,
But soon in fierce battle is conquered
By William of Normandy's troops.

Then came William the Conqueror, a Norman,
Then William the Second, his son;
Then Henry and Stephen and Henry,
Then Richard (Coeur de Lion), and John.

Next Henry the Third, and First Edward,
Edward Second and Third, Richard, two (II).
Henrys Fourth, Fifth and Sixth, and Fourth Edward
Fifth Edward,--Third Richard, they rue.

Henry Seventh and Eighth, and Sixth Edward,
Then Mary, Bess, James, and Charles First,--
Eleven years then with no monarch;
Second Charles, Second James, not the worst.

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Then William and Mary, then Anne,
Four Georges, Fourth William, until
Came Victoria, long live her queenship,
For she wields her proud scepter with skill.

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_OUR LAND_.

A ship sailed over the blue, salt sea,
For a man, Columbus called,
Had thought that the world was round, and he
Of the old ideas had palled.

So, in fourteen hundred and ninety-two,
He sailed across from Spain,
And found our continent so new--
The "land beyond the main."

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But jealousies and rivalries
And bickerings begun,
And Christopher Columbus now
With grief was overborne.

Americus Vespucius soon
Our shores came sailing round,
And stole the naming of the land
Columbus sought and found;

While he, Columbus, lay in chains,
And died in sore distress;
Yet won for us who tread his land,
A lasting blessedness.

* * * * *

Young I-know is saucy and pert,
And thinks himself wondrously wise;
But I-know, the second, steps in all so curt,
And you'd think that each might lose his eyes.

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_SIGNS OF THE ZODIAC_.

THE annual path of the Sun,
The_ Ecliptic_ is called, as we see,--
And a belt, eight degrees, on each side,
The _Zodiac_ ever will be.

The principal planets all seem
To move in the zodiac lines,
While the belt, of itself, is cut up
Into twelve equal parts, called the _Signs_.

And these signs were first named, we are told,
From their fancied resemblance to beasts,
Which astronomers thought they could see
In the stars, from the West to the East.

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There is Aries, the Ram, then the Bull,
Which is Taurus,--then Gemini, Twins;
Then Cancer, a Crab and then Leo,
A Lion, and Virgo, Virgin.

Next Libra, the Balance or Scales,