them, in various advantage, what shade, or sun, or rain is to be had. Hence every single leaf-cluster presents the general aspect of a little family, entirely at unity among themselves, but obliged to get their living by various shifts, concessions, and infringements of the family rules, in order not to invade the privileges of other people in their neighborhood.

-JOHN RUSKIN.

XXIV.

Woodman, spare that tree!
Touch not a single bough!
In youth it sheltered me,
And I'll protect it now.
'Twas my forefather's hand
That placed it near his cot;
There, woodman, let it stand,
Thy axe shall harm it not!

- GEORGE P. MORRIS.

LESSON CII.

STUDY OF SELECTION.

THE GLADNESS OF NATURE.

I.

Is this a time to be cloudy and sad,

When our mother Nature laughs around;

When even the deep blue heavens look glad,

And gladness breathes from the blossoming ground?

II.

There are notes of joy from the hang-bird and wren,
And the gossip of swallows through all the sky;
The ground-squirrel gayly chirps by his den,

And the wilding bee hums merrily by.

III.

The clouds are at play in the azure space,

And their shadows at play on the bright green vale, And here they stretch to the frolic chase, And there they roll on the easy gale.

IV.

There's a dance of leaves in that aspen bower,

There's a titter of winds in that beechen tree,

There's a smile on the fruit, and a smile on the flower, And a laugh from the brook that runs to the sea.

V.

And look at the broad-faced sun, how he smiles
On the dewy earth that smiles in his ray,
On the leaping waters and gay young isles;
Ay, look, and he'll smile thy gloom away.

Read the first stanza. line of the question. How many reasons are given in this stanza for not being cloudy and sad? State each. What is meant by our mother Nature? Why is she said to be laughing?

What does this stanza do ? Read the first

Read the second stanza. What does the first line tell? What is a hang-bird? What kind of nest does it build? What is the second line about? What are the swallows doing? What does the squirrel do?

How does he chirp ? Where does he chirp ? What is the fourth line about? What is the meaning of wilding? What is the use of merrily? Read the third stanza. What is the first line about? Name the phrases in this line and tell the use of each. What is meant by the azure space? What does their refer to in the second line? What were the shadows doing? Does the third line refer to the shadows or to the clouds? What does the fourth line refer to?

Read the fourth stanza. How many different things in this stanza are said to express pleasure? Name the different things and tell what actions are ascribed to them.

What is the reader directed to look at ?
What word indicates the happiness
Of the isles? Why is the reader

Read the last stanza. What is the sun said to be doing? of the earth? Of the waters ? told to look at the sun?

WRITTEN EXERCISES.

1. State the plan of this poem.

2. Copy the poem, and commit it to memory.

LESSON CIII.

STUDY OF SELECTION.

THE SNOW-STORM.

(From "Snow Bound.")

The sun that brief December day
Rose cheerless over hills of gray,
And, darkly circled, gave at noon
A sadder light than waning moon.

Slow tracing down the thickening sky
Its mute and ominous prophecy,
A portent seeming less than threat,
It sank from sight before it set.

A chill no coat, however stout,
Of homespun stuff could quite shut out,
A hard, dull bitterness of cold,

That checked, mid-vein, the circling race
Of life-blood in the sharpened face,
The coming of the snow-storm told.
The wind blew east; we heard the roar
Of Ocean on his wintry shore,

And felt the strong pulse throbbing there Beat with low rhythm our inland air.

Unwarmed by any sunset light

The gray day darkened into night,
A night made hoary with the swarm
And whirl-dance of the blinding storm,
As zigzag wavering to and fro

Crossed and recrossed the wingéd snow:
And ere the early bedtime came
The white drift piled the window-frame,
And through the glass the clothes-line posts
Looked in like tall and sheeted ghosts.

So all night long the storm roared on:
The morning broke without a sun;
In tiny spherule traced with lines

Of Nature's geometric signs,
In starry flake, and pellicle,
All day the hoary meteor fell;
And, when the second morning shone,
We looked upon a world unknown,
On nothing we could call our own.
Around the glistening wonder bent
The blue walls of the firmament,
No cloud above, no earth below, -
A universe of sky and snow!
The old familiar sights of ours

---

Took marvellous shapes; strange domes and towers
Rose up where sty or corn-crib stood,

Or garden wall, or belt of wood;

A smooth white mound the brush-pile showed,

A fenceless drift what once was road;

The bridle-post an old man sat

With loose-flung coat and high cocked hat;

The well-curb had a Chinese roof;

And even the long sweep, high aloof,

In its slant splendor, seemed to tell

Of Pisa's leaning_miracle.*

- JOHN GREENLEAF WHITTIER.

What statement is made in the first two lines? Where was the cheerless sun seen? When? What word describes the appearance of the hills?

To what is the light of the sun compared in the second statement? Why waning moon? What words in the third line describe the

appearance of the sun at noon?

* This line refers to the Leaning Tower of Pisa.