Without my permission: let all the world hear!"

[Illustration]

But out of the water, on the rock as he stands,
Comes up, as if praying, what seemed like two hands.
"Ah! here is a subject already for me!
Come, my son, and fear nothing, I'll spare you," said he.

[Illustration]

But his majesty starts as if from a shock,
When he sees a big lobster make a bow on the rock.
"That is well," said the king; "but consider, my son,
This rock is my throne, and is only for one."

[Illustration]

The lobster, however, is slow to obey;
He spreads himself out; he will not go away.
"Are you deaf?" cries King Drake, "go, pigmy! Get down!
How dare you thus brave a drake of renown?"

[Illustration]

But the lobster, at this, nips King Drake in the leg.
"Oh, loosen your claw! Let go! Oh! I beg."
Tighter pinches the claw: "Rebellion! help! hear!
King Drake is in trouble: is nobody near?"

[Illustration]

In vain are his kicks; his cries are in vain:
The lobster clings fast, in spite of the pain;
Nor lets go his hold till they get to the bank:
Then the king waddles home, giving up throne and rank.

FROM THE GERMAN.

[Illustration]

THE POOR MAN'S WELL.

AMONG the Azores, is situated the beautiful Island of Fayal, with its
orange-groves and profusion of flowers. But, notwithstanding the fruit
and flowers, there is one thing which Americans who live there miss
sadly, and that is fresh, cool water. There are no lakes or ponds, such
as we have here; and so the people have to use rain-water, which they
save in large tanks or cisterns.

There are a few wells on the island, which, as the water rises and falls
in them twice in every twenty-four hours, are called "tide-wells." But
there was a time, many years ago, when the people had neither cisterns
nor wells, and were obliged to get water from hollows in the rocks. And
this is the story of the first well.

The year 1699 was a year when scarcely any rain fell. The grain did not
grow, the cows and sheep died from thirst, and many of the poor people
also. Now there was a very rich man on the island, who had come here to
live many years before, from another part of the world.

Though he was so rich, and might have done