5. Dark lightning flash'd from Roderick's eye- 6. "I thank thee, Roderick, for the word! Proud Chief! can courtesy be shown; Of this small horn one feeble blast Would fearful odds against thee cast. But fear not - doubt not- which thou wilt- 7. Then each at once his falchion 12 drew, Each on the ground his scabbard threw, 8. Ill fared it then with Roderick Dhu, 9. Three times in closing strife they stood, Foiled his wild rage by steady skill; 10. "Now, yield ye, or, by Him who made Let recreant yield, who fears to die." Received, but recked not of a wound, 11. Now, gallant Saxon, hold thine own! 12. But hate and fury ill supplied The stream of life's exhausted tide! given to Roderick Dhu as head of the clan, and meaning descendant of Alpine. 1 PLAID (Scottish pronunciation plād). its patterns the different Scottish 5 VAN'TAGE-LESS. Without any adclans. * SXX'ON. vantage. The Scottish Highlander 6 MEED. Reward; recompense. calls himself Gael, and the Low-7 KERN. A vagrant; a boor; a per landers Saxons. son of no consequence. & VICH-AL/PÎNE (vēk-ǎl'pēn). A name 8 DHU. An epithet meaning black. • CÄR PET KNIGHT. A knight made | 12 FÂL'CHION (fàl'shụn). Sword. 10 RUTH. Mercy; pity. 11 CAIRN (kårn). A heap of stones. 14 TÄRʼTẠN. A kind of cloth check ered with threads of various colors. 15 TÖIL. A net or snare to catch wild animals. LV.-LESSONS OF SPRING. GREENWOOD. [Francis William Pitt Greenwood was born in Boston, February 5, 1797, and died August 2, 1843. He was the pastor of a church in Boston. His writings are marked by a beautiful clearness and simplicity of style, and a fervent, devotional spirit.] 1. LET us contemplate, for a few moments, the animated scene which is presented by our Spring. The earth, loosened by the victorious sun, springs from the hard dominion of winter's frost, and, no longer offering a bound-up, repulsive surface to the husbandman, invites his cultivating labors. The streams are released from their icy fetters, and spring forward on their unobstructed way, full of sparkling waters, which sing and rejoice as they run on. 2. "The trees of the Lord are full of sap," which now springs up into their before shrunken and empty vessels, causing the buds to swell, and the yet unclothed branches and twigs to lose their rigid appearance, and assume a fresher hue and a more rounded form. Beneath them, and in every warm and sheltered spot, the wild plants are springing. 3. Some of these are just pushing up their tender, crisp, and yet vigorous sprouts, thrusting aside the dead leaves with their folded heads, and finding their sure way out into the light; while others have sent forth their delicate foliage, and hung out their buds on slender stems; and others still have unfolded their flowers, which look up into the air unsuspectingly and gayly, like innocence upon an untried world. The grass is springing for the scythe, and the grain for the sickle; for they grow by commandment, for the service of man, and death is every where the fate and issue of life. 4. But it is not only senseless things which are thus visibly springing at this their appointed season. The various tribes of animated nature show that it is spring also with them. The birds rise up on elastic wing, and make a joyous music for the growing plants to spring to. Animals, that have lain torpid through the benumbing winter, spring up from their secret beds and dormitories', and resume their habits of activity once more. 5. Innumerable insects spring up from the cells which they had formed beyond the reach of frost, and in new attire commence their winged existence. The hum of happy life is heard from myriads of little creatures, who, born in the morning, will die ere night. In that short term, however, they will have accomplished the purposes of their living; and, if brought to this test, there are many human lives which are shorter and vainer than theirs; and what is any life, when past, but a day! 6. Let us go abroad amidst this general springing of the earth and nature, and we shall see and feel that God's blessing is there. The joy of recovery, the gladness of escape, the buoyancy of youth, the exultation of commencing or renewed existence, - these are the happiness and blessing which are given from above, and the praise and the hymn which ascend from beneath. 7. Another and a milder order of things seems to be beginning. The gales, though not the warm breathings of summer, flow to us as if they came from some distant summer clime, and were cooled and moderated on their way; while, at no distant intervals, the skies, in their |