s silence of night.

What a contrast with the scene which that same midnight hour presented,
when in Domitian's time the eager populace began to gather at the gates,
impatient for the morning sports! Nor was the contrast within less
striking. Silence, and the quiet moonbeams, and the broad, deep shadow
of the ruined wall!

Where now were the senators of Rome, her matrons, and her virgins? Where
was the ferocious populace that rent the air with shouts, when, in the
hundred holidays that marked the dedication of this imperial slaughter
house, five thousand wild beasts from the Libyan deserts and the forests
of Anatolia made the arena sick with blood?

Where were the Christian martyrs that died with prayers upon their lips,
amid the jeers and imprecations of their fellow men? Where were the
barbarian gladiators, brought forth to the festival of blood, and
"butchered to make a Roman holiday"?

The awful silence answered, "They are mine!" The dust beneath me
answered, "They are mine!"

FOOTNOTE:

[Footnote 34: From "Outre Mer," by Henry W. Longfellow.]

EXPRESSION: Learn all you can about the Coliseum. When was it
built? by whom? For what was it used?

WORD STUDY: _Forum_, _Palatine_, _Via Sacra_, _Titus_, _Domitian_,
_Libyan_, _Anatolia_.

[Illustration]

THE DEACON'S MASTERPIECE[35]

Have you heard of the wonderful one-hoss shay,
That was built in such a logical way
It ran a hundred years to a day,
And then, of a sudden, it--ah, but stay,
I'll tell you what happened, without delay,
Scaring the parson into fits,
Frightening people out of their wits,--
Have you ever heard of that, I say?

Seventeen hundred and fifty-five.
_Georgius Secundus_ was then alive,--
Snuffy old drone from the German hive.
That was the year when Lisbon town
Saw the earth open and gulp her down,
And Braddock's army was done so brown,
Left without a scalp to its crown.
It was on the terrible Earthquake day
That the Deacon finished the one-hoss shay.

Now in building of chaises, I tell you what,
There is always _somewhere_ a weakest spot,--
In hub, tire, felloe, in spring or thill,
In panel, or crossbar, or floor, or sill,
In screw, bolt, thoroughbrace,--lurking still,
Find it somewhere, you must and will,--
Above or below, or within or without,--
And that's the reason, beyond a doubt,
A chaise _breaks down_, but doesn't _w