Fourth Reader - Various

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if we’re late?” said Tom.

      “No tea, and sent up to the Doctor,” answered East.

      The thought didn’t add to their cheerfulness. Presently a faint halloo was heard from an adjoining field. They answered it and stopped, hoping for some competent rustic to guide them, when over a gate some twenty yards ahead crawled the wretched Tadpole, in a state of collapse. He had lost a shoe in the brook, and been groping after it up to his elbows in the stiff, wet clay, and a more miserable creature in the shape of a boy seldom has been seen.

      The sight of him, notwithstanding, cheered them, for he was some degree more wretched than they. They also cheered him, as he was now no longer under the dread of passing his night alone in the fields. And so in better heart, the three plashed painfully down the never-ending lane. At last it widened, just as utter darkness set in, and they came out on to a turnpike road, and there paused, bewildered, for they had lost all bearings, and knew not whether to turn to the right or left.

      Luckily for them they had not to decide, for lumbering along the road, with one lamp lighted, and two spavined horses in the shafts, came a heavy coach, which after a moment’s suspense they recognized as the Oxford coach, the redoubtable Pig and Whistle.

      It lumbered slowly up, and the boys, mustering their last run, caught it as it passed, and began scrambling up behind, in which exploit East missed his footing and fell flat on his nose along the road. Then the others hailed the old scarecrow of a coachman, who pulled up and agreed to take them in for a shilling. So there they sat on the back seat, drubbing with their heels, and their teeth chattering with cold, and jogged into Rugby some forty minutes after locking-up. – Thomas Hughes.

      AN ADJUDGED CASE

      Between Nose and Eyes a strange contest arose,

      The spectacles set them unhappily wrong;

      The point in dispute was, as all the world knows,

      To which the said spectacles ought to belong.

      So the Tongue was the Lawyer and argued the cause

      With a great deal of skill and a wig full of learning;

      While Chief Baron Ear sat to balance the laws,

      So famed for his talent in nicely discerning.

      “In behalf of the Nose it will quickly appear,

      And your lordship,” he said, “will undoubtedly find

      That the Nose has had spectacles always in wear,

      Which amounts to possession time out of mind.”

      Then, holding the spectacles up to the court —

      “Your lordship observes they are made with a straddle

      As wide as the ridge of the Nose is; in short,

      Designed to sit close to it, just like a saddle.

      “Again, would your lordship a moment suppose

      (’Tis a case that has happened and may be again),

      That the visage or countenance had not a Nose,

      Pray who would or who could wear spectacles then?

      “On the whole it appears, and my argument shows

      With a reasoning the court will never condemn,

      That the spectacles plainly were made for the Nose,

      And the Nose was as plainly intended for them.”

      Then, shifting his side as a lawyer knows how,

      He pleaded again in behalf of the Eyes,

      But what were his arguments few people know,

      For the court did not think they were equally wise.

      So his lordship decreed with a grave solemn tone,

      Decisive and clear without one “if” or “but” —

      That whenever the Nose put his spectacles on,

      By daylight or candlelight, Eyes should be shut.

– William Cowper

      INDIAN SUMMER

      By the purple haze that lies

      On the distant rocky height,

      By the deep blue of the skies,

      By the smoky amber light,

      Through the forest arches streaming,

      Where Nature on her throne sits dreaming,

      And the sun is scarcely gleaming,

      Through the cloudless snowy white, —

      Winter’s lovely herald greets us,

      Ere the ice-crowned giant meets us.

      A mellow softness fills the air, —

      No breeze on wanton wings steals by,

      To break the holy quiet there,

      Or make the waters fret and sigh,

      Or the yellow alders shiver,

      That bend to kiss the placid river,

      Flowing on and on forever;

      But the little waves are sleeping,

      O’er the pebbles slowly creeping,

      That last night were flashing, leaping,

      Driven by the restless breeze,

      In lines of foam beneath yon trees.

      Dress’d in robes of gorgeous hue,

      Brown and gold with crimson blent;

      The forest to the waters blue

      Its own enchanting tints has lent; —

      In their dark depths, life-like glowing,

      We see a second forest growing,

      Each pictured leaf and branch bestowing

      A fairy grace to that twin wood,

      Mirror’d within the crystal flood.

      ’Tis pleasant now in forest shades;

      The Indian hunter strings his bow,

      To track through dark entangling glades

      The antler’d deer and bounding doe, —

      Or launch at night the birch canoe,

      To spear the finny tribes that dwell

      On sandy bank, in weedy cell,

      Or pool, the fisher knows right well —

      Seen by the red and vivid glow

      Of pine-torch at his vessel’s bow.

      This dreamy Indian summer-day,

      Attunes the soul to tender sadness;

      We love – but joy not in the ray —

      It is not summer’s fervid gladness,

      But a melancholy glory,

      Hovering softly round decay,

      Like swan that sings her own sad story,

      Ere she floats in death away.

      The day declines, what splendid dyes,

      In fleckered waves of crimson driven,

      Float o’er the saffron sea that lies

      Glowing within the western heaven!

      Oh, it is a peerless even!

      See, the broad red sun has set,

      But his rays are quivering yet

      Through Nature’s vale of violet,

      Streaming bright o’er lake and hill,

      But

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