24.  “Make me deaf!” shouted Harry, without even looking at the gold pieces temptingly displayed upon the table.  “I guess you will not do that, either.  Why, I couldn’t hear a single word if I were deaf, could I?”

25.  “Probably not,” replied Uncle Ben.  So, of course, Harry refused again.  He would never give up his hearing, he said, “no, not for three thousand dollars.”

26.  Uncle Ben made another note in his book, and then came out with large bids for “a right arm,” then “left arm,” “hands,” “feet,” “nose,” finally ending with an offer of ten thousand dollars for “mother,” and five thousand for “the baby.”

27.  To all of these offers Harry shook his head, his eyes flashing, and exclamations of surprise and indignation bursting from his lips.  At last, Uncle Ben said he must give up his experiments, for Harry’s prices were entirely too high.

28.  “Ha! ha!” laughed the boy, exultingly, and he folded his dimpled arms and looked as if to say, “I’d like to see the man who could pay them!”

29.  “Why, Harry, look here!” exclaimed Uncle Ben, peeping into his notebook, “here is a big addition sum, I tell you!” He added the numbers, and they amounted to thirty-two thousand dollars.

30.  “There, Harry,” said Uncle Ben, “don’t you think you are foolish not to accept some of my offers?” “No, sir, I don’t,” answered Harry, resolutely.  “Then,” said Uncle Ben, “you talk of being poor, and by your own showing you have treasures for which you will not take thirty-two thousand dollars.  What do you say to that?”

31.  Harry didn’t know exactly what to say.  So he blushed for a second, and just then tears came rolling down his cheeks, and he threw his chubby arms around my neck.  “Mother,” he whispered, “isn’t God good to make everybody so rich?”

Definitions.—­8.  Dis-con’so-late, filled with grief. 13.  Re-proach’ful-ly, with censure or reproof. 18.  Chlo’re-form, an oily liquid, the vapor of which causes insensibility. 19.  Startled, shocked.  De-fi’ant-ly, daringly. 23.  Af-ford’, to be able to pay for.  Ex-per’i-ments, acts performed to discover some truth. 27.  Ex-cla-ma’tions, expressions of surprise, anger, etc. 28.  Ex-ult’ing-ly, in a triumphant manner. 30.  Treas’ures, things which are very much valued.

XXVI.  IN TIME’S SWING. (77)

By Lucy Larcom.

1.  Father Time, your footsteps go
   Lightly as the falling snow. 
   In your swing I’m sitting, see! 
   Push me softly; one, two; three,
   Twelve times only.  Like a sheet,
   Spread the snow beneath my feet. 
   Singing merrily, let me swing
   Out of winter into spring.

2.  Swing me out, and swing me in! 
   Trees are bare, but birds begin
   Twittering to the peeping leaves,
   On the bough beneath the eaves. 
   Wait,—­one lilac bud I saw. 
   Icy hillsides feel the thaw. 
   April chased off March to-day;
   Now I catch a glimpse of May.