AIDS TO STUDY

Miss Amelia Blandford Edwards (1831-1892), a writer on political, literary, and artistic subjects, was the daughter of an English officer. Her poetic story of the Irish famine gives a good idea of what the people suffered during that dreadful period.

1. What is meant by a famine? 2. What brought about the famine in Ireland? 3. How many people died from want? 4. Who assisted the people? 5. Mention one very strange incident of the famine. 6. In the first stanza, for what does the boy ask? 7. How does he describe the feeling of hunger? 8. About what was his dream? 9. Tell how the boy describes his mother in the third stanza. 10. What does the boy say about the queen of England? 11. What question does he ask in the fifth stanza? 12. How does he compare England and Ireland in the sixth stanza? 13. What were his dying words? 14. Pick out the clauses in this poem, and notice how they are used and punctuated.

1. Figurative language is based on a real or fancied resemblance of one object to another. The simile is a direct comparison between two objects of different kinds. It is usually introduced by some such word as like or as, for example, "it has gnawed like a wolf," "he's as good as gold." Give other similes. 2. This poem is strong in feeling. Can you tell what the dominant feeling is? What lines of the poem indicate this?

WARREN'S SPEECH OF PROTEST

The stirring days which preceded the War for Independence are always of paramount interest. We cannot forget the sterling patriotism displayed by the men and women of that time. Their unselfish devotion to a great cause serves as a beacon-light for the citizens of to-day. It inspires young hearts with a desire to follow in the footsteps of these noble heroes.

Here we shall read of the incidents that took place in the Old South Church, Boston, while the patriotic Joseph Warren was delivering an oration on the Boston Massacre.

The sixth of March, 1770, broke gray and cool on the windy wharves of Boston. The people were early in the streets despite the north wind. That day Joseph Warren, the patriot, was to deliver an oration on the Boston Massacre in the Old South Church.

He was a young man, and he loved the liberties of the people more than his own life, and his heart was no longer his own, but of his cause.

1

The Sons of Liberty 1 were to be present on that occasion, and the British officers. The early light of the morning found the patriots' flag flying from the liberty tree. One may see its effigy in stone now on Washington Street, near Boylston Street, on the building that stands where the grand old tree stood.

1 The Sons of Liberty were an association of the colonists called into existence by Lord Grenville's "Stamp Act." They combined to throw off the allegiance to Great Britain. The association began in New York and Connecticut.

The town was full of excitement that morning. Men breathed fast and hurried. Their faces were electric. They stopped now and then to exchange views. They hurried again. They hardly knew why they hurried. Something was in the air. The thrilling question in all minds was: "Would the British officers arrest Warren, Adams, Hancock, and the other patriots that day in the Old South Church? Would it be a day of crisis, a day of fate?"

The Province House Indian vane turned to and fro in the March winds like the shifts of public opinion. Men's thoughts that day were as shifting as the air. At ten o'clock, the whole town seemed to be in the streets. The Old South Church, near the windy harbor, began to fill with people. Hundreds of visitors from the neighboring towns had come riding into the town, some in wagons and some on horseback, and knots of excited men were to be seen about the stores and under the waving limbs of the bare trees on the Common.

British officers, in red coats and bright buttons, moved about in a body among the people, in a pompous, official, vice-regal way. One of these was observed to have in his hand an egg, and to show it to the others and to talk in a confidential way.

A bright boy, whom we will call Rodney, came tripping down a side street to the place where these officers

were gathered and stopped and glanced curiously at

the egg.

"Boy," said the stately-looking soldier who held the egg, "you are a loyalist?"

"Yes, captain."

And you are true to the cause of the king?" "Yes, captain, that I am, sir.'

"Your father is a loyalist?"

"Yes, captain."

"Do you know General Warren when you see him?"

"Yes, captain."

"Are you going to the South Church?"

"Yes I will follow you there, sir."

"Boy, mark ye.

Don't you break it.

That egg stands for King George.

In Queen Charlotte's name, don't

break it. Throw it at him in the middle of his speech. Understand? Great events will follow."

"At Warren?"

"Yes, at Warren - Joseph Warren. Whom did you think I said?"

The officer handed the egg to the boy as though it were a sword and commission.

As Rodney took it another officer remarked: “If you fail, it may lose the king his colony."

The officers started for the church. They were a brilliant company of men. Rodney, the boy, followed

them.