The blue, the fresh, the ever free!
Without a mark, without a bound,

It runneth the earth's wide regions round;
It plays with the clouds; it mocks the skies;
Or like a cradled creature lies.

I'm on the sea! I'm on the sea!

I am where I would ever be;

With the blue above, and the blue below,
And silence wheresoe'er I go;

If a storm should come and awake the deep,
What matter? I shall ride and sleep.

I love, oh, how I love, to ride
On the fierce, foaming, bursting tide,
When every mad wave drowns the moon,
Or whistles aloft his tempest tune,
And tells how goeth the world below,
And why the sou'west blasts do blow!

32

EVERYDAY CLASSICS

I never was on the dull, tame shore,
But I loved the great sea more and more,
And backward flew to her billowy breast,
Like a bird that seeketh its mother's nest;
And a mother she was and is to me;

5

For I was born on the open sea!

The waves were white, and red the morn,
In the noisy hour when I was born;

And the whale it whistled, the porpoise rolled,
10 And the dolphins bared their backs of gold;
And never was heard such an outcry wild
As welcomed to life the ocean-child!

15

I've lived since then, in calm and strife,
Full fifty summers a sailor's life,

With wealth to spend, and a power to range,
But never have sought, nor sighed for change;
And Death, whenever he comes to me,

Shall come on the wide, unbounded sea!

BARRY CORNWALL.

ore,

lled,

;

e;

Since the beginning of English literature, more than a thousand years ago, there have been many poems about the joy of travel, and the fresh, free life of the sea. member that the English live on an island, and therefore Remust use the sea.

1. In the first stanza, what is meant by the third and fourth lines? 2. When does the sea play with the clouds? 3. When does it "lie like a cradled creature"? 4. In the second stanza, what is "the blue above, and the blue below"? 5. When is there silence on the sea? 6. In the third stanza, explain the third line. 7. What is the "tempest tune"? 8. In the fourth stanza, make the second line begin with "But that," and then tell what the first two lines mean. 9. Go to the dictionary and find out what porpoises and dolphins are. 10. Who is the "ocean-child"? Why? 11. Find lines that speak of the noise of the ocean. 12. Find lines that speak of its motion. 13. Where does the sailor show that he has no fear of the ocean? 14. Have you seen the ocean? Or a picture of it? If so, what do you remember about it?

5

SINDBAD'S SECOND VOYAGE

These stories of Sindbad are taken from The Arabian Nights Entertainment, a collection of strange stories brought inte Europe from the East. You may have read this or other wOLderful tales from this book.

I

I designed, after the first voyage, to spend the rest of my days at Bagdad. But I soon grew weary of an idle life, and put to sea a second time, with merchants of known honesty.

We embarked on a good ship, and, after commending ourselves to God, set sail. We traded from island to island, and exchanged commodities with great profit. One day we landed on an island covered with several sorts of fruit trees, 10 but we could see neither man nor animal. We walked in the meadows, along the streams that watered them. While some of the company amused themselves with gathering flowers and others fruits, I took my wine and provisions, 15 and sat down near a stream between high trees which formed a thick shade. I made a good

meal, and afterwards fell asleep. I cannot tell how long I slept, but when I awoke the ship

was gone.

In this sad condition, I was ready to die with grief. I cried out in agony, beat my head and 5 breast, and threw myself upon the ground, where I lay some time in despair. I upbraided myself a hundred times for not being content with the profits of my first voyage, which might have sufficed me all my life. But all this was in vain, 10 and my repentance came too late. At last I resigned myself to the will of God. Not knowing what to do, I climbed up to the top of a lofty tree, from which I looked about on all sides to sce if I could discover anything that could give me 15 hope. When I gazed toward the sea I could see nothing but sky and water; but looking over the land I beheld something white; and coming down, I took what provision I had left, and went towards it, the distance being so great that I 20 could not distinguish what it was.

As I approached, I thought it to be a white dome of a prodigious height and extent; and