deadly tempest. To him the nights seemed weeks, and the days interminable, as they did to the rest, but it would have been death to venture out.

That night, so disturbed had all become, they lay awake listening, waiting, hoping for a change. About 5 midnight Lincoln noticed that the roar was no longer so steady, so relentless, and so high-keyed as before. It began to lull at times, and though it came back to the attack with all its former ferocity, still there was a perceptible weakening. Its fury was becoming spasmodic. 10 One of the men shouted down to Mr. Stewart, "The storm is over," and when the host called back a ringing word of cheer, Lincoln sank into deep sleep in sheer relief.

Oh, the joy with which the children melted the ice on 15 the window panes, and peered out on the familiar landscape, dazzling, peaceful, under the brilliant sun and wide. blue sky. Lincoln looked out over the wide plain, ridged with vast drifts; on the far blue line of timber, on the near-by cottages sending up cheerful columns of smoke 20 (as if to tell him the neighbors were alive), and his heart seemed to fill his throat. But the wind was with him still, for so long and continuous had its voice sounded in his ears, that even in the perfect calm his imagination supplied its loss with fainter, fancied roarings.

Out in the barn the horses and cattle, hungry and cold, kicked and bellowed in pain, and when the men dug them

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out, they ran and raced like mad creatures to start the blood circulating in their numbed and stiffened limbs. Mr. Stewart was forced to tunnel to the barn door, cutting through the hard snow as if it were clay. The drifts were 5 solid, and the dirt mixed with the snow was spread on the surface in beautiful wavelets, like the sands at the bottom of a lake. The drifts would bear a horse. The guests were able to go home by noon, climbing above the fences, and rattling across the plowed ground.

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And then in the days which followed came grim tales of suffering and heroism. Tales of the finding of stagecoaches with the driver frozen on his seat and all his passengers within; tales of travelers striving to reach home and families. Cattle had starved and frozen in their 15 stalls, and sheep lay buried in heaps beside the fences where they had clustered together to keep warm. These

days gave Lincoln a new idea of the prairie. It taught him that however bright and beautiful they might be in summer under skies of June, they could be terrible when 20 the norther was abroad in his wrath. They seemed now

as pitiless and destructive as the polar ocean. It seemed as if nothing could live there unhoused. All was at the mercy of that power, the north wind, whom only the Lord Sun could tame.

-HAMLIN GARLAND: Boy Life on the Prairie.

interminable, without end, continuing for a very long time; perceptible, that may be seen; spasmodic, not steady, going by fits and starts.

Notice how the author has shown you the horror of the storm by telling how it made the people feel. What thing in this account of the third day seems to you the most terrible? Describe the gradual passing away of the blizzard, the happiness of the household at the return of calm weather. What were some of the tales of suffering and heroism? What feeling about the prairie has the author produced? To what is it again compared? Explain the figure in the last sentence. What figures in this story seem to you very effective?

Spelling. Scanty, traveler, interminable, pitiless, shingles, prairie, blizzard.

Composition. You have had practice in condensation. It is sometimes necessary to do the opposite in writing, that is, to expand some story, description, or explanation, either to make it more interesting or more easily understood. Novelists and poets often do this. Longfellow took what little is known about John Alden and Priscilla, and made a long and beautiful poem. Sir Walter Scott took the little incident of Raleigh's coat and made of it the interesting story you have read.

In this lesson there are several condensed stories which might be expanded into very interesting tales, some of the "grim tales of suffering and heroism," such as the tale of the "finding of the stagecoach with the driver frozen on the seat and all his passengers within." Think how much this one sentence really contains.

Write a story based on this; or imagine some other tale of heroism connected with this storm. See how interesting you can make it. Explain the situation; tell about the brave struggle. If you prefer, you may make a happy ending.

Some of these stories may be read to the class. Decide which tale is the most interesting.

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1 CORINTHIANS XIII

THOUGH I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not charity, I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal. And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries, and all knowl5 edge; and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not charity, I am nothing. And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, and have not charity, it profiteth me nothing. Charity suffereth long, and is 10 kind; charity envieth not; charity vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up, doth not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil: rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth; beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth 15 all things. Charity never faileth: but whether there be prophecies, they shall fail; whether there be tongues, they shall cease; whether there be knowledge, it shall vanish away. For we know in part, and we prophesy in part. But when that which is perfect is come, then that which 20 is in part shall be done away. When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things. For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I