5. "The tree was spared," replied the singer; whereupon the inquirer resumed his seat, while the whole house broke out into loud and long applause. 6. Woodman, spare that tree! 7. That old, familiar tree, Whose glory and renown Cut not its earth-bound ties; 8. When but an idle boy I sought its grateful shade; Here, too, my sisters played. But let that old oak stand! 9. My heartstrings round thee cling, And still thy branches bend. LESSON CCXLIII. Length from N. to s. about 30 miles; greatest breadth 10 to 12 miles. ELK'HORN, a small stream in Kentucky, a branch of which flows through the town of Lexington. AL-LE-GHA'NIES, a broad mass of mountains extending from N. Y. to Ala. The most easterly range takes in Virginia the name of the Blue Ridge, dividing eastern from western Virginia. AN-NAP O-LIS, the capital of Maryland, situated on the Chesapeake. CAM BRIDGE (Kame'bridge), a city of Massachusetts, three miles from Boston. During the Revolutionary war, while the British held possession of Boston, Cambridge was the head. quarters of the American army. DIS MAL SWAMP extends from near Norfolk in Virginia into North-Carolina. PRONUNCIATION.-Borne (rhymes with mourn), lib'er ty 9, a pron 11, stone 34, trav'ers-ing 266, hundreds 11, none (nun), Con-nect'i-cut 33, mi-li'tia (me-lish ́a) 17. LEX'ING-TON, a town of Massachusetts, TIDINGS OF THE BATTLE OF LEXINGTON. 1. DARKNESS closed upon the country and upon the town, but it was no night for sleep. Heralds on swift relays of horses transmitted the war-message from hand to hand, till village repeated it to village, the sea to the backwoods, the plains to the highlands, and it was never suffered to droop, till it had been borne north and south and east and west, throughout the land. 2. It spread over the bays that receive the Saco and the Penob scot. Its loud reveille broke the rest of the trappers of New-Hampshire, and ringing like bugle-notes from peak to peak, overleaped the Green Mountains, swept onward to Montreal, and descended the ocean river, till the responses were echoed from the cliffs of Quebec. 3. The hills along the Hudson told to one another the tale. As the summons hurried to the south it was one day at New-York; in one more at Philadelphia; the next it lighted a watch-fire at Baltimore; thence it waked an answer at Annapolis. Crossing the Potomac near Mount Vernon, it was sent forward without a halt. Traversing the Dismal Swamp, it moved onwards and still onwards through boundless groves of evergreen to the cities of North-Carolina. 4. Patriots of South-Carolina caught up its tones at the border, and despatched it to Charleston, and through pines and palmettoes and moss-clad live-oaks still further to the south, till it resounded among the settlements beyond the Savannah. 5. The Blue Ridge took up the voice and made it heard from one end to the other of the valley of Virginia. The Alleghanies, as they listened, opened their barriers that the loud call might pass through to the hardy riflemen on the western rivers. 6. Ever renewing its strength, powerful enough even to create a commonwealth, it breathed its inspiring word to the first settlers of Kentucky; so that hunters who made their halt in the matchless valley of the Elkhorn, commemorated the nineteenth day of April by naming their encampment LEXINGTON. 7. With one impulse the colonies sprung to arms: with one spirit they pledged themselves to each other "to be ready for the extreme event." With one heart the continent cried, "Liberty or Death." 8. The country people, as soon as they heard the cry of innocent blood from the ground, snatched their firelocks from the walls; and wives and mothers and sisters took part in preparing the men of their households to go forth to the war. 9. The farmers rushed to "the camp of liberty," often with nothing but the clothes on their backs, without a day's provisions, and many without a farthing in their pockets. Their country was in danger; their brethren were slaughtered; their arms alone employed their attention. On their way the inhabitants gladly opened their hospitable doors, and all things were in common. 10. The people could not be restrained. On the morning of the twentieth Israel Putnam of Connecticut, in leather frock and apron, was assisting hired men to build a stone wall on his farm, when he heard the cry from Lexington. Leaving them to continue their task, he set off instantly to rouse the militia.officers of the nearest towns. On his return he found hundreds who had mustered and chosen him their leader. www 11. Issuing orders for them to follow, he himself pushed forward without changing the checked shirt he had worn in the field, and reached Cambridge at sunrise the next morning, having rode the same horse a hundred miles within eighteen hours. He brought to the service of his country courage which, during the war, was never questioned; and a heart than which none throbbed more honestly or warmly for American freedom. BANCROFT. LESSON CCXLIV. DEC-LI-NA'TION, an astronomical term | VA-RI-A'TION, an astronomical term, designating the distance of a heavenly designating an irregularity in the moon's motion. body from the equator. PRONUNCIATION.-Sec'ond 29, gen ́tle-man 29, her'o-ine 5a. TEMPER. 1. WHEN Griselda thought that her husband had long enough enjoyed his new existence, and that there was danger of his forgetting the taste of sorrow, she changed her tone. One day, when he had not returned home exactly at the appointed minute, she received him with a frown.-"Dinner has been kept waiting for you this hour, my dear.” 2. "I am very sorry for it; but why did you wait, my dear? I am really very sorry I am so late, but" (looking at his watch) "it is only half-past six after all.”—“It is seven by me." 3. They presented their watches to each other; he in an apologetical, she in a reproachful, attitude. "I rather think you are too fast, my dear," said the gentleman. "I am very sure you are too slow, my dear," said the lady. 4. "My watch never loses a minute in the four-and-twenty hours," said he. "Nor mine a second," said she. 5. "I have reason to believe I am right, my love," said the husband, mildly. "Reason!" exclaimed the wife, astonished. "What reason can you possibly have to believe you are right, when I tell you I am morally certain you are wrong, my love." 6. "My only reason for doubting it is, that I set my watch by the sun to-day." 7. "The sun must be wrong then," cried the lady, hastily. "You need not laugh; for I know what I am saying; the variation, the declination, must be allowed for, in computing it with the clock. Now you know perfectly well what I mean, though you will not explain it for me, because you are conscious I am in the right." 8. "Well, my dear, if you are conscious of it, that is sufficient. We will not dispute any more about such a trifle. Are they bringing up dinner?" 9. "If they know that you are come in; but I am sure I cannot tell whether they do or not. Pray, my dear," cried the lady, turning to a female friend, and still holding her watch in her hand, "what o'clock is it by you? There is nobody in the world that hates disputing about trifles so much as I do; but I own I do love to convince people that I am in the right.” 10. The friend's watch had stopped. How provoking! Vexed at having no immediate means of convincing people that she was in the right, our heroine consoled herself by proceeding to criminate her husband, not in this particular instance, where he pleaded guilty, but upon the general charge of being always late for dinner, which he strenuously denied. MISS EDGEWORTH. LESSON CCXLV. masts, sails, cordage, and other equip ments. BETH LE-HEM, a village of Judea, about | HULK, the body of a vessel, denuded of six miles s. E. of Jerusalem, famous for being the birth-place of our Lord and Saviour JESUS CHRIST. To this village the Wise Men of the East were guided by a star, which "went before them, till it came and stood over where the young Child was." IL-LUME', (as used in this lesson) to give light; properly it has a transitive meaning, to enlighten, to make bright. PROSPECTS, as here used, means happy or hopeful prospects. PRONUNCIATION.-Dark'ness le, bil'lows 6, heart 9, Beth'le-hem 32c, helm 38a, surf 9, for got' 34 (not for-gut'). THE BEACON-LIGHT. 1. DARKNESS was deepening o'er the seas, and still the hulk drove on; |