His sister's angel lingered near the entrance of the star, and said to the leader among those who had brought the people thither, "Is my brother come?"

And he said, "No!"

She was turning hopefully away, when the child stretched out his arms, and cried, "O, sister, I am here! Take me!" And then she turned her beaming eyes upon him, and it was night; and the star was shining into the room, making long rays down towards him as he saw it through his tears.

From that hour forth the child looked out upon the star as the home he was to go to when his time should come; and he thought that he did not belong to the earth alone, but to the star too, because of his sister's angel gone before.

There was a baby born to be a brother to the child, and while he was so little that he never yet had spoken a word, he stretched out his tiny form on his bed and died.

Again the child dreamed of the opened star, and of the company of angels, and the train of people, and the rows of angels, with their beaming eyes all turned upon those people's faces.

Said his sister's angel to the leader, "Is my brother come?" And he said, "Not that one, but another!"

As the child beheld his brother's angel in her arms, he cried, "O, my sister, I am here! Take me!" And she turned and smiled upon him, — and the star was shining.

He grew to be a young man, and was busy at his books, when an old servant came to him and said, "Thy mother is no more. I bring her blessing on her darling son."

Again at night he saw the star, and all that former company. Said his sister's angel to the leader, “Is my brother come?” And he said, "Thy mother!”

A mighty cry of joy went forth through all the star, because the mother was reunited to her two children. And he stretched out his arms and cried, “O, mother, sister, and brother, I am here! Take me!" And they answered him, “Not yet!" - and the star was shining.

He grew to be a man, whose hair was turning gray, and he was sitting in his chair by the fireside, heavy with grief, and

with his face bedewed with tears, when the star opened once again.

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Said his sister's angel to the leader, "Is my brother come?" And he said, "Nay, but his maiden daughter!"

And the man who had been the child saw his daughter, newly lost to him, a celestial creature among those three, and he said, My daughter's head is on my sister's bosom, and her arm is around my mother's neck, and at her feet is the baby of old time, and I can bear the parting from her, God be praised!”- - And the star was shining.

Thus the child came to be an old man, and his once smooth face was wrinkled, and his steps were slow and feeble, and his back was bent. And one night as he lay upon his bed, his children standing round, he cried, as he cried so long ago, "I see the star!"

They whispered one another, "He is dying." And he said: "I am. My age is falling from me like a garment, and I move towards the star as a child. And, O my Father, now I thank Thee that it has so often opened to receive those dear ones who await me!"

And the star was shining; and it shines upon his grave.

SECTION II. QUANTITY

Quantity is the length of Time given to the utterance of sounds, syllables, and words. While Pauses, as we have seen, group language into its mental significance, the various lengths of Quantity are especially adapted to the expression of the different shades of feeling or emotion. In the toll of the funeral bell or the groan of sorrow we hear a long attenuation of sound and recognize the expression of solemnity, sorrow, or gloom; in the clapping of hands or the quick impulses of laughter we hear the shorter Quantity and recognize gladness, mirth, or ecstatic joy; while in the moderate, placid flow of tone we recognize the poise of composure or tranquillity. Quantity, then, is the special agent of the Emotive nature.

Quantity naturally divides into (1) Long, (2) Medium, and (3) Short, which, in turn, are associated with the stopt and continuant sounds, and the indefinite, mutable, and immutable syllables explained in Part I.

1. Long Quantity.

The length of Quantity, like that of Pauses, is relative and not absolute; it is dependent upon the individuality of the speaker and the sentiment to be expressed. The longer Quantities are heard in nature in the cries and calls of animals, the groan of sorrow, the moaning of the wind, the roar of the ocean, etc., and are used to express sorrow, pathos, reverence, sublimity, apostrophe, courage, command, calling, etc.

Long Quantity may be given only on the continuant sounds of indefinite and mutable syllables, as any attempt to prolong the stopt sounds or immutable syllables results in drawling. The proper use of Long Quantity gives dignity and character to the more serious or lofty forms of discourse; its acoustic necessity in the various forms of calling or command is selfevident.

In passages requiring Long Quantity seek out the words. which embody the sentiment, and upon the continuant sounds and syllables of these words give Long Quantity.

Selection for Long Quantity.

NOTE. In the following selection the student should underscore with pencil the words which embody the sentiment, and overscore the continuant sounds of these words so that he may know the sounds upon which Long Quantity must be given. With faithful practice the eye and ear may thus be trained to detect quickly the right and wrong use of Long Quantity. If unemphatic words contain continuant sounds, they should not be given prominence; nor should an attempt be made to give Long Quantity to the emphatic words which do not contain sufficient time value to warrant its use. For example, in the first two lines of the following poem the words O, wonderful, stream, Time, runs, realm, tears, may be underscored. Silent letters are not to be counted, as a in stream, e in Time, or a in realm. The continuant sounds to be overscored are,

O, and n in wonderful, m in stream, m in Time, r and n in runs, and Im in realm. The word tears is emphatic, but its intrinsic time values would not allow sufficient Quantity to be marked.

In this manner the student should go through the entire poem-and then read it aloud, subject to the criticism of the instructor.

THE ISLE OF LONG AGO

B. F. TAYLOR

Ō, a wonderful stream is the river Time
As it runs through the realm of tears,
With a faultless rhythm and a musical rhyme,
And a boundless sweep and a surge sublime,
As it blends with the Ocean of Years.

How the Winters are drifting, like flakes of snow,
And the Summers like buds between,

And the year in the sheaf; so they come and they go,
On the river's breast, with its ebb and flow,

As it glides in the shadow and sheen.

There's a magical isle up the river Time,
Where the softest of airs are playing;
There's a cloudless sky and a tropical clime,
And a song as sweet as a vesper chime,

And the Junes with the roses are straying.

And the name of that isle is the Long Ago,
And we bury our treasures there;

There are brows of beauty and bosoms of snow;
There are heaps of dust, but we loved them so!
There are trinkets and tresses of hair;

There are fragments of song that nobody sings,
And a part of an infant's prayer;

There's a lute unswept, and a harp without strings;
There are broken vows and pieces of rings,
And the garments that she used to wear.

There are hands that are waved when the fairy shore
By the mirage is lifted in air;

And we sometimes hear through the turbulent roar
Sweet voices we heard in the days gone before,

When the wind down the river is fair.

O, remember'd for aye be the blessèd isle,

All the day of our life until night;

When the evening comes with its beautiful smile,
And our eyes are closing to slumber awhile,

May that Greenwood of Soul be in sight!

2. Medium Quantity.

As the word implies, this is the ordinary, unmarked Quantity, intermediate between Long and Short, given to utterance when one is not agitated by any strong emotion or unusual restraint. It is heard in the common conversation of all people and in the ordinary sounds of animate nature. It is used in elocution to express narration, description, didactic or heroic thought, and all unemphatic words which form the background and give contrast to the emphatic words of emotive language.

Selection for Medium Quantity.

NOTE. One of the most prolific sources of unnaturalness in reading and speaking is the failure to return to the easy utterance of the ordinary elements after the more vigorous expression of emotion. It is no small matter, then, to read or speak well the unemotive parts of discourse. The student should read aloud the following selection in a colloquial

manner.

THE BLUE AND THE GRAY

HENRY CABOT LODGE

From a speech made at a dinner to the Robert E. Lee Camp of Confederate Veterans, in Boston, June 17, 1887

I do not stand up in this presence to indulge in any mock sentimentality. You brave men who wore the gray would be the first to hold me or any other son of the North in just contempt if I