knelt down and obeyed. "Now, I am satisfied; thank God I have done my duty." Hardy kissed him again, received his blessing, and then took leave of him for ever.

The death of Nelson was felt in England as something more than a public calamity; men started at the intelligence, and turned pale, as if they had heard of the loss of a dear friend. An object of our admiration and affection, of our pride and of our hopes, was suddenly taken from us; and it seemed as if we had never till then known how deeply we loved and reverenced him. What the country had lost in its great naval hero-the greatest of our own and of all former times—was scarcely taken into the account of grief. So perfectly, indeed, had he performed his part, that the maritime war, after the battle of Trafalgar, was considered at an end. The fleets of the enemy were not merely defeated, but destroyed; new navies must be built, and a new race of seamen reared for them, before the possibility of their invading our shores could again be contemplated.

It was not, therefore, from any selfish reflection upon the magnitude of our loss that we mourned

for him; the general sorrow was of a higher character. The people of England grieved that funeral ceremonies, and public monuments, and posthumous rewards were all that they could now bestow upon him whom the King, the Legislature, and the nation would have alike delighted to honour; whom every tongue would have blessed; whose presence, in every village through which he might have passed, would have wakened the church-bells, have given school-boys a holiday, have drawn children from their sports to gaze upon him, and old men from the chimney-corner to look upon Nelson ere they died.

Mizzen-top.-A ship, properly so called, has three lower masts, all fixed on deck-the foremast, the mainmast, and the mizzenmast. The mizzenmast is the one nearest the stern or hinder end of the vessel.

The cockpit. The room in a ship of war to which the wounded are carried to have their wounds dressed.

EXERCISES.

1. Explain the various nautical phrases used in the lesson. 2. Write in your own words an account of the death of Nelson.

LESSON V.

The Daffodils.

con-tin'-u-ous, stretching in mar'-gin, edge, border.

a long line.

joc'-und, merry, happy.

pen'-sive, thoughtful.

va'-cant, idle, empty.

I WANDERED lonely as a cloud

That floats on high o'er vales and hills,
When all at once I saw a crowd,

A host of golden daffodils;

Beside the lake, beneath the trees,
Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.
Continuous as the stars that shine
And twinkle on the milky way,
They stretched in never-ending line
Along the margin of a bay:

Ten thousand saw I at a glance,
Tossing their heads in sprightly dance.
The waves beside them danced, but they
Out-did the sparkling waves in glee :
A poet could not but be gay

In such a jocund company.

I gazed-and gazed—but little thought
What wealth the show to me had brought:

For oft when on my couch I lie,
In vacant or in pensive mood,
They flash upon that inward eye
Which is the bliss of solitude;
And then my heart with pleasure fills,
And dances with the daffodils.

W. WORDSWORTH.

The milky way,—or, as it is sometimes termed, the galaxy, is a luminous track in the sky, now known to be composed of countless stars.

EXERCISES.

1. Point out the words in the poem that describe the appearance and the motions of the daffodils.

2. The poet says that the show of the daffodils brought him great wealth. In what did this wealth consist?

3. What is meant by the "inward eye"? How is the inward eye the bliss of solitude?

mould, fashion, shape.

Darling.

slab, beam.

waft'-ed, sent, caused to

ascend.

ward, a division of a hos

pital.

[for.

yearn'-ing, earnestly longing

INTO a ward of the white-washed halls,
Where the dead and the dying lay,
Wounded by bayonets, shells, and balls,
Somebody's darling was borne one day-
Somebody's darling, so young and so brave,
Wearing yet on his pale sweet face,
Soon to be hid in the dust of the grave,
The lingering light of his boyhood's grace.

Matted and damp are the curls of gold,
Kissing the snow of that fair young brow,
Pale are the lips of delicate mould—
Somebody's darling is dying now.
Back from his beautiful blue-veined brow,
Brush all the wandering waves of gold;
Cross his hands on his bosom now-
Somebody's darling is still and cold.

Kiss him once for Somebody's sake,
Murmur a prayer soft and low;
One bright curl from the cluster take-

They were Somebody's pride, we know:

Somebody's hand has rested there;

Was it a mother's, soft and white? And have the lips of a sister fair

Been baptised in those waves of light?

God knows best; he was Somebody's love;
Somebody's heart enshrined him there;
Somebody wafted his name above,

Night and morn, on the wings of prayer.
Somebody wept when he marched away,
Looking so handsome, brave, and grand;
Somebody's kiss on his forehead lay,
Somebody clung to his parting hand.

Somebody's watching and waiting for him,
Yearning to hold him again to her heart;
There he lies with his blue eyes dim,
And smiling, childlike lips apart.

Tenderly bury the fair young dead,

Pausing to drop on his grave a tear; Carve on the wooden slab at his head,

Somebody's darling slumbers here."

LACOSTE.

Somebody's Darling. This pathetic and touching poem is founded on incidents that were of common occurrence in the great American civil war. Hundreds of youths left their ordinary avocations and joined the ranks of the Northern army. It was impossible to identify all those who fell in the bloody struggle, but, as each one was buried, a wooden slab was erected over his grave, with his number and the name of his regiment attached.