The mast.—This is the name given to the fruit of the oak, the beech, and other forest trees. In former times it was customary to feed great herds of swine in the oak and beech forests with which the country abounded. One of the complaints of the Saxons against the Norman kings was that they preserved the forests as hunting ground, and thus prevented them from feeding their swine—their principal means of subsistence-in them.

Melancholy. This word literally means black bile, from the Greek-melan, black, and chole, bile. It is here personified—and the raven, a lonely, solitary bird, is appropriately called the bird of Melancholy.

Many summers, &c.—The raven is said to live to a great

age.

Pent-house. This word furnishes an admirable example of the way in which common people attempt to affix some definite meaning to a foreign word. The word is really the French word appentis, which means anything leaning against another, and describes very well the shape of the eyebrows. If the word is pronounced quickly, the scholar will easily see how it came to be called penthouse.

QUESTIONS-1. What were the swine doing under the oak? 2. What is mast? 3. Why were the Saxons angry with the forest laws of the Norman kings? 4. What do you call the fruit of the oak? 5. What is the literal meaning of melancholy? 6. Why was it so called? 7. Why is the raven said to have belonged to melancholy? 8. Where did the raven bury the acorn? 9. What became of the raven after this? 10. What had the acorn become before the raven came back? 11. What became of the oak? 12. Explain the origin and meaning of the phrase pent-house. 13. To what use was the oak turned? 14. What happened to the ship? 15. How did the raven feel when the ship became a wreck? 16. Why? 17. Was the feeling a right one? 18. What is said in the Bible about revenge?

Twilight.

IT is the hour when from the boughs
The nightingale's high note is heard;
It is the hour when lovers' vows

Seem sweet in every whispered word;
And gentle winds, and waters near,
Make music to the lonely ear.
Each flower the dews have lightly wet,
And in the sky the stars are met,
And on the wave is deeper blue,

And on the leaf a browner hue,
And in the heaven that clear obscure,
So softly dark, and darkly pure,
Which follows the decline of day,

As twilight melts beneath the moon away.

In the days of knight-errantry and paganism, one of our old British princes set up a statue to the Goddess of Victory, at a point where four roads met together. In her right hand she held a spear,

and her left rested upon a shield. The outside of this shield was of gold, and the inside of silver. On the former was inscribed, in the old British language, "To the goddess ever favourable;" and on the other, "For four victories obtained successively over the Picts and other inhabitants of the northern islands."

It happened one day that two knights completely armed, one in black armour, the other in white, arrived from opposite parts of the country at this statue, just about the same time; and, as neither of them had seen it before, they stopped to read the inscription, and observe the excellence of its workmanship.

After contemplating it for some time, "This golden shield," says the black knight

"Golden shield!" cried the white knight (who was as closely observing the opposite side), “why, if I have eyes, it is silver."

"I know nothing of your eyes," replied the black knight; "but, if ever I saw a golden shield in my life, this is one."

"Yes," returned the white knight, smiling, “it is very probable, indeed, that they should expose a shield of gold in so public a place as this! For my part, I wonder even a silver one is not too strong a temptation for the honesty of some people who pass this way; and it appears by the date that this has been here above three years."

The black knight could not bear the smile with which this was delivered, and grew so warm in the dispute that it soon ended in a challenge; they both, therefore, turned their horses, and rode back so far as to have sufficient space for their career; then, fixing their spears in their rests, they flew at each other with the greatest fury and impetuosity. Their shock was so rude, and the blow on each side so effectual, that they both fell to the ground, much wounded and bruised, and lay there for some time, as in a trance.

A good Druid, who was travelling that way, found them in this condition. The Druids were the physicians of those times as well as the priests. He had a sovereign balsam about him, which he had composed himself—for he was very skilful in all the plants that grew in the fields or in the forests; he stanched their blood, applied his balsam to their wounds, and brought them, as it were, from death to life again. As soon as they were sufficiently recovered, he began to inquire into the occasion of their quarrel. "Why, this man," cried the black knight, "will have it that yonder shield is silver." "And he will have it," replied the white knight, "that it is gold." And then they told him all the particulars of the affair.

"Ah!" said the Druid, with a sigh, “you are both of you, my brethren, in the right, and both of you in the wrong. Had either of you given him

self time to look at the opposite side of the shield as well as that which first presented itself to view, all this passion and bloodshed might have been avoided. However, there is a very good lesson to be learned from the evils that have befallen you on this occasion. Permit me, therefore, to entreat you by all our gods, and by this goddess of victory in particular, never to enter into any dispute for the future till you have fairly considered both sides of the question."

BEAUMONT.

Knights-errant simply means wandering knights. They were so called because they wandered about in search of adventures.

Paganism, heathenism. Pagans were so named from a Latin word pagus, a country district, because, when Christianity was established in the towns, the adherents of the old religion retired into the country.

Picts, usually joined with Scots, names given to tribes in Scotland, who, when the Romans were withdrawn from England, invaded that country.

Druids were the priests of the ancient Britons. They were the only educated people of that day, and acted as judges and as doctors, as well as priests.

QUESTIONS:-1. What was knight-errantry? 2. Give the origin of the word paganism. 3. Who were the Picts? 4. To whom was this shield erected? 5. What led to the quarrel between the two knights? 6. Who were the Druids? 7. What was a sovereign balsam? 8. What lesson did the Druid give the knights?