The sword!. a name of dread; yet when The war-drums roll, the trumpets sound, Whenever, for the truth and right, Or on some sterile plain, and stern, AN'VIL. An iron block on which | 5 ROAD'STEAD. A place of anchorage * LEONIDAS. A king of Sparta who defended the pass of Thermopyla with three hundred Spartans against the Persian army under Xerxes, and gained immortal glory by the heroic death of himself and his little band. † MARSTON MOOR. A large plain about eight miles from York, England, where the parliamentary forces gained a decisive victory over the royalists, in 1644. BANNOCKBURN. A village in Scotland famous for a battle in which the Scots under Robert Bruce signally defeated the English army under Edward II., in 1314. § TYROL. An Austrian province north of Italy. [Mrs. Harriet Beecher Stowe, the world-renowned author of Uncle Tom s Cabin, is the daughter of the Rev. Lyman Beecher, D. D., and wife of Professor Calvin E. Stowe, of the Theological Seminary at Andover, Massachusetts. The following extract is from the May-Flower, a collection of sketches and narratives, marked by the same combination of humor and pathos which is so conspicuous in her novel.] 1. WERE any of you born in New England, in the good old catechising', church-going, school-going, orderly times? If so, you may have seen my uncle Abel; the most perpendicular, rectangular 2, upright, downright good man that ever labored six days and rested on the seventh. 2. You remember his hard, weather-beaten countenance, where every line seemed drawn with "a pen of iron and the point of a diamond;" his considerate gray eyes, that moved over objects as if it were not best to be in a hurry about seeing; the circumspect' opening and shutting of the mouth; his downsitting and uprising, all performed with deliberate forethought; in short, the whole ordering of his life and conversation, which was, after a military fashion, "to the right about face-forward, march." 3. Now, if you supposed, from all this sternness of exterior, that this good man had nothing kindly within, you were much mistaken. You often find the greenest grass under a snow-drift; and though my uncle's mind was not exactly of the flower-garden kind, still there was an abun dance of wholesome and kindly vegetation there. 4. It is true he seldom laughed, and never joked himself; but no man had a more serious and weighty conviction of what a joke was in another; and when a witticism1 was uttered in his presence, you might see his face relax into an expression of solemn satisfaction, and he would took at the author with a sort of quiet wonder, as if it were past his comprehension how such a thing could ever come into a man's head. 5. Uncle Abel, too, had some relish for the fine arts 5; in proof of which, I might adduce the pleasure with which he gazed at the plates in his family Bible, the likeness whereof is neither in heaven, nor on earth, nor under the earth. And he was also so eminent a musician, that he could go through the singing book at one sitting without the least fatigue, beating time like a windmill all the way. 6. He had, too, a liberal hand, though his liberality was all by the rule of three. He did by his neighbor exactly as he would be done by; he loved some things in this world very sincerely; he loved his God much, but he honored and feared him more; he was exact with others, but he was more exact with himself, and he expected his God to be more exact still. 7. Every thing in uncle Abel's house was in the same time, place, manner, and form, from year's end to year's end. There was old Master Bose, a dog after my uncle's own heart, who always walked as if he were studying the multiplication table. There was the old clock, forever ticking in the chimney corner, with a picture of the sun upon its face, forever setting behind a perpendicular row of poplar trees. There was the never-failing supply of red peppers and onions hanging over the chimney. 8. There, too, were the yearly hollyhocks and morning glories blooming about the windows. There was the "best room," with its sanded floor; the cupboard in one corner, with its glass doors; the evergreen asparagus bushes in the chimney; and there was the stand with the Bible and almanac on it in another corner. There, too, was aunt Betsey, who never looked any older, because she always looked as old as she could; who always dried her catnip and wormwood the last of September, and began to clean house the first of May. In short, this was the land of continuance." Old Time never took it into his head to practise either addition or subtraction or multiplication, on its sum total. 9. This aunt Betsey aforenamed was the neatest and most efficient piece of human machinery that ever operated in forty places at once. She was always every where, predominating' over and seeing to every thing; and though my uncle had been twice married, aunt Betsey's rule and authority had never been broken. She reigned over his wives when living, and reigned after them when dead; and so seemed likely to reign on till the end of the chapter. 10. But my uncle's latest wife left aunt Betsey a much less tractable subject than ever before had fallen to her lot. Little Edward was the child of my uncle's old age, and a brighter, merrier little blossom never grew on the verge of a snow-drift. He had been committed to the nursing of his grandmamma till he had arrived at the age of indiscretion, and then my old uncle's heart so yearned for him that he was brought home. 11. His introduction into the family excited a terrible sensation. Never was there such a contemner of dignities, such a violator of high places and sanctities, as this same Master Edward. It was in vain to try to teach him decorum. He was the most outrageously merry elf" that ever shook a head of curls. He laughed and frolicked with every body and every thing that came in his way, not even excepting his solemn old father; and when you saw him with his fair arms around the old man's neck, and his bright blue eyes and blooming cheek peering 1o out beside the bleak face of uncle Abel, you might fancy you saw Spring caressing Winter. Uncle Abel's metaphysics" were sorely puzzled by this sparkling, dancing compound of spirit and matter; nor could he devise any method of bringing it into any reasonable shape, for it did mis 10 chief with an energy and perseverance that were truly astonishing. 1 CXT'E-CHIS-ING. Instructing by asking questions and receiving answers on religious subjects. 2 REC-TAN'GU-LAR. Literally, having 8 CIR'CUM-SPECT. Careful; discreet. manence. 7 PRE-DOM'I-NAT-ING. Ruling; controlling; prevailing. 8 CŎN-TEM'NER. One who contemns or disregards. 9 ELF. A fairy or imaginary being; a term often applied to any small and sportive being. 10 PEER'ING. Looking narrowly or curiously; peeping. 11 MET-A-PHYŞ'ICS. Mental science; the philosophy of the mind as dis tinguished from matter. XXI.- LITTLE EDWARD, CONCLUDED. 1. BUT uncle Abel was most of all perplexed to know what to do with him on the Sabbath; for on that day Master Edward seemed to exert himself to be particularly diligent and entertaining. 2. "Edward! Edward must not play Sunday!" his father would call out; and then Edward would hold up his curly head, and look as grave as the catechism; but in three minutes you would see pussy scampering through the "best room," with Edward at her heels, to the entire discomposure of all devotion in aunt Betsey, and all others in authority. 3. At length my uncle came to the conclusion that "it wasn't in nature to teach him any better," and that "he could no more keep Sunday than the brook down in the lot." My poor uncle! he did not know what was the matter with his heart; but certain it was, he lost all faculty of scolding when little Edward was in the case, and he would rub his spectacles a quarter of an hour longer than common when aunt Betsey was detailing his witticisms and clever doings. |