Foxholme Hall, and Other TalesKingston, William Henry Giles
General
Foxholme Hall, and Other Tales
Kingston, William Henry Giles
Adventure stories; Boys -- Conduct of life -- Juvenile fiction; Children's stories; Conduct of life -- Juvenile fiction
"Don't you know," said O'Mackerry, "Swift's definition in the essay
which he entitled `The Ars Punica sive flos linguarum, by Tom-Pun-Sibi,
Dublin?'" None other of the crew knew anything concerning it; O'Mack
therefore gave them the concluding part as a specimen, and in reply to
the question. "Punning is an art of harmonious jingling upon words,
which, passing in at the ears and falling upon the diaphragms, excites a
titillatory motion in those parts, and this being conveyed by the animal
spirits into the muscles of the face, raises the cockles of the heart,
and promotes the end of good fellowship, which is laughing."
Just at that moment the crew in training for the coming race between the
rival universities neared the Rose, for so the boat must now be called,
and, as in duty bound, the latter drew to the opposite bank to allow the
eight-oared cutter to pass at fullest speed, and then following in her
wake, the rest of the trip was passed in comparative silence, so eagerly
did our freshmen note each movement of that skilful crew.
STORY FIVE, CHAPTER ONE.
STORY FIVE--THE FORCE OF CONSCIENCE--A TALE BY A NAVAL CHAPLAIN.
Soon after I entered Holy Orders I joined the old ---, 74, in the West
Indies. As we were for a considerable time stationary at Port Royal,
Jamaica, and my health was suffering from the climate, I obtained leave
to take a few weeks' cruise with an elder brother, who commanded a brig
of war on the station. While I was on board the brig, she was sent in
search of a piratical craft, which had of late been committing great
depredations on British commerce in those seas. At length, after a long
search, we sighted her, made chase, attacked, and, after a desperate
fight, captured her, with a loss of several of our own men, and
one-third of the pirates killed and wounded.
Among the pirate crew a young man was brought on board badly wounded,
whose countenance exhibited such an expression of deep melancholy and
despair, that I could not help feeling compassion for him; indeed, I
persuaded myself that he must be less guilty than his companions. They
were, or their physiognomies woefully belied them, as villainous a set
of scoundrels as were ever collected together, and their captain, if
report spoke true, was the greatest miscreant of them all. I attended
daily by the bed-side of the unhappy youth I speak of, and had hopes,
although he said little, that I had worked on his mind some impression
of the awful state in which he was placed; but as he recovered his
strength his obduracy of heart appeared to return, and he seemed to have
persuaded himself that he should escape the punishment of his crimes.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account