The Overton Reciter; Character Sketches for Recitation (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1889* edition. Excerpt: ...men, famished for want o' food, mad for want o' drink, broken-'earted for want of 'ope. I knowed afore wot want and privation was, only too well; but all we'd suffered together--me and Joe--was nothink to this. "Pis no use, sir, for you to try to understand it--it can't be done. You can't understand wot the awful question means, " Who shall die that the others may 'ave a chance to live? " But to that awful question it come at last, and as the sun was settin' one night the lots was drawn. One must die that the others may live t If no ship or no land was sighted w'en next the sun rose, a man must die. One of us six must die. A blank page was tore from Joe's Bible, which 'e'd saved from the burnin' wreck, and which was in 'is pocket w'en the boat picked 'im and me from the water. Six folded slips of the white paper was mixed together, and on one of 'em was scratched a rough cross. The man who drew the paper with the cross must die w'en the sun rose. And the lot fell on me I -. The night passed away. Shinin' bright and glorious over all the waste o' wide waters, the sun rose. Bright in the clear sky it shined, bright on the dancin' waves, brighter and brighter still on the sails of the ship wot saved us--saved us on that Noo Year's mornin'--for they told us arterwards as the night we drew lots was the last night of the old year, and the day we was saved was Noo Year's Day. Oh never did any sun shine so bright as the sun wot glittered on the great white sails of the ship that saved us--white, glistenin' sails, wot looked to us like the wings of angels sent from 'Eaven to save us. But besides the clear sky, and the blue waves, and the white sails of the ship, that Noo Year's sunrise shined on somethink else. It shined on the body of Joe, my...