grow up! And all about a
paltry button off one of your wristbands! A decent man would n't have
mentioned it. Why don't I hold my tongue? Because I won't hold my tongue.
I'm to have my peace of mind destroyed--I 'm to be worried into my grave
for a miserable shirt button, and I'm to hold my tongue! Oh! but that's
just like you men!

9. But I know what I'll do for the future. Every button you have may drop
off, and I won't so much as put a thread to 'em. And I should like to know
what you'll do then! Oh, you must get somebody else to sew 'em, must you?
That's a pretty threat for a husband to hold out to his wife! And to such
a wife as I've been, too: such a slave to your buttons, as I may say.
Somebody else to sew 'em'! No, Caudle, no; not while I'm alive! When I'm
dead--and, with what I have to bear, there's no knowing how soon that may
be--when I 'm dead, I say--oh! what a brute you must be to snore so!

10. You're not snoring? Ha! that's what you always say; but that's nothing
to do with it. You must get somebody else to sew 'em, must you? Ha! I
should n't wonder. Oh, no! I should be surprised at nothing now! Nothing
at all! It's what people have always told me it would come to; and now the
buttons have opened my eyes! But the whole world shall know of your
cruelty, Mr. Caudle. After the wife I've been to you. Caudle, you've a
heart like a hearthstone, you have!

DEFINITIONS.--5. Ag'gra-vat-ing, provoking, irritating. 6. Sink'ing,
failing in strength. 7. Vin-dic'tive, revengeful. 8. Pal'try, mean,
contemptible.

XLVI. THE VILLAGE BLACKSMITH.

1. Under a spreading chestnut tree
The village smithy stands;
The smith, a mighty man is he,
With large and sinewy hands;
And the muscles of his brawny arms
Are strong as iron bands.

2. His hair is crisp, and black, and long,
His face is like the tan;
His brow is wet with honest sweat,
He earns whate'er he can,
And looks the whole world in the face,
For he owes not any man.

3. Week in, week out, from morn till night,
You can hear his bellows blow;
You can hear him swing his heavy sledge,
With measured beat and slow,
Like a sexton ringing the village bell,
When the evening sun is low.

4. And children coming home from school
Look in at the open door;
They love to see the flaming forge,
And hear the bellows roar,
And catch the burning sparks that fly
Like chaff from a thr