Imatges de pàgina
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or eight pence either. Let me see, I have-there is, stones two shillings; then five days' work, that is five sixpences, in all makes four shillings and sixpence, and my silver penny, four and seven-pence.

Law. Four and seven-pence! You have not! (He was so earnest that he actually stood upright.) Four and seven-pence have you? Show it me, and then I'll believe you.

Jem. Follow me, then, and I'll soon make you believe me. Come.

Law. Is it far? (Lawrence followed, half running, half hobbling, till he came to the stable, where Jem showed his treasure.) And how did you come by it? honestly?

Jem. Honestly! to be sure I did; I earned it all.

Law. Dear me! earned it? well, I've a great mind to work too; but then it is such hot weather; besides, grandmother says I'm not strong enough yet for hard work; and besides, I know how to coax father out of money, when I want it, and so I need not work. But four and seven-pence! let's see, what will you do with it all?

Jem. That's a secret.

Law. I can guess. I know what I'd do with it, if it was mine. First I'd buy my pockets full of gingerbread, then I'd buy ever so many apples and nuts; don't you love nuts? I'd buy nuts enough to last me from this time to Christmas, and I'd make little Newton crack them for me; for that's the worst of nuts, there's the trouble of cracking them.

Jem. Well, you never deserve to have a nut. Law. But you'll give me some of yours? You'll give me some of your good things, won't you?

Jem. I shall not have any of these good things. Law. Then, what will you do with all your money? Jem. Oh, I know very well what to do with it! but as I told you before, that's a secret, and I shant tell any body. Come now: let's go back and play; their game's up, I dare say.

4. Lawrence went back, very much out of humor with himself and his eight-pence. If I had four and seven-pence, said he to himself, I certainly should be happy. Poor fellow! he did not know that an industrious and contented disposition is necessary to make any one happy.

5. Lawrence soon spent his money for apples and gingerbread, and when those were all gone, he had nothing to do but think of Jem's four and seven-pence, and to wish he was as rich.

6. From breaking the tenth commandment, by coveting what was his neighbor's, this idle boy at length became so wicked as to break the eighth, and steal Jem's hard-earned treasure, for which he was tried and sent to prison; a warning, both to parents and children, that "Idleness is the root of much evil."

LESSON 24.

DEFINITIONS.

Gloúces-ter, Glós-ter, a county of England.
Re-solv'ed, formed a resolution, determined.
Ac-cóm-plish, to finish, to complete, to bring about.
Pre-tén-ded, feigned, showed hypocritically.
Cáre-ful-ly, attentively, with care, watchfully.
Im-pá-tient, uneasy, hasty, restless, fretful.
Ex-céed-ing-ly, very much, greatly, very.
Bribe, to hire one to do a bad action, to corrupt.
Com-mit'-ted, perpetrated, executed, done,
Smóth-er, to kill by intercepting the breath.

The Murder in the Tower.

1. THERE was once a King of England called EDWARD THE FOURTH. When he died, he left behind him two little sons, the eldest only thirteen years of age, and the youngest but nine. The eldest whose name was also Edward, being so called after his father, was crowned, young as he was, by the name of KING ED

WARD THE FIFTH; but his uncle Richard, Duke of Gloucester was appointed to govern the kingdom till the little king should grow big enough to govern it himself.

2. Now Richard, under whose care Edward and his little brother were placed, was one of the wickedest men that ever lived. He wished to be King himself; and for this purpose he resolved to murder his little nephews. So to accomplish this object he pretended to be very fond of them, and seemed to do every thing that a good uncle ought to do; but this was alla pretence, that he might get them into his power, and out of the reach of their mother and all her friends, who would watch carefully over them.

3. The first thing he did was to pretend that it was not safe for these little boys to live in the palace where their father had lived, and he therefore took them to the Tower, which is a great old castle at the further end of London, where the wild beasts are now kept; but there is no beast in the Tower so cruel as this Richard was.

4. The little princes did not much mind going to the Tower, for they were too young to guess their uncle's wickedness; and indeed the Tower seemed to them as good as any other home, because they were told that their dear mother and their grandmother were to go with them.

5. But after they had been there for a short time, Richard got impatient of having their mother there, and he cruelly sent her away from her little boys. Oh! you may think how the poor mother cried, and how the poor little boys cried at parting; every body cried; even the very soldiers who came by Richard's order to take their mother away, cried; and Richard himself pretended to cry; but in reality he was exceedingly glad their mother was gone.

6. When he thus had the poor little boys quite in his power, his first attempt was to bribe the keeper of the Tower to murder the little boys; but the keeper was too honest, and he refused. Then Richard turned him off from being keeper of the Tower, and appointed

another keeper, a villain who was ready enough to do the bloody job. So this new keeper hired three ruffians, to come and murder these poor innocents; and it was settled that this shocking murder was to be committed on a certain night, while the little princes were asleep in bed.

away,

7. So that night, after the poor little boys had said their prayers, and kissed one another, and wished that they could have kissed their poor mother, who was far they went to bed and very soon fell asleep in one another's arms-for they were so good that they never forgot their dear mother, and they said their prayers to God every morning and every night; and when they went to sleep, they folded their little arms lovingly about each other.

8. While they were lying there fast asleep, the ruffians came in to murder them; but they were not agreed how to do it at first they intended to stab the princes, but then they were afraid the blood would be seen, and so at last they resolved to smother them, which would not spill any blood, and would prevent their making any noise; and so the ruffians took up the pillows, and forced them down over the faces of the little princes, who in spite of all the efforts they could make with their little strength, were smothered and died.

9. When they were dead, the ruffians took off the pillows, and then they saw the two little faces lying close together, and their arms round each other as if they had just kissed each other as they were dying. Then the ruffians took the dead bodies, carried them down the dark narrow stone stairs, and dug a hole at the bottom of the stairs, and threw the bodies into the hole, and covered them up with clay, and no one knew what had become of them.

10. Every one knew, indeed, that their cruel uncle had hired ruffians to murder them, but nobody ever knew where they had been buried until many years afterwards, when the bones of two little boys were found by accident, in digging a hole at the foot of the dark stone stairs, and then these bones were known to be the bones of the poor little princes.

LESSON 25.

DEFINITIONS.

Pá-pists, Roman Catholics, believers in Popery.
Prót-est-ants, those opposed to Popery.

Pár-lia-ment, the assembly of king, lords, and commons.
Góv-ern-ment, the power that makes and executes the laws.
Trái-tors, conspirators against the state.

Vaults, cellars, caves, holes in the earth.

De-feat-ed, frustrated, overcome, overthrown.
Riddle, a puzzle for people to guess, an enigma.

The Gun Powder Plot.

1. DURING the reign of King James I. the Papists were greatly enraged to find that the King, and the Parliament, and the people were all become Protestants; and they resolved to make a desperate attempt to put the King, the Parliament, and the other chief Protestants to death, in order that the Papists should have the rule and government of England, and should be able to bring in their religion again all through the country.

2. Many plans and plots were devised for this purpose, but none seemed great enough to destroy the whole Protestant party at once, which was what the Papists wished to do. At last, after many debates, it was resolved to attempt to blow up the Parliament House with gun-powder, on the first day of the Parliament, when the King and Queen and all the royal family, and all the Lords, and Gentlemen of the House of Commons were to be present; by which they would at one blow destroy the whole Protestant government.

3. So these wicked traitors hired a house next the Parliament House, and they set about digging a hole .under the wall of the Parliament House, in order secretly to place gun-powder under the house to blow it up.

4. For many days they went on working at this hole, and when they had made their way almost under the

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