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Access 2016 Instructor’s Manual Page 1 of 9

Access Module 3: Using Forms

A Guide to this Instructor’s Manual:
We have designed this Instructor’s Manual to supplement and enhance your teaching experience
through classroom activities and a cohesive module summary.

This document is organized chronologically, using the same heading in blue that you see in the textbook.
Under each heading you will find (in order): Lecture Notes that summarize the section, Teacher Tips,
Classroom Activities, and Lab Activities.

In addition to this Instructor’s Manual, our Instructor’s Resources Site also contains PowerPoint
Presentations, Test Banks, and other supplements to aid in your teaching experience.

Table of Contents
Module Objectives 2
Access 54: Use the Form Wizard 2
Access 56: Create a Split Form 3
Access 58: Use Form Layout View 3
Access 60: Add Fields to a Form 5
Access 62: Modify Form Controls 6
Access 64: Create Calculations 7
Access 66: Modify Tab Order 7
Access 68: Insert an Image 10
End of Module Material 11

Module Objectives
Students will have mastered the material in Access Module 3 when they can:
 Use the Form Wizard  Modify form controls
 Create a split form  Create calculations
 Use Form Layout View  Modify tab order
 Add fields to a form  Insert an image

Access 54: Use the Form Wizard

LEARNING OUTCOMES
• Create a form with the Form Wizard
• Sort data in a form
• Describe form terminology and views

© 2017 Cengage Learning®. All rights reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, in whole or in part, except for use as permitted in a
license distributed with a certain product or service or otherwise on a password-protected website for classroom use.
Access 2016 Instructor’s Manual Page 2 of 9

LECTURE NOTES
• Explain what a form is, and discuss its productivity and security benefits for the database user.
• Explain the role of the database designer or application developer in directing access to all database
objects, including forms generated by the Form Wizard.
• Use FIGURE 3-1 to show the new form in Form View and to define each of the following form
elements: control, label, text box, and combo box.
• Use TABLE 3-1 to review the form views available in Access.

TEACHER TIPS
In these lessons, emphasize the basic difference between Design View (building an object) and Form or
Datasheet View (working with data). Depending on how much of this information is new, students need
time to digest new details. Review basic concepts such as “all data is stored in tables” or the basic
differences between Design View and Datasheet or Form View.

Encourage students to right-click often to see what options are appropriate to the item being right-
clicked. This will narrow the vast number of commands on the Ribbon to a manageable few and helps
teach students the application.

Students should also save their work frequently.

CLASSROOM ACTIVITIES
1. Group Activity: Ask students to find a form on the Internet, print it, and identify what kind of
controls have been used. They will probably find that a large majority of the controls on forms of
any kind are labels and text boxes. Try to find combo boxes, option buttons, and check boxes too.
2. Critical Thinking: You are the admissions director for the college. What forms would you need to do
your job?

LAB ACTIVITIES
Use the Form Wizard to create forms based on the tables in this module’s database. Do not give
students any other instructions other than to create the forms using wizards. Have students print one
page of their form, and in teams of two, share and compare them. Ask them to identify the things they
both like and would improve on each other’s form design. Answers might include moving labels closer to
text boxes, aligning labels, widening or shortening text boxes, moving text boxes, changing some text
boxes into combo boxes, and more.

Access 56: Create a Split Form

LEARNING OUTCOMES
• Create a split form
• Enter and edit data in a form

LECTURE NOTES
• Be sure to explain that forms generally show only one record at a time.
• Point out the benefits of using a form for data entry versus a datasheet; most users find forms easier
and faster to use. Then discuss the benefit of the split form in bringing together the best of both,
using FIGURE 3-4 as an example.

© 2017 Cengage Learning®. All rights reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, in whole or in part, except for use as permitted in a
license distributed with a certain product or service or otherwise on a password-protected website for classroom use.
Access 2016 Instructor’s Manual Page 3 of 9

• Explain that fields can be added in any arrangement on a form. Use TABLE 3-2 to review the form
creation tools available in Access.

CLASSROOM ACTIVITIES
1. Critical Thinking: In what circumstances are split forms particularly useful?
2. Quick Quiz:
1. Which form creation tool do you use when you want to create a form from scratch in Form
Design View? (Answer: Form Design tool)
2. Which form creation tool do you use when you want to create a form from scratch in Form
Layout View? (Answer: Blank Form tool)
3. Which form creation tool do you use when you want to create a form by answering a series
of questions? (Answer: Form Wizard tool)

Access 58: Use Form Layout View

LEARNING OUTCOMES
• Resize controls in Layout View
• Format controls in Layout View

LECTURE NOTES:
• Discuss the use of Layout View (as shown in FIGURE 3-5) for making design changes to a form while
you are browsing the data.
• Explain that many design tasks can be done in either Layout View or Design View, and it is not
necessary that students master both views immediately.
• Explain that Design View will provide more design options (which also makes it a bit more
complicated). Layout View allows users to browse data while making design changes, which may be
easier for new users.
• Review the formatting commands in TABLE 3-4.

TEACHER TIPS
The Home tab contains the View button, which is used constantly in Access. Students should always
know how to find the View button. You also can switch views using the buttons on the lower right of the
status bar.

Access allows multiple levels of Undo based on the view you are using. Undo is also limited in Access
based on the last time you switched views and saved the object. Point out that students cannot rely on
multiple levels of undo in Access as they may have experienced in Word or Excel, therefore they should
check their work and save it frequently

CLASSROOM ACTIVITIES
1. Group Activity: Have students practice the mouse pointer shapes shown in TABLE 3-3. Recognizing
the sizing handles and mouse pointer shapes, and what they mean, is an essential form design skill.

2. Quick Quiz:
1. What view lets you make some design changes to a form while you are browsing the data?
(Answer: Layout View)

© 2017 Cengage Learning®. All rights reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, in whole or in part, except for use as permitted in a
license distributed with a certain product or service or otherwise on a password-protected website for classroom use.
Access 2016 Instructor’s Manual Page 4 of 9

2. What must you do first if you want to make formatting enhancements to multiple controls at
the same time? (Answer: Select the control text boxes at the same time so that the formatting
changes will be made to all of the selected controls)

Access 60: Add Fields to a Form

LEARNING OUTCOMES
• Add fields to a form
• Align controls
• Resize controls

LECTURE NOTES:
• Discuss the function of the Field List window in FIGURE 3-7. Point out that the field list contains all
of the fields available to that form. If the form is based on a table, the field list will contain all the
fields in that table. If the form is based on a query, the field list may contain fields from multiple
tables, as defined by the query.
• Point out how to open and close field lists. Sometimes more information on the screen (that is not
being used) can confuse things. Encourage students to manage their screens to display only those
items that are needed for the task at hand.
• Describe the difference between bound and unbound controls.

TEACHER TIP
The fields from multiple tables and queries can be shown in the field list even though the form itself is
based on only one table or query. It’s good practice to intentionally build a query that contains all the
fields you want on the form before building the form. Selecting fields from the field list of various tables
(versus intentionally building a query ahead of time to collect the fields you want) is allowed in Access,
but creates a long SQL string in the background as the form’s record source. It will be more logical and
easier to modify the field list of a form or report if you intentionally gather those fields into a query
ahead of time.

Emphasize that the most important property for a bound control is the Control Source property on the
Data tab because it identifies which field the text box is “bound” to. Point out that an unbound control
such as a label would not have a Control Source property because it does not display data.

CLASSROOM ACTIVITIES
1. Class Discussion: Divide the class into small groups. Assign each group a different database. Example
databases include: University database (Students, Teachers, Courses); Employment database
(Employees, Departments); Bookstore database (Books, Authors, Publishers); and Video Store
database (Movies, Directors, Actors, DVDs). Ask students to identify forms that each database would
need. Further ask them what types of controls the forms would require.

2. Quick Quiz:
1. What are two differences between bound and unbound controls? (Answer: Bound controls
display underlying Access data. Unbound controls are not tied to data. The data displayed by
bound controls changes as you move through records in Form View. Unbound controls,
regardless of if they are labels, lines, or command buttons, do not change in appearance as you
move from record to record in Form View.)

© 2017 Cengage Learning®. All rights reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, in whole or in part, except for use as permitted in a
license distributed with a certain product or service or otherwise on a password-protected website for classroom use.
Access 2016 Instructor’s Manual Page 5 of 9

2. What lists the database tables and the fields those tables contain? (Answer: the Field List)

Access 62: Modify Form Controls

LEARNING OUTCOMES
• Modify control properties
• Define bound and unbound controls

LECTURE NOTES:
• Of prime importance in modifying form controls is understanding the Property Sheet shown in
FIGURE 3-9. Stress to students that they don’t need to master all of the properties they see. Rather,
they simply need to know, conceptually, about the purpose of the property sheet and how
properties are organized by tab (Format, Data, Event, Other, All).
• Emphasize the importance of careful syntax in entering property values.
• Discuss the link between the Text Align property in the Property Sheet and the adjustment to this
property via the Ribbon.
• Review all of the form controls in TABLE 3-4.

TEACHER TIP
Design View, bound versus unbound controls, varying mouse pointer shapes, the field list, and the
Property Sheet are generally all new concepts to students. Tell students to go slow. None of these
concepts are extremely difficult, but the number of new details takes some time to digest. Because of
the cumulative nature of Access, if students don’t understand one lesson, the rest will not be clear
either. Slow them down and make sure they understand each lesson before moving to the next.

The field name displays in a text box in Design View. It is generally easier to select the field name from
the Control Source property list in the Property Sheet (which avoids typos, too) than to type the field
name directly into the text box.

The difference between labels and text boxes in Access is a common problem. Spend a great deal of
time differentiating the two controls, the purpose for each, and how to identify and modify each in
Design and Layout View. The difference between these two controls is even less obvious when working
with reports that have white backgrounds, so it’s very important that students be able to differentiate
labels from text boxes in forms before they progress to lessons on reports (Module 4).

CLASSROOM ACTIVITIES
1. Assign a Project:
Have students design a form with as many form controls listed in TABLE 3-4 as possible. Have them
create the form on paper based on a subject they are already familiar with such as students,
employees, or colleges.

© 2017 Cengage Learning®. All rights reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, in whole or in part, except for use as permitted in a
license distributed with a certain product or service or otherwise on a password-protected website for classroom use.
Access 2016 Instructor’s Manual Page 6 of 9

2. Critical Thinking: What are the characteristics of a field that would lend it to be displayed using a
combo box on a form? What are the characteristics of a field that would lend it to be displayed using
a list box? Provide several examples for a form that displays student information. (Fields where the
values are unchanging and limited are better candidates for a list box. Combo boxes are more
flexible for data entry.)

LAB ACTIVITIES
1. Have students click various properties in the Property Sheet and observe the description of the
property in the status bar. Have each student report back to the group on a property they found
worth discussing and why.

2. With the Property Sheet open, and the Format tab clicked, have students change the font or
background color of a control and observe the number that is entered into the color property. Ask
them what they think the number represents. Click the Build button for any color property and view
the options. Now ask them why colors are represented with such large numbers. The point of this
exercise is to make sure students know that any formatting change they make from the Ribbon is
automatically reflected in the Property Sheet. A secondary point of this exercise is to show them the
extensive number of options available on the Property Sheet.

Access 64: Create Calculations

LEARNING OUTCOMES
• Build calculations on a form
• Move controls on a form

LECTURE NOTES:
• Explain that calculations can be created in queries or forms/reports. If a calculation will be used over
and over again, explain that it should be created in a query once, then used by the multiple forms
and reports that need that calculation. Discuss the role of the Control Source property in providing
the connection between a text box and a database field.
• Make sure all students know that expressions are entered in text boxes and that they start with an
equal sign (like formulas in Excel). Field names are entered in [square brackets], not (parentheses) or
{curly braces}.
• Explain that “calculations” can also be made on text. For example, a common text expression is
adding the first name to the last name separated by a space. The formula for that would look similar
to the following: =[FirstName]&” “&[LastName]. This process is called concatenation. When
concatenating pieces of text into one expression, the & (ampersand) is used to add the pieces of the
text together.
• Emphasize that calculations automatically update when the data they reference automatically
update, just like formulas in Excel. Therefore, any data that can be calculated in Access should be
calculated, using expressions like those in TABLE 3-5. Understanding calculations in Access greatly
improves data accuracy and data entry productivity.
• Review the use of the following functions from TABLE 3-5: Sum, Avg, Date, and Left.

TEACHER TIPS
Being able to select more than one control at a time is an important productivity tool. Designing forms
can be an excruciating activity, especially if a few productivity tips such as how to select multiple
controls is not understood. Precise alignment and movement skills help students build professional

© 2017 Cengage Learning®. All rights reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, in whole or in part, except for use as permitted in a
license distributed with a certain product or service or otherwise on a password-protected website for classroom use.
Access 2016 Instructor’s Manual Page 7 of 9

forms and are extremely important. Generally students can align and move controls more precisely
using the menu options and quick keystrokes rather than dragging them with the mouse.

When controls overlap, they are hard to read in Form View and do not present data clearly. Avoid
overlapping controls.

Each control has to have a unique name (a control’s name is entered in the Name property of the
Property Sheet and is used later in macros and VBA). Therefore, each control that Access adds to the
form receives a default name which consists of the control type plus a sequential number that indicates
how many controls have been added to the form such as Text17 (text box – 17th control on the form).

CLASSROOM ACTIVITIES
1. Quick Quiz:
1. Is this expression =Cost+Tax valid? (Answer: No, field names should be surrounded by square
brackets)
2. Is this expression [Cost]+[Tax] valid? (Answer: No, the expression doesn’t start with an equal
sign)
3. Is this expression =[Cost]+(Tax) valid? (Answer: No, parentheses should not be used around field
names)
4. Is this expression =[Cost]+[Tax] valid? (Answer: Yes)
5. Using the information in the Tours table, write an expression that calculates the tour cost per
day, given the presence of a field named Cost that includes the total tour cost. (Answer:
=[Cost]/[Duration])
2. Group Activity: Ask students to write some expressions using the functions in TABLE 3-5.

Access 66: Modify Tab Order

LEARNING OUTCOMES
• Modify tab order properties

LECTURE NOTES:
• Discuss the value of a proper tab order.
• Explain that when new fields are added to a form, regardless of where they are physically placed,
the tab order for the new field will be at the end of the list.
• Explain what a tab stop is, making sure to distinguish the term from its (very different) definition in
Microsoft Word.
• Define Tab Stop property, Tab Index property, and Name property.

CLASSROOM ACTIVITIES
1. Class Discussion: Ask students to identify four or five text box properties. Do the same for labels.
What properties are similar between text boxes and labels? (Answer: those that deal with
formatting). What properties are different between text boxes and labels? (Answer: those that
deal with data).

2. Assign a Project: Ask students to divide into groups of two-three with the task of finding an

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license distributed with a certain product or service or otherwise on a password-protected website for classroom use.
Access 2016 Instructor’s Manual Page 8 of 9

Internet form and checking the tab order. Was anyone able to find a tab order that didn’t match
the logical flow of the form? How would that affect a customer or user’s ability to enter data?

Access 68: Insert an Image

LEARNING OUTCOMES
• Insert an image on a form
• Modify form sections
• Print a selected record

LECTURE NOTES:
• Point out that graphic images can be as simple as a line to as extensive as a photo. Discuss the use
of sizing handles to resize an image as shown in FIGURE 3-15.
• Inserting an image in the form header means that it will print only once on the printout. Inserting it
in the Detail section means that it will print for each record. Note, however, that forms generally
shouldn’t be used for printing more than one record given that the form layout is so large, which
means that a printout of several records will take several pieces of paper.
• Introduce form sections as discussed in TABLE 3-6 to students. Sections become extremely
important in reports, but because forms are rarely used to print more than one record at a time,
sections are not as important in forms. Show students how to resize sections by dragging the lower
edge of the section bar up or down.

TEACHER TIP:
Be sure to show students how to print preview a form printout. Help them see that forms should be
used to print one and only one record at a time. Printing the entire record set in a form creates a huge
printout. Generally, you want to avoid printing large amounts of solid background colors such as the
Form Header in FIGURES 3-15 and 3-16 as it wastes color ink.

CLASSROOM ACTIVITIES
1. Class Discussion: Bring in sample forms and ask students to identify the different sections.

2. Critical Thinking: What types of information might you add to a Form Footer section?

End of Module Material

• Concepts Reviews consist of multiple choice, matching, and screen identification questions.
• Skills Reviews provide additional hands-on, step-by-step reinforcement.
• Independent Challenges are case projects requiring critical thinking and application of the module
skills. The Independent Challenges increase in difficulty, with the first one in each module being the
easiest. Independent Challenges 2 and 3 become increasingly open-ended, requiring more
independent problem solving.
• Independent Challenge 4: Explore contain practical exercises to help students with their everyday
lives by focusing on important and useful essential skills, including creating photo montages for
scrapbooks and photo albums, retouching and color-correcting family photos, applying layer styles
and getting Help online.
• Visual Workshops are practical, self-graded capstone projects that require independent problem
solving.

© 2017 Cengage Learning®. All rights reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, in whole or in part, except for use as permitted in a
license distributed with a certain product or service or otherwise on a password-protected website for classroom use.
Access 2016 Instructor’s Manual Page 9 of 9

Top of Document

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 I WOO THEE, SPRING.
———
BY WILLIAM ALBERT SUTLIFFE.
———

I woo thee, Spring, and I wed thee, Spring,

To a kindly-thoughted lay,
And I sing thee, Spring, in thy blossoming,
Through the lee-lang sunny day!
When young loves bud and old loves bloom—
When the warm earth bans all shade of gloom,
And bees hum summerly.

I woo thine ears to a kindly tale,

And what shall the story be?
I will tell thee dearest bonds are frail,
And that stars and flowers flee.
I will tell thee a tale of woful wings
That rive from the soul its precious things,
And shadow sweet fantasy.

I will tell thee of some that have fled away

Since last we saw thy face;
And some that are gone from the sheeny day
To the lonesome burial-place.
And of joys, like a string of pearls unstrung—
Like treasured flowers to the fierce wind flung,
That sleep with the buried grace.
O, I woo thee, Spring, and I wed thee, Spring,
To a sadly-thoughted lay,
And I sing thee, Spring, in thy blossoming,
Through the lee-lang cloudy day!
For the lone day dies through purple bars—
And a misty grief enwraps the stars,
And our hopes are ashen-gray.

But the flowers bud and the flowers blow

And the mossy streams are sheen,
And the downy clouds to the Norland go,
While the blue sky laughs between;
And the light without, to the dark within,
Would seem to say—“Will ye up and win
While the paths of life are green?”

But the outer joy on the soul’s annoy

Looks in and laughs in vain—
For the inner chains of the spirit’s pains
May ne’er be reft in twain;
And the song that erst in joy begun
Sinks into wail ere the setting sun,
A sad and deathful strain.

So I woo thee, Spring, and I wed thee, Spring,

To a dreary-thoughted lay,
And I sing thee, Spring, in thy blossoming,
Through the lee-lang weary day!
Through the lee-lang day and the plodding night—
When no golden star’s in the lift alight,
To brighten a weary way.
 SONG.
———
BY L. L. M.
———

When morn’s soft light is o’er us shed,

When pearl drops bow each taper leaf,
And e’en the lily’s queenly head
Pays homage to the glory brief—
Who ever recks of coming night,
Or grieves that such an hour must be—
Who ever weeps o’er winter’s blight
While summer decks the dewy lea.

The forest leaf now pale and sere

Once bent to roving breezes’ kiss;
The faded flower on Autumn’s bier
Once seemed too gayly bright for this,
Nor did they droop and whisper all
Of mildew dank, of frost and blight;
But ever rang the wild-wood hall
With joyous song and murmur light.

And grievest thou, dear one, that life

Is but a dream that soon is past?
Fear’st thou the briefly bitter strife,
The shadows on thy pathway cast?
Nay, ’tis not well—though day’s soon gone;
The flowers soon pale that bind thy brow;
Though night and death are stealing on,
Forget not, love, ’tis morning now!
 TWO WAYS TO MANAGE.
———
BY THE AUTHOR OF “CLOVERNOOK.”
———

It was night, black night all over the world, and denser night
within the dwelling of Margery Starveling. Now and then, the half-
moon broke through the clouds that obscured the face of heaven,
and some straggling and uncertain beams slanting through the
narrow south window, gave to the low, homely apartment a ghostly
sort of glow that was gloomier to see than the dark. Yet the night
was one to make timid hearts beat quick, especially in a dismal old
house, where there was no light save occasional glimpses of the
half-moon. But Margery was not afraid—she was used to darkness
and solitude, and needed not the interchange of humanities for her
comfort, else she would have aroused from the sleep which had
fallen upon her, the child, who—with cheek leaned against the rough
stone jam—was alike unconscious of the dark, and the rats gnawing
hungrily at the floor, or loosening the hearth beneath her feet. It
may be that bright dreams came to her, even there, for what shall
stay them from innocence? and the rough jam may have seemed a
pillow of down, and the chill moonlight, as it fell against her, the
golden curtaining of a pleasant couch.
All was quiet within doors, save the digging and the gnawing I
have mentioned, but in the woods that partly encircled the place,
and darkened close against the western gables, the winds went
blindly moaning up and down, and the dead boughs creaked against
each other, filling the time with music when the ill-boding owls
muffled themselves away.
It was very still in the house, I said, for though Margery was
busy, her work made no noise, till laying aside the great fleece of
wool from her knees, which her skinny fingers had been picking
apart, she spoke aloud, and on this wise—
“I will stir with my staff the embers from which the glow is well-
nigh perished, that my child may feel in her sleep its comfortable
influence, for evil dreams may come of unrest, and evil dreams
make evil thoughts, and when they have once taken possession of
the heart, how hardly are they charmed away.” So, having taken the
fleece from her knees and laid it over a wooden stool at her feet,
she arose, and fumbling in the chimney-corner opposite to that
where the child slept, produced a great knotty staff, the lower end of
which was blackened and charred. With this she stirred the gray
ashes from the fiery log that lay beneath, and beating and breaking
it into coals, gathered the dry cinders together that were scattered
about, and having spread them over the freshly-broken coals, a
blaze sprung up, slight and blue at first, but reddening and
deepening till the rafters over-head, and the oak slabs below, the
walnut bedstead in the corner, with its antique carving, and
elaborately wrought tester, and the huge chest with its iron padlock,
the wrinkled visage of the old woman, and the pale hair and plump,
naked feet of the child, were all distinctly visible.
“Charity, my pretty darling,” called the old woman, as she
resumed her seat and the fleece of wool, “Wake, and betake thee to
thy wheel for an hour, and I will tell thee of the plan I have made to
keep our house full of cheer and music all the while, even when thou
weariest of the wheel, and thy tongue prattlest not.”
The child rubbed her eyes, lifted her head from the stone jam,
saying in a voice sweet and plaintive, as we sometimes hear a bird’s
—
“I have spun my task, grandam—six wisps of flax into as many
hanks of thread, and thou seest my distaff is naked—but I will wind
it with another wisp and spin, at least till thy task is done.”
Her naked feet pattered across the slab floor, and climbing on a
ladder, she took from a peg in the rafter a fresh wisp, and as she
wound the distaff peered through the south window at the half-
moon, or rather at the yellowish color in the clouds behind which the
half-moon was concealed.
“It wears near the midnight, good grandam,” she said, shoving
her wheel aside: “I will pick on the fleece, and so thy voice will not
be drowned as thou tellest the plan thou hast mused of.”
“As thou sayest,” answered Margery, “it wears near the midnight,
as is told by the shrill cry of the cricket, to say nothing of the aching
in my bones, and the dizzy feeling that creeps along my forehead
now and then;” and laying her skinny fingers over the wrinkles on
her brow, she bowed her head forward for a minute, looking more
like a witch making some unholy incantation, than a live human
being, and a woman as she was. Her dress, summer and winter, was
composed of cow-hide shoes, clasped over the ankles with buckles
of brass, a gown of dark woolen stuff, made in a straight, stiff
fashion peculiar to herself, and she wore over her shoulders a small
circular cape, that had once been part of a tiger’s hide. On her head
she wore no cap or other covering, and her gray hair was parted on
the crown and combed either way, one half being cut in a straight
line above her forehead, and the other on her neck.
She seemed seventy, or thereabout—nevertheless, her hair was
neither thin nor very white.
“Thou hast wrought too hardly, grandam, mayhap,” said the
child. “Fold up thy hands now, and the portion of the fleece that
remaineth be mine to do;” as she spoke, she wound her arm about
the neck of Margery, for she loved her, albeit she looked so repelling.
“Nay, child,” answered the dame, “it is not often we have so
pleasant a light, and pity ’twere to lose it. We must improve the
advantages we have, little one, else want will be staring us in the
face, and reproaching us with negligence when it is too late. I
cannot work as I could with forty years less weighing me down, so I
must do what I may.”
“I saw,” said the child, “when I went to Farmer Jocelin’s, for the
measure of meal thou wottest of, three good tallow-candles alight in
one room. The noonday sun were scarce brighter,” she continued in
amazement, both at the wondrous light and the prodigality. “He
must have great estates, grandam, to maintain such indolent and
luxurious life. True, Mistress Jocelin was at work with some knitting,
but not heedfully nor diligently, but more attentive to the reading of
a book, which, indeed, to look upon was very beautiful, for as
Farmer Jocelin held it near the light, the edges of the leaves glittered
like gold, and the leathern cover was bright as the bosom of the bird
that sings in the peach-tree, here, in summer. But Master Lawrence
—what, think you, he did by all that flood of light? Why, nothing for
thrift; for he sat on the matting of the floor, cutting pieces of smooth
brown paper into a kite. Yet he had a sweet smile, and seemed to
have a good heart withal,” added Charity, and her fingers flew more
nimbly through the wool, “for as he served round a salver of apples,
at his mother’s bidding, he urged me to take one so earnestly, yet
kindly, that I might scarce refuse, and when I did—for that I might
not rob Farmer Jocelin of his substance, giving him nothing in turn—
he forced one into my lap and ran laughingly aside, so that I might
not return it.”
“Alas! alas!” said Margery, “have I reared thee thus carefully in
vain, that when thou escapest from my sight, but for a moment,
thou yieldest to sinful temptation, eating the fruit thou hast not
earned.”
“Nay, grandam, thy conclusion is over-hasty. I kept the fruit
unbruised and untasted, though its sweet fragrance made it hard to
resist, and when the maid brought in the measure of meal, I gave it
to her hand, and she restored it to the salver; but when Master
Lawrence saw it, he looked as though he would have cried, even in
such beautiful light, and with so much fair brown paper, to fashion
as he would.”
“I am glad thou hast wit to serve thee upon occasion,” spoke
Margery, her fingers flying nimbly as the child’s; “and if Farmer
Jocelin burns three good tallow-candles at one time, and that at no
merry-making or gala-night, his children will be the likelier to sit in
the light of fagots—and Master Lawrence was wastefully cutting
smooth brown paper. I am glad thou hadst wit to refuse the apple,
but thou shouldst have frowned smartly the while. If I see the young
scapegrace this way, as belike he may come, with further
temptations, I will make my tongue as a chisel, cutting such a lesson
of wisdom and reproof upon his heart, as he hath never heard,
mayhap.”
“But Master Lawrence meant kindly,” said Charity, and casting
down her eyes, she continued, “if we cannot burn tallow-candles,
we, at least, may have the light of dry sticks—shall I not gather
more to keep light as thou tellest the plan thou hast? I would it
could make our home cheery as good candle-light, and a salver of
apples, with rinds all russet and red and yellow.”
“It were good thou hadst not seen the apples,” spoke the dame,
querulously; “better still thou hadst not seen the boy.”
“But the plan, grandam—thou forgettest the plan. Is it that the
famous chopper, Patrick Malony, is to come and fell one of the great
hickory or maple trees of which the wood is full; and are we to have
a huge log, and big, smoothly split sticks to fill the great empty fire-
place every night with light and warmth; or meanest thou once more
to saddle Lily-lace, the mare, and ride to the mill with a full bag of
wheat; and am I to go to the market-town once more, in my black
kirtle and straw hat, and bring home in exchange, for my basket of
eggs, butcher’s meat to broil on the coals, and fragrant tea to fill the
little china cups, with tobacco for thy long empty pipe—in faith,
grandam, have I not guessed shrewdly?”
“My pretty darling, I see thou hast thy head filled with the wildest
extravagance; thou wilt be teasing next for a farthingale of dimity,
ruffles of lace, and blue ribbons for thy hat, or other such like gear.
Thy guesses tally not with prudence, Charity; thou mayest guess
again.”
“Ay, then,” said the girl, sorrowfully, “I was wrong from the
saddling of Lily-face to the full pipe of tobacco;” and casting her
eyes about the cold, empty room, she continued, with greater
energy—“I have the very pith of thy thought. Thou wilt unlock the
great chest, and take thence the dainty linen sheets and the thick
wool blankets thy hands have wrought from fleece and flax, and
make the bed—wherein we now shiver the night through, ridden
with nightmares and plagued with ugly dreams—into beauty and
comfort. Surely I have guessed thy plan, for the moth is more
wasting than the wear.”
“Foolish child, thy extravagance would be the ruin of me, though
I gave thee management of my affairs but for a day. Were the
sheets of linen and blankets of wool to be used as thou sayest, the
chest would soon be empty, and then how should we fare?”
“As well as now,” thought Charity, but she spoke not, save to say
—“that she should guess no more.”
“Once more, little one,” and Margery patted the child on the head
with one hand, and taking the great staff in the other, she stirred
open the coals vigorously, and as the light flashed upon the girl’s
cheek, tears, large and bright, were seen to stand there, like drops
of dew on a lily.
But the old woman urged her to renew her guess with such
earnestness and tenderness that, brushing away the tears, she
essayed once again; but the fervor was gone from her tone, and the
light from her glance, as she said—
“Thou hast planned the mending of the door and window, that
the snow may not drive to great ridges across the floor, and the
wind and the rain beat against us as we sleep.”
“Not so,” answered Margery. “While the winter blows the larger
crevices may be stopped with straw, and the smaller ones with clay,
both of which may be easily removed when the May Queen is
dancing on the hills, and our house be the pleasanter for free air and
streaks of sunshine.”
“It may all do very well,” said Charity, “but to-night I can see
nothing so pleasant as great log-fires, tallow-candles, and a salver of
red apples; and, mayhap, it would take Master Lawrence to
complete the picture.”
“Burned not thy cheek to speak it?” continued Margery,
peevishly: and the two wrought at the fleece for a time in silence.
 “Thou knowest Lily-face?” said the ancient dame, at length, “that
she groweth old and stiff of limb; thou canst not remember the time
when she nibbled not in my pastures; I think belike, also, she fadeth
in the sight of her right eye, for when, at the last Christmas time, I
rode her to the mill, my old bones were jeopardized by her
stumbling, and often turning of her head to one side, betrayed her
defect of vision. But though she were sound as the silver coin that
lieth in the bottom of the chest, yonder, I must needs barter her
away, for that she eateth more than she earneth, since I may no
more buckle round her the girth.
“Thou requirest much exercise in thy growing, Charity, to keep
supple thy joints—thou canst sometimes walk to the market-town for
our absolute wants, which are not many, and as for the wheat-grist,
thou shalt have a mortar and beat it into flour; so Lily-face would
but burden us now, and the corn and the oat-sheaves, and the hay
that have been heaped in her manger, may be sold.
“One beast is enough for a poor body like me, and thou knowest
I will neither barter nor sell Wolf-slayer till the time cometh for the
nailing of the boards to my coffin. And forget not, Charity, that they
lie in the loft, well-seasoned for the using, and for thy life, let them
not buy others in their stead.”
“Far away be the time, good grandam,” sighed the girl. “But the
young die, too; and should I need them first, wilt thou not keep a
light, at least of fagots, the whiles I am dead in the house?”
Foolish child! though it were darker than tempest may make it,
and I the while slept never so sound, no harm could come to thy
white corse, if Wolf-slayer lay by thy coffin.
At the sound of her name, a great black beast, with eyes burning
like coals, and lean and shaggy, crept from the darkest corner of the
room, and laying her head in the lap of Margery, licked her jaws and
whined piteously. “Away with thee, saucy image,” growled the
mistress, “thou hadst the third part of a corn-ear at the sunset, and
thinkest thou, black wench, I will give thee more?” and crouching
and whining the hungry beast slunk back to the corner, and curling
herself together, filled the room presently with her snore.
“Poor Lily-face!” said the child, speaking as it were to herself,
“how can I let thee go! Morning and evening, since I could toddle, I
have put my arms around thy glossy neck, broken the ears of corn
into small bits, and pressed the golden oat-sheaves through thy
manger—and thou hast neighed and put thy face against mine, for
thou lovest me, as I thee. Poor Lily-face! I cannot let thee go!”
“What if thou mightst look in the corner here and see the bright,
shining face of a pretty clock instead of the cobwebs and the hanks
of yarn—if thou couldst hear the pleasant tick, and ever and anon
the musical ring of the hours—a clock, bethink thee, bright of color
as the autumn oak-leaves, and tall as thy grandam.”
“It would be pretty and comforting, surely,” said the child, “for
the ticking and the stroke of the hours would be company in the
lonesome nights, but I would not give Lily-face, that knows me when
I speak, and looks at me and loves me, to have a clock bright as the
oaken autumn leaves, and tall as thou, grandam, in place of the
hanks of yarn and the cobwebs.”
“Thou knowest not thy own mind,” said Dame Margery; “the
clock will neither eat nor drink, but will tell us the time of day and
night; which Lily-face hath not wit to do. By the light of the last
sunset, I have no mind that she shall longer stamp in that stall of
hers.
“The miller hath a clock,” she continued, “which ticked at his
grandfather’s funeral, and hath kept the time of many funerals, and
marriages, too, since; a pretty piece of mechanism, as I saw with my
own eyes, and taller than I; and the miller wanteth the mare for the
tread-wheel, and to have her his own, will barter the pretty clock.”
“It must be as thou sayest, but I have little pleasure in the plan,”
said Charity. “Hath not the miller a milch cow that he would barter in
place of the clock?”
“Thou growest officious,” answered the dame. “Would not the
cow eat oats and corn as well as Lily-face? And have we not hitherto
drunken water and flourished, and must we needs have milk?”
Charity spoke no more, but sat turning the wheel for pastime—
for the fleece was finished, and the mind of the dame was not to be
altered by childish fancies, as was manifest from her rising and
removing the hanks of yarn to another peg, and brushing with her
hand the cobwebs.
The wind kept moaning along the woods and rattled the broken
door and window—the coals grew fainter and fainter and died, and
the gray ashes blew over the feet of Margery and the child as they
sat silently musing—the one of the pretty clock that it would cost
nothing to keep, the other of poor Lily-face; haply at times there
came a thought of the log-fire and the tallow-candles, and the salver
of red apples which Master Lawrence had served with such a sweet
grace.
The next day came the miller, and wrapt in a great bed-quilt and
laid in the bottom of his cart was the clock. Margery clapt her hands
in glee when she saw it, but Charity sighed as she sat close on the
hearth-stone for the sake of its little warmth, though she felt not the
cold now. Faster and faster spun round the wheel, and lower and
lower she bowed down her head to conceal the tears—but it would
not do. When she heard the neigh of poor Lily-face, and knew that
her hands would never feed her any more, she hurried to the
window, and pressing her face against the pane, she could see her
dear pet shrinking consciously from the hand that tied the strong
rope about her neck and led her away. Margery was busy with
dusting the bright face of her pretty clock, and looked not forth even
when the long-drawn howl of Wolf-slayer (who, lifting her fore paws
on the clapboard gate, manifested her sorrow as a dumb brute may)
smote dismally upon her ears.
The days came and went and Charity spun on the same, but
Margery brought forth no new fleece. Scarcely had she stirred or
spoken since the treasure came—even when the girl heaped on dry
sticks and broken branches till the warmth filled all the house, she
did not reprove.
 Then Charity bethought her that the old dame had scarcely
tasted food for days, and looking upon her, she saw that her eyes
waxed dim and her countenance pale, and a great fear came over
the child’s heart; and setting aside her wheel, she ran fast to farmer
Jocelin’s, and begged a cup of honey and a pitcher of sweet milk,
telling of the strange disorder that possessed Dame Margery.
As she went homeward, Master Lawrence ran from his work in
the field and bore the pitcher of milk, and comforted her with hopes
that her grandam was less ill than she feared.
Without question Margery partook of the milk and honey; and
when Lawrence brought sticks and logs and heaped the fire, she laid
her withered hand on his head and said, “Thou art a kind boy and
good.” She then took a key from her bosom and told Charity to
unlock the chest and bring forth blankets—as many as would keep
her warm.
“Surely, grandam, thou art distraught,” said Charity, as she
hastened to obey. But the sweet smile of intelligence that met her
inquiring glance belied her fears; and as she wrapt the warm
covering about the withered form, she said, “Nay, child, I am sane at
last—but too late.”
At midnight she ceased to speak or to be conscious. Kind hands
presently removed the thick covering, and spread over her a dainty
white sheet; but she was warm enough; others brought from the loft
the boards of seasoned walnut wood, and the next midnight Charity
and Wolf-slayer—the one at the head and the other at the feet,
watched by the old dame’s coffin.
The following day came the miller with Lily-face harnessed in his
little cart; he went forward, and a train of neighbors followed—
amongst them Charity, sorrowfulest of all.
When the summer came, she planted bright blossoming shrubs
about the grave, and never in her life had Margery half so pretty a
house as this narrow one.
The old house was given up to the rats and the winds, after the
removal of the cheat, and the clock, and the hanks of yarn that hung
all along the rafters. In course of time it fell into a heap; and one
day, as Charity, who dwelt not far away, sat on the heap of stones
where the hearth-stone had been, she saw a fair-faced youth
searching up and down the lanes, over the meadows, and through
the hedges hard-by, as though he missed something; but when he
saw the girl, he left searching and bent his steps toward her, and as
he came near she knew him for Master Lawrence—well grown, but
with something of the boyish look and manners yet. The prettiest of
all the lambs of the flock was gone, and though he had gone over all
the pastures, he could not find it. The heart of Charity was touched,
and leaving her sorrowful musing, she joined in the search.
Whether the stray lamb was found I know not, but as Charity
crossed the fields to go homeward under the twilight’s reddening
wing, her hair was full of daffodils and daisies, and a flush of
wildering happiness was on her cheek, that had never been there
before.
When the harvest was gathered and the orchard fruits weighing
down the boughs, Charity rode to the market-town on a pretty
brown jennet of her own; and as she went homeward the horns of
her saddle were hung with great bundles; she had bought a white
ribbon instead of a blue for the new straw hat her fingers had been
braiding so busily—a muslin gown, that was white, too; a pair of
pretty slippers, and a dozen other things that I have not time to
enumerate—enough, that the next full moon shone upon Mistress
Lawrence Jocelin.
Not a village maiden that would not have envied her but for her
own happiness, for all joined in the merry-making; a dozen tallow-
candles were burned at once, and more than one salver of red
apples was served round, with loaf-cakes and sweetmeats, and ripe
broken nuts. Workmen were employed to clear away the rubbish
that had once been Dame Margery’s house, and a pretty new
cottage soon rose in its place; and the next summer sweet
shrubbery hedged it in, and myrtles and honeysuckles curtained the
windows; bees made honey from the flowers, sleek cattle fed in the
pastures, and in all the neighborhood there was no home so full of
comfort and plenty.
The hanks of yarn which Charity had spun long ago were taken
to the weaver’s and came back in rolls of damask and bright-
flowered carpets; the linen was taken from the chest, and the wool
blankets; and after being washed white as snow, and dried in the
sun, were spread upon beds soft as down could make.
When the second winter came round, the cottage was a-glow
with wood-fires and tallow-candles; and in place of the starved Wolf-
slayer, there lay before the hearth, in a cradle of white willows, the
plumpest and fairest baby that ever Lawrence and Charity Jocelin
had seen.
 THE PHANTOM FIELD.
———
BY O. I. VICTOR.
———

The snow lies deep upon the ground,

All icy is the air;
The trees a winding-sheet have found
By the wild wind’s care.

The beast stands trembling in his shed—

The sheep within his fold:
Without, all life is stiff and dead—
Within, all chill and cold.

Why is the air so cold to-night?

The owl shrinks in his nest!
Why does the moon gleam out so bright?
The traveler is at rest!

O, keen the wind and cold the air

Above the Phantom Field!
Yet ghostly forms are stalking there,
Armed with a sword and shield.

And gathering slow in serried rank,

They turn toward the west:
Five thousand coffins guard each flank—
Five hundred stand abreast.
In battle rank, with noiseless tread,
They hurry to the height,
Where stand ten thousand other dead,
Uncoffined for the fight.

O, cold the wind and keen the air

Around the Phantom Height!
Yet spectre men are battling there
In fierce, exultant fight.

And shields are rent, and swords are bent,

And limbs bestrew the ground,
Yet skeletons, with strength unspent,
Strike where a breast is found.

And skulls are cleft on right and left

Till shines the morn o’erhead—
Till twice five thousand coffins stand
Alone, flanking the dead.

O, keen the wind and cold the air

That sweeps above the plain!
Yet must the hollow coffins bear
The skeletons again.

O’er the silent field they haste,

To gather limb and bone:
Though skulls and limbs are wide displaced,
Each coffin knows its own.

Soon every limb is gathered in—

Soon every lid is fast—
And falling into rank again
They turn toward the East.
And marching o’er the frozen plain,
With swift and gliding tread,
They stand beside the graves again
Where sleep the evil dead.

Two death’s-heads stand above each mound;

A fearful watch they keep!
The coffins sink into the ground,
Another year to sleep.

But when another year is fled—

When comes St. Stephen’s night,
The death’s-heads shall unloose their dead
To battle on the height.

And when five hundred years have passed,

The penance shall be done;
The skeletons shall sleep at last,
And moulder, limb and bone.
 SHAKSPEARE.
———
BY ERASTUS W. ELLSWORTH.
———

What more extolling from the tongue of Fame

Can Shakspeare need than his suggested name;
Who, in a volume so compactly writ,
Has hived the honey of all human wit.
Praise suits where merit in a corner lies,
But seems uncomely to th’acknowledged wise—
Praise suits where laboring art at times succeeds,
And the shrewd reader pardons as he reads;
But fails—in wonder—where the leaves dispense
Infinite resource of intelligence—
Where the great player, at his game of chess,
Frolicks through all to glorious success;
Thrids, with exulting ken, a boundless maze,
Plays with his kings, and kings it in his plays.
Swan of the Avon—genius of the Thames,
“That so didst take Eliza and [king] James;”
Muse of so vast a flight, so ample pinion,
Whose name is as the name of a dominion!
Though kings be great, give glory to the pen,
A whole-souled poet is the king of men.
King and high-priest one bard, at least, has been
Lo! where we lesser Levites pause and quail.
How grandly goes before, within the vail,
Our great Melchisedek, without compeers,
Without progenitor nor end of years.
 THE MASTER’S MATE’S YARN.
———
BY H. MILNOR KLAPP.
———

(Concluded from page 539.)

“They—the rats, of course—were a strange, heathenish set, and

no respecters of persons, but first chased the cat on shore, and then
made a hurra’s nest of the cabin—polishing their long whiskers with
spermaceti—planning surprise-parties in the pantry—running
to’gallant races over your nose in the sleeping-berths, and gauging
every hollow vessel in the ship, with tails a fathom long, from the oil-
casks and the scuttle-butt down to the pickle-jars and the captain’s
barrel of New England. They were a sleek, long-bodied race, as
black as imps of darkness, and as fearless as if they possessed as
many reputed lives as grimalkin herself. I was weary of watching
their capers, and of the sound of Catherton’s tread, expecting him
every moment to call me up; when turning in my berth, I noticed
that the after-cabin door was standing open. While I was wondering
at this, a feeling of awe stole over me, thinking of the conversation I
had overheard among the men the night before, and that very
moment, as I was looking intently at the spot, a figure in white
passed swiftly and silently out of the store-room into the cabin,
closing the door behind it. I would afterward have given worlds to
have been able to pursue it, but could not, for the power to move a
limb was dead for the time being, and I lay still staring after it, with
mouth agape and the cold drops on my forehead, palsied, as it
would seem, by that sort of instinctive abhorrence with which
humanity revolts against a disembodied spirit that has assumed, for
some mysterious end, the form and garniture of its house of clay. It
was a woman’s shape—the head bare, and the long dark hair
hanging down to the waist, and, before the door closed, the light for
an instant flickered on the face, ghastly and white—as the man-of-
war’s man had said—with the mouth closed and the lips drawn
tightly in. Its back was toward my berth, until it turned into the
after-cabin, and it seemed to me that it had something clutched in
its hand; but the hollow look of the sunken eyes froze my very
heart’s blood, as they glared back at the lamp, from behind the
bloodless and bony cheek. I was first roused from my trance by the
sound of some one coming down the companion-way, and it was not
until Catherton had thrice called me, laying his hand upon my
shoulder, the third time, that I started at last to my feet, when he
must have noticed my looks, as I still stared past him at the cabin-
door.
“ ‘It wants but a few moments of the time, Mr. Miller,’ was all he
said, and if I had died for it, I could not have answered, but
huddling on my clothes in silence, mechanically followed him on
deck. All was there as still as death. The moon had not yet risen,
and you heard the sound of the ebb plashing against the Tartar’s
bows, and rippling and gurgling in the eddies astern, as it swept
through the strait.
“ ‘The watch are asleep in the galley,’ the captain whispered, as I
prepared to go over the side; ‘you remember the place and the
signal—a plover’s whistle twice repeated?’
“Nodding my head, I descended into the canoe; he cast off the
warp, and keeping in the shade of the ship, with my brain in a whirl,
I paddled close to the starboard shore. I had little time to think, for
the current ran strongly round the points, and I seemed blindly
impelled by the hand of fate to stem its force, even while my frame
still shook like a frightened child’s.
“I had hardly a thought of my purpose; nevertheless, instinctively
plying my paddle, I passed through the passage, and reached the
rift of sand under the castle without being challenged.
“High above me, concealed from my eyes by the rocky steep,
was the stronghold where, according to report, the sultan kept both
his harem and his treasures. The danger, in some measure, restored
my presence of mind, and the canoe had hardly hung for a moment
on the hot, glassy tide, when I heard the signal, and immediately
upon my answering it, an Arab arose from the sand, and two others
appeared coming hastily down a narrow gully, along which a sort of
causeway ran from the stables of the sultan’s stud to the beach.
Seeing more figures than I had been taught to expect, as another
appeared from behind a rock, leading two saddled horses, I was
about to back farther off, when the chief’s voice called out to me in a
low tone to be quick, and forcing the bow of the canoe upon the
sand, not another word was exchanged, until Halil had placed the
slender form of the Circassian, vailed as she was from head to foot,
under the awning.
“The chief then seized my hand and carried it to his head,
pointing with his right in the direction of the ship.
“Wishing him ‘God speed,’ I wrung his hand; he pushed off the
canoe, and I paddled round for the ship. Glancing back, I saw him
spring into the saddle, with one attendant, both sitting as motionless
as statues while the canoe kept them in sight.
“Heavily armed, and mounted on a splendid charger, from what I
knew of his strength and spirit, it struck me forcibly that in his
present enterprise he was more than a match for most men. There
was little chance, however, of the conspiracy succeeding, unless the
assassination of the sultan were the first overt act, as he was greatly
beloved by his people. However, I had previously understood that
the Oualé of Muscat, and all the principal chiefs at Moutrah—the last
a considerable town in the vicinity—were implicated, which showed
that the party of the old Imaum, the sultan’s deceased uncle, was
much more extensive than I had ever deemed.
“It was not with thoughts like these that I approached the ship,
for the recent horror oppressed me so strongly, that I hardly knew
what I was doing when the captain received Zuma from my arms at
the stern-post. After this I fastened the canoe in its place, and
looking, as it were by the mere force of habit, into the binnacle,
found that I had been absent but twelve minutes. I then went
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