round one central figure, and filling in the gaps with poetic
descriptions of the forests, mountains, lakes, rivers, and plains which
made up the abode of these picturesque people, he thus built up the
entire poem. The metre used is that in which the "Kalevala Thean," the
national epic of the Finn, is written, and the Finnish hero Wainamoinen,
in his gift of song and his brave adventures, is not unlike the great
Hiawatha.

Among Longfellow's other long poems are "The Spanish Student," a
dramatic poem founded upon a Spanish romance; "The Divine Tragedy" and
"The Golden Legend," founded upon the life of Christ; "The Courtship of
Miles Standish," a tale of Puritan love-making in the time of the early
settlers; and "Tales of a Wayside Inn," which are a series of poems of
adventure supposed to be related by the guests at an inn.

But it is with such poems as "Evangeline" and "Hiawatha," and the
shorter famous poems like the "Psalm of Life," "Excelsior," "The Wreck
of the _Hesperus_," "The Building of the Ship," "The Footsteps of
Angels," that his claim as the favorite poet of America has its
foundation. "The Building of the Ship" was never read during the
struggle of the civil war without raising the audience to a passion of
enthusiasm; and so in each of these shorter poems Longfellow touched
with wondrous sympathy the hearts of his readers. Throughout the land he
was received as the poet of the home and heart: the sweet singer to whom
the fireside and family gave ever sacred and beautiful meanings.

Some poems on slavery, a prose tale called "Kavanajh," and a translation
of the "Divine Comedy" of Dante, must also be included among
Longfellow's work; but these have never reached the success attained by
his more popular poems, which are known by heart by millions.

Longfellow died in Cambridge in 1882, in the same month in which was
written his last poem, "The Bells of San Blas," which concludes with
these words,

"It is daybreak everywhere."

JOHN CABOT.

Hickety, pickety, John Cabot
Longed to discover a brand-new spot.
He found Cape Breton, and, well content.
As fast as the billows would take him, he went
Back to his home with a very high head,
And unto King Henry the Seventh he said,
"I have found China, that empire old.
Give me a garment all trimmed with gold."
Hickety, pickety, John Cabot,
Garments and titles and honors he got.
And he said to his barber one summer day,
"I ha