Sail on, nor fear to breast the sea! Are all with thee-are all with thee! H. W. LONGFELLOW. LESSON XLIX. THE MAN IN THE BELL. Vi çin'i ty, nearness. Con vǎl'sive, spasmodic; sud- sive movement. Prin'çi pal ly, chiefly; for the most part. Pre çip'i ta ́ted, thrown headlong. Im'pulse, a force acting sud In stinet'ive ly, without rea soning; by natural impulse. Ŏs'çil la'ting, vibrating; swinging to and fro. Cow'er, to shrink, as from danger. Teem, to be full to overflowing. Dis tinet', separate; different. culating or estimating. denly. Chan'çel, that part of a church between the altar and the rail-Re coiled', drew back; fell back. ing that incloses it. Stim'u la'ted, roused to action. IN N my younger days, bell-ringing was much more in fashion among the young men than it is now. Some fifty years ago, about twenty of us, who dwelt in the vicinity of the cathedral, formed a club which used to ring every peal that was called for. But my bell-ringing practice was shortened by a singular accident, which not only stopped my performance, but made even the sound of a bell terrible to my ears. 2. One Sunday morning I went with a companion into the belfry to ring for noon prayers; but the second stroke we had pulled showed us that the clapper of the bell we were at was muffled. The remedy was easy. “Jack,” said my companion, “step up to the loft, and cut off the hat;" for the way we had of muffling was by tying a piece of an old hat, or of cloth, to one side of the clapper, which deadened every second stroke. 3. I complied, and mounting into the belfry, crept as usual into the bell, where I began to cut away. The hat had been tied on in some more complicated manner than usual, and I was perhaps three or four minutes in getting it off; during which time my companion below was hastily called away, and his place supplied by a brother of the club, who, knowing that the time had come for ringing, and not thinking that any one was above, began to pull. The 4. At this moment I was just getting out, when I felt the bell moving; I guessed the reason at once-it was a moment of terror; but, by a hasty and almost convulsive effort, I succeeded in jumping down, and throwing myself on the flat of my back under the bell. room in which it hung was little more than sufficient to contain it, the bottom of the bell coming within a couple of feet of the floor of lath. I had not laid myself down a second when the ringing began. It was a dreadful situation. 5. Over me swung an immense mass of metal, one touch of which would have crushed me to pieces; the floor under me was composed principally of crazy laths, and, if they gave way, I should be precipitated to the distance of about fifty feet upon a loft, which would, in all probability, have sunk under the impulse of my fall, and sent me to be dashed to atoms upon the marble floor of the chancel, a hundred feet below. 6. Every moment I saw the bell sweep within an inch of my face; and my eyes-I could not close them, though to look at the object was bitter as death-followed it instinctively in its oscillating progress until it came back again. It was in vain that I said to myself it would come no nearer at any future swing than it did at first; every time it descended, I endeavored to shrink into the very floor to avoid its rushing weight; and then, fearing to press too heavily on my frail support, would cower up again as far as I dared. 7. The roaring of the bell confused my intellect, and my fancy soon began to teem with all sorts of strange and terrifying ideas. The bell pealing above, and opening its jaws with a hideous clamor, seemed to me at one time a ravening monster, raging to devour me; at another, a whirlpool ready to suck me into its bellowing abyss. I often thought that I was in a hurricane at sea, and that the vessel in which I was embarked tossed under me with the most furious vehe mence. 8. I trembled lest reason should utterly desert me; lest, when utterly deprived of my senses, I should rise; to do which I was every moment tempted by that strange feeling which calls on a man, whose head is dizzy from standing on the battlement of a lofty castle, to hurl himself from it--and then death would be instant and tremendous. When I thought of this I became desperate. I caught the floor with a grasp which drove the blood from my nails, and I yelled with the cry of despair. 9. I called for help, I prayed, I shouted; but all the efforts of my voice were of course drowned in the bell. As it passed over my mouth it occasionally echoed my cries, which mixed not with its own sound, but preserved their distinct character. Perhaps this was but a fancy. To me, I know, they then sounded as if they were the shouting, howling, or laughing of the fiends with which my imagination had peopled the gloomy cave which swung over me. 10. In twenty minutes the ringing was done. Half of that time passed over me without power of computation--the other half seemed an age. When the bell stopped, I was roused a little by the hope of escape. I did not, however, decide on this step hastily, but, putting up my hand with the utmost caution, I touched the rim. Though the ringing had ceased, it was still tremulous from the sound, and shook under my hand, which instantly recoiled as if from an electric jar. 11. A quarter of an hour probably elapsed before I again dared to make the experiment, and then I found it at rest. I determined to lose no time, fearing that I might have lain there already too long, and that the bell for evening service would catch me. This dread stimulated me, and I slipped out with the utmost rapidity, and arose. I stood, I suppose, for a minute, looking with silly wonder at the place of my imprisonment, and penetrated with joy at my escape. 12. I then rushed down the stony and irregular stair with the velocity of lightning, and arrived at the bellringer's room. This was the last act I had power to accomplish. I leaned against the wall motionless and deprived of thought, in which posture my companions found me, when, in the course of a couple of hours, they returned to their occupation. 13. But that was the last of my bell-ringing, and I have never altogether recovered from the shock of that awful experience. Even now, the chimes of sabbath bells, once sweet to my ears, strike me like a wave of agony, and ever recall the roaring cavern of that catheIral bell. BLACKWOOD'S MAGAZINE. "TWA WAS the night before Christmas, when all Not a creature was stirring-not even a mouse. Had just settled our brains for a long winter's nap, 2. Away to the window I flew like a flash, Tore open the shutters and threw up the sash. |