Home › John Greenleaf Whittier › John Greenleaf Whittier (Singular Use for Teeth)
John Greenleaf Whittier (Singular Use for Teeth)
Singular Use for Teeth.
R. LITTLE, in his book on Madagascar, tells an amusing story of a friend, who, on a journey from the coast to the interior, was much troubled by the curiosity of the natives. Being a fine-looking man with a flowing beard, he excited the admiration and amazement of all. Natives crowded the doors of his hut and jostled one another to get a peep through convenient chinks, giving him all the time their opinion of his eyes, nose, and general appearance. In vain did he shut the door of his hut. They crowded back again, and at last sat down in rings outside the hut to discuss his want of good manners in sending them away. At last the stranger could stand it no longer.
It was a bright moonlight night; he suddenly rushed to the door of his hut, threw it open, and with a loud shout sprang towards the natives. At the same time he drew from his mouth two rows of false teeth and waved them in the air.
The natives took one look at the dreadful sight, and then fled in horror from the presence of " a man who could take himself to pieces."
A The Child Martyr. text for his fate. The man of the people stood alone amid the silken grandees of royalty and aristocracy, N interesting instance of the most heroic courage and, provoked at his language, Sir William Walworth, and self-sacrifice occurred at the town of Morrow, Ind., on the line of the Indianapolis and Cincinnati Railroad.
A small girl, only nine years of age, was playing with her little brother and two younger children upon the railroad track, and while engaged in their juvenile sports, an express train dashed into sight, and rapidly approached the innocent group. The engineer blew the whistle of the locomotive, and our heroine, with her brother, ran from the track and reached a place of safety. On came the long and heavy train, and the little ones nestled closely to each other, and put their hands to their ears to shut out the deafening screeches of the locomotive.
Suddenly the little girl looked in the direction of the coming train, when behold, her two little playmates were toddling along the track toward it, perfectly unconscious of any approaching danger. The sight of the children was sufficient to prompt the noble-hearted girl to an act of remarkable bravery, and she instantly darted forward, seized them in her arms, and threw them off the track. A smile illumined her beautiful countenance as she saw her young friends beyond danger, and she then started to follow them, but it was too late. The moments spent in rescuing the children, who had been committed to her care, from instantaneous death, sealed her own awful fate, and before she could plunge on one side, the cow-catcher on the locomotive knocked her down, and the entire train passed over her body.
T The Death of Wat Tyler.
Lord Mayor of London, suddenly rushed on the popular leader, and, driving a dirk into his throat, hurled him to the ground. The fall of the chief would have been retaliated but for the presence of mind of the young King, who cried out: "I will be your leader !" and, by promising reform, soon broke the power of the insurrection. It is scarcely necessary to say that the promises made to the people in arms were never kept to the people when brought under control. 66 The Whistle.
OU have heard," said a youth to his sweet heart, who stood, Y While he sat on a corn-sheaf, at daylight's decline- "You have heard of the Danish boy's whistle of wood?
I wish that the Danish boy's whistle were mine." "And what would you do with it? tell me," she said, While an arch smile played over her beautiful face. "I would blow it," he answered; "and then my fair maid Would fly to my side, and would here take her place." "Is that all you wish it for? That may be yours Without any magic," the fair maiden cried; "A favor so slight one's good nature secures;" And she playfully seated herself by his side.
HE struggle for English liberty was a long but a sturdy battle. The Saxons were comparatively free; their institutions great and well conceived.
Norman invasion introduced feudal slavery; and but for the priests and monks, who were mainly Saxon, liberty would have been annihilated. As long as their power lasted, the rights of the people were maintained with steady progress. Argument did not always avail. Revolts came. An infamous tax, infamously enforced, aroused the commons in 1380, and the people rose under Walter, a tyler, whose nickname and trade have combined to give him his popular title, Wat Tyler. The unorganized army marched on London, and the King himself rode out to meet the insurgents, attended by the Lord Mayor and some of The maiden laughed out in her innocent glee, his court. "I would blow it again," said the youth, "and the charm Would work so, that not even modesty's check Would be able to keep from my neck your fine arm;" She smiled and she laid her fine arm round his neck.
Wat rode up and bore himself rudely enough. The wrongs of the people, tugging at his honest English heart, did not teach him to talk the heartless polished flattery of the palace; but his language gave a pre- "Yet once more would I blow, and the music divine Would bring me the third time an exquisite bliss; You would lay your fair cheek to this brown one of mine, And your lips, stealing past it, would give me a kiss." "What a fool of yourself with your whistle you'd make!
For only consider, how silly 'twould be To sit there and whistle for-what you might take!"