"God made the woodchuck to enjoy the free life of the fields and the woods. This poor animal has as much right to life as we have. He is not a destructive animal like the fox or the wolf.

"What crime has he committed? He has simply eaten a few vegetables from our garden. Have we not enough and to spare?

"Besides, the poor fellow has simply followed his nature; he has destroyed nothing except what little he needed to eat. He knows no better. Why should we kill him? Many men do wrong and yet they know the difference between right and wrong.

"Possibly the woodchuck thinks as much of his life as we do of ours.

"Let us be merciful to him; then we may expect mercy toward ourselves. God gave the woodchuck his life. He only has the right to take life away.

As the boy spoke his voice was strong and yet tender, and his face was full of pity. The tears fell from Mr. Webster's eyes as he listened to the boy's speech.

Springing from his chair, he cried, "Zeke! Zeke! let that woodchuck go!"

Daniel Webster had won his first case.

NOTES

1. Look up all you can about the woodchuck. See the picture of the woodchuck, or ground-hog, on page 92.

Be able to give a short sketch of the life of Webster.

Be able to give synonyms for, or to explain the meanings of, the following words: resolved, proposed, capture, appeal, prisoner, riminal, damage, defense, case, destructive, merciful.

EXERCISES

1. Tell the circumstances under which Daniel Webster was brought up. 2. How much sympathy for woodchucks ought we to expect the average farmer in New England to have? Why?

3. Why had the boys caught the woodchuck?

4. What did each boy propose to do with the woodchuck?

5. What caused them to appeal to their father to settle the dispute?! 6. What manner of deciding the difficulty did the father propose? 7. What five points do you find in Ezekiel's argument against the woodchuck?

8. What impression did this speech make on the father?

9. In what manner did Daniel make his plea?

10. What are the strongest points Daniel made in favor of the woodchuck?

11. What effect did this plea have on Mr. Webster?

12. What was the father's decision as judge?

13. From what you know of woodchucks, and from the arguments here given, was the decision just?

14. Just what characteristics of Daniel are shown in this incident?

ADDITIONAL READINGS

HOLLAND: The High Court of Inquiry.

WEBSTER: Bunker Hill Oration. Reply to Hayne.
HAPGOOD: Daniel Webster.

The Greatness of "Dan'l Gregg."

God's livery is a very plain one; but its wearers have good reason to be content. If it have not so much gold lace about it as Satan's, it keeps out foul weather better, and is besides a great deal cheaper. -James Russell Lowell.

No

THE DAY IS DONE

O poet is so universally beloved as Henry W. Longfellow. On one occasion where a great ocean steamer was coming home to America, the passengers found that nearly every nation on earth was represented. By way of diversion, it was proposed that each passenger was to write out his favorite quotation and name its author. When this was done it was found that nearly seventy per cent of the quotations were from Longfellow. Thus it is seen that his fame belongs not alone to America, but to the world.

In this poem we find something of the cause for his success in winning his way to the hearts of all. He lived in sympathy with the life around him, and in touch with its sorrows and its joys. Doubtless the poem tells of a real experience of the poet. The lights are gleaming strangely through the rain and the mist. The chill and gloom of the world without seem to bring a feeling of sadness to the poet's soul— yet "a feeling of sadness and longing that is not akin to pain," for he longs for sweeter visions of truth and immortality, as revealed in "some humbler poet whose songs gushed from his

heart" and whose soul had caught in the midst of life's conflict "the music of wonderful melodies." Indeed, Longfellow himself was the "humbler poet" and the world has listened enraptured to the "music" of his "wonderful melodies" which has brought rest and guided "the restless pulse of care." Like Ernest in "The Great Stone Face," Longfellow himself became the embodiment of his own ideals.

THE DAY IS DONE

The day is done, and the darkness
Falls from the wings of Night,
As a feather is wafted downward
From an eagle in his flight.

I see the lights of the village

Gleam through the rain and the mist,
And a feeling of sadness comes o'er me
That my soul cannot resist:

A feeling of sadness and longing
That is not akin to pain,

And resembles sorrow only

As the mist resembles the rain.

Come, read to me some poem,
Some simple and heartfelt lay,
That shall soothe this restless feeling,
And banish the thoughts of day.

Not from the grand old masters,

Not from the bards sublime,
Whose distant footsteps echo
Through the corridors of Time.

For, like strains of martial music,
Their mighty thoughts suggest
Life's endless toil and endeavor;
And to-night I long for rest.
Read from some humbler poet,

Whose songs gushed from his heart,
As showers from the clouds of summer,
Or tears from the eyelids start;

Who, through long days of labor,
And nights devoid of ease,
Still heard in his soul the music
Of wonderful melodies.

Such songs have power to quiet
The restless pulse of care,
And come like the benediction
That follows after prayer.

Then read from the treasured volume
The poem of thy choice,

And lend to the rhyme of the poet
The beauty of thy voice.

And the night shall be filled with music,
And the cares, that infest the day,
Shall fold their tents like the Arabs,
And as silently steal away.