"Father will come to his babe in the nest,

Silver sails all out of the west,

Under the silver moon."

Singing more and more softly and rocking more and more slowly, she closes her song with,

Sleep, my little one, sleep, my pretty one, sleep,"

the song dying almost to a whisper as the baby lies asleep in his crib, and her husband comes in at the door.

Now read the poem, following the story carefully, and trying all the time to see what has been described and to hear the mother as she sings.

Before you read the poem, do not fail to learn the meaning of the following words:

rolling waters: the sea with | silver sails: sails which look waves like hills and valleys.

dying moon: the moon as it is "dying," or growing smaller,

silver-colored by the light of the moon.

or "waning.”

SWEET AND LOW

Sweet and low, sweet and low,
Wind of the western sea,
Low, low, breathe and blow,

Wind of the western sea;

Over the rolling waters go,

Come from the dying moon, and blow,

Blow him again to me,

While my little one, while my pretty one, sleeps.

5

5

Sleep and rest, sleep and rest,
Father will come to thee soon;
Rest, rest, on mother's breast,

Father will come to thee soon;

Father will come to his babe in the nest,
Silver sails all out of the west

Under the silver moon;

Sleep, my little one, sleep, my pretty one, sleep.

QUESTIONS AND SUGGESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION

1. Who wrote "Sweet and 7. Why is the young mother looking far out of the window?

Low"? Tell what you
know of him.

2. What is the proper name
for a song to put a baby
to sleep?

3. Describe the village where the incident, told in this

8. What is she thinking or praying in the first lines.

lullaby, is supposed to
have happened.

9.

of her song? What is she waiting and hoping for?

Can you see her as she rocks the baby? Describe her. What is the "dying moon"? Can you see the fishing boat coming in? Describe it.

What does she ask the

wind to do for her? At what line of the song does she turn from watching the boat to look at the baby? What does she sing then? What

does the baby do as she | 17. Who comes home when the

Alfred, Lord Tennyson, one of the

baby is asleep? What do you suppose he did upon entering the house? Have you been able to imagine what is described in the song? Describe it in your own words. This song has a beautiful

tune and you will enjoy singing it. The words and music are given on p. 20.

greatest of English poets, was born at Somersby, Lincolnshire, England, in 1809. He was the fourth of a family of twelve children. He began writing poetry when a small boy, and continued to write beautiful poems until he was more than eighty years of age. At the age of seventy-five, he became Lord Tennyson. He died in 1892, aged eighty-three years.

Love wore a threadbare dress of gray,
And toiled upon the road all day.
Love wielded pick and carried pack
And bent to heavy loads the back.

Though meager-fed and sorely tasked,
One only wage Love ever asked
A child's white face to kiss at night,
A woman's smile by candle-light.

MARGARET E. SANGSTER

ALFRED, LORD TENNYSON

JOSEPH BARNBY

Larghetto. pp

1. Sweet and low, sweet and low, Wind of the western 2. Sleep and rest, sleep and rest, Fa- ther will come to thee

Reprinted from 55 Community Songs, C. C. BIRCHARD & Co., Boston

HOW MARGERY WONDERED

LUCY LARCOM

To understand this story, we shall have to imagine a little girl not quite six years old, with big, round, gray eyes, and wrapped in a plaid, or cross-barred, shawl of bright colors. Can you imagine such a little girl? Shut your eyes and try to see her. Her name is Margery (mär'jer-1).

Little Margery lived near the great ocean, and "one bright morning late in March," she started out all alone to walk on the sandy beach or shore of the ocean. Try to see her as she "trudges" along over the sand.

Now Margery was only a very little girl, and everything around her seemed very wonderful.

She saw the sun which had just risen far out over the ocean. It seemed just like a great golden flower - a flower without a stem. Or maybe it did have a stem that reached down below the sea. And Margery wondered about it.

Then she saw the waves chasing one another up over the beach like little children playing. Margery wondered where they came from, and what it was that they were whispering. She wondered who was off yonder where the sky meets the ocean with the hoarse, hollow voice, pushing the waves across the beach at her feet. And what was down beneath the deep waters of the sea?

Then Margery heard a bluebird singing. It was the first bluebird she had ever seen or heard, and she wondered how he got the music in his throat, and how he could make it wind itself off so evenly. It was very wonderful to the little girl.

She saw the grass blades and the spring beauties breaking out