OBSERVATION.

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probability observation uninjured addressed sorcerer particularly clustering suspicions dervise impression merchants suddenly

A dervise was journeying along in a desert, when two merchants suddenly met him; “You have lost a camel," said he to the merchants.

" Iudeed we have,” they replied, “ Was he not blind in his right eye, and lame in his left leg ?” said the dervise. was,” replied the merchants. “ Had he not lost a front tooth ?" said the dervise. “He had,” rejoined the merchants. “And was he not loaded with honey on one side, and wheat on the other ?”

“ Most certainly he was,” they replied ; “and as you have seen him so lately, and marked him so particularly, you can, in all probability, conduct us to him,” “My friends," said the dervise, “I have never seen your camel, nor ever heard of him, but from you."

“A pretty story, truly,” said the merchants; "but where are the jewels which formed a part of his cargo ?”

” 'I have neither seen your camel, nor your jewels,” repeated the dervise. On this they seized his person, and forthwith hurried him before the judge, where, on the strictest search, nothing could be found upon. him, nor could any evidence whatever be adduced to convict him, either of falsehood or of theft. They were then about to proceed against him as a sorcerer, when the dervise, with great calmness, thus addressed the court:-“ I have been much amused with your surprise, and own there has been some ground for your suspicions ; but I have lived long, and alone; and I can find ample scope for observation, even in a desert. I knew that I had crossed the track of a

camel that had strayed from its owner,

because I saw no mark of any human footstep on the same route; I knew the animal was blind in one eye, because it had cropped the herbage only on one side of its path ; and I perceived that it was lame in one leg, from the faint impression which that particular foot had pro

the sand; I concluded that the animal had lost one tooth, because, wherever it had grazed, a small tuft of herbage had been left uninjured in the centre of its bite. As to that which formed the burthen of the beast, the busy ants informed me that it was corn on the one side, and the clustering flies that it was honey on the other.”—COLTON.

duced upon

HOME AND CLASS WORK.

Learn the spellings at the top of the page, and write sentences containing these words.

DREAM OF EUGENE ARAM. troutlets murderers methought tyrannic melancholy everlasting manhood temptation ponderous unutterable sluggish scorching

a

'Twas in the prime of summer time,

An evening calm and cool,
And four and twenty happy boys

Came bounding out of school:
There were some that ran, and some that leapt,

Like troutlets in a pool.
Away they sped with gamesome minds,

And souls untouched by sin;
To a level mead they came, and there

They drove the wickets in.
Pleasantly shone the setting sun

Over the town of Lynn.
Like sportive deer they coursed about,

And shouted as they ran-
Turning to mirth all things of earth,

As only boyhood can:
But the usher sat remote from all,

A melancholy man!
His hat was off, his vest apart,

To catch heaven's blessed breeze;
For a burning thought was in his brow,

And his bosom ill at ease:
So he leaned his head on his hands, and read

The book between his knees. Leaf after leaf he turned it o'er,

Nor ever glanced aside;

For the peace of his soul be read that book

In the golden eventide.
Much study had made him very lean,

And pale, and leaden-eyed.
At last he shut the ponderous tome;

With a fast and fervent grasp
He strained the dusky covers close,

And fixed the brazen hasp:
“O God, could I so close my mind,

And clasp it with a clasp !" Then, leaping on his feet upright,

Some moody turns he took; Now

up

the mead, then down the mead, And past a shady nook : And lo! he saw a little boy

That pored upon a book. "My gentle lad what is't you read

Romance or fairy fable? Or is it some historic page

Of kings and crowns unstable ?." The young boy gave an upward glance

“It is the death of Abel.”
The usher took six hasty strides,

As smit with sudden pain-
Six hasty strides beyond the place,

Then slowly back again;
And down he sat beside the lad,

And talked with him of Cain.
He told how murderers walked the earth,

Beneath the curse of Cain-
With crimson clouds before their eyes,

And flames about their brain:

For blood has left upon their souls

Its everlasting stain ! “And well,” quoth he, “I know for truth Their

pangs must be extremeWoe, woe, unutterable woe

Who spill life's sacred stream ! For why? methought last night I wrought

A murder in a dream!”
“One that had never done me wrong-

A feeble man, and old;
I led him to a lonely field;

The moon shone clear and cold;
Now here,' said I, “this man shall die,

And I will have his gold !'
“Two sudden blows with a ragged stick,

And one with a heavy stone,
One hurried gash with a hasty knife,

And then the deed was done:
There was nothing lying at my foot,

But lifeless flesh and bone !
“Nothing but lifeless flesh and bone,

That could not do me ill;
And yet I feared him all the more,

For lying there so still:
There was a manhood in his look,

That murder could not kill ! “And lo! the universal air

Seemed lit with ghastly flame-
Ten thousand thousand dreadful eyes

Were looking down in blame:
I took the dead man by the hand,

And called upon his name.