I. In 1665 agreat plague raged in London. The insanitary
conditions of thehouses, thenarrowness of thestreets, the
dirty habits of thepeople, all helped to spread thedisease. The
people died in thousands, and every day carts used to go round
from house to house to collect thedead, accompanied by aman
crying: “Bring out your dead!” Therich who could afford to do
so left thetown and fled to thecountry, while thepoor
remained and died in great numbers.
(The)next year asecond misfortune came upon the
unfortunate city, namely, agreat fire. Out of theblue it started
in abaker’s shop, and aided by theeast wind, rapidly
consumed thewooden houses of which alarge portion o f
thetown was built, raging for afew days. Even thegreat
cathedral of St. Paul’s was destroyed by thefire, which, leaping
across thenarrow streets reached right to thebanks o f
theThames. But thedisaster did much good. It destroyed
many of thedirty, unhealthy streets, and swept away the
homes of disease, enabling better houses to be erected in
their place.
II. Sir Ralph the Rover was awicked pirate who sailed about
from sea to sea attacking the innocent merchant ships and robbing
them of thecargo. One day he came to thecoast of
Scotland and saw adangerous rock on which abell had been
placed to warn the sailors of thepresence of danger. Sir Ralph
thought that if he removed thebell, merchant ships would be
wrecked upon it, and then he could easily rob them. The great
pirate rowed to therock in asmall boat with aparty of sailors
and cut off thebell, which sank down into thedeep water. He
then sailed away across thesea and enriched himself in various
parts of the world.
After about ayear he returned and reached theneighbourhood
of the famous rock. Athick fog came on, and he
could not tell where he was, though he feared he must be
somewhere near thedangerous place. How strongly he
wished now that he had not cut off thebell from the rock!
Blindly theship drifted along the shore at the mercy of the
tide. All of a sudden, there was acrash; theship had struck
therock! In a few minutes theship filled with water and
sank to thebottom of thesea with all on board.