The negro, indeed, was a sight to frighten one. The black mud of the swamps was caked on him, and his flesh was torn by brambles.

"He ran away," said Nick, "and I'm taking him 5 home."

"You - you are taking him home!" sputtered Mr. Fanning.

And

"Do you want to see him act?" said Nick. without waiting for a reply he filled the hall with a dozen 10 monkeys. Mr. Fanning leaped back into a doorway, but the chief prostrated himself on the floor. "Now do you believe I can take him home?" said Nick.

"You beat the devil, Nicholas Temple," said Mr. Fan

ning, when he had his breath.

"The next time you

15 come to call I pray you leave your traveling show at

"Mamma sent me for the militia," said Nick.

"She did!" said Mr. Fanning, looking grim. "An insurrection is a bad thing, but there was no danger for 20 two lads in the woods, I suppose."

25

"There's no danger anyway," said Nick.

Mr. Fanning burst out into a loud laugh, stopped suddenly, sat down, and took Nick on his knee.

"I must go home," said Nick; "she will be worried." "She will be worried!" cried Mr. Fanning, in a burst of anger. Then he said: "You shall have the militia. You shall have the militia." He rang a bell and sent his

steward for the captain, a gawky, country farmer, who gave a gasp when he came upon the scene in the hall.

"And mind," said Nick to the captain, "you are to keep your men away from him, or he will kill one of them." The captain grinned at him curiously.

"I reckon I shan't have to tell them to keep away," said he.

5

Mr. Fanning started us for the walk with pockets. filled with sweetmeats, which we nibbled on the way back. We made a queer procession, Nick and I striding 10 ahead to show the path, followed by the now servile chief, and after him the captain and his twenty men in single file. It was midnight when we saw the lights of Temple Bow through the trees. One of the tired overseers met us near the kitchen. When he perceived the Congo, his 15 face lighted up with rage, and he instinctively reached for his whip. But the chief stood before him, immovable, with arms folded, and a look on his face that meant danger.

"He will kill you, Emory," said Nick; "he will kill 20 you if you touch him."

Emory dropped his hand limply.

"He will go to work in the morning," said Nick; "but mind you, not a lash."

66

Very good, Master Nick," said the man;

who's to get him in his cabin?

"but 25

"I will," said Nick. He beckoned to the Congo, who

followed him over to quarters and went in at his door

without a protest.

-WINSTON CHURCHILL: The Crossing.

ominous, foretelling danger; defenseless, without means of protection; weird, strange; insurrection, a rising up against authority; servile, slavelike; instinctively, without thought.

Who is telling the story? What was the condition of affairs at the beginning of the story? What danger threatened? Tell the story of the capture of the Congo chief. Give an account of the happenings at Fanning Hall. Tell about the return. What opinion do you form of Mrs. Temple? Name the passages on which you base your opinion. Who would you select as the hero of the story? There is a word in the title which describes him. What could you add to this from his remarks to Mr. Fanning? To the overseer respecting the Congo chief? At about what time in history is this story supposed to have occurred? Who are meant by "the Rebels"? Spelling. Ominous, defenseless, weird, insurrection, instinctively.

Word Study. Analyze the word midnight. What is the stem? Meaning of the prefix mid in midland, midship, midwinter? Add to this list.

On page 108 what words could you substitute for the word defenseless? Analyze homeless, childless, penniless. What is the meaning of the suffix less? Give other words containing this suffix.

Punctuation. You remember that the semicolon is used to separate the parts of a very long sentence, especially when there is no connecting word between the two, as in the following: "Three overseers with lanterns stood guard there; the cabins were dark, the wretches within silent and cowed." Try to find other examples of this use of the semicolon.

20

THE HEIGHT OF THE RIDICULOUS

[Oliver Wendell Holmes was a wise and witty physician in Boston, the friend of Lowell and Longfellow and Emerson and Whittier. His essays and his novels will be familiar to you some years hence; but now you will enjoy the poems of his which are to be found in this volume.]

10

15

20

They were so queer, so very queer,
I laughed as I would die;
Albeit, in a general way
A sober man am I.

I called my servant, and he came;
How kind it was of him,
To mind a slender man like me,
He of the mighty limb!

"These to the printer," I exclaimed,
And, in my humorous way,

I added (as a trifling jest)
"There'll be the devil to pay."

He took the paper, and I watched,
And saw him peop within ;

At the first line he read, his face
Was all upon a grin.

He read the next; the grin grew broad,
And shot from ear to ear;

He read the third; a chuckling noise
I now began to hear.

The fourth, he burst into a roar;

The fifth, his waistband split;

The sixth, he burst five buttons off,
And tumbled in a fit.