Page 111 - The model orator, or, Young folks' speaker : containing the choicest recitations and readings from the best authors for schools, public entertainments, social gatherings, Sunday schools, etc. : including recitals in prose and verse ...

then-; before them. They sec the names njf hundreds cut in the lime-
stone hutments, A illw feel in;.- comes over their young hearts, mid
their knives arc r:i iheir hands in an instant. "W h at man has done
man can do," is their watchword. wbiie they draw them selves i:[j and
carve iheir names .1 foot above those of a h midred fu’3 ^rowii men who
have been there before them.
They are all satisfied with fhi.s feat of physical exertion esceot one,
This ambitions youth secs a name just above I’.i.s rcaJi— a:: :mc whinli
will he green ill the memory of the world when those of Alexander,
tsesar and Bonaparte shall rot in oblivion. It was tile name of
Washington, Before he marched v. ith Braddock to that fatal field he
had been there am: lelt his name ;> f iot above au)’ of his predecessors.
It svas a glorious thought to wrile his name side by side with tlmt
of the Father of Ills Countiy. } le grasps his knife with a firmer hand,
and, clinging to a little jutting crag, he cuts a niche into the limestone
ahoufc a foot above where he stands ; he then reaches up and cuts
another for his hands. ' L’is a dangerous adventure ; anc, as he draws
himself no cnrefclly to his full zength, he finds himself a foot above
every name chronicled i:l that mighty wall.
While his companions aie regarding him with concern and admira­
tion, Ise cuts his name in wide capita’*. large and deep, into that flinty
album. Ilia knife is sthl hi his hand, and strength in his sinews, and
a new-created aspiration in his heart, .Again he cuts another niche,
and a gain he carves his name 111 larger capitals. This is not enough;
heedless of the entreaties of his companions, he cuts and climbs again.
He measures his length at every gain lie cuts. The voices of his
friends wax weaker and weaker, till their words are finally lost on his
car.
lie now for the first time easts a look beneath him. Had that
glance lasted a moment mote, that moment would have been his last.
ITc clings with a convulsive shudder to his little nit he in the :oeh.
His knife is worn half-way to the haft. He can hear the voices of his
terror-stricken companions below I Whal a moment! w hat a meagre
chance to escape destruction! There is no retracing lhs steps. It is