Imágenes de páginas
PDF
EPUB

of the old panther in the air, springing twenty eet from the branch of the beech to the back of the mastiff. No words of ours can describe the fury of the conflict' that followed. It was a confused struggle on the dried leaves, accompanied by loud and terrible cries, barks, and growls. Miss Temple continued, on her knees, bending over the form of Louisa, her eyes fixed on the animals, with an interest so horrid, and yet so intense, that she almost forgot her own stake in the result.

11. So rapid and vigorous were the bounds of the inhabitant of the forest, that its active frame seemed constantly in the air, while the dog nobly faced his foe at each successive leap. When the panther lighted on the shoulders of the mastiff, which was its constant aim, old Brave, though torn with her talons, and stained with his own blood, that already flowed from a dozen wounds, would shake off his furious foe like a feather, and, rearing on his hind legs, rush to the fray again, with his jaws distended, and a dauntless eye.

12. But age, and his pampered life, greatly disqualified the noble mastiff for such a struggle. In every thing but courage he was only the vestige of what he had once been. A higher bound than ever raised the wary3 and furious beast far beyond the reach of the dog-who was making a desperate, but fruitless dash at her from which she alighted, in a favorable position, on the back of her agèd foe. For a single moment, only, could the panther remain there, the great strength of the dog return ing with a convulsive effort.

13. But Elizabeth saw, as Brave fastened his teeth in the side of his enemy, that the collar of brass around his neck, which had been glittering throughout the fray, was of the color of blood, and, directly, that his frame was sinking to the earth, where it soon lay, prostrate and helpless. Several mighty efforts of the wild-cat to extricate herself from the jaws of the dog followed; but they were fruitless, until the mastiff turned on his back, his lips collapsed, and his teeth loosened; when the short convulsions and stillness that succeeded, announced the death of poor Brave.

2

'Con' flict, battle; fight.- Ves' tige, footstep; mark or remains.War' y, cautious; careful.- Col låpsed', closed by falling together.

ESCAPE FROM A PANTHER.

243

14. Elizabeth now lay whōlly at the mercy of the beast. There is said to be something in the front of the image of the Maker that daunts the hearts of the inferior beings of his creation; and it would seem that some such power, in the present instance, suspended the threatened blow. The eyes of the monster and the kneeling maiden met, for an instant, when the former stooped to examine her fallen foe; next to scent her luckless cub. From the latter examination it turned, however, with its eyes apparently emitting flashes of fire, its tail lashing its sides furiously, and its claws projecting for inches from its broad feet.

15. Miss Temple did not, or could not move. Her hands were clasped in the attitude of prayer; but her eyes were still drawn to her terrible enemy; her cheeks were blanched' to the whiteness of marble, and her lips were slightly separated with horror. The moment seemed now to have arrived for the fatal termination; and the beautiful figure of Elizabeth was bowing meekly to the stroke, when a rustling of leaves from behind seemed rather to mock the organs than to meet her ears.

16. "Hist! hist!" said a low voice; "stoop lower, gall; your bunnet hides the creater's head." It was rather the yielding of nature than a compliance with this unexpected order that caused the head of our hĕr'oine2 to sink on her bosom; when she heard the report of the rifle, the whizzing of the bullet, and the enraged cries of the beast, who was rolling over on the earth, biting its own flesh, and tearing the twigs and branches within its reach. At the next instant the form of the Leather-stocking rushed by her; and he called aloud—“Come in, Hector; come in, you old fool; 'tis a hard-lived animal, and may jump ag'in." 17. Natty maintained his position in front of the maidens most fearlessly, notwithstanding the violent bounds and threatening aspect of the wounded panther, which gave several indications of returning strength and ferocity, until his rifle was again loaded, when he stepped up to the enraged animal, and, placing the muzzle close to its head, every spark of life was extinguished by the discharge. J. FENIMORE COOPER.

'Blanched (blancht), whitened; made pale.-2 Her' o ine, a female hero; a female who is the principal character or person in a story.

1.

103. SPRING.

OME, gentle Spring! ethereal mildness, come!
O Thomson,' void of rhyme as well as reason,
How couldst thou thus poor human nature hum?2
There's no such season.

2 The Spring! I shrink and shudder at her name!
For why, I find her breath a bitter blighter!
And suffer from her blows as if they came
From Spring the Fighter.

3. Her praises, then, let hardy poets sing,
And be her tuneful laureates and upholders,
Who do not feel as if they had a Spring

Pour'd down their shoulders!

4. Let others eulogize1 her floral shows;

From me they can not win a single stanza.
I know her blooms are in full blow-and so's
The Influenza.'

5. Her cowslips, stocks, and lilies of the vale,

6

Her honey-blossoms that you hear the bees at,
Her pansies, daffodils, and primrose pale,

Are things I sneeze at!

6. Fair is the vernal quarter of the year!

And fair its early buddings and its blowings—
But just suppose Consumption's seeds appear
With other sowings!

'James Thomson, author of "The Seasons," and "The Castle of Indolence," born in 1700, and died in 1748.-2 Hům, humbug; deceive.Lau' re ates, persons honored with a laurel. The Poet Laureate of England is an officer of the king's household, whose business it is to compose an ode annually on the king's birth-day, and the new year.— Eulogize (yu' lo jiz), to commend; to praise highly.- Flo' ral, pertaining to flowers. Stån' za, several lines in a poem or hymn, having a certain arrangement that is repeated again and again.-' In flu ên' za, a catarrh, or cold in the head, which has become epidemic, or diffused among the people. Vêr' nal, belonging to the spring.

A CHALLENGE TO AMERICA

7. For me, I find, when eastern winds are high,
A frigid, not a genial inspiration;'

Nor can, like Iron-Chested Chubb,' defy
An inflammation.

8. Smitten by breezes from the land of plague,
To me all vernal luxuries are fables:

Oh! where's the Spring in a rheumatic leg,
Stiff as a table's?

9. I limp in agony-I wheeze and cough;

And quake with Ague, that great Agitator;
Nor dream, before July, of leaving off
My Respirator.3

10. What wonder if in May itself I lack

A peg for laudatory' verse to hang on?

Spring, mild and gentle !-yes, a Spring-heel'd Jack
To those he sprang on.

11. In short, whatever panegyrics3 lie

In fulsome odes too many to be cited,
The tenderness of Spring is all my eye,

And that is blighted!

245

THOMAS HOOD.

L

104. A CHALLENGE TO AMERICA.'

ET us quarrel, American kinsmen. Let us plunge into wai. We have been friends too long. We have too highly promoted each other's wealth and prosperity. We are too plethoric," we want depletion; to which end let us cut one another's throats.

[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]

1In spi rå' tion, act of drawing in the breath; a highly exciting influence. —2 Chůbb, a maker of locks and chests supposed to be fire-proof.— 'Res pi rà' tor, an instrument covering the mouth with net-work, to keep out the cold air.- Lâud' a to ry, containing praise; tending to praise.— Panegyrics (pan e jir'iks), formal praises.—o Fål' some, gross; nauseous; disgusting. This Lesson is a striking instance of what rhetoricians call Irony, in which the meaning is exactly the reverse of what the words express, and the style of reading it is very peculiar : sce the Circumflex, pages 27 and 34.— Pleth' o ric, tall, as of blood; fleshy; fat. De plè' tion, act of emptying; bleeding or blood-letting.

2. Let us sink, burn, kill, and destroy-with mutual energy sink each other's shipping, burn each other's arsenals,' destroy each other's property at large. We will bombard your towns, and you shall bombard ours-if you can. Let us ruin each other's commerce as much as possible, and that will be a considerable some.

3. Let our banks break while we smite and slay one another; let our commercial houses smash right and left in the United States and the United Kingdom. Let us maim and mutilate3 one another; let us make of each other miserable objects, cripples, halt, and blind, adapted for the town's end, to beg during life.

4. Come, let us render the wives of each other widows, and the mothers childless, and cause them to weep rivers of tears, amounting to an important quantity of "water privilege."

5. The bowl of wrath, the devil's punch-bowl, filled high, filled high as possible, share we with one another. This, with shot and bayonets, will be good in your insides and in my inside -in the insides of all of us brethren.

6. Oh, how good it is—oh, how pleasant it is, for brethren to engage in interne'cine strife! What a glorious spectacle we Christian Anglo-Saxons, engaged in the work of mutual destruction-in the reciprocation' of savage outrages-shall present to the despots and the fiends!

7. How many dollars will you spend? How many pounds sterling shall we? How much capital we shall sink on either side-on land as well as in the sea! How much we shall have to show for it in corpses and wooden legs!-never ask what other return we may expect for the investment.

8. So, then, Aměrican kinsmen, let us fight; let us murder

'Ar' se nals, places where warlike implements are made or kept; storehouses for guns, powder, shot, etc.—2 Bombard (bum bård'), attack with bombs, or large iron shells filled with powder, thrown from mortars or cannon.-3 Mu' ti låte, to cut off, as a limb.- Halt, lame.- Water privilege, the advantage of a water-fall in streams sufficient to raise water for driving water-wheels. In ter no' cine, mutually destroying; deadly. Re cip ro ca' tion, interchange; giving and receiving in return. In vest' ment, property or money placed at interest, or in such a position that it will increase.

8

« AnteriorContinuar »