1 How He, who bore in Heaven the second name, Saw in the sun a mighty angel stand; And heard great Bab'lon's doom pronounced by Then kneeling down, to Heaven's Eternal King, No more to sigh, or shed the bitter tear; Together hymning their Creator's praise, In such society, yet still more dear; While circling time moves round in an eternal sphere. But, haply, in some cottage far apart, May hear, well pleas'd, the language of the soul; Then homeward all take off their several way: And proffer up to Heaven the warm request And decks the lily fair in flowery pride, Would, in the way His wisdom sees the best, For them and for their little ones provide ; But chiefly, in their hearts with grace divine preside. From scenes like these old Scotia's grandeur springs, What is a lordling's pomp?-a cumbrous load, O Scotia! my dear, my native soil! For whom my warmest wish to Heaven is sent! Long may thy hardy sons of rustic toil Be blest with health, and peace, and sweet content! And O! may Heaven their simple lives prevent From luxury's contagion, weak and vile! Then, howe'er crowns and coronets be rent, A virtuous populace may rise the while, And stand a wall of fire around their much-lov'd Isle. O Thou! who pour'd the patriotic tide That stream'd through Wallace's undaunted heart; Who dared to nobly stem tyrannic pride, Or nobly die, the second glorious part, (The patriot's God peculiarly Thou art, His friend, inspirer, guardian, and reward!) O never, never, Scotia's realm desert, But still the patriot, and the patriot bard, In bright succession raise, her ornament and guard. AN OLD-TIME DISTRICT SCHOOL. JAMES PARTON. A district school- and what was a district school eighty years ago? It concerns us to know what manner of place it was, and what was its routine of exercises. The schoolhouse stood in an open place, formed by the crossing of roads. It was very small and of one story; contained one apartment, had two windows on each side, a small door in the gable end that faced the road, and a low doorstep before it. It was the thing called house in its simplest form. Within and without, it was destitute of anything ornamental. The sun in summer, the winds in winter, had their will of it; there was nothing to avert the fury of either. It was built for an average of thirty pupils, but it frequently contained fifty; and then the little school-room was a compact mass of young humanity. The teacher had to dispense with his table, and was lucky if he could find room for his chair. The side of the apartment opposite the door was occupied chiefly by a vast fireplace, four or five feet wide, where a carman's load of wood could burn in one prodigious fire. Along the sides of the room was a low, slanting shelf, which served for a desk to those who wrote, and against the sharp edge of which the elder pupils leaned when they were not writing. The seats were made of "slabs," inverted, supported on sticks, and without backs. The elder pupils sat along the sides of the room-the girls on one side, the boys on the other. The youngest pupils sat nearest the fire, where they were as much too warm as those who sat near the door were too cold. In a school of forty pupils there would be a dozen who were grown up, marriageable young men and women. Not infrequently married men, and occasionally married women, attended school in the winter. Among the younger pupils there were usually a dozen who could not read, and half as many who did not know the alphabet. The teacher was, perhaps, one of the farmer's sons of the district, who knew a little more than his elder pupils, and only a little, or he was a student who was working his way through college. His wages were those of a farm laborer- ten or twelve dollars a month and his board. He boarded "round," that is he lived a few days at each of the houses of the district, stopping longest at the most agreeable place. The grand qualification of a teacher was the ability "to do" any sum in the arithmetic. To know arithmetic was to be a learned man. Generally the teacher was very young, sometimes not more than sixteen years old. a part' ment, a room in a building. a vert', to turn aside. com pact', dense; close together. des' ti tute, completely lacking. dis pense', do without. ga' ble, where the two sides of a roof form a triangle. hu man' i ty, human life. or' na men' tal, adorning. qual' i fi ca' tion, that which fits for a duty or work. slab, plank with bark on one side. ROBERT BURNS. FITZ-GREENE HALLECK. I've stood beside the cottage bed Where the bard-peasant first drew breath; A straw-thatched roof above his head, A straw-wrought couch beneath. And I have stood beside the pile, His monument that tells to Heaven Bid thy thoughts hover o'er that spot, The pride that lifted Burns from earth, The rich, the brave, the strong: And if despondency weigh down There have been loftier themes than his, And longer scrolls, and louder lyres, And lays lit up with Poesy's Purer and holier fires: |