124 SHELDON'S FIFTH READER. 22. The warning of the prudent cockswain was promptly obeyed, and the boat cautiously drew off to a distance, leaving to the animal a clear space, while under its dying agonies. From a state of perfect rest, the terrible monster threw its tail on high, as when in sport, but its blows were trebled in rapidity and violence, till all was hid from view by a pyramid of foam, that was deeply dyed with blood. 23. The roarings of the whale were like the bellowings of a herd of bulls, and, to one who was ignorant of the fact, it would have appeared as if a thousand monsters were engaged in deadly combat behind the bloody mist that obstructed the view. 24. Gradually these effects subsided, and when the discolored water again settled down to the long and regular swell of the ocean, the whale was seen exhausted and yielding passively to its fate. As life departed, the enormous black mass rolled to one side, and when the white and glistening skin of the belly became apparent, the seamen well knew that their victory was achieved. J. Fenimore Cooper. 3. The ice was here, the ice was there, It cracked and growled, and roared and howled 4. At length did cross an albatross, As if it had been a Christian soul, 5. It ate the food it ne'er had eat, 6. And a good south wind sprung up behind; And every day, for food or play, Came to the mariner's hollo! Whiles, all the night, through fog-smoke white, Glimmered the white moonshine. SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE. XXXV. PRIMITIVE LIFE IN NEW YORK. IN N those good old days of simplicity and sunshine, a passion for cleanliness was the leading principle in domestic economy, and the universal test of an able housewife. The front door was never opened, except for marriages, funerals, and on New-Year's Day, the festival of St Nich on some such crout ccension. It was orna. mented with a gorgeous brass knocker, which was curiously wrought, sometimes in the device of a dog, and sometimes in that of a lion's head, and daily burnished with such religious zeal, that it was often worn out by the very precautions taken for its preservation. 2. The whole house was constantly in a state of inundation, under the discipline of mops and brooms and scrubbing brushes; and the good housewives of those days were a kind of amphibious animal, delighting exceedingly to be dabbling in water, insomuch that an historian of the day gravely tells us that many of his townswomen grew to have webbed fingers, "like unto a duck.” 3. The grand parlor was the sanctum sanctorum, where the passion for cleaning was indulged without control. No one was permitted to enter this sacred apartment, except the mistress and her confidential maid, who visited it once a week for the purpose of giving it a thorough cleaning. On these occasions, they always took the precaution of leaving their shoes at the door, and entering, devoutly, in their stocking-feet. After scrubbing the floor, sprinkling it with fine white sand, which was curiously stroked with a broom into angles and curves and rhomboids, after washing the windows, rubbing and polishing the furniture, and putting a new branch of evergreens in the fire-place, the windows were again closed to keep out the flies, and the room was kept carefully locked, until the revolution of time brought round the weekly cleaning day. 4. As to the family, they always entered in at the gate, and generally lived in the kitchen. To have seen a numerous household assembled round the fire, one would have imagined that he was transported to those happy days of primeval simplicity which float before our imaginations like golden visions. 5. The fire-places were of a truly patriarchal magni The 6. Here the old burgher would sit in perfect silence, puffing his pipe, looking in the fire, with half-shut eyes, and thinking of nothing, for hours together; the good wife, on the opposite side, would employ herself diligently in spinning yarn, or knitting stockings. young folks would crowd around the hearth, listening, with breathless attention, to some old crone of a negro, who was the oracle of the family, and who, perched like a raven in a corner of the chimney, would croak forth, for a long winter afternoon, a string of incredible stories about New England witches, grisly ghosts, horses without heads, hair-breadth escapes, and bloody encounters among Indians. 7. In these happy days, fashionable parties were generally confined to the higher classes, or noblesse; that is to say, such as kept their own cows, and drove their own wagons. The company usually assembled at three o'clock, and went away about six, unless it was in winter-time, when the fashionable hours were a little earlier, that the ladies might reach home before dark. 8. The tea-table was crowned with a huge earthen dish, well stored with slices of fat pork, fried brown, cut up into morsels, and swimming in gravy. The company, seated round the genial board, evinced their dexterity in launching their forks at the fattest pieces in this mighty dish,in much the same manner that sailors harpoon porpoises at sea, or our Indians spear salmon in the lakes. 9. Sometimes, the table was graced with immense apple-pies, or saucers full of preserved peaches and pears; but it was always sure to boast an enormous dish of balls of sweetened dough, fried in hog's fat, and called doughnuts, or olykoeks, — a delicious kind of cake, at present little known in this city, except in genuine Dutch families. 10. The tea was served out of a majestic delft tea-pot, ornamented with paintings of fat little Dutch shepherds and shepherdesses, tending pigs, -with boats sailing in the air, and houses built in the clouds, and sundry other ingenious Dutch fancies. The beaux distinguished themselves by their adroitness in replenishing this pot from a huge copper tea-kettle. 11. To sweeten the beverage, a lump of sugar was laid beside each cup, and the company alternately nibbled and sipped with great decorum, until an improvement was |