XX. THE CHASE.

1. The stag at eve had drunk his fill,
Where danced the moon on Monan's rill,
And deep his midnight lair had made
In lone Glenartney's hazel shade;
But when the sun his beacon red

Had kindled on Ben Voirlich's head,
The deep-mouthed bloodhound's heavy bay
Resounded up the rocky way,

And faint, from farther distance borne,
Were heard the clanging hoof and horn.

2. As chief who hears his warder call,

"To arms! the foemen storm the wall!"
The antlered monarch of the waste
Sprang from his heathery couch in haste.
But, ere his fleet career he took,

The dew-drops from his flanks he shook;
Like crested leader proud and high,
Tossed his beamed frontlet to the sky;
A moment gazed adown the dale,
A moment snuffed the tainted gale,
A moment listened to the cry,
That thickened as the chase drew nigh;
Then, as the headmost foes appeared,
With one brave bound the copse he cleared,
And, stretching forward free and far,
Sought the wild heaths of Uam-Var.

3. Yelled on the view the opening pack;
Rock, glen, and cavern paid them back;
To many a mingled sound at once
The awakened mountain gave response.

A hundred dogs bayed deep and strong,
Clattered a hundred steeds along;

Their peal the merry horns rung out,
A hundred voices joined the shout;
With bark, and whoop, and wild halloo,
No rest Ben Voirlich's echoes knew.

4. Far from the tumult fled the roe,

Close in her covert cowered the doe;
The falcon, from her cairn on high,
Cast on the rout a wondering eye,
Till, far beyond her piercing ken,
The hurricane had swept the glen.
Faint, and more faint, its failing din
Returned from cavern, cliff, and linn;
And silence settled, wide and still,
On the lone wood and mighty hill.

5. Less loud the sounds of sylvan war
Disturbed the heights of Uam-Var,
And roused the cavern where, 'tis told,
A giant made his den of old:

For ere that steep ascent was won,
High in his pathway hung the sun,
And many a gallant, stayed perforce,
Was fain to breathe his faltering horse;
And of the trackers of a deer
Scarce half the lessening pack was near;
So shrewdly, on the mountain-side,
Had the bold chase their mettle tried.

6. The noble stag was pausing now
Upon the mountain's southern brow,
Where broad extended, far beneath,
The varied realms of fair Menteith.

With anxious eye he wandered o'er
Mountain and meadow, moss and moor,
And pondered refuge from his toil
By far Lochard or Aberfoyle.

7. But nearer was the copse-wood gray
That waved and wept on Loch Achray,
And mingled with the pine-trees blue
On the bold cliffs of Ben Venue.
Fresh vigor with the hope returned;
With flying foot the heath he spurned,
Held westward with unwearied race,
And left behind the panting chase.

Sir Walter Scott.

FOR PREPARATION.-I. From the beginning of the "Lady of the Lake.” "Monan's rill" (branch of the Teith, which empties into the Firth of Forth), Glenart'ney, Uam-Vär', Ben Voirlich (võr ́lik), Mentēith', Lõehärd', Aberfoyle (ä-ber-foil'), Loch Achray, Ben Venue' (places among the Scottish Highlands, sixty miles northwest of Edinburgh).

II. Fōe'-men, fal'-eon (faw'kn), eâirn, piērç'-ing, ănx'-ious (ǎnk'shus), bēa'-con (b3'kn), kin'-dled (-dld), heaths (a word used much in Scotland, a flowering shrub), ê'er (âr).

III. Number of poetic fect in each line? "The stag at eve | had drunk | his fill." Accent on the first or second syllable of each foot? Distinction between roe and doe?

IV. Lair, "hoof and horn," warder, "antlered monarch," waste, crested, dale, glen, cavern, response, covert, rout (clamorous throng of huntsmen), ken (view), din, linn (mountain brook), sylvan, gallant, perforce, shrewdly, mcttled, realms, varied, copse. Meaning of Ben (a mountain) and Loch (a lake).

V. What time is meant by the "sun kindling his beacon red," etc.? (1.) "Opening pack"? (of hounds.) "Less loud the sounds," etc.? (5.) What explanation given of this in the last eight lines of the stanza?

XXI.-DRIVING BEES.

1. In former times all the bees in a hive had to be destroyed before the honey could be got. This cruel method has now been abandoned, and the honey is secured without killing a single bee. The new mode was publicly exhibited at a bee-show in the Crystal Palace, near London, in September, 1874, and is thus described:

2. A few puffs from a pipe caused the bees to retreat among the combs, and the hive was gently turned upside down. A new and empty hive was then placed above the other so as to cover it completely; then the chief bee-master drummed with his fist upon the lower hive, and waited for the rush of the bees to the upper hive.

3. At the first disturbance of their hive, the bees had all run to fill their bags with honey. Thus they were heavy and good-tempered, and even those who escaped through the gap between the two hives did not sting the bee-master, although his face and hands were unprotected.

4. After the lapse of a few minutes a rushing sound was heard. This proved that the bees had begun to move upward. Whenever the queen-bee passed up, the others immediately followed. It was now safe to lift up the edge of the top hive, so that what was going on inside could be distinctly seen.

5. Like soldiers swarming up the walls of a city which they were about to take by storm, the bees were seen hurrying upward in thousands, climbing over each other's bodies several deep, without ever regarding the open space between the two hives, by which they might easily have escaped into the open air.