LESSON XXX.

THE DREAM OF EUGENE ARAM.

PART SECOND.

Slugʻgish, slow; having little | A ghäsť, amazed; frightened.

motion.

Răcked, tormented; tortured.

Côrse, the dead body of a human Ty răn'nie, cruel; severe.

being.

Ûr'chins, children.

Grim, frightful; horrible.

Chĕr'u bim, angels.

66

A

Faith'less, serving to disap

point or deceive; untrue.

Ġyves, shackles; fetters.

ND now, from forth the frowning sky,
From the heaven's topmost height,

I heard a voice-the awful voice

Of the blood-avenging sprite;--
Thou guilty man! take up thy dead
And hide it from my sight!'

2. "I took the dreary body up,
And cast it in a stream,--
A sluggish water, black as ink,
The depth was so extreme:-
My gentle boy, remember this
Is nothing but a dream!

3. "Down went the corse with a hollow plunge,
And vanished in the pool;

Anon I cleansed my bloody hands,

And washed my forehead cool,
And sat among the urchins young,
That evening, in the school.

4. "O, Heaven! to think of their white souls, And mine so black and grim!

I could not share in childish prayer,

Nor join in evening hymn:

Like a devil of the pit I seemed,
'Mid holy cherubim!

5. "And Peace went with them, one and all,
And each calm pillow spread;
But Guilt was my grim chamberlain
That lighted me to bed;

And drew my midnight curtains round,

With fingers bloody red!

6. "All night I lay in agony,
In anguish dark and deep;

My fevered eyes I dared not close,
But stared aghast at Sleep:
For Sin had rendered unto her
The keys of hell to keep!

7. "All night I lay in agony

From weary chime to chime,
With one besetting horrid hint,
That racked me all the time--
A mighty yearning, like the first
Fierce impulse unto crime!

8. "One stern tyrannic thought, that made All other thoughts its slave; Stronger and stronger every pulse

Did that temptation crave,

Still urging me to go and see

The dead man in his grave!

9. Heavily I rose up, as soon
As light was in the sky,

And sought the black accursed pool
With a wild misgiving eye;

And I saw the Dead in the river bed,
For the faithless stream was dry.

10. "Merrily rose the lark, and shook
The dew-drop from its wing;
But I never marked its morning flight,
I never heard it sing:
For I was stooping once again
Under the horrid thing.

11. "With breathless speed, like a soul in chase, I took him up and ran;-There was no time to dig a grave

Before the day began:

In a lonesome wood, with heaps of leaves,

I hid the murdered man!

12. And all that day I read in school,
But my thought was otherwhere;

As soon as the mid-day task was done,
In secret I was there:

And a mighty wind had swept the leaves,
And still the corse was bare!

13. "Then down I cast me on my face,
And first began to weep,

For I knew my secret then was one
That earth refused to keep:

Or land or sea, though he should be
Ten thousand fathoms deep.

14. "So wills the fierce avenging sprite,
Till blood for blood atones!

Ay, though he's buried in a cave,
And trodden down with stones,
And years have rotted off his flesh--
The world shall see his bones!

15. "O, God! that horrid, horrid dream Besets me now awake!

Again, again, with dizzy brain,

The human life I take;

And my red right hand grows raging hot
Like Cranmer's at the stake.

16. "And still no peace for the restless clay
Will wave or mould allow;

The horrid thing pursues my soul,-
It stands before me now!"

The fearful boy looked up, and saw
Huge drops upon his brow.

17. That very night, while gentle sleep
The urchin eyelids kissed,

Two stern-faced men set out from Lynn,
Through the cold and heavy mist:
And Eugene Aram walked between
With gyves upon his wrist.

THOMAS HOOD.

IN woman mounted vira a firm step the rocky path up one of Jura Alps, in Switzerland. She was going to mow some of the coarser grass and roots, which grow on the mountains, as fodder for her goats during the winter. On her left arm she carried a babe, her first-born child, whose age was only reckoned by weeks, and in her right hand she had a scythe.

N September, 1855, a young woman mounted with

2. The gaze of the young mother was not fixed on the path, for she knew almost every stone, but on her child, and she did not perceive the dark spot high in the air above her, which now stood still, and then moved round in a narrow circle. The practiced eye of an inhabitant of the Alps would at once have known that this spot was an eagle or a vulture.

3. But the mother walked on not suspicious of danger, only occupied with her child, until she reached a little nook where grew some bright green grass. Here, binding the warm shawl tighter round her infant, she