1. SING for the oak-tree, the monarch of the wood; Sing for the oak-tree, that groweth green and good; 2. The oak-tree was an acorn once, and fell upon the earth; And sun and showers nourished it, and gave the oak-tree birth. 3. The winds came and the rain fell; the gusty tempest blew; 5. The oak-tree of the forest both east and west shall fly; Mary Howitt. LX. THE DISCOVERY OF AMERICA. PART I. 40 1. In the middle of the fourteenth century, with the help of the newly-invented compass, some Spaniards ventured out from the shore of Spain into the Atlantic Ocean further than they had ever been before, and discovered the Canary Islands; but they did not venture to go further over the ocean. 2. Fifty years after this, a Portuguese captain sailed along the coast of Africa, and got far enough to see a great headland, which he thought must be the end of it. This he called the Cape of Storms, because of the dreadful tempests he met with there. But when he came back to Portugal, the king told him he ought rather to have called the headland the Cape of Good Hope, for there was now good hope that the way to India was found. 3. These things set many persons to thinking about discovering new countries; but no one thought so much to the purpose as a man named Christopher Columbus, an Italian. He believed that the earth was round, and suspended in air without any support except the law of God; and that, could we set out from a certain point, and travel in one direction, we should, in time, arrive at that same point again. Take an orange, and let your finger travel over it in one direction, and you will see what I mean. 4. Columbus thought a long time, without saying much, about the shape of the earth, and the reasons there were for thinking that, by going out into the Atlantic Ocean, and sailing on towards the west, he should come to land. When he felt quite sure, he began to speak of his plan, and try and get some one to send him out in a ship to prove that he was right. 5. First he went to his native city of Gen'o-a; but there he got no encouragement. Then he applied to the King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella of Spain; but they kept him five years waiting for an answer, and when the answer came it was a refusal. 6. A number of learned men had consulted about the plan of Columbus, and had decided that it was all nonsense. One said that if there had been anything to discover, the ancients would have discovered it; another, that if Columbus sailed so far over the round globe, and got down to the bottom of the watery hill, he would never get up again. 7. Poor Columbus! Many and bitter were the disappointments he had to encounter. Long and wearily did he have to wait and hope, and then have his hope deferred. Some persons called him foolish; others said he was mad. Boys, who had heard their parents talk about him, used to 66 jeer at him in the streets, and call him the man with the wild scheme in his brain. 8. Should it ever be your lot in life to be misunderstood and laughed at for holding to a sincere conviction, or doing what you believe to be your duty, remember what the great Columbus had to endure, and let the thought brace you to a more heroic resolution to bear and to forbear. LXI. THE DISCOVERY OF AMERICA. PART II. 1. THERE was a good and intelligent man, named Juan, who was the prior of a convent not far from the little seaport of Palos, in Spain. He listened to the reasoning of Columbus, and became persuaded that he was right, not withstanding so many people discredited him. 2. Juan watched a favorable opportunity, and talked to Queen Isabella till she became of his opinion. She resolved that Columbus should have his way; and, as money was needed for the purpose, she pledged her own jewels; and on the third of August, 1492, three little vessels were seen leaving the coast of Spain, under the command of Columbus, to cross the untried expanse of waters which we now call the Atlantic Ocean, in search of a new world. 3. The crews of the ships were terrified when they lost sight of the last land, and found themselves sailing on and on towards the west, and that there was still nothing to be seen around them but sky and water. But when day after day and week after week passed, and no signs of the promised land appeared, they grew angry and mutinous, and threatened Columbus that if he did not turn back they would throw him overboard. 4. Most likely these men would have carried out their threat, but that they thought they would not know how to get back without him. Day and night, almost all the time, he stood upon the deck, with his sounding-lead in his hand, watching every little sign in the sky or the water that might show whether land was near; but still no land was to be seen. 5. At last the sailors grew quite furious, and then Columbus, despairing, perhaps, of keeping them quiet any longer, promised that if, in three days more, the land did not appear, he would give up all his long-cherished hopes, and go back to Spain. 6. On the very next day, as some of the crew stood gazing on the water, they saw floating towards them a branch of a tree with red berries, and, at the same time, there alighted on the mast some birds that live on land. Joyfully were these signs hailed; but again the sun set, and still no land was to be seen. 7. But just before midnight the welcome cry of "Land, land!" was heard. A light had been seen quite distinctly moving along, as if carried by some person on a shore. The seamen rushed into one another's arms, quite wild with joy. They now knelt at the feet of Columbus, and praised, as an inspired man, him whom they had been disposed to throw overboard a few days before. 8. They asked his pardon, and he readily granted it. They wept, they sang hymns of thanksgiving. No eye was closed in sleep during that night; and at the early dawn a beautiful green island lay before them in full sight. This was on the 12th of October, in the year 1492. 9. The island was one of the Baha'ma Islands, and was called St. Salvador by Columbus. He was the first Europe'an that set foot on the soil of the New World. He landed in a rich dress, and with a naked sword in his hand; and then all the Spaniards knelt, and rendered thanks to God for the great event. LXII. TO MY LITTLE SISTER WHO DIED. 1. THY memory as a spell of love comes o'er my mind; As dew upon the purple bell, as per'fume on the wind;" As music on the sea, as sunshine on the river, So hath it always been to me, so shall it be forever. 2. I hear thy voice in dreams upon me softly call, Like echo of the mountain streams in sportive waterfall. And blossomed in the eyes of men, like any flower of spring 4. I hear, in solitude, the prattle kind and free Thou uttered'st in joyful mood while seated on my knee. LXIII. ON THE USE OF BAD LANGUAGE. 1. WE would guard the young against the use of any word that is not perfectly proper. Use no profane expression. You know not the danger of using indecent and profane language. It may never be obliterated from your memory. 2. The profane youth, when he grows up, will often find himself using, without meaning it, an expression for which he is very sorry. It was one he learned when he was quite young. It has clung to his memory like a hateful thing. 3. By being careful to shun familiarity with impure language you will save yourself much future mortification and sorrow. There have been instances in which good men have been taken sick and become delirious, in which state they have used bad words. 4. When informed of it, after a restoration to health, they remembered that the words were those which they had learned in their early days from vicious associates; and though many years had passed since they had spoken a bad word, the expressions had been so stamped upon the memory |