ing amidships, and I could readily suppose so, for the rolling and beating were too tremendous for any human work to suffer long. As he spoke, there was another great cry of pity from the beach: four men arose with the wreck out of the deep, clinging to the rigging of the remaining mast; uppermost, the active figure with the curling hair.

There was a bell on board; and, as the ship rolled and dashed, like a desperate creature driven mad, now showing us the whole sweep of her deck, as she turned on her 10 beam ends toward the shore, now nothing but her keel, as she sprung wildly over and turned toward the sea, the bell rang; and its sound, the knell of those unhappy men, was borne toward us on the wind. Again we lost her, and again she rose. Two men were gone. The agony on 15 shore increased. Men groaned and clasped their hands; women shrieked, and turned away their faces. Some ran wildly up and down along the beach, crying for help where no help could be. I found myself one of these, frantically imploring a knot of sailors, whom I knew, not to let those 20 two lost creatures perish before our eyes.

They were making out to me, in an agitated way, that the lifeboat had been bravely manned an hour ago, and could do nothing; and that, as no man would be so desperate as to attempt to wade off with a rope and establish 25 communication with the shore, there was nothing left to try; when I noticed that some new sensation moved the

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people on the beach, and saw them part, and Ham come breaking through them to the front.

I ran to him, as well as I know, to repeat my appeal for help. But, distracted though I was by a sight so new 5 to me and terrible, the determination in his face, and his look out to sea, awoke me to a knowledge of his danger. I held him back with both arms, and implored the men with whom I had been speaking not to listen to him, not to do murder, not to let him stir from off that sand.

Another cry arose from the shore, and, looking toward the wreck, we saw the cruel sail, with blow on blow, beat off the lower of the two men and fly up in triumph round the active figure left alone upon the

mast.

Against such a sight, and against such determination as that of the calmly desperate man who was already accustomed to lead half the people present, I might as hopefully have entreated the wind. "Mas'r Davy," he said cheerily, grasping me by both hands, "if my time is 20 come, 'tis come. If 'tain't, I'll bide it. Lord above bless you, and bless all! Mates, make me ready! I'm agoing off!"

I was swept away, but not unkindly, to some distance, where the people around me made me stay; urging, as I 25 confusedly perceived, that he was bent on going, with help or without, and that I should endanger the precautions for his safety by troubling those with whom they rested. I

don't know what I answered, or what they rejoined, but I saw hurry on the beach, and men running with ropes from a capstan that was there, and penetrating into a circle of figures that hid him from me. Then I saw him standing alone, in a seaman's frock and trousers, a rope in his hand 5 or slung to his wrist, another round his body; and several of the best men holding, at a little distance, to the latter, which he laid out himself, slack upon the shore, at his feet.

The wreck, even to my unpracticed eye, was breaking up. I saw that she was parting in the middle, and that 10 the life of the solitary man upon the mast hung by a thread. Still he clung to it.

Ham watched the sea, standing alone, with the silence of suspended breath behind him and the storm before, until there was a great retiring wave, when, with a 15 backward glance at those who held the rope, which was made fast round his body, he dashed in after it, and in a moment was buffeting with the water— rising with the hills, falling with the valleys, lost beneath the foam; then drawn again to land. They hauled in hastily. 20 He was hurt. I saw blood on his face from where I stood, but he took no thought of that. He seemed hurriedly to give them some directions for leaving him more free, —or so I judged from the motion of his arm, -and was gone, as before.

And now he made for the wreck-rising with the hills, falling with the valleys, lost beneath the rugged

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foam, borne in toward the shore, borne on towards the ship, striving hard and valiantly. The distance was nothing, but the power of the sea and wind made the strife deadly.

5 At length he neared the wreck. He was so near that with one more of his vigorous strokes he would be clinging to it, - when a high, green, vast hillside of water moved on shoreward from beyond the ship, he seemed to leap up into it with a mighty bound, and the ship was gone!

Some eddying fragments I saw in the sea, as if a mere cask had been broken, in running to the spot where they were hauling in. They drew him to my very feetinsensible, dead. He was carried to the nearest house; and, no one preventing me now, I remained near him, 15 busy, while every means of restoration was tried; but he had been beaten to death by the great wave, and his generous heart was stilled forever.

-CHARLES DICKENS: David Copperfield.

incessant, without interruption, unceasing; clamoring, uttering loudly or repeatedly; conspicuous, easy to be seen; desperate, without hope, furious with fear or despair; precaution, means taken to prevent mischief or injury; generous, liberal.

The speaker is the hero of the story, David Copperfield. In these first lines he describes a dream. What was it? What noise does he really hear? What might you say for in lieu of? What dreadful thing had occurred while he slept? Picture the excited crowd all rushing down to the shore. Where did David at first look for the wreck? Where should he have looked? Describe the

wreck as he saw it. What were the men seen by David trying to

do? Describe the sweeping away of the mast. Notice what word Dickens uses to describe the men and things washed overboard. Why does he call them toys? Picture the wreck now. To what figure is our attention directed each time the wreck is described? What sound now adds to the sadness of the scene? Describe the scene on shore. How did David act? What attempt had been previously made to save the shipwrecked sailors? Who now comes to the front? Why does David attempt to prevent him from going to the rescue? How many are left on the wreck when Ham attempts to reach it? What did Ham mean by his words to Davy? Describe Ham's first attempt and its failure; his second; his heroic death. Who was the man so frequently referred to whom Ham was trying to save (see Introduction)? Do you think he would have risked his life had he known?

Spelling. Generous, incessant, clamoring, conspicuous, desperate, precaution.

Synonyms. Substitute the word calling for its synonym clamoring. Do you get exactly the same idea? Which is better here? Select synonyms from the words in the list below:

Outstripping, stormy, clothed, outrunning, wild, vessel, excited, dressed, animated, saw, raging, schooner, roaring, boatman, shrieked, perceived, seaman, bare, quietly, sailor, unclothed, screams, brightly, calmly, cheerily, frightful, terrible, boat.

Select any five words (not synonyms) in the list, and construct sentences containing them. Then substitute a synonym found in the list for each one of the five, and tell how the sense has been changed.

Composition. You have learned the difference between literal or plain, matter-of-fact language and figurative language, in which some resemblance between things otherwise unlike is so expressed that you can picture it. Sometimes a figure (which is really a picture in words) is expressed in a group of words, as "The ship rolled and dashed like a desperate creature driven mad"; sometimes in one word, as "the cruel sea." You will notice how much clearer your