116 SIR HUMPHRY DAVY. LV.—SIR HUMPHRY DAVY. Ap-pe'al, call to think again on | Cu-ra'-tor, guardian. De-sist'-ed, stopped. SIR Humphry Davy was one of the most celebrated chemists that ever lived. He invented the Davy lamp, which has been the means of saving many lives from fire in coal mines. When he was a boy he attended a boarding school kept by an English clergyman, who was very kind to all the boys. One day the clergyman found a poor ragged man burning with fever, and almost bare of clothes, lying at his gate. The sick man was taken into a small room, which was sometimes used by the boys as a play-room. The doctor was sent for, and he declared the man to be sickening of small-pox. The clergyman did not like to frighten the boys by telling them that a man was there sick of the smallpox, but he called them together, and told them that none of them were to go into the small playroom until he gave them leave. The boys were displeased at this, for although they had a play-room large enough for twice their number, yet they liked the small one best, and they thought their tutor unkind to forbid them the use of it as formerly. Some of them determined to go in and see what was in this room. There could be no harm in doing this, seeing the clergyman and SIR HUMPHRY DAVY. 117 his wife went in and out of the room every day. Young Davy said it would be wrong to enter the room after being told by their tutor not to go; but one of the boys, called Dick Curran, resolved to lift the latch, and take a peep in. "It will be done in a minute," said he, "and nobody will be the wiser." If nobody is to be the wiser," said little Humphry, "we had better not break the law; and if we were all to be ever so much the wiser, I will not consent to our doing so." "You consent!" said Curran; "who wants your consent? We shan't ask your leave. It's our playroom I tell you. So come along, boys; let us go and have a peep at once." "But you shall not," said Davy; "you know I am curator of the play-room, and it is my duty not to let any one go in contrary to the master's orders." Stand out of the way," said Curran, making a rush at Davy; but in a moment Davy tripped him with his foot, and down came Curran with a thud on the ground. The other boys seeing their leader fall, and knowing they were in the wrong, stood back and began to feel frightened. "No one shall pass this line," said Davy, scraping one with his toe on the ground, "while I can prevent it," and he put himself in an attitude of defence. "Boys," said he, "what is the use of desiring to do what we are forbidden? Depend upon it, there is good reason for our being shut out 118 of the room. SIR HUMPHRY DAVY. Let us wait patiently for a day or two, and I have no doubt our tutor will tell us why." This appeal was not without its effect. The boys desisted from going near the play-room, and went to their studies and sports as usual. After some days they observed their master bringing from the play-room a poor sick man, whose face bore visible marks of that cruel disease, the small-pox. Young Humphry had prevented them from coming in contact with the disease, and they now felt thankful to him. The clergyman then told them all danger was past, and he praised them for their strict regard to his orders in keeping back from the infected spot. He did not know, that not his orders, but Davy's courage, had kept them back, and he gave them a holiday as their reward. All were so delighted with the resolute conduct of little Humphry that ever after they looked up to him as their friend, leader, and adviser. DICTATION. Peter Parley. Words in which ch sounds :-Chaos, character, chasm, chemist, choler, chorus, chord, anchor, catechism, echo, epoch, mechanic, technical, anarchy, eunuch, monarch, stomach, scheme, school. QUESTIONS. Who was Sir Humphry Davy? What did he invent? When he was a boy what did he attend? Whom did the clergyman find lying at his gate? What did he take the sick man into? What did the doctor say the poor man was sickening with? Into what did the clergyman tell the boys not to go? How did the boys feel at this? What did some of them determine to do? What did young Davy say? Which of the boys was determined to lift the latch and take a peep in? What did Davy say he was curator of? What was the curator's duty? What did Curran do? What did Davy do? When the other boys saw their leader fall what did they do? What did Davy then say and do? After Davy's appeal what did the boys desist from doing? What did the boys ever after look up to Humphry as? COMMON TO ALL. LVI.-COMMON TO ALL. THE sunshine is a glorious thing The moonlight is a gentle thing, It shines upon the fisher's boat As well as on the flags which float The dewdrops of the summer morn There are no gems in monarch's crown And yet you scarcely notice them, The music of the birds is heard, There are as many lovely things, As many pleasant tones For those who dwell by cottage hearths As those who sit on thrones. Mrs. Hawkesworth. 119 A FARM servant, one day having nothing to do, was desired by his master to take his horse and cart, and help a man to remove some rubbish from his house in a neighbouring village, to which the servant objected, on the ground of his having engaged to work on the farm only. "Oh! I see how it is," said his master. "You see there is no work here for the day, and you will not work elsewhere, that you may enjoy the sweet repose of sloth at home. But I shall find work for you. Go, take the wheel-barrow, and remove that heap of stones to the other side of the corn-yard, and tell me when you are done." On finishing the job he told his master, who then ordered him to wheel the stones back to the place where they had been before. When he had done as he was bid, he returned for new instructions, and was told to convey the stones once more to the other side of the corn-yard. The servant, as a matter of course, grumbled much at this useless labour, but the master said to him, "I have the best of ends in view in providing you with work. I intend, in the first place, to solve the question whether you or I shall be master. Secondly, I intend you to learn whether you can |