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"A beast, sir,” replied the boy.

"So it is," said Squeers. "Ain't it, Nickleby?"

"I believe there is no doubt of that, sir," answered Nicholas.

11. "Of course there isn't!" said Squeers. "A horse is a quadruped, and a quadruped's Latin for beast, as everybody that's gone through grammar knows, or else where's the use of having grammars at all?"

"Where, indeed?" said Nicholas, abstractedly.

12. "As you are perfect in that," resumed Squeers, turning to the boy, "go and look after mine; and rub him down well, or I'll rub you down. The rest of the class go and draw water up, till somebody tells you to leave off; for it's washing day to morrow, and they want the coppers filled."

13. So saying, he dismissed the first class to their experiments in practical philosophy, and eyed Nicholas with a look, half cunning and half doubtful, as if he were not altogether certain what he might think of him by this time. "That's the way we teach school here, Nickleby," he said, after a pause.

Charles Dickens.

FOR PREPARATION.-I. "Do-the-boys Hall" (where they do them-vulgarism for "finishing their education"). What works of Dickens have you read? From which of them is this piece taken?

II. De-li'-cious (-lish'us), üş'-ing, gi-găn'-tie, bowl (bōl), wait'-ing, trēa'-ele (trē’kl), in-dĭe'-a-tíve, ri-dĭe'-u-loŭs, foul, as-sō'-ci-ate (-shi-), busi'-ness (biz'nes), shuf'-fled (-fld), bā'-sin (-sn), spē'-cieş (-sheez), kět'tle (-tl), board, pŏr'-ridge, min'-ute (-it), sŏl'-emn (-em), tru'-ly, eommŏd'-i-ty, eon'-tents, troŭ'-ble (trůb'l), ěl'-bowş, prin'-çi-ple (-pl).

III. Pincushions-separate it into two words. Do you say "the thing who," or "the thing which"? Correct "The boy which I saw owns the dog whom you saw."

IV. Presiding, administered, installment, originally, manufactured. obliged, corporal, penalties, anticipation, file, infliction, wry, satisfaction, attired, motley, ill-assorted, extraordinary, irresistibly, diluted, inserted, average, elapsed, profound, apprehension, obedient, summons, ranged, scarecrows, becoming, temporary, practical, system, disconcerted, significantly, emphasis, usher, quadruped, abstractedly, perfect, experiments, cunning.

V. Has this piece humor? (Learn to discriminate the different forms of wit and humor, as belonging either to the ambiguity of words or stylepuns, parody, burlesque-or to the discrepancy between intention and the real effect produced-irony, raillery, satire, caricature, sarcasm, comedy in general. The tragic as well as the comic presents us with two sides in conflict, usually an ideal and a real. The tragic shows the destruction of the person, by the triumph of nature or the right over the wrong which was attempted. As man is closely tied by social relations to man, the crime of one often involves the injury of another who is innocent. The comic consists in showing the folly of the person who tries to realize projects, but selects utterly inadequate means. He fails, or, quite likely, produces the opposite of what he had intended; but, as the person is not hurt, the result is simply ridiculous.) Make a list of the blunders of Mr. Squeers (comic, because he is a teacher, intending to teach, and yet displays ignorance instead of knowledge). What is the witty point in connecting spelling and philosophy? (7). How is so-called "practical education " ridiculed here? Make a list of the passages in which the economy or stinginess of Squeers is indicated. What two applications has "useful" (10)? (profitable to the pupils, and profitable to Squeers ?). "Diluted pincushions " (i. e., the bran which fills them, or something that looked like pincushions ?).

XX. AN APRIL DAY.

1. All day the low-hung clouds have dropped
Their garnered fullness down;

All day that soft, gray mist hath wrapped
Hill, valley, grove, and town.

2. There has not been a sound to-day
To break the calm of nature;

Nor motion, I might almost say,

Of life, or living creature;

3. Of waving bough, or warbling bird,
Or cattle faintly lowing:

I could have half believed I heard
The leaves and blossoms growing.

4. I stood to hear-I love it well-
The rain's continuous sound;
Small drops, but thick and fast they fell,
Down straight into the ground.

5. For leafy thickness is not yet,

Earth's naked breast to screen;
Though every dripping branch is set
With shoots of tender green.

6. Sure, since I looked at early morn,
Those honeysuckle buds

Have swelled to double growth; that thorn
Hath put forth larger studs.

7. That lilac's cleaving cones have burst, The milk-white flowers revealing; Even now, upon my senses first

Methinks their sweets are stealing.

8. The very earth, the steamy air,
Is all with fragrance rife;

And grace and beauty everywhere
Are flushing into life.

9. Down, down they come-those fruitful stores,
Those earth-rejoicing drops!

A momentary deluge pours,
Then thins, decreases, stops.

RATION.-I. This poem was printed (in a book notice) in agazine in 1822. In what countries could such scenes as bed be seen on an April day?

(kām), erea'-ture, bough (bou), fäint'-ly, be-lieved', non'-ey-suc-kle (hǎn'y-suk-l).

the alliteration (repetition of the same letter or sound) in the ing, warbling, bough, bird). Make a list of the rhymes of opped, wrapped, down, town, etc.).

ing, lowing, screen, shoots, tender, green, fragrance, rife, flushcreases, dimples, "amber light," abrupt, "put forth larger cleaving cones."

llusion in "garnered fullness"? (clouds, as storehouses for water?) Note: hill, opposed to valley and grove; or forest, lage? Why so few sounds and so little motion on this day not we hear things grow? Does not very slow growth make he air? Are lilac flowers generally milk-white? (Those of lilac are.) What personification in the last stanza?