10 10 15 20 LORD ULLIN'S DAUGHTER THOMAS CAMPBELL A chieftain, to the Highlands bound, "Now who be ye, would cross Lochgyle, And this, Lord Ullin's daughter. "And fast before her father's men My blood would stain the heather. "His horsemen hard behind us ride. Out spoke the hardy Highland wight, "And by my word! the bonny bird So though the waves are raging white, By this the storm grew loud apace, But still as wilder blew the wind, And as the night grew drearer, Adown the glen rode armèd men, Their trampling sounded nearer. "Oh, haste thee, haste!" the lady cries, "Though tempests round us gather; I'll meet the raging of the skies, But not an angry father." The boat has left a stormy land, A stormy sea before her, When, oh! too strong for human hand, And still they rowed amidst the roar Of waters fast prevailing: Lord Ullin reached that fatal shore; For sore dismayed, through storm and shade, One lovely hand she stretched for aid, And one was round her lover. "Come back! Come back!" he cried in grief, "Across this stormy water: 50 45 40 25 And I'll forgive your Highland chief, 'Twas vain: the loud waves lashed the shore, The waters wild went o'er his child, And he was left lamenting. GLOSSARY. Highlands; Lochgyle; Ulva; bonny; hardy; winsome; water-wraith. STUDY. What can you tell about the scene and circumstances of the story? Why are the fugitives in such haste? What led the ferryman to agree to take them over? What was "too strong for human hand"? What change took place in Lord Ullin? Do you feel sorry for him at the close? Try to put yourself in the position of the speakers, and read their words so as to bring out all the excitement of the scene. 55 THE STORY OF A STONE DAVID STARR JORDAN I Once upon a time, a great many years ago, so many years ago that one grows very tired in trying to think how long ago it was; in those old days when the great Northwest consisted of a few ragged and treeless hills, full of copper and quartz, bordered by a dreary waste. of sand-flats, over which the Gulf of Mexico rolled its warm and turbid waters as far north as Escanaba and Eau Claire; in the days when Marquette Harbor opened out towards Baffin's Bay, and the Northern 10 Ocean washed the crest of Mount Washington and wrote its name upon the Pictured Rocks; when the tide of the Pacific, hemmed in by no snow-capped Sierras, came rushing through the Golden Gate between the Ozarks and the north peninsula of Michi15 gan, and swept over Plymouth Rock, and surged up against Bunker Hill; in the days when it would have been fun to study geography, for there were no capitals, nor any products, and all the towns were seaports; in fact, an immensely long time ago there lived 20 somewhere in the northeastern part of the State of Wisconsin, not far from the city of Oconto, a little jellyfish. 25 It was a curious little fellow, about the shape of half an apple, and the size of a pin's head; and it floated around in the water, and ate little things, and opened and shut its umbrella pretty much as the jellyfishes do now on a sunny day off Nahant Beach when the tide is coming in. It had a great many little feelers that hung down all around like 30 SO many little snakes; so it was named Medusa, after a queer woman who lived a long while ago, when all sorts of stories were true. She wore snakes instead of hair, and used to turn people into stone images if they dared to make faces at her. So this 35 little Medusa floated around, and opened and shut her umbrella for a good while,-a month or two, perhaps, we don't know how long. Then one morning, down among the seaweeds, she laid a whole lot of tiny eggs, transparent as crabapple jelly, and |