A PICNIC BY THE BALTIC 197 NATURE. _Emerson_ 205 HENRY ESMOND. _William M. Thackeray_ 212 A GOOD DAUGHTER. _John Gorham Palfrey_ 222 THE SPIRIT OF THE AIR. _John Ruskin_ 225 THANATOPSIS. _William Cullen Bryant_ 228 JOAN OF ARC. _Thomas De Quincey_ 231 * * * * * GUIDE TO PRONUNCIATION 241 WORD LIST 242 THE CYR READERS BOOK EIGHT A MYSTERIOUS VISITOR. THOMAS CARLYLE. THOMAS CARLYLE was born in a little village in Scotland, in the year 1795. His father, James Carlyle, was a poor mason, so poor that at times there was scarcely enough food in the house for his family; but the father resolved that the boy should have an education, and saved, little by little, the money to pay for it. When Thomas was ten years old, he and his father walked to the town of Annan, where Thomas was to enter the academy. The father little dreamed, as they trudged along together, that one day his son would be famous as one of the world’s greatest writers, so great that even the Queen of England would wish to talk with him. [Illustration] He studied at the academy of Annan for three years. His father, dressed in his coarse workman’s clothes, once visited him there. Thomas was afraid that the other boys would laugh at him, but the sturdy Scotchman was so dignified that he won their respect. When Thomas reached the age of thirteen his parents decided to send him to the great University at Edinburgh. They walked through the village streets with him and watched him start on the highway. It was a journey of a hundred miles, and he traveled all the way on foot. These experiences made the boy brave and resolute. He was not afraid of the world. A few years after leaving the University he began to earn his living by writing. For many years his income was small, as he would only write what he thought would make the world better. He used to say that he would write his books as his father built his houses, so that they would last. He scolded the world for its faults, but he was very kind-hearted. His “History of the French Revolution” is a wonderful work. When the first volume of this history was written, Carlyle loaned it to a friend, and the manuscript was accidentally destroyed. Carlyle did not utter a word of reproach, although the loss meant months of study and thought, but set manfully to work and wrote it once more.