Green-Mountain freeman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1844-1884, 1871-03-29
Our aluung folks.
Home AmuSementS ShakSpeareau
Game.
III LEoNE BLANCHARp.

A rainy evening cozy parlor, with a
bright fire and softly shaded lamp father
looking over the daily paper mother and
Lucy sewing; Will intent on mending his
broken skates Harry in full tide OF a
game Of romps with two-year-old Jessie !;
aunt May watching with changeful smile
the antics of the little one, and the pranks
of the bold, bright, handsome boy Grace,
with brown hair pushed back, and eyes fol-
lowing eagerly the pages her fingers are
softly turning; do you see them all
Presently Grace closes the book with a
vim, and losses it on the table, exclaiming
triumphantly, There I've finished the
last one Of Shakspeares plays.
Harry throws his cap up in the air with
a Bravo You'll read the dictionary
through next. wont you
Aunt May comes to the rescue, saying,
No danger of your reading anything
through, is there, Harry
Imminent danger, Auntie I've read
every word Of Robinson Crusoe, and in
Oliver Optics last story l only skipped a
page or two, now and then.
Good boy she said, patting his
shoulder; then turning TO Grace, y gu
haven't read Shakespeare through to lay it
on the shelf, have you?
% no, auntie I've only begun my
study Of the great dramatist As to read
ing it through, the idea never entered my
mind till l had read, in desultory fashion,
nearly all the plays. Then it occurred to
me that | might as well make clean
sweep Of it.
formed the same purpose years ago
but | have been very leisurely IN the exc
cution of it, partly from an underlined feel
ing that one very pleasant experience OF
my life would be closed when | had turned
the last page Of Shakespeare. OF course
| should not begin to exhaust it in one
reading. but there would be no uutrodden
realms before me no vague imaginings
of wonderful revelations yet to come
A true poetic fancy. | don't suppose
our practical Oracle ever thought Of it,
said the father, laying down his paper
And, by-the-way have a little game in
mind that may afford US some amusement,
at the same time testing and stimulating
our knowledge Of Shakespeare Harry, do
you think you could possibly keep still
long enough to join Us III take Jessie of
your hands Now, Oracle, as you have been
reading last, give US some quotations from
Shakespeare. and ask any question you
please about it, Let the first one who
answers correctly-unless others choose to
ask him further questions-give another
passage If any one misquotes or answers
incorrectly, he must pay some forfeit, OF
which mother must be the Judge.
Grace thought a minute and askid Who
was called the setter up and puller down Of
kings 2
20, learned that in my history lesson
yesterday. That was the earl of Warwick,
said Harry quickly.
Good : said papa. Will any one ques-
ton him farther
What kings did he set up and depose?,
asked Aunt May.
%, Henry and Edward, and Henry
again, and all the rest Of the Yorks and
Lancasters' was the rafting answer.
A little more accurate, master Harry.
or we shall have some forfeits out of you,
said his father but he insisted that that
was about all fellow could tell in regard
to the Wars Of the Roses, anyhow. and, as
no one seemed inclined to contest this last
proposition, the matter was dropped, and
Harry was called upon for the next quota
ton.
a horse horse my kingdom for
horse " he shouted with a theatrical air.
: Who said that 2
What a very obscure selection = sneered
Will, Richard Second of course
Not matter of course, at all, my cru
dite brother retOrted Harry; 1t was
Richard Third
Will was a little crest-fallen, but the
penance his mother imposed, which was
that he should get Saxe's poems from the
library, and read aloud his humorous YER
sion of the Tragedy of King Richard the
grace, and perfect good humor was re-
stored.
Harry having answered his own question:
had the privilege of proposing another.
But it did not seem to be forthcoming. He
knit his brows and thummed the table with
his fingers, and finally broke out with To
be or not to be, that -
That will do laughed Lucy. Hamlet's
SoliloquY, Now, some one tell me who
said The better part of valor is discre-
ton 7?
Sir John Falstaff. said Grace, prompt
ly, when sneaking out of battle by pre-
tending to be dead
The maxim doesn't rest on very good
authority, then, does it p sad her father. |
But what is your quotation
And, like the baseless fabric of this vision
The handicapped towers the gorgeous paIaces
Inc solemn temples, the great globe itself
Yea, all which it inheTits, shall dissolve,
And, like this unsubstantal pageant faded,
Leave not a rack behind.1
From the temnest said Amt NJ