continue the search? What happened immediately after the Cynic had explained his object in coming to the mountain? 18. Why did not Matthew and Hannah give up the search? Why were they permitted to see the beauty of the stone and then return to their home? 19. What effect had the sight of the stone upon the Cynic? 20. Show how the end of each person in the company was in keeping with his character. 21. Library reading: "May-Pole of Merry Mount"; "Dr. Heidegger's Experiment”; and other stories from Twice-Told Tales. 22. Find in the Glossary the meaning of: inordinate; alchemy; prodigious; progenitors; sanguine; sagacity; potentates; dross; escutcheons; obsequious; ineffable; conjugal; tremulously; cairn; acclivity; impenetrable. 23. Pronounce: hospitable; mien; allay; philosophic; incalculable; project; interstices. Phrases whimsical fraternity, 543, 24 folio volume, 545, 23 in rerum natura, 547, 37 illumination of St. Peter's Church great fire of London, 554, 23 There is a sumptuous variety about the New England weather that compels the stranger's admiration-and regret. The weather is always doing something there; always attending strictly to business; always getting up new designs and trying them on the people to see how they will go. But it gets through more business in spring than in any other season. In the spring I have counted one hundred thirty-six different kinds of weather within four and twenty hours. It was I who made the fame and fortune of the man who had that marvelous collection of weather on exhibition 10 at the Centennial, which so astounded the foreigners. He was going to travel around the world and get specimens from all climes. I said, "Don't do it; just come to New England on a favorable spring day." I told him what we could do in the way of style, variety, and quantity. Well, he came, and he made his collection 15 in four days. As to variety, he confessed that he got hundreds of kinds of weather that he had never heard of before. And as to quantity, after he had picked out and discarded all that was blemished in any way, he not only had weather enough, but weather to spare, weather to hire out, weather to sell, weather to 20 deposit, weather to invest, and weather to give to the poor. Old Probabilities has a mighty reputation for accurate prophecy and thoroughly deserves it. You take up the paper and observe how crisply and confidently he checks off what today's weather is going to be on the Pacific, down South, in the Middle 5 States, in the Wisconsin region. See him sail along in the joy and pride of his power till he gets to New England, and then see his tail drop. He doesn't know what the weather is going to be in New England. Well, he mulls over it, and by and by he gets out something like this: "Probable northeast to southwest winds, 10 varying to the southward and westward and eastward and points between; high and low barometer, swapping around from place to place; probable areas of rain, snow, hail, and drought, succeeded or preceded by earthquakes with thunder and lightning." Then he jots down this postscript from his wandering mind, to 15 cover accidents: "But it is possible that the program may be wholly changed in the meantime." Yes, one of the brightest gems in the New England weather is the dazzling uncertainty of it. There is certain to be plenty of weather, a perfect grand review, but you never can tell which end of the procession is going 20 to move first. You fix up for the drought; you leave your umbrella in the house and sally out with your sprinkling pot, and two to one you are drowned. You make up your mind that an earthquake is due; you stand from under and take hold of something to steady yourself, and the first thing you know you are struck 25 by lightning. But, after all, there are at least two or three things about that weather (or, if you please, the effects produced by it) which we residents would not like to part with. If we hadn't our bewitching autumn foliage, we should still have to credit the weather 30 with one feature which compensates for all its bullying vagaries— the ice storm. Every bough and twig is strung with ice beads, frozen dewdrops, and the whole tree sparkles cold and white like the Shah of Persia's diamond plume. Then the wind waves the branches, and the sun comes out and turns all those myriads of 35 beads and drops to prisms that glow and burn and flash with all manner of colored fires; which change and change again, with inconceivable rapidity, from blue to red, from red to green, and green to gold. The tree becomes a spraying fountain, a very explosion of dazzling jewels, and it stands there the acme, the climax, the supremest possibility in art or nature, of bewildering, intoxicating, intolerable magnificence. One cannot make the words too strong. Month after month I lay up hate and grudge against the New England weather; but when the ice storm comes at last I say: "There, I forgive you now; the books are square between us; you don't owe me a cent; your little faults and foibles count for nothing; you are the most enchanting weather in the 10 world." NOTES AND QUESTIONS Biography. Samuel Langhorne Clemens (1835-1910), better known by his pen name, "Mark Twain," is America's greatest humorous writer. He was born in the village of Florida, Missouri, and at the age of four years moved with his parents to the town of Hannibal, where he later became a printer and then a pilot on a Mississippi steamboat. His next venture was in a mining camp, and although he found only a very small amount of gold, his experiences in the West furnish the basis of some of his most popular stories. As a newspaper reporter he chose the pen name, Mark Twain, an old river expression, meaning the mark that registers two (twain) fathoms of water. He traveled through Europe and the Holy Land, paying his expenses by means of a series of letters describing his trip, written for a San Francisco newspaper. Mark Twain was for a time part owner and associate editor of the Buffalo Express, but the investment was not profitable and he spent much of his time on the lecture platform. His most popular books are: Tom Sawyer, Huckleberry Finn, Roughing It, The Innocents Abroad, and The Prince and the Pauper. Discussion. 1. What do you know to be true of the New England climate? What has the author done to this well-known fact to produce the humor of this selection? 2. Who is meant by "Old Probabilities"? 3. In what way does the weather forecast for New England, as outlined by the author, differ from forecasts you read in the daily papers? 4. Why does the author predict earthquakes for New England? 5. In what part of the selection do you think the writer is in earnest? 6. Find the lines that describe the effect of the sun upon the ice-covered trees. 7. What does this description tell you about the author's powers of observation? 8. For what does he say this beautiful sight atones? 9. Library reading: Huckleberry Finn, Mark Twain; The Boy's Life of Mark Twain, Paine. 10. Find in the Glossary the meaning of: Centennial; vagaries. THE BALLAD OF THE OYSTERMAN OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES It was a tall young oysterman lived by the riverside. 5 It was the pensive oysterman that saw a lovely maid Upon a moonlight evening, a-sitting in the shade; He saw her wave a handkerchief, as much as if to say, "I'm wide awake, young oysterman, and all the folks away." Then up arose the oysterman, and to himself said he, 10 "I guess I'll leave the skiff at home, for fear that folks should see; I read it in the story book, that, for to kiss his dear, Leander swam the Hellespont-and I will swim this here." And he has leaped into the waves, and crossed the shining stream, And he has clambered up the bank, all in the moonlight gleam; 15 Oh, there are kisses sweet as dew, and words as soft as rain— But they have heard her father's steps, and in he leaps again! Out spoke the ancient fisherman: "Oh, what was that, my daughter?" ""Twas nothing but a pebble, sir, I threw into the water." "And what is that, pray tell me, love, that paddles off so fast?" 20 "It's nothing but a porpoise, sir, that's been a-swimming past." Out spoke the ancient fisherman: "Now bring me my harpoon! |