Page 113 - 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 ...

At tlie last faint gash he makes, his knife— his faithful knife— falls
from his little nerveless hand, and ringing along the precipice, falls at
his mother’* feet An involuntary n of despair runs 'ike a deatli-
kiiell through the channel below, and all is still as the grave. A t
the height of nearly three hundred feet the devoted boy lifts his hope­
less heart, and closes his eyes to commend his soul to God.
T is but a moment— there! one foot swings off—he is ree'inp—
f,y
ri
trembling— toppling over into eternity ! Hark! a shout falls on his
ear from above! The man who is lying with half his length over the
bridge h;:ft caught a giimpse of the boy’s head and shoulders. Quick
as thought the noosed rope is wif.hiti reach of the sinking yonifi.
With a faint, convulsive effort the swooning boy drops his arms into
the noose. Dark ness comes over him, at'd with the words " God— ■
mother ” whispered on his lips just loud enough to be heard in heaven,
the tightening rope lifts him out of the last shallow niche. Net a lip
moves while he is dangling over that fearful abyss; hut when a sturdy
Virginian reaches down and draws up the lad and holds him up in his
arms before the tearful, breathless multitude, such shouting— such
leaping and weeping for joy— never greeted the car of a human being
so recovered from, the yawning gulf of eternity.— F j.n iu E u k r i t t .

THB CHARCOAL MAN.

“ CktHrco1 I ” v, :LH a prolonged souud, and imitate the echoes,]

T dTOUGII rudely blows the wintry blast,
And sifting snows fall white and fast,
Mark Haley drives along the street,
Perched high upon his wagon seal.;
] I is sombre face the storm defies,
.And thus from mom till eve he cries,—
<( Charco f ! eharco ’ J ”
While echo faint and far replies,— ■
.1 lark, O! hark, O ! ’’