deck,
And he fixed his eye on the darker speck.

He felt the cheering power of spring,--
It made him whistle, it made him sing;
His heart was mirthful to excess;
But the rover's mirth was wickedness.

His eye was on the bell and float:
Quoth he, "My men, pull out the boat;
And row me to the Inchcape Rock,
And I'll plague the priest of Aberbrothok."

The boat is lowered, the boatmen row,
And to the Inchcape Rock they go;
Sir Ralph bent over from the boat,
And cut the warning bell from the float.

Down sank the bell with a gurgling sound;
The bubbles rose, and burst around.
Quoth Sir Ralph, "The next who comes to the rock
Will not bless the priest of Aberbrothok."

Sir Ralph, the rover, sailed away,--
He scoured the seas for many a day;
And now, grown rich with plundered store,
He steers his course to Scotland's shore.

So thick a haze o'erspreads the sky
They could not see the sun on high;
The wind hath blown a gale all day;
At evening it hath died away.

On the deck the rover takes his stand;
So dark it is they see no land.
Quoth Sir Ralph, "It will be lighter soon,
For there is the dawn of the rising moon."

"Canst hear," said one, "the breakers roar?
For yonder, methinks, should be the shore.
Now where we are I cannot tell,
But I wish we could hear the Inchcape bell."

They hear no sound; the swell is strong,
Though the wind hath fallen, they drift along;
Till the vessel strikes with a shivering shock,--
O Christ! it is the Inchcape Rock!

Sir Ralph, the rover, tore his hair;
He beat himself in wild despair.
The waves rush in on every side;
The ship is sinking beneath the tide.

But ever in his dying fear
One dreadful sound he seemed to hear,--
A sound as if with the Inchcape bell
The evil spirit was ringing his knell.

[Illustration: ONE DREADFUL SOUND HE SEEMED TO HEAR]

TOM BROWN AT RUGBY[1]

[Footnote 1: _Tom Brown's School Days_, a description of life at the
great English public school of Rugby, is one of the best known and
best-liked books ever written for boys. The author, Thomas Hughes, was
himself a Rugby boy, and many of the incidents of the story are drawn
from his own experience. One of the most interesting things about the
book is the picture it gives of Thomas Arnold, head-master of Rugby from
1828 to 1842. The influence for good of this famous scholar and
educator, called aff