3. The trees have a burden of white;

They stretched out their branches, I know
And filled their great arms in the night,

To play in the sunbeam with snow.
Snow, snow, snow!

The trees with their branches all curling with snow!

4. How spotless it seems! and how pure!

I wish that my spirit were so;

And that, while my soul shall endure,

It might shine far more bright than the snow.
Snow, snow, snow!

Were my heart but as pure and as bright as the snow!

5. It shall go with the breath of spring,

And down to the river shall flow;

And the summer again shall bring

Bright flowers for the silvery snow.

Snow, snow, snow!

Bright flowers shall bloom on the grave of the snow!

A

PART FIRST.-THE DISCOVERY.

MERICA was discovered in the year 1492 by Christopher Columbus. He was born in Italy, across the Atlantic Ocean; and, as he looked out

upon the vast sea, he said to himself, "There must be other lands which I can find, if I can only get ships in which to make the voyage."

2. He was poor. He went to the rulers of his native land for help; but they thought him foolish, and would not help him. He went to Portugal, another country famous for voyagers; but he received no aid.

3. He then went to Spain. The king treated him with scorn; but his wife, the Queen Isabella, thought so well of his plan, and was so kind to him, that she sold her jewels to pay his expenses in getting ready

to sail.

4. Finally he started, with three small vessels and ninety men, and provisions for one year, and steered straight towards the west. After a few weeks, his men became frightened, thinking that they should never see either a new land or their dear native land again.

5. Columbus took every means to cheer them up. He succeeded for a little time; but they again refused to go further. Almost in despair, he made them a solemn promise, that, if land was not discovered in three days, he would turn back. The first day went by, and no land was seen. The second,

and no land.

6. Sadly the hours of the third day were passing: it was ten o'clock in the evening, when, lo! a light gleamed over the sea. He knew that this light was on some land. Who can imagine the joy he felt? In the morning he saw the island, which he named

St. Salvador, that is, Holy Saviour. This island lies directly east of the south part of Florida.

7. With tears of joy, Columbus and his men fell upon their knees and gave thanks to Almighty God, who had carried them through great trials and difficulties, and made them the happy discoverers of a new world.

When, and by whom, was America discovered? Who assisted Columbus to make the voyage? How many ships did he have for the enterprise? What did he and his men do when the land was found?

LESSON XXX.

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AMERICA.

PART SECOND.-HOW IT WAS SETTLED.

HIS western continent should have been named

from Columbus, its brave discoverer. But another man, whose name was Americus Vespucius, having sailed here a few years after Columbus, gave such a flattering account of his own voyage, that the country was called America, in compliment to him.

2. The discovery of this new world caused great joy and excitement in Europe. Other nations followed the example of Spain. England, France, and Holland sent several expeditions across the ocean, and made a number of settlements in the northern part of the new continent.

3. At length, by conquest and treaty, the English secured most of these claims. A part of these early settlements still belong to Great Britain; but the rest, which used to be called the Thirteen Colonies, were lost to England nearly a hundred years ago.

4. They were too far, perhaps, from the mothercountry to be well or wisely governed. Great troubles soon began to be felt by the colonists, and serious complaints were made from time to time of the injustice and hardship with which they were treated.

5. The British king and parliament cruelly oppressed the American people. The governors who were sent from England to rule them abused and cheated them. At length, in 1765, Great Britain claimed the right to tax the colonists without their

consent.

6. Tea, among other things, was heavily taxed. Soon after the tax was laid, several cargoes of tea were sent to America; but the people were determined that they would buy none of it. One cargo, which was sent to Boston, was thrown into the sea by men disguised as Indians.

7. The people here had borne a great deal from England, because she was their mother-country, and they loved her. But they would not submit to her oppression and injustice any longer; and this was the cause of the American Revolution.

From whom should this country have been named? How came it to be called America? What nations sent settlers to this country? How did the English secure most of those claims? How did Great Britain treat her American colonies?

OFTEN

FTEN and long did the American colonies appeal to England to redress the wrongs which 'were inflicted on them, and to provide a remedy for the abuses under which they suffered. But all these appeals were in vain: the British Government still refused to do them justice.

2. Indeed, the only answers to their complaints and petitions were new and severer acts of tyranny. Insult was added to injury, and at length the blood of American citizens was shed by British troops at Lexington, Massachusetts, April 19, 1775. Then began the war of the Revolution.

3. In June, George Washington of Virginia was appointed by the Americans commander-in-chief of their armies. The battle of Bunker Hill was fought at Charlestown, Massachusetts, on the seventeenth day of June in the same year.

4. On the fourth of July, 1776, the deputies from the several colonies, who had met in Congress at Philadelphia, after due deliberation, renounced their connection with Great Britain, and declared their country free and independent, under the name of the Thirteen United States of America.