10

Heaven's sake, and do not stir — and let me have Your prayers-your prayers and be my witnesses That if his life's in peril from my hand 'Tis only for the chance of saving it. [To the people. 5 Now, friends, for mercy's sake, keep motionless And silent.

15

25

[TELL shoots, and a shout of exultation bursts from the crowd. TELL's head drops on his bosom; he with difficulty supports himself upon his bow. Verner (rushing in with ALBERT). The boy is safe, -no hair of him is touched.

Albert. Father, I'm safe! your Albert's safe. Dear father, Speak to me! Speak to me!

Verner. He cannot, boy!
Albert. You grant him life?
Gessler. I do.

Albert. And we are free?

Gessler. You are.

Albert. Thank Heaven! — thank Heaven!
Verner. Open his vest,

20 And give him air.

[ALBERT opens his father's vest, and an arrow drops. TELL starts, fixes his eye upon ALBERT, and clasps him to his breast.

Tell. My boy!- My boy!

Gessler. For what

Hid

you
that arrow in your breast? Speak, slave!
Tell. To kill thee, tyrant, had I slain my boy!

-SHERIDAN KNOWLES: William Tell.

1. Measure off a hundred paces. How far is it? 2. What is meant by the "issue of this hour"? by "thankful our grace accords thee life"? 3. What does Tell mean by "The common cause must not stand still"? 4. Why would Tell not look at his boy? 5. Explain "Already I'm too much the father to be the man. would be flint-flint- flint!" 6. What traits of character does

I

Tell show? What traits does Gessler show?

――

Nouns. - Select the nouns in the following sentences. Write all the proper nouns in one column, the common nouns in another.

1. William Tell was a patriot.

2. He freed Switzerland from the oppression of a tyrant.
3. He was a famous archer.

4. I hear the music of the pines.

5. Christopher Columbus discovered America.

6. I sift the snow on the mountains below.

7. The sun, moon, and stars are heavenly bodies.

8. Straws swim but pearls lie at the bottom.

9. Fear God and keep his commandments.

10. The surf beats for centuries against the face of the rock. 11. A soft answer turneth away wrath, but grievous words stir up anger.

12. Homer was a great poet.

70

LOVE OF COUNTRY

BREATHES there the man with soul so dead
Who never to himself hath said,

"This is my own, my native land!"

Whose heart hath ne'er within him burned
As home his footsteps he hath turned

From wandering on a foreign strand?
If such there breathe, go, mark him well!
For him no minstrel raptures swell;
High though his titles, proud his name,
Boundless his wealth as wish can claim,-
Despite those titles, power, and pelf,
The wretch, concentered all in self,
Living, shall forfeit fair renown,
And, doubly dying, shall go down
To the vile dust from whence he sprung,
Unwept, unhonored, and unsung.

WALTER SCOTT: Lay of the Last Minstrel. strand, shore; rap'tures, pleasures, joys; pelf, money; concentered all in self, selfish, with all his thoughts centered on himself; for'feit, give up.

1. Explain the first line. 2. What word could you substitute for mark? 3. Explain the eighth line. 4. What is meant by doubly dying? 5. Give the last eight lines in your own words. 6. Learn this poem by heart.

Prefixes and Suffixes. Make a list of all the prefixes in the fol lowing words, and of the words to which the prefixes are added; of all the suffixes, and the words to which the suffixes are added.

11. bookish

12. uncut.

13. ablaze.

14. afoot.

15. alight.

71

SONG OF MARION'S MEN

[During the Revolutionary War General Francis Marion, with a small band of cavalry, was long a thorn in the side of the British, who had defeated our main forces and held the Southern states in their power.]

OUR band is few but true and tried,

Our leader frank and bold;
The British soldier trembles
When Marion's name is told.
Our fortress is the good greenwood,
Our tent the cypress tree;
We know the forest round us,
As seamen know the sea.

We know its walls of thorny vines,

Its glades of reedy grass,
Its safe and silent islands

Within the dark morass.

Woe to the English soldiery
That little dread us near!
On them all light at midnight
A strange and sudden fear:
When, waking to their tents on fire,
They grasp their arms in vain,

And they who stand to face us
Are beat to earth again;

5

10

15

20