Mrs. B. I promise you, my dear, I do not go to give him pleasure, or you either, but to satisfy my own curiosity.

Definitions.—­I’ron-y, language intended to convey a meaning contrary to its literal signification.  De-ri’sion, the act of laughing at in contempt.  In-com-pat’i-ble, that can not exist together.

LXXXIX.  THE RAINY DAY.

1.  The day is cold, and dark, and dreary;
   It rains, and the wind is never weary;
   The vine still clings to the moldering wall,
   But at every gust the dead leaves fall. 
     And the day is dark and dreary.

2.  My life is cold, and dark, and dreary;
   It rains, and the wind is never weary;
   My thoughts still cling to the moldering Past,
   But the hopes of youth fall thick in the blast,
     And the days are dark and dreary.

3.  Be still, sad heart! and cease repining;
   Behind the clouds is the sun still shining;
   Thy fate is the common fate of all,
   Into each life some rain must fall,
     Some days must be dark and dreary. 
          
                               —­Longfellow.

XC.  BREAK, BREAK, BREAK.

Alfred Tennyson (b. 1809, d. 1892) was born in Somersby, Lincolnshire, England.  He graduated at Trinity College, Cambridge.  His first volume of poems was published in 1830, but it made little impression and was severely criticised.  On the publication of his third series in 1842, his poetic genius began to receive general recognition.  Mr. Tennyson was made poet laureate in 1850, and was regarded as the foremost living poet of England.  For several years his residence was on the Isle of Wight.  In 1884, he was raised to the peerage.

1.  Break, break, break,
     On thy cold gray stones, O sea! 
   And I would that my tongue could utter
     The thoughts that arise in me.

2.  Oh, well for the fisherman’s boy,
     That he shouts with his sister at play! 
   Oh, well for the sailor lad,
     That he sings in his boat on the bay!

3.  And the stately ships go on
     To their haven under the hill;
   But oh for the touch of a vanished hand,
     And the sound of a voice that is still!

4.  Break, break, break,
     At the foot of thy crags, O sea! 
   But the tender grace of a day that is dead
     Will never come back to me.

XCI.  TRANSPORTATION AND PLANTING OF SEEDS.