A tear stood in his bright blue eye,
But still he answered, with a sigh,
Excelsior!

6." Beware the pine-tree's withered branch!
Beware the awful avalanche!"

This was the peasant's last Good-night :
A voice replied, far up the height,
Excelsior!

7. At break of day, as heavenward
The pious monks of Saint Bernard
Uttered the oft-repeated prayer,
A voice cried through the startled air,
Excelsior!

8. A traveller, by the faithful hound,

Half-buried in the snow was found,
Still grasping in his hand of ice
That banner with the strange device,
Excelsior!

9. There in the twilight cold and gray,
Lifeless, but beautiful, he lay;

And from the sky, serene and far,
A voice fell, like a falling star-

1 Al-pine, belonging to the Alps; a
mountain village.-'Mid, amid.
De-vice', emblem or motto.
Ex-cel-si-or, a Latin word meaning
higher.

2 Fal-chion, a curved sword.

Clar-i-on, clear-sounding trumpet. 3 Spec-tral gla-ci-ers, masses of ice having a weird and ghost-like appearance.

4 Pass, road over the mountain.

Low-ers, threatens; darkens.

5 A tear stood, etc. The tear and the
sigh showed that a struggle was go-
ing on in the youth's mind. He
would like to stay for rest and com-
fort, but to do so would be to give
up that which he had determined
to do; so he keeps on.

6 Be-ware', look out for.
Av-a-lanche, mass of snow sliding
down a mountain-side, and carry-
ing destruction with it.

Summary:-Under the figure of a young man attempting to cross a mountain on a dark and stormy night, in spite of the warning of old age, the drawings of love, and the caution of those in the prime of life, we are shown how youth dares every danger, disregards every warning, and even sacrifices home comforts and personal happiness, to attain some coveted object or position.

Exercises: 1. Parse and analyze: Youth dares every danger.

2. Change into Nouns-Alpine, happy, warm, deep, weary, pious, faithful. 3. Make Sentences containing-ascent, assent; assistance, assistants. 4. What is Perseverance? How is it shown? Of what value is it? Tell any story you have read illustrating perseverance.

1. The home of the chamois is in the heart of Europe, among the lofty ranges of the Alps. This beautiful mountain-antelope is about the size of a goat. When full-grown it weighs from sixty to

eighty pounds. Its colour changes with the season. In summer it is brown; in winter it is nearly all jet black, except on the forehead and the breast, where it is of a tawny colour. Its horns are about seven inches in length. They are hooked backwards.

2. Chamois-hunters speak of the marvellously keen sight and scent of this animal. A chamois darting down a mountain will suddenly stop some yards from where recent human foot-prints have been made in the snow; and turning away in alarm, the animal will rush off immediately in the opposite direction. A rolling stone or a spoken word at once attracts its attention, and it will look and listen an incredibly long time to discover whence the sound has come. The hunter must lie still and close indeed in order to escape their observation.

3. The eyes of the whole herd are fixed on a spot with a long, steady stare; and as the hunter watches them from afar, they almost look like fragments of rock, so motionless are they. He perhaps begins to hope that they have found no cause for alarm, when a sharp whistle from one of the herd tells him that they have fathomed the mystery, and away they bound to the precipitous rocks overhead.

4. The way in which the chamois leaps from rock to rock is most wonderful. Sometimes he makes a tremendous bound upon a wall of rock, and striking it with his hind hoofs, with a renewed spring he bounds to a higher pinnacle, and there perhaps finds firm footing on a patch no larger than could be covered by a man's hands.

5. Should he feel himself insecure even there,

and should there be at the other side of his giddy pedestal nothing but a slope of ice stretching hundreds of feet down, he takes a great leap, and alighting on his four sharp hoofs, he goes to the bottom of the ice-slope with the speed of an arrow.

6. The food of the chamois consists of herbs which grow on the mountains. When, however, the winter sets in so fiercely that every green thing on the exposed uplands perishes, the chamois will shift its quarters to the woods near the base of the mountains, and there subsist on leaves and grass.

7. The young of the chamois are born in May. The doe has sometimes two kids, but frequently only one, at a birth. It is only about November that the full-grown chamois roam at large; during the remainder of the year, they keep close in the most secluded and inaccessible parts of the mountains.

Questions:-1. Where is the home of the chamois?

pin-na-cle
pre-cip-i-tous
se-clüd-ed

Describe the chamois.

2. What shows the keenness of its scent? 3. What tells the hunter that he has been discovered? 4, 5. Describe the wonderful leaps taken by the chamois ? 6. What is the food of the chamois ? Where does it go when the winter is severe? 7. When are the young of the chamois born? When do the full-grown chamois roam at large? Where are they the rest of the year?

Cham-ois (sham'-oy).

Notes and Meanings.

1 Alps, chief mountains in Europe.
An-te-lope, kind of deer.
Taw-ny, yellowish brown.

2 Mar-vel-lous-ly, wonderfully.
In-cred-i-bly, not to be believed.
Their ob-ser-va-tion, notice.

3 Fath-omed, found out.

Pre-cip-i-tous, very steep.

4 Pin-na-cle, sharp point, generally a mountain peak.

5 Ped-es-tal, the stand or base on which a statue is placed.

6 Up-lands, high lands.

Base, foot; bottom.
Sub-sist', live.

Mys-ter-y, something very difficult 7 Se-cluded, hidden; out of the way.

to understand.

In-ac-ces-si-ble, not to be reached.