hand slipped from the rope, or the holders of it for a moment lost their firm foothold; then the very thought of it makes one giddy standing on firm ground! No wonder that the young hero, who was about to be suspended over it, looked into that fearful gulf, black with its immeasurable depth, and closed his eyes with horror.

3. Boldly and quietly the men climbed up the precipice, while the courageous lad wrung the necks of the young eagles and cast them into the depth below. The eagle saw this, and dashing towards the eyry, struggled with her strong wings to hurl the murderer of her young down the abyss, and only retreated after a battle that tried the young shepherd's strength to the utmost.

4. Then, for one moment, the thought arose in that brave heart that he should attempt to return alone by the way he had come up; but he thrust it from him instantly. "If the child must die," cried he, “then I will die with it." And he looked up into the clear blue above him with this resolve, and prayed for a higher aid than that of man.

5. The eagle darted down with fresh fury. The shouts of the shepherds warned Joseph, and he had just time to hide the babe in the hollow of the eyry, when the mighty bird made such an onslaught on him that he lost his balance, and fell with nearly half his body over the edge of the precipice.

6. But as the eagle dashed down again in blind rage, the terrible shock of her wings threw Joseph back with such force that he was hurled over the nest into the cavity between it and the rocks. He soon recovered himself, which was most providential, for, if the stun had lasted any time, the bird would have seized the child and carried it off.

7. The eagle, encouraged by this temporary advantage, renewed her attacks with impetuous fury. Several times already she had fixed her talons on the outer edge of the nest, and tried to use her beak and the muscular force of her wings on the destroyer of her young. The youth now searched the nest more closely; and to his great joy found in it a short but heavy piece of bough!

8. As his staff had proved to be too long to use with advantage, he regarded the finding of the stick as peculiarly fortunate. At this moment the furious bird again took up a firm position on the outer edge of the nest. A desperate struggle then ensued, in which Joseph used the heavy cudgel with telling effect. A final blow leveled at the head of his foe, fell so true that the whole body of the huge bird trembled; her wings sank helplessly down; her head drooped back, and, loosening her grasp, she fell into the abyss beneath, where the bones of her numerous victims were bleaching.

9. An awful dread now filled the hearts of the men above the eyry for the exhausted victor who sat with the child—a strange intruder—in the nest. The eagle which the youth had slain was the smaller of a pair, the female. Each moment the male, much the stronger bird, might return to the nest, and with fresh and mightier powers renew the struggle. Then to draw them up with the rope would be as impossible as when the female eagle was fighting him.

10. But the rope was let down, and Joseph putting his feet, protected by the climbing-irons, into the wide loop fixed at the end, and grasping the child with his left hand, shouted that all was ready. They swung out over the precipice, and the fearful ascent began. The rope sustained the strain, and the strong arms and true hearts above never failed. They were drawn up in

safety; and the scene that ensued when the unharmed infant was restored to the arms of its mother, was indescribably touching.

11. You may imagine their feelings, when in a short time they beheld a monstrous eagle flying over the mountain tops, and bearing a young chamois in his claws. After descending in circles, he darted down on the nest, and when he found it empty, he flew around it several times, then soared high up into the sky, and

was seen no more.

LESSON XXXIII.

THE CROOKED FOOT-PATH.

Pěn'çilled, marked with a fine | Tru'ant, loitering; idle.

line, as if with a pencil. Way'ward, willful; liking one's

own way.

Ga'bled, having gables.

Sin'u ous, winding; crooked.

Dēvi oŭs, out of a straight line; varying from a straight course.

H, here it is! the sliding rail

That marks the old remembered spot

The gap that struck our schoolboy trail-
The crooked path across the lot.

2. It left the road by school and church,

A pencilled shadow, nothing more,
That parted from the silver birch

And ended at the farm-house door.

3. No line or compass traced its plan;
With frequent bends to left or right,
In aimless, wayward curves it ran,
But always kept the porch in sight.

4. The gabled porch, with woodbine green,
The broken millstone at the sill-

Though many a rood might stretch between,
The truant child could see them still.

5. No rocks across the pathway lie—
No fallen trunk is o'er it thrown-
And yet it winds, we know not why,
And turns, as if for tree or stone.

6. Perhaps some lover trod the way

With shaking knees and leaping heart-
And so it often runs astray

With sinuous sweep or sudden start.

7. Or one, perchance, with clouded brain
From some unholy banquet reeled-
And since, our devious steps maintain
His track across the trodden field.

8. Nay, deem not thus-no earthborn will
Could ever trace a faultless line;
Our truest steps are human still—

To walk unswerving were divine!

9. Truants from love, we dream of wrath-
O, rather let us trust the more!
Through all the wanderings of the path,
We still can see our Father's door!

O. W. HOLMES.

LESSON XXXIV.

THE MARCH THROUGH TROPIC WOODS.

Li'ehens (or lich ens), flow- | Căn'o py, a covering over a

erless plants that hang to rocks
and trees.

Lithe, pliant, limber.
Bam boo', a hollow, jointed
plant that grows in the trop-
ics, from the stalks of which
water-pipes, canes, pipe-stems
and very many other articles
are made.

In ́ter twined', twisted together.

throne or a bed; any covering over the head.

Re versed', turned side for side,

OW wound we through the solid wood,

With all its broad boughs hung in green,
And lichen-mosses trailed between!
How waked the spotted beasts of prey,
Deep sleeping from the face of day,
And dashed them like a tropic flood
Down some defile and denser wood!

2. And snakes, long, lithe and beautiful
As green and graceful-bough'd bamboo,
Did twist and twine them through and through
The boughs that hung red-fruited full.

One, monster-sized, above me hung,
Close eyed me with his bright pink eyes,
Then raised his folds, and swayed and swung,
And licked like lightning his red tongue;
Then oped his wide mouth with surprise :
He writhed and curved, and raised and lowered
His folds, like liftings of the tide,

And sank so low I touched his side,

As I rode by, with my broad sword.