King Bruce of Scotland flung himself down, in a lonelymood, to think;
True he was a monarch, and wore a crown, but his heart was beginning to sink.
For he had been trying to do a great deed, to make his people glad;He had tried and tried, but couldn"t succeed, and so he became quite sad.
He flung himself down in a low despair, as grieved as man could be;And after a while, as he pondered there, "I"ll give it allup," said he.
Now, just at the moment, a spider dropped, with its silken cobweb clew;And the king, in the midst of his thinking, stopped to see what the spider would do.
" Twas a long way up to the ceiling dome, and it hung by a rope so fineThat, how it would get to its cobweb home, King Bruce could not divine.
It soon began to cling and crawl straight up with strong endeavour;But down it came, with a slipping sprawl, as near to the ground as ever.
Up, up, it ran, not a second did stay to utter the least complaint,Till it fell still lower; and there it lay, a little dizzy and faint.
Its head grew steady-again it went, and travelled a half- yard higher;" Twas a delicate thread it had to tread, and a road whereits feet would tire.
Again it fell, and swung below; but up it quicklymounted,
Till up and down, now fast, now slow, nine brave attempts were counted.
"Sure," cried the king, " that foolish thing will strive no more to climb,When it toils so hard to reach and cling, and tumbles every time."But up the spider went once more; ah me! "tis an anxiousminute;
It"s only a foot from the cobweb door; oh, say, will helose or win it?
Steadily, steadily, inch by inch, higher and higher he got;And a bold little run at the very last pinch put him into the wished-for spot.
"Bravo ! Bravo!" the king cried out. "All honour to those who try;The spider up there defied despair. He conquered, and why shouldn"t I?"And Bruce of Scotland braced his mind, and gossips tell the taleThat he tried once more as he tried before, and that time he did not fail.
Pay goodly heed, all you who read, and beware of saying"I can"t;"
"Tis a cowardly word, and apt to lead to idleness, folly,and want.
- Eliza Cook
Author.-Eliza Cook (1818-1889) was the daughter of a London tradesman. She began to write poems at an early age, all of them moral, clear, sensible, and simple. Among her best-known short poems are TheOld Arm-chair, The Fern and the Moss.
General Notes.-Robert Bruce came of a Norman family; an ancestor Robert de Bruis, received a land grant in Yorkshire, England. A branch of the family became lords of Annandale, Scotland; from this branch King Robert was descended, He was born in 1274. He swore fealty to Edward the First, but abandoned the cause of the English king and joined the Scottish revolt under Wallace. Again he went back to the English side. Years later, he asserted his right to the Scottish throne and was crowned at Scone. Defeated by an English army, he wandered in hiding, but finally won back to power, defeating the English at Bannockburn in 1314. He died of leprosy. The moral of the poem is " Persevere." Do you know other poems that have the same moral? Demosthenes broke down in his first speech; Alexander ran away from his first battle; walking is only a succession of failings.
THE LAWyER AND THE OySTER
As two men were walking by the sea-shore, they foundan oyster, and began to quarrel about it.
"I saw it first," said one man, " so it belongs to me.""I picked it up," said the other, " and I have a right to keep it."As they were quarrelling a lawyer came by, and they asked him to decide in the matter. The lawyer agreed to do so, but, before he would give his opinion, he required that the two men should give him their assurance that, whatever he might say, they would be quite satisfied with his decision. Then the lawyer said, "It seems to me that you both have a claim to the oyster, so I will divide it between you, and you will then be perfectly satisfied."Opening the oyster, he quickly ate it, and very gravelyhanded to each of the men one of the empty shells. "But you have eaten the oyster!" cried the men.
"Ah, that was my fee for deciding the case!" said the lawyer. "But I have divided all that remains in a fair and just manner."That is what generally happens when two quarrel-somepersons go to law about anything they cannot agree upon.
Author.-Unknown.
General Notes.-In our courts of justice, does a lawyer decide the case? Is it foolish to carry into court disputes that can be settled outside? Mention cases in which it would be wise to seek justice in a court, and others in which it would be unwise. Make up a play about the lawyer and the oyster. You will need to add more conversation.
ROBINSON CRuSOE AND mAN FRIDAy
[Robinson Crusoe has saved a young savage from cannibals who had brought him to Crusoe"s island. So, after many years of loneliness, Crusoe now has a companion, whom he calls Friday. At this part of the story he has just shot a young goat, and Friday, who knows nothing about guns, is very frightened by what he thinks must be magic.]
I soon found a way to convince him that I would do him no harm, and, taking him up by the hand, laughed at him, and, pointing to the kid which I had killed, beckoned to him to run and fetch it, which he did; and, while he was wondering and looking to see how the creature was killed, I loaded my gun again, and by and by I saw a great fowl like a hawk sit upon a tree within shot; so, to let Friday understand a little what I would do, I called him to me again, pointing at the fowl, which was indeed a parrot, though I thought it had been a hawk. I say, pointing to the parrot, and to my gun, and to the ground under the parrot, to let him see I would make it fall, I made him understand that I would shoot and kill that bird. Accordingly, I fired, and bade him look, and immediately he saw the parrot fall.
He stood like one frighted again, notwithstanding all I had said to him; and I found he was the more amazed because he did not see me put anything into the gun, but thought that there must be some wonderful fund of death and destruction in that thing, able to kill man, beast, bird, or anything, near or far off; and the astonishment thus created in him was such as could not wear off for a long time; and I believe, if I would have let him, he would have worshipped me and my gun! As for the gun itself, he would not so much as touch it for several days after; but would speak to it as if it had answered him, when he was by himself; which, as I afterwards learned of him, was to desire it not to kill him.
Drawn by R.C.Fricke
"While he was wondering.... I loaded my sun again."Well, after his astonishment was a little over at this, I pointed to him to run and fetch the bird I had shot; whichhe did, but stayed some time; for the parrot, not being quite dead, was fluttered a good way off from the place where she fell; however, he found her, took her up, and brought her to me; and, as I had perceived his ignorance about the gun before, I took this advantage to charge the gun again, and not let him see me do it, that I might be ready for any other mark that might present. But nothing more offered at that time; so I brought home the kid, and the same evening I took the skin off, and cut it out as well as I could; and having a pot for that purpose, I boiled or stewed some of the flesh, and made some very good broth; and, after I had begun to eat some, I gave some to my man, who seemed very glad of it, and liked it very well. But that which was strangest to him was to see me eat salt with it. He made a sign to me that the salt was not good to eat, and putting a little into his own mouth he seemed to nauseate it, and would spit and sputter at it, washing his mouth with fresh water after it. On the other hand, I took some meat in my mouth without salt, and I pretended to spit and sputter for want of salt as fast as he had done at the salt. But it would not do, he would never care for salt with his meat, or in his broth; at least, not for a great while, and then but a very little.
Having thus fed him with boiled meat and broth, I was resolved to feast him the next day with roasting a piece of the kid. This I did by hanging it before the fire on a string,as I had seen many people do in England, setting two poles up, one on each side the fire, and one cross on the top, and tying the string to the cross-stick, letting the meat turn continually. This Friday admired very much; but, when he came to taste the flesh, he took so many ways to tell me how well he liked it, that I could not but understand him; and at last he told me he would never eat man"s flesh any more- which I was very glad to hear.
The next day I set him to work at beating some corn out, and sifting it in the manner I used to do, as I observed before; and he soon understood how to do it as well as I, especially after he had seen what the meaning of it was, and that it was to make bread of: for after that I let him see me make my bread, and bake it too, and in a little while Friday was able to do all the work for me as well as I could do it myself.
I began now to consider that, having two mouths to feed instead of one, I must provide more ground for my harvest, and plant a larger quantity of corn than I used to do; so I marked out a larger piece of land, and began the fence in the same manner as before; in which Friday not only worked very willingly and very hard, but did it very cheerfully. And I told him what it was for; that it was for corn to make more bread, because he was now with me, and that I might have enough for him and myself too. He appeared very sensibleof that part, and let me know that he thought I had much more labour upon me on his account than I had for myself; and that he would work the harder for me, if I would tell him what to do.
I was greatly delighted with him, and made it my business to teach him everything that was proper to make him useful, handy, and helpful; but, first of all, to make him speak, and understand me when I spake; and he was a good scholar, and so merry, so diligent, and so pleased when he could but understand me, or make me understand him, that it was very pleasant to me to talk to him.
This was the pleasantest year of all the life I led in this place. Friday began to talk pretty well, and understand the names of almost everything I had occasion to call for, and of every place I had to send him to, and talk a great deal to me; so that, in short, I began now to have some use for my tongue again, which indeed I had very little occasion for before-that is to say, about speech. Besides the pleasure of talking to him, I had a singular satisfaction in the fellow himself. His simple, unfeigned honesty appeared to me more and more every day, and I began really to love the creature; and, on his side, I believe he loved me more than it was possible for him ever to love anything before.
I had a mind once to try if he had any hankering inclination to his own country again; and, having taughthim English so well that he could answer me almost any questions, I asked him whether the nation that he belonged to ever conquered in battle. At which he smiled, and said, " Yes, yes; we always fight the better;" that is, he meant always get the better in fight; and so we began the following discourse:- " You always fight the better?" said I. "How came you to be taken prisoner then, Friday?"Friday.-My nation beat much, for all that.
Master.-How beat? If your nation beat them, how came you to be taken?
Friday.-They more many than my nation in the placewhere me was; they take one, two, three, and me. My nation over beat them in the yonder place, where me no was; there my nation take one, two, great thousand.
Master.-But why did not your side recover you from thehands of your enemies then?
Friday.-They run one, two, three, and me, and make go in the canoe; my nation have no canoe that time.
Master.- Well, Friday, and what does your nation dowith the men they take-carry them away and eat them, as these did?
Friday.-Yes; my nation eat mans too, eat all up.
Master.-Where do they carry them? Friday.-Go to other place where they think. Master.-Do they come hither?
Friday.-Yes, yes, they come hither; come other else place.
Master.-Have you been here with them?
Friday.-Yes, I have been (points to the north-west side of the island, which it seems was their side).
By this I understood that my man Friday had formerly been among the savages who used to come on shore on the farther part of the island on the said man-eating occasions that he was now brought for. And, some time after, when I took the courage to carry him to that side, being the same I formerly mentioned, he presently knew the place, and told me he was there once when they ate up twenty men, two women, and one child. He could not tell twenty in English; but he numbered them by laying so many stones on a row, and pointing to me to tell them over.
From Robinson Crusoe, by Daniel Defoe
Author.-Daniel Defoe (1660-1731), an English author beloved of boys and girls because he wrote Robinson Crusoe, the story of a brave man struggling with circumstance. The son of a butcher, he was educated for the ministry, then sold stocks and went insolvent. He took to writing, wrote against the Government, and was sent to jail. He was born before his time; but at last he won success. His greet book is Robinson Crusoe, his great poem A Hymn to ths Pillory.
General Notes.-The adventures of Robinson Crusoe are based onthe true story of Alexander Selkirk, a Scottish sailor, who became a pirate and was left upon the island of Juan Fernandez, 360 miles west of Valparaiso, Chile, in 1704 (see on the map). Here he remained in solitude for four years and four months until rescued by Captain Rogers, of the British Navy. Account for Friday"s name. Note how the author makes fiction seem fact by putting in the tiniest details.
