the military alone, he requires for deficiencies to June, 1848, $9,902,440 for the army service, from June '48 to June '49, $31,856,758; fortifications, ordnance, &c., $1,678,341; pensions, and arrearages for do., $307,266; navy, for the year, from June next, $10,905,654: total for military, $54,650,459. DEFINITIONS, &c.-Define treasurer, deficiencies, appropriations, mililary, navy, &c., &c.

1

SECT. XXIX.-A GREAT TALKER.

WHEN, for instance, she was sitting down, to work, one might have heard her say, O, ho! I fancy it is high time I 2 should be doing something! What would my mamma say, should she find me sitting with my arms across, lolling on my 3 elbows? O my stars! how much I have got to hem here! all 4 this apron !-But at worst, I never let the grass grow under 5 me, when I set out, and I shall soon have done. Ah! there the clock strikes: one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, 6 nine: yes, positively, nine o'clock! Well then, I have but two poor hours, before I go to music: yet a deal of business may 7 be done in such a length of time'. Mamma, when she observes how diligent I have been, will be sure to give me 8 sweetmeats. O! what pleasure I shall have in looking at 9 them! Nothing do I love like nice crisped almonds: not that I do not like egg-plums, preserved'; they are very good, too, for papa popped one into my mouth last Thursday, and then gave me a whole bag full; but I think crisped almonds 10 better. I should like to see Miss Winifred this morning": I

would show her the fine new dress mamma has bought me. 11 Winifred is a funny little girl enough! 12 I like her vastly. 13 O! but she loves talking, and I do not know how it happens,

but one cannot thrust a word in, when her clapper is set a 14 going. Where is my thimble got to? 15 Sister, have you seen 16 my thimble? Patty must have surely lost it for me, when 17 she came to sweep the parlor. It is so like her! she is al18 ways such a hair-brained creature! Who can work without 19 a thimble? I, at least, never take a stitch, if I mislay it; for the needle pricks one's finger, and one's finger bleeds, of course; and then, besides the pain it gives one, how one's 20 work looks, when 'tis spotted with red marks! Why, Patty! 21 Patty! where can you be got to! Have you seen my

thim.

28

A HUSBAND'S CONFESSION

22 ble? O, no! here it is; and just as if the matter were contrived on purpose, at the bottom of my work-bag.

DEFINITIONS, &c.-For instance-for example. The full expression would be, I give this for an instance or an example. It should be marked as a parenthesis: what is a parenthesis? (See Course of Reading p. 193.) Sitting down-taking a seat. Some people say setting down for taking a seat: Is that correct? why not? High time-full time. What kind of a feeling is expressed by the exclamations O, ho!? and by O my stars!? Define fancy, across, lolling, hem, apron. (What is understood before all this apron ?) I never let the grass grow under me-I always go fast. What is understood between to and music in sentence 6th? Poor hours-short hours. Define sweetmeats, crisped, popped, funny, thrust. What is a clapper; and what is called a clapper in sentence 13? Define sweep, parlor, thimble, stitch, mislay, needle, spotted, marks.

1

SECT. XXX.—A HUSBAND'S CONFESSION.

I NEVER undertook but once, to set at naught the authority 2 of my wife. You know her way'; cool, quiet, but deter3 mined as ever was. Just after we were married and all was going nice and cozy, she got me into a habit of doing all the 4 churning. She never asked me to do it, you know, but then she-why it was done just in this way. She finished break5 fast rather before me one morning, and slipping away from the table she filled the churn with cream, and set it just where 6 I couldn't help seeing what it wanted. So I took hold regu. 7 larly enough, and churned till the butter came. She did not thank me, but looked so nice and sweet about it, that I felt 8 well paid. Well, when the next churning day came along, she did the same thing; and I followed suit and fetched the 9 butter. Again and again it was done just so; and I was 10 regularly in for it every time. Not a word said, you know

of course. Well, by-and-by, this began to be rather irk11 some: I wished she should just ask me, but she never did,

and I couldn't say any thing about it to save my life; and so 12 on we went. At last I made a resolve that I would not churn another time, unless she asked me. Churning day 13 came, and when my breakfast (she always got nice breakfasts) when that was swallowed, there stood the churn. I 14 got up, and standing a few minutes, just to give her a chance, 15 put on my hat and walked out doors. I stopped in the yard to give her time to call me, but not word said she, and so, 16 with a palpitating heart I moved on. I went down town, up

a

A HUSBAND'S CONFESSION

20

town, and all over town; and my foot was as restless as was that of Noah's dove. I felt as if I had done a wrong: I 17 didn't exactly feel how, but there was an indescribable sensation of guilt resting on me all the forenoon. It seemed as 18 if dinner-time never would come; and as for going home, one minute before dinner, I would as soon have had my ears off. 19 So I went fretting and moping around town till dinner hour 20 came. Home I went, feeling very much as a criminal must

when the jury is out, having in their hands his destiny life 21 or death. I couldn't make up my mind exactly how she 22 would meet me, but some kind of a storm I expected. 'Vill

you believe it? She never greeted me with a sweeter smile; 23 never had a better dinner for me than on that day; but there stood the churn, just where I left it! Not a word was said'; 24 I felt confoundedly cut up, and every mouthful of that dinner seemed as if it would choke me. She didn't pay any 25 regard to it, however, but went on just as if nothing had

happened. Before dinner was over I had again resolved, 26 and shoving back my chair, I marched to the churn, and 27 went at it just in the old way. Splash, drip, rattle, splash; 28 I kept it up. As if in spite, the butter never was so long 29 coming. I supposed that the cream standing so long had 30 got warm; and so I redoubled my efforts. Obstinate matter; the afternoon wore away while I was churning. I 31 paused at last, from real exhaustion; when she spoke for the first time: "Come, Tom, my dear, you have rattled that BUTTERMILK quite long enough, if it's only for fun you are 32 doing it'!" I knew how it was in a flash. She brought the 33 butter in the forenoon, and left the churn standing with the 34 buttermilk in, for me to exercise with. I never set up for myself in household matters after that".

DEFINITIONS, &c.-To set at naught-to defy or resist. Detno nice, cozy, churning, breakfast, rather, slipping away, cream. Followed suit -did as before. Define fetched, by-and-by, irksome, chance, indescribable, sensation, palpitating, guilt, fretting, moping, criminal, destiny, splash, drip, rattle, in spite, redoubled, wore away, paused, exhaustion, in a flash. Set up for myself-acted independently, without taking advice.

Understand any person between as and ever in Sent. 2d, and cut between ears and off in Sent 18th.

3*

SECT. XXXI.-TEN RULES TO BE OBSERVED IN PRACTICAL

LIFE.

THE following rules were given by the late Mr. Jefferson, in a letter of advice to his namesake, Thomas Jefferson Smith, in 1825:

1. Never put off till to-morrow what you can do to-day; 2. Never trouble others for what you can do yourself; 3. Never spend your money before you have it;

4. Never buy what you do not want because it is cheap; 5. Pride costs us more than hunger, thirst, and cold; 6. We never repent of having eaten too little;

7. Nothing is troublesome that we do willingly;

8. How much pains have those evils cost us which never happened;

9. Take things always by their smooth handle;

10. When angry, count ten before you speak: if very angry, a hundred.

DEFINITIONS, &c.-Give the meaning of rules, advice, late, (by him who was lately,) namesake, never, off, cheap, pride, hunger, thirst, cold. What is the meaning of the ninth rule? That we should not take a bull by the horns? Who wrote our Declaration of Independence?

1

2

3

4

5

SECT. XXXII.-THEY ARE GONE.

AH! where are they who heard, in former hours,
The voice of song in these neglected bowers?

They are gone: they're all gone!

The youth, who told his pain in such sweet tone,
That all who heard him wished his pain their own-

He is gone he is gone!

And she who, while he sung, sat listening by,

And thought, to strains like these 'twere sweet to die

She is gone: she, too, is gone!

"T is thus, in future hours, some bard will say
Of her who hears, and him who sings this lay:

DEFINITIONS, &c.-Define former, song, bowers, neglected, strains, listening, bard, both. At the colon in the middle of the 3d, 6th, 9th and 12th lines pause longer than usual; and let the delivery before and after be in a deep tone of awe.

ADVENTURE WITH A BEAR.-INDIAN SAGACITY. 31

SECT. XXXIII.-ADVENTURE WITH A BEAR.

1 THE Kennebec Journal relates a story of a land speculator, who while hunting for a timber lot, climbed up on the stump of a tree, which, having been cut in a very deep snow, was 2 about nine feet high. His object was to attain a position where he could see all the pine-trees near by, and to look for a navigable stream to float his logs. The stump was hol low; but our land buyer was so intent upon the fortune he 3 expected to make, that he became careless of his footing, like the milkmaid in the fable, and, in the midst of his golden visions, stepped backward and fell plump into the hollow 4 tree. In vain he tried to ascend. 5 There he was pent up, 6 with not a living soul in ten miles of him. His horrid fate 7 seemed inevitable. He thought no more of bonded lands, but abandoned himself to despair, and a lingering death by 8 starvation. The wind sighed mournfully among the trees, whose branches waved over the inaccessible mouth of his 9 wooden cavern. No other sound was heard, from man or

beast or bird, when suddenly he was aroused by a scratching 10 outside. The next moment the hole above him was darkened 11 by some dense body descending towards him. It proved to

be an enormous black bear. As soon as the shaggy rump 12 of the animal came within reach of our hero, he grasped the long hair firmly with both hands. Bruin, not knowing what 13 sort of a bedfellow he had to deal with, scratched with all his might for the top of the stump, and drew the land buyer up with him.

DEFINITIONS, &c.-Define speculator, navigable stream, stump, hollow, intent, footing, golden visions, inevitable, bonded, abandoned, lingering, starvation, mournfully, inaccessible, cavern, aroused, dense, descending, shaggy, bedfellow. In, in sent. 5th-within.

SECT. XXXIV.-INDIAN SAGACITY.

1 AN Indian, upon his return home to his hut one day, discovered that his venison, which had been hung up to dry, had been stolen. After going some distance, he met some per2 sons, of whom he inquired if they had seen a little, old, white man, with a short gun, accompanied by a small dog with a bob-tail. They replied in the affirmative; and, upon 3 the Indian's assuring them that the man thus described had