HYMN. RALPH WALDO EMERSON.* 1 By the rude bridge that arched the flood, 2 The foe long since in silence slept, Alike the Conqueror silent sleeps, And Time the ruined bridge has swept Down the dark stream which seaward creeps. 3 On this green bank, by this soft stream, We set today a votive stone, That memory may their deed redeem, 4 Spirit! who made those freemen dare The shaft we raise to them and Thee. HELPS TO STUDY. Historical: Emerson wrote this poem to celebrate the completion of a monument which marks the spot at which the battle of Concord was fought, April 19, 1775. This hymn was sung at the celebration, April 19, 1836. Notes and Questions. What did this battle mean to the world? In what sense does the poet mean that it was "Heard round the world''? * For Biography see p. 250. 5 FORBEARANCE. RALPH WALDO EMERSON. Hast thou named all the birds without a gun; In man or maid, that thou from speech refrained, O be my friend, and teach me to be thine! HELPS TO STUDY. What birds can you name when you see them? How did you learn to know these birds? Why is it difficult to study birds when they are free? What qualities are necessary in the person who tries to study birds? What do you do when you see a wild flower which you admire? What word in the second line shows why it is hard to refrain from plucking the wood-rose? What things are contrasted in the third line? What do you think of the action described in the fourth line? What is meant by "high behavior''? What stories of high behavior have you read in this book? Words and Phrases for Discussion. "bread and pulse" "heart of trust'' "high behavior" A RILL FROM THE TOWN-PUMP. NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE.* I Noon by the north clock! Noon by the east! High noon, too, by these hot sunbeams, which fall, scarcely aslope, upon my head and almost make the water bubble and smoke in the trough under my nose. Truly, we public characters have a tough time 5 of it! And among all the town-officers chosen at March meeting, where is he that sustains for a single year the burden of such manifold duties as are imposed in perpetuity upon the townpump? The title of "town-treasurer" is rightfully mine, as guardian of the best treasure that the town has. The overseers 10 of the poor ought to make me their chairman, since I provide bountifully for the pauper without expense to him that pays taxes. I am at the head of the fire department and one of the physicians to the board of health. As a keeper of the peace all water-drinkers will confess me equal to the constable. 15 perform some of the duties of the town-clerk by promulgating public notices when they are posted on my front. To speak within bounds, I am the chief person of the municipality, and exhibit, moreover, an admirable pattern to my brother-officers by the cool, steady, upright, downright and impartial discharge 20 of my business and the constancy with which I stand to my post. Summer or winter, nobody seeks me in vain, for all day long I am seen at the busiest corner, just above the market, stretching out my arms to rich and poor alike, and at night I hold a lantern over my head both to show where I am and keep 25 people out of the gutters. At this sultry noontide I am cupbearer to the parched populace, for whose benefit an iron goblet` is chained to my waist. Like a dramseller on the mall at muster-day, I cry aloud to all and sundry in my plainest accents and at the very tiptop of my voice. 30 Here it is, gentlemen! Here is the good liquor! Walk up, * For Biography see p. 250. walk up, gentlemen! Walk up, walk up! Here is the superior stuff! Here is the unadulterated ale of Father Adam-better than Cognac, Hollands, Jamaica, strong beer or wine of any price; here it is by the hogshead or the single glass, and not a 5 cent to pay! Walk up, gentlemen, walk up, and help yourselves! It were a pity if all this outcry should draw no customers. Here they come.-A hot day, gentlemen! Quaff and away again, so as to keep yourselves in a nice cool sweat.—You, my 10 friend, will need another cupful to wash the dust out of your throat, if it be as thick there as it is on your cowhide shoes. I see that you have trudged half a score of miles today, and like a wise man have passed by the taverns and stopped at the running brooks and well-curbs. Otherwise, betwixt heat without 15 and fire within, you would have been burnt to a cinder or melted down to nothing at all, in the fashion of a jelly-fish. Drink and make room for that other fellow, who seeks my aid to quench the fiery fever of last night's potations, which he drained from no cup of mine.-Welcome, most rubicund sir! You and 20 I have been great strangers hitherto; nor, to confess the truth, will my nose be anxious for a closer intimacy till the fumes of your breath be a little less potent. Mercy on you, man! the water absolutely hisses down your red-hot gullet and is converted quite to steam in the miniature Tophet which you mis25 take for a stomach. Fill again, and tell me, on the word of an honest toper, did you ever, in cellar, tavern, or any kind of a dram-shop, spend the price of your children's food for a swig half so delicious? Now, for the first time these ten years, you know the flavor of cold water. Good-bye; and whenever you are 30 thirsty, remember that I keep a constant supply at the old stand. Who next?-Oh, my little friend, you are let loose from school and come hither to scrub your blooming face and drown the memory of certain taps of the ferule, and other school-boy troubles, in a draught from the town-pump? Take it, pure as 35 the current of your young life. Take it, and may your heart and tongue never be scorched with a fiercer thirst than now! There, my dear child! put down the cup and yield your place to this elderly gentleman who treads so tenderly over the pavingstones that I suspect he is afraid of breaking them. What! he 5 limps by without so much as thanking me, as if my hospitable offers were meant only for people who have no wine-cellars.— Well, well, sir, no harm done, I hope? Go draw the cork, tip the decanter; but when your great toe shall set you a-roaring, it will be no affair of mine. If gentlemen love the pleasant titilla10 tion of the gout it is all, one to the town-pump. This thirsty dog with his red tongue lolling out does not scorn my hospitality, but stands on his hind legs and laps eagerly out of the trough. See how lightly he capers away again!-Jowler, did your worship ever have the gout? 15 Are you all satisfied? Then wipe your mouths, my good friends, and while my spout has a moment's leisure I will delight the town with a few historical reminiscences. In far antiquity, beneath a darksome shadow of venerable boughs, a spring bubbled out of the leaf-strewn earth in the very spot 20 where you now behold me on the sunny pavement. The water was as bright and clear and deemed as precious as liquid diamonds. The Indian sagamores drank of it from time immemorial till the fatal deluge of the fire-water burst upon the red men and swept their whole race away from the cold foun25 tains. Endicott and his followers came next, and often knelt down to drink, dipping their long beards in the spring. The richest goblet then was of birch-bark. Governor Winthrop, after a journey afoot from Boston, drank here out of the hollow of his hand. The elder Higginson here wet his palm and laid it 30 on the brow of the first town-born child. For many years it was the watering-place, and, as it were, the washbowl, of the vicinity, whither all decent folks resorted to purify their visages and gaze at them afterward—at least, the pretty maidens did— in the mirror which it made. On Sabbath-days, whenever a 35 babe was to be baptized, the sexton filled his basin here and |