He looked up. The window was so distant, he ventured now to turn his eyes downward again: and there not more than thirty feet below him were Margaret and Martin, their faithful hands upstretched to catch him should he fall. He could see their eyes and their teeth shine in the moonlight. For their mouths were open, and they were breathing hard. "Take care, Gerard! Oh, take care! Look not down." "Fear me not," cried Gerard, joyfully, and eyed the wall, but came down faster. In another minute his feet were at their hands. They seized him ere he touched the ground, and all three clung together in one embrace. - CHARLES READE: The Cloister and the Hearth. F. Examine the picture by Becker (Figure 5) of Othello relating to Desdemona and Brabantio his wonderful adventures, of which he says:— 66 I spake of most disastrous chances, Of moving accidents by flood and field, Of hair-breadth scapes i' the imminent deadly breach, And sold to slavery, of my redemption thence And portance in my travels' history: Wherein of antres vast and deserts idle, Rough quarries, rocks and hills whose heads touch heaven, It was my hint to speak, such was the process: And of the Cannibals that each other eat, The Anthropophagi and men whose heads Do grow beneath their shoulders." Make up such a story as Othello might be telling in the scene represented, and tell it as he might have told it. On the cannibals and the misshapen men you will find some curious information in Sir Walter Raleigh's account of his voyage to Guiana. This will show you what the people of that day were wont to accept as true. Sir John Maundeville's travels may also be consulted for the same purpose. G. Rewrite Captain King's story of the charge of Lee and Hampton (page 221), putting the narrative in the mouth of a Confederate cavalryman. H. Tell briefly the story of Troy to a child of five, observing the method indicated in the following extract from one of Browning's poems: My father was a scholar and knew Greek. When I was five years old, I asked him once, "What do you read about?" "The siege of Troy." Whereat "What is a siege, and what is Troy?" He piled up chairs and tables for a town, - Helen, enticed away from home (he said) But whom - since she was worth the pains, poor puss Towzer and Tray, our dogs, the Atreidai, sought Always when great Achilles ceased to sulk, (My pony in the stable) - forth would prance And put to flight Hector - our page-boy's self. I. Examine carefully Von Roessler's Saved (Figure 6, page 287). Be sure that you understand every detail of it. Then write a narrative to which the picture might be an illustration. J. Look at the picture entitled Before Paris (Figure 8, page 290). See if you can make up from it a story with the title Surprised. |