Author.-George Gordon, Lord Byron (1788-1824) was born in London and educated at Harrow and Cambridge. His chief longer poems are Childe Harold (through which "I awoke one morning and found myselffamous " ), The Giaour (jowr), The Corsair, Lara, The Siege of Corinth, Don Juan, and The Prisoner of Chillon. He died of fever in Greece, whither he had gone to help the Greek insurrectionists.
General.- " Drachenfels " is the " dragon cliff " on the Rhine. Legends of dragons, of the Lorelei, the were-wolf, the wild hunter, and of other marvels abound in that part of the world. Why have we no castles along our Australian rivers? The verses here given are from "Childe Harold," but Byron is thinking of his own half-sister Augusta, whom he loved dearly. Close your eyes and see the pictures-the foaming river, cliffs, cities, towers, blue-eyed and flaxen-haired peasant girls, trees, flowers, vineyards. Yet something is wanting. Write a little essay on mateship.
Lesson 72
SINDBAD MEETS THE OLD MAN OF THE SEA
When I was a little advanced into the island, I saw an old man, who appeared very weak and infirm. He was sitting on the bank of a stream, and at first I took him to be one who had been shipwrecked like myself. I went towards him, and saluted him; but he only slightly bowed his head. I asked him why he sat so still; but, instead of answering me, he made a sign that I should take him upon my back, and carry him over the brook.
I believed him really to stand in need of my help, took him upon my back, and, having carried him over, bade him get down, and for that end stooped, that he might get off with ease; but, instead of doing so (which I laugh at every time I think of it), the old man, who to me appeared quite feeble, threw his legs nimbly about my neck. He sat astride my shoulders, and held my throat so tight that I thought he would have strangled me, and I fainted away.
Notwithstanding my fainting, the ill-natured old fellow still kept his seat upon my neck. When I had recovered my breath, he thrust one of his feet against my side, and struck me so rudely with the other that he forced me toFrom Sindbad the Sailor
"He sat astride my shoulders. "
rise up against my will. When I had arisen, he made me carry him under the trees, and forced me now and then to stop, that he might gather and eat fruit. He did not leave his seat all day; and, when I lay down to rest at night, he laid himself down with me, holding still fast about my neck. Every morning, he pinched me to make me awake, and afterwards obliged me to get up and walk, and spurred me with his feet.
One day, I found several dry calabashes that had fallen from a tree. I took a large one, and, after cleaning it, pressed into itsome juice of grapes, which abounded in the island. Havingfilled the calabash, I put it by in a convenient place, and, going thither again some days after, I tasted it, and found the liquor so good that it gave me new vigour, and so raised my spirits that I began to sing and dance as I carried my burden.
The old man, perceiving the effect which this had upon me, and that I carried him with more ease than before, made me a sign to give him some of it. I handed him the calabash, and, the liquor pleasing his palate, he drank it off. There being a considerable quantity of it, he soon began to sing, and to move about from side to side in his seat upon my shoulders, and, by degrees, to loosen his legs from about me. Finding that he did not press me as before, I threw him upon the ground, where he lay without motion. I was extremely glad to be thus freed from this troublesome fellow.
From The Arabian Nights" Entertainments
Author.-For The Arabian Nights" Entertainments see page 231.
General.-Some people identify the Old Man of the Sea with Debt, some with one or other of various bad habits that have to be resolutely slain before a person gets rid of them. The story, however, is interesting enough in itself.
Lesson 73
THANKFULNESS
Some hae meat and canna eat,
And some would eat that want it; But we hae meat, and we can eatSae let the Lord be thankit.
Burns
Lesson 74
FORTY YEARS ON
Forty years on, when afar and asunder, Parted are those who are singing to-day,When you look back and forgetfully wonder
What you were like in your work and your play, Then it may be there will often come o"er youGlimpses of notes like the catch of a song;
Visions of boyhood shall float them before you,Echoes of dreamland shall bear them along.
Follow up! Follow up !
Till the field ring again and again
With the tramp of the twenty-two men- Follow up ! Follow up!
Routs and discomfiture, rushes and rallies,
Bases attempted and rescued and won, Strife without anger, and art without malice-How will it seem to you forty years on? Then, you will say, not a feverish minuteStrained the weak heart and the wavering knee Never the battle raged hottest, but in itNeither the last nor the faintest were we.
Follow up! etc.
Oh, the great days in the distance enchanted,Days of fresh air in the rain and the sun; How we rejoiced as we struggled and panted,Hardly believable, forty years on!
How we discoursed of them, one with another Auguring triumph, or balancing fate,Loved the ally with the heart of a brother, Hated the foe with a playing at hate !
Follow up! etc.
Forty years on, growing older and older, Shorter in wind, as in memory long,Feeble of foot, and rheumatic of shoulder,
What will it help you that once you were strong? God gives us bases to guard or beleaguer,Games to play out, whether earnest or fun, Fights for the fearless, and goals for the eager,Twenty and thirty and forty years on !
Follow up ! etc.
E. E. Bowen
Author.-E. E. Bowen, a master at Harrow School (Harrow-on-the-Hill, in Middlesex, England), wrote this as a school song. It is a very old and famous school which had as pupils, in the time of each, Colonel Burnaby (who rode to Khiva), Lord Byron, Cardinal Manning, Sheridan the drama- tist, Theodore Hook, Admiral Rodney, and many other notable men.
