might read something as follows:
I sing of thee, my own country, the sweet land of liberty. Let all
the people who live in this land where our fathers died, in this
land which was the pilgrims' pride, sing songs of freedom till they
ring from every mountain side.

In the second stanza the poet in his religious fervor thinks of the
hills as being like temples. He calls America the land of the noble
free, meaning the noble freemen. Sometimes this line is printed
with a comma after the word _noble_. Then the line means land of
the noble man, the free man. The stanza as a whole might be
rendered into prose after this manner: I love thee, my country,
thou land of the noble free, and I love thy name; I love, too, thy
rocks, rills, woods and templed hills, and my heart thrills with
rapture like that which is felt by the angels above.

The meaning of the third stanza is clearer if we put it into prose
as follows: Let music swell grandly on the breeze, and let the
sweet song of freedom ring from all the trees; let every human
being sing the song; let all living things join in the chorus. Let
even the rocks break the silence and prolong the music with their
echoes.

The last stanza means this: O Thou great God, who protected our
fathers in the wilderness and who created for them and their
descendants the liberty we enjoy, to Thee we offer this devout song
and prayer: "Through all the coming centuries may our land be free,
and do Thou, great God our King, protect us by Thy far-reaching
power."

We should learn to think of a song like this as a unit, a perfect
whole, and the following summary will aid us in so doing:

First stanza--I sing this song about my country, and may such songs
of freedom ring everywhere within it.

Second stanza.--I love my country and every good thing in it
devotedly.

Third stanza.--Let every one join in songs of freedom.

Fourth stanza.--We sing praises to God, and ask Him to protect us,
and keep freedom forever ours.

[Illustration]

THE RETREAT OF CORTES[63-*]

_By_ WILLIAM H. PRESCOTT

There was no longer any question as to the expediency of evacuating the
capital. The only doubt was as to the time of doing so, and the route.
The Spanish commander called a council of officers to deliberate on
these matters. It