vpon his dagger, his countenance and maner like one alwaies readie to strike againe, he tooke ill rest a nights, laie long waking and musing, sore wearied with care and watch, rather slumbered than slept, troubled with fearefull dreames, suddenlie sometime start vp, lept out of his bed, and ran about the chamber; so was his restlesse heart continuallie tossed and tumbled with the tedious impression and stormie remembrance of his abhominable deed.

OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES

OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES, an American poet and essayist. Born at Cambridge, Massachusetts, August 29, 1809; died in Boston, October 7, 1894. Author of "The Autocrat of the Breakfast Table," "The Poet at the Breakfast Table," "Soundings from the Atlantic," "John Lothrop Motley," "Ralph Waldo Emerson," "Our Hundred Days in Europe," "Over the Teacups."

His poetic volumes were entitled: "Urania," "Astræa," "Songs in Many Keys," "Songs of Many Seasons," "The Iron Gate." In "The Chambered Nautilus" his poetic genius appears at its best.

As Professor in the Harvard Medical School, Holmes first achieved eminence as a lecturer and teacher. He was a most cultivated, genial, companionable man, of infinite good humor and extraordinary wit.

(The following selections are used by permission of Houghton Mifflin Com pany, Boston, the publishers.)

THE CHAMBERED NAUTILUS

THIS is the ship of pearl, which, poets feign,

Sails the unshadowed main,

The venturous bark that flings

On the sweet summer wind its purpled wings
In gulfs enchanted, where the siren sings,

And coral reefs lie bare,

Where the cold sea-maids rise to sun their streaming hair.

In webs of living gauze no more unfurl;

Wrecked is the ship of pearl!

And every chambered cell,

Where its dim dreaming life was wont to dwell,
As the frail tenant shaped his growing shell,
Before thee lies revealed,

Its irised ceiling rent, its sunless crypt unsealed.

Year after year behold the silent toil

That spread his lustrous coil;

Still, as the spiral grew,

He left the past year's dwelling for the new,

Stole with soft step its shining archway through,

Built up its idle door,

Stretched in his last-found home, and knew the old no more.

Thanks for the heavenly message brought by thee,

Child of the wandering sea,

Cast from her lap forlorn!

From thy dead lips a clearer note is born
Than ever Triton blew from wreathed horn!

While on mine ear it rings,

Through the deep caves of thought I hear a voice that sings:

Build thee more stately mansions, O my soul!

As the swift seasons roll!

Leave thy low-vaulted past!

Let each new temple, nobler than the last,
Shut thee from heaven with a dome more vast,
Till thou at length art free,

Leaving thine outgrown shell by life's unresting sea!

OLD IRONSIDES

AYE, tear her tattered ensign down!
Long has it waved on high,
And many an eye has danced to see
That banner in the sky;
Beneath it rung the battle shout,

And burst the cannon's roar;

The meteor of the ocean air

Shall sweep the clouds no more!

Her deck, once red with heroes' blood,
Where knelt the vanquished foe,
When winds were hurrying o'er the flood,
And waves were white below,

No more shall feel the victor's tread,
Or know the conquered knee; -
The harpies of the shore shall pluck
The eagle of the sea!

(From "THE AUTOCRAT OF THE BREAKFAST TABLE")

THE DEACON'S MASTERPIECE

OR, THE WONDERFUL "ONE-HOSS-SHAY"

A Logical Story

HAVE you heard of the wonderful one-hoss-shay, That was built in such a logical way

It ran a hundred years to a day,

And then, of a sudden, itah, but stay,

I'll tell you what happened without delay,
Scaring the parson into fits,

Frightening people out of their wits, —
Have you ever heard of that, I say?

But the Deacon swore (as Deacons do,
With an "I dew vum" or an "I tell yeou,")
He would build one shay to beat the taown
'N' the keounty 'n' all the kentry raoun';

It should be so built that it couldn' break daown;
"Fur," said the Deacon, "'t's mighty plain
That the weakes' place mu' stan' the strain;
'N' the way t' fix it, uz I maintain,

Is only jest

To make that place uz strong uz the rest."