O  the  famine  and  the  fever !

0  the  wasting  of  the  famine !

O  the  blasting  of  the  fever!

O  the  wailing  of  the  children !

0  the  anguish  of  the  women  !

All  the  earth  was  sick  and  famished ;

Hungry  was  the  air  around  them,

Hungry  was  the  sky  above  them,


SCHOOL    ELOCUTION.  241

And  the  hungry  stars  in  heaven

Like  the  eyes  of  wolves  glared  at  them !

"  Give  your  children  food,  0  Father !

Give  us  food,  or  we  must  perish  !

Give  me  food  for  Minnehaha,

For  my  dying  Minnehaha!"

Through  the  far-resounding  forest,

Through  the  forest  vast  and  vacant

Rang  that  cry  of  desolation ;

But  there  came  no  other  answer

Than  the  echo  of  his  crying,

Than  the  echo  of  the  woodlands,

"Minnehaha!  Minnehaha!"  Longfellow.
6.       BABIE    BELL.
It  came  upon  us  by  degrees,

We  saw  its  shadow  ere  it  fell,
The  knowledge  that  our  God  had  sent
-His  messenger  for  Babie  Bell.
We  shuddered  with  unlanguaged  pain,
And  all  our  thoughts  ran  into  tears,

Like  sunshine  into  rain.
We  cried  aloud  in  our  belief,
"  Oil,  smite  us  gently,  gently,  God  !
Teach  vs  to  bend  and  kiss  the  rod,

And  perfect  grow  through  grief."
Ah,  how  we  loved  her,  God  co.n  tell ;

Her  heart  was  folded  deep  in  ours ;
Our  hearts  are  hrohen,  Bahie  Bell.  aldrich


To-morrow,  and  to-morrow,  and  to-morrow,
Creeps  in  this  petty  pace  from  day  to  day
To  the  last  syllable  of  recorded  time,
And  all  our  yesterdays  have  lighted  fools

The    way    to    dusty    death.  Shakespeare.
16  '


242  SCHOOL    ELOCUTION.
8.     NEW  year's  eve.
You  '11  bury  me,  my  mother,  just  beneath  the  hawthorn

shade ;
And  you  11   come   sometimes   and   see   me  where   I    am

lowly  laid.
