Practice Book | Page 5

Lord Lochinvar?"
IV.
"I long wooed your daughter--my suit you denied;?Love swells like the Solway, but ebbs like its tide;?And now am I come, with this lost love of mine,?To lead but one measure, drink one cup of wine.?There are maidens in Scotland more lovely by far?That would gladly be bride to the young Lochinvar."
V.
The bride kissed the goblet; the knight took it up;?He quaffed off the wine, and he threw down the cup.?She looked down to blush, and she looked up to sigh,?With a smile on her lip and a tear in her eye.?He took her soft hand, ere her mother could bar;?"Now tread we a measure?" said young Lochinvar.
VI.
So stately his form, and so lovely her face,?That never a hall such a galliard did grace;?While her mother did fret and her father did fume,?And the bridegroom stood dangling his bonnet and plume,?And the bride-maidens whispered, "'Twere better by far?To have matched our fair cousin with young Lochinvar."
VII.
One touch to her hand and one word in her ear,?When they reached the hall door, and the charger stood near; So light to the croup the fair lady he swung?So light to the saddle before her he sprung:?"She is won! we are gone! over bank, bush, and scar;?They'll have fleet steeds that follow," quoth young Lochinvar.
VIII.
There was mounting 'mong Graemes of the Netherby clan;?Forsters, Fenwicks, and Musgraves, they rode and they ran;?There was racing and chasing on Cannobie Lee;?But the lost bride of Netherby ne'er did they see.?So daring in love, and so dauntless in war,?Have ye e'er heard of gallant like young Lochinvar?
SIR WALTER SCOTT.

EXTRACTS FROM PIPPA PASSES.
1. "DAY."
Day!?Faster and more fast;?O'er night's brim, day boils at last:?Boils, pure gold, o'er the cloud-cup's brim?Where spurting and suppressed it lay,?For not a froth-flake touched the rim?Of yonder gap in the solid gray,?Of the eastern cloud, an hour away;?But forth one wavelet, then another curled,?Till the whole sunrise, not to be suppressed,?Rose, reddened, and its seething breast?Flickered in bounds, grew gold, then overflowed the world.
Oh Day, if I squandered a wavelet of thee,?A mite of my twelve hours' treasure,?The least of thy gazes or glances,?(Be they grants thou art bound to or gifts above measure)?One of thy choices or one of thy chances,?(Be they tasks God imposed thee or freaks at thy pleasure)?--My day, if I squander such labor or leisure,?Then shame fall on Asolo, mischief on me!
ROBERT BROWNING.
II. "THE YEAR'S AT THE SPRING."
The year's at the spring?And day's at the morn;?Morning's at seven;?The hillside's dew-pearled;?The lark's on the wing;?The snail's on the thorn:?God's in his heaven--?All's right with the world!
ROBERT BROWNING.

THE FEZZIWIG BALL.
Old Fezziwig laid down his pen, and looked up at the clock, which pointed to the hour of seven. He rubbed his hands; adjusted his capacious waistcoat; laughed all over himself, from his shoes to his organ of benevolence; and called out in a comfortable, oily, rich, fat, jovial voice: "Yo ho, there! Ebenezer! Dick!"
A living and moving picture of Scrooge's former self, a young man, came briskly in, accompanied by his fellow-prentice.
"Yo ho, my boys!" said Fezziwig. "No more work to-night. Christmas eve, Dick. Christmas, Ebenezer! Let's have the shutters up, before a man can say Jack Robinson! Clear away, my lads, and let's have lots of room here!"
Clear away! There was nothing they wouldn't have cleared away, or couldn't have cleared away, with old Fezziwig looking on. It was done in a minute. Every movable was packed off, as if it were dismissed from public life forevermore; the floor was swept and watered, the lamps were trimmed, fuel was heaped upon the fire; and the warehouse was as snug and warm and dry and bright a ball-room as you would desire to see upon a winter's night.
In came a fiddler with a music-book, and went up to the lofty desk, and made an orchestra of it, and tuned like fifty stomach-aches. In came Mrs. Fezziwig, one vast substantial smile. In came the three Miss Fezziwigs, beaming and lovable. In came the six young followers whose hearts they broke. In came all the young men and women employed in the business. In came the housemaid, with her cousin the baker. In came the cook, with her brother's particular friend, the milkman. In they all came one after another; some shyly, some boldly, some gracefully, some awkwardly, some pushing, some pulling; in they all came, anyhow and everyhow. Away they all went, twenty couple at once; hands half round and back again the other way; down the middle and up again; round and round in various stages of affectionate grouping; old top couple always turning up in the wrong place; new top couple starting off again, as soon as they got there; all top couples at last, and not a bottom one to help them. When this result was brought about, old