THE LIBERTY BELL.

HAT boy or girl is there in all this broad land who does not know the story of the wonderful old Liberty Bell; how it rang out the glorious tidings of the adoption of the Declaration of Independence? How this message came down from the steeple as though sent from the skies to the eager and cheering crowds in the streets of Philadelphia? How the bell, now old and cracked, bears upon its surface those words which can never be uttered without stirring the pulse of every patriot," Proclaim Liberty throughout all the land to all the inhabitants thereof."

SELECTIONS.

INDEPENDENCE BELL, JULY 4, 1776.

There was tumult in the city,

In the quaint old Quaker's town,-
And the streets were rife with people,
Pacing, restless, up and down; -
People, gathering at corners,

Where they whispered, each to each,
And the sweat stood on their temples,
With the earnestness of speech.

As the bleak Atlantic currents

Lash the wild Newfoundland shore,
So they beat against the State House,-
So they surged against the door;
And the mingling of their voices
Made a harmony profound,

Till the quiet street of Chestnut
Was all turbulent with sound.

That old bell now is silent,

And hushed its iron tongue,

But the spirit it awakened

Still lives,- forever young.
And, while we greet the sunlight,
On the fourth of each July,
We'll ne'er forget the bellman,

Who, 'twixt the earth and sky,

Rung out OUR INDEPENDENce;

Which, please God, shall never die!

THE BELL.

In some strange land and time,- for so the story runs,— they were about to found a bell for a mighty tower,- a hollow, starless heaven of iron.

It should toll for dead monarchs, "The king is dead;" and it should make glad clamor for the new prince, "Long live the king! It should proclaim so great a passion, or so grand a pride, that either would be worshipped; or, wanting these, forever hold its peace. Now, this bell was not to be dug out of the cold mountain; it was to be made of something that had been warmed with a human touch, or loved with a human love.

And so the people came like pilgrims to a shrine, and cast their offerings into the furnace.

By and by, the bell was alone in its chamber; and its four windows looked out to the four quarters of heaven. For many a day it hung dumb.

The winds came and went, but they only set it sighing; birds came and sang under its eaves, but it was an iron horizon of dead melody still. All the meaner strifes and passions of men rippled on below it; they out-grouped the ants; they out-wrought the bees; they outwatched the shepherds of Chaldea; but the chamber of the bell was as dumb as the cave of Machpelah.

At last there came a time when men grew grand for Right and Truth, and stood shoulder to shoulder over all the land, and went down like reapers to the harvest of death; looked into the graves of them