4.  Right opposite, the Dracut woods stretched upwards from the shore, beautiful with the hues of frost, glowing with tints richer and deeper than those which Claude or Poussin mingled, as if the rainbows of a summer shower had fallen among them.  At a little distance to the right, a group of cattle stood mid-leg deep in the river; and a troop of children, bright-eyed and mirthful, were casting pebbles at them from a projecting shelf of rock.  Over all a warm but softened sunshine melted down from a slumberous autumnal sky.

5.  My reverie was disagreeably broken.  A low, grunting sound, half bestial, half human, attracted my attention.  I was not alone.  Close beside me, half hidden by a tuft of bushes, lay a human being, stretched out at full length, with his face literally rooted into the gravel.  A little boy, five or six years of age, clean and healthful, with his fair brown locks and blue eyes, stood on the bank above, gazing down upon him with an expression of childhood’s simple and unaffected pity.

6.  “What ails you?” asked the boy at length.  “What makes you lie there?”

The prostrate groveler struggled halfway up, exhibiting the bloated and filthy countenance of a drunkard.  He made two or three efforts to get upon his feet, lost his balance, and tumbled forward upon his face.

“What are you doing there?” inquired the boy.

“I’m taking comfort,” he muttered, with his mouth in the dirt.

7.  Taking his comfort!  There he lay,—­squalid and loathsome under the bright heaven,—­an imbruted man.  The holy harmonies of Nature, the sounds of gushing waters, the rustle of the leaves above him, the wild flowers, the frost bloom of the woods,—­what were they to him?  Insensible, deaf, and blind, in the stupor of a living death, he lay there, literally realizing that most bitterly significant eastern malediction, “May you eat dirt.” 
          
                                                    —­Whittier.

Definitions.—­l.  Tran’sient (pro. tran’shent), of short duration.  E’qui-nox, the time of year when the days and nights are of equal length, i.e., about September 23d or March 21st.  Rigor, severity. 2.  Pic-tur-esque’ (pro. pik-tur-esk’), fitted to form a pleasing picture. 3.  Pan-o-ra’ma, a complete or entire view in every direction. 5.  Rev’er-ie, an irregular train of thoughts occurring in meditation.  Bes’tial (pro. bes’chal), brutish.  Lit’er-al-ly, according to the first and natural meaning of words. 6.  Pros’trate, lying at length.  Grov’el-er, a base wretch.  Bloat’ed, puffed out. 7.  Im-brut’ed, reduced to brutality.  Har’mo-ny, the fitness of parts to each other in any combination of things.  Re’al-iz-ing, making one’s own in experience.  Mal-e-dic’tion, a curse.

Notes.—­The localities named in this selection are in the vicinity of Haverhill, Mass., where the old Whittier homestead is situated.

4.  Claude Lorrain (b. 1600, d. 1682), whose proper name was Claude Gelee, was a celebrated landscape painter, born in Champagne, Vosges, France.