Graded Literature Readers: Fourth Book

13. While the king was in doubt what to do, a treacherous Greek came and told him about the path over the mountains. Xerxes at once sent soldiers along that path to attack the Greeks from the rear.

14. When the guards who had been stationed on the mountain brought news of the coming of the Persians, the Greeks were not agreed as to what they should do. Some wanted to retreat and abandon a position which it was now impossible to hold.

15. Leonidas bade them depart; but for him and his countrymen it was not honorable to turn their backs on any foe. For the manner of the Spartans was this: to die rather than yield. However sorely beset or overwhelmed by numbers, they never left the ground alive and unvictorious.

16. Leonidas had two kinsmen in the camp whom he tried to save by giving them messages and letters to Sparta. But one answered that he had come to fight, not to carry letters; and the other said that his deeds would tell all that Sparta wished to know. Another Spartan, when told that the enemy's archers were so numerous that their arrows darkened the sun, replied: "So much the better; we shall fight in the shade."

17. Some of the Greeks retired, but a few resolved to stay with the brave Spartans. And now the Greeks under Leonidas did not wait to be attacked in front and rear, but marched out into the wide part of the pass and assailed the Persians. The Persian officers drove their soldiers forward with whips. The poor wretches were pierced with the Greek spears, hurled into the sea, or trampled under foot.

18. The Spartans, knowing that death awaited them, were desperate, and displayed the utmost possible valor. When their spears were broken, they assailed the Persians with their swords. And when the swords gave out, they fought with their daggers, and even with their hands and teeth, till not one living man remained among them.

19. When the sun went down, there was only a mound of slain, bristling with spears and arrows.

The heroic Spartans were buried on the spot where they fell, and over them was raised a column with the inscription: "Strangers, go tell at Sparta that we lie here obedient to its laws."

20. The column and its inscription have long since perished, but the glory of the Three Hundred will endure forever.

I. Xerx´es.Hu mil´i a´tion: shame; disgrace. Ther mop´y læ.Lē ŏn´ĭ das.As sured´: sure; certain. Val´iant: brave.

II. Ȧ băn´dȯn: give up. Băde: ordered. Sōre´ly̆: greatly. Rē̍ tīred´: went away. Ăs sāiled´: attacked. Văl´or: courage. In scrip´tion: that which is inscribed or written, especially on a building or monument.

The Fairy Life

By William Shakspere

Come unto these yellow sands,
And then take hands:
Courtesied when you have and kissed
The wild waves whist,
Foot it featly here and there;
And, sweet sprites, the burden bear.
Hark, hark!
"Bow-wow,"
The watch-dog's bark:
"Bow-wow."
Hark, hark! I hear
The strain of strutting chanticleer
Cry, "Cock-a-diddle-dow!"

Whĭst: still; quiet. Fēat´ly̆: nimbly. Sprītes: spirits; fairies. Bûr´den: the chorus of a song.

Charles Dickens

1. Charles Dickens, one of the most popular of English novelists, was born in 1812 at Portsmouth, where his father was a government clerk. When he was two years old, the family moved to London, and thence to Chatham dockyard.

2. Charles Dickens's father was poor; but, fortunately for the book-loving boy, among the few family possessions was a small library of good books, and he spent many hours poring over "The Vicar of Wakefield," "Robinson Crusoe," and the essays in "The Tatler," "The Spectator," and "The Idler." He and a boy cousin amused themselves during their holidays by getting up private theatricals, for which Charles wrote a play, "The Sultan of India," which was greatly admired by his boy friends.

3. These were happy, care-free days, but they soon came to an end. The family went back to London. The father first lost his government position, and then was sent to prison for debt, according to the law at that time. The mother went to live with the father in prison, and Charles had to earn his living by pasting labels on blacking-pots. His wages were only six shillings a week, and with this sum he had to support himself. The home was entirely broken up; even the precious books were sold; and these were sad, lonely days for the ten-year-old boy.

4. Things brightened a little when he took lodgings near the prison, where he could see his father and mother every day. As it was a family trait to look upon the bright side of things, even the prison life was not intolerable. By and by better days came, and Charles had two years of school life.

5. Then he became office boy in a lawyer's office. In his seventeenth year he became a reporter, having learned shorthand in the reading-room of the British Museum.

6. His career as a writer began a few years later, when he sent some sketches of street life to a magazine. These sketches were signed "Boz." They were so good that a year later he was employed to write similar articles for a newspaper, and they appeared in book form under the title, "Sketches by Boz."

7. This led to an offer by a publishing firm for a series of articles to appear with a set of comic drawings. Dickens wrote for them in 1836 the famous "Pickwick Papers." This consisted of sketches relating the adventures of an imaginary club of Londoners during their visits to the country. It made Dickens famous at once. The next year he published his first novel, "Oliver Twist." This struck a new note in fiction, and gave pitch to the life work of the author; for from this time he never wavered in his purpose, which was the portrayal of the life of the lower classes and the righting of social wrongs.

8. One of the most popular of Dickens's books is "David Copperfield," which is supposed to contain many reminiscences of the author's own early days. In this book occur some of the most famous of Dickens's characters.

9. Among his other works Dickens produced a series of tales called "The Christmas Stories." The first of these, "A Christmas Carol," appeared in 1843, and for a number of years he published a story of this kind every year. The most celebrated of these stories are "A Christmas Carol," "The Cricket on the Hearth," and "The Chimes." In these stories Dickens did more than give to the world pleasant and interesting tales of domestic life; he portrayed the true spirit of Christmastide, with its lessons of peace and good will.

10. Dickens also wrote "A Tale of Two Cities," "Nicholas Nickleby," and "A Child's History of England," which is a great favorite with young people. He died suddenly in 1870 and was buried in Westminster Abbey.

This selection is from "Bleak House," one of the best of Dickens's novels.

Shĭll´ĭngs̝: the shilling is a silver coin of Great Britain, equal in value to about twenty-four cents of our money. Ĭn tŏl´ẽr ȧ ble: not to be borne. Pōr trāy´al: description. Rĕm ĭ nĭs´çĕnç ĕs̝: recollections. Çĕl´ē̍ brā tĕd: famous; well known.

Little Charley

By Charles Dickens

I

1. We found the house to which we had been directed by a friend of my guardian, and we went up to the top room. I tapped at the door, and a little shrill voice inside said: "We are locked in; Mrs. Blinder's got the key."

2. We had been prepared for this by Mrs. Blinder, the shopkeeper below, who had given us the key of the room.

3. I applied the key on hearing this, and opened the door. In a poor room, with a sloping ceiling, and containing very little furniture, was a mite of a boy, some five or six years old, nursing and hushing a heavy child of eighteen months. There was no fire, though the weather was cold; both children were wrapped in some poor shawls and tippets as a substitute. Their clothing was not so warm, however, but that their noses looked red and pinched and their small figures shrunken, as the boy walked up and down, nursing and hushing the child, with its head on his shoulder.

4. "Who has locked you up here alone?" we naturally asked.

"Charley," said the boy, standing still to gaze at us.

"Is Charley your brother?"

"No. She's my sister Charlotte. Father called her Charley."

5. "Where is Charley now?"

"Out a-washing," said the boy, beginning to walk up and down again, and taking the baby's nankeen bonnet much too near the bedstead by trying to gaze at us at the same time.

6. We were looking at one another and at these two children, when there came into the room a very little girl, childish in figure, but shrewd and older looking in the face – pretty faced, too – wearing a womanly sort of bonnet much too large for her and drying her bare arms on a womanly sort of apron. Her fingers were white and wrinkled with washing, and the soapsuds were yet smoking which she wiped off her arms. But for this she might have been a child playing at washing and imitating a poor workingwoman with a quick observation of the truth.

7. She had come running from some place in the neighborhood, and had made all the haste she could. Consequently, though she was very light, she was out of breath and could not speak at first, as she stood panting, and wiping her arms, and looking quietly at us.

8. "Oh, here's Charley!" said the boy.

The child he was nursing stretched forth its arms and cried out to be taken by Charley. The little girl took it in a womanly sort of manner belonging to the apron and the bonnet, and stood looking at us over the burden that clung to her most affectionately.