TEACHERS' HANDBOOKS 
 
 lOMPOSITION EXERCISES 
 
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TEACHERS' HANDBOOKS. 
 
 ELEMENTARY 
 
 COMPOSITION EXERCISES 
 
 BY 
 
 IRfeNE HARDY 
 
 OF THE 
 
 OAKLAND HIGH SCHOOL, OAKLAND, CALIFORNIA 
 
 *' Language is precious ; use it as if you believed it to be so.' 
 
 NEW YORK 
 HENRY HOLT AND COMPANY 
 
 1890 
 
Copyright, i8qo, 
 
 BY 
 
 HENRY HOLT & CO. 
 
 
 .n/;vO-l:..:/^-.- 
 
 THE MERSHON COMPANY PRESS, 
 RAHWAY, N J. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 Introductory Suggestions, 
 Lesson Presentation, 
 
 I. 
 II. 
 
 III. 
 
 IV. 
 
 V. 
 
 VI. 
 
 VII. 
 
 VIII. 
 
 IX. 
 
 X. 
 
 XI. 
 
 XII. 
 
 XIII. 
 
 XIV. 
 
 XV. 
 
 XVI. 
 
 XVII. 
 
 PART I. 
 
 Word Exercises, .... 
 {a) Beginning Phrases and Clauses, 
 {^) Picture Sentences, 
 
 Objects, 
 
 Living Beings 
 
 Plants of the Streets, 
 
 The Landscape, .... 
 
 Phenomena of Nature, 
 
 Local Geography, .... 
 
 Local History, .... 
 
 Personal Experiences, 
 
 Building, 
 
 The Schoolhouse, .... 
 
 Comparisons, 
 
 Domestic Manufactures, 
 Home Papers, .... 
 Oral Composition, .... 
 General Suggestions, . 
 iii 
 
 II 
 
 20 
 22 
 24 
 27 
 
 33 
 36 
 42 
 46 
 49 
 51 
 55 
 57 
 59 
 61 
 66 
 68 
 70 
 
 41000U 
 
IV 
 
 CONTENTS, 
 
 PART II 
 
 CHAPTER 
 
 I. Pantomimes, 
 
 II. Pictures, 
 
 III. School Reading-Books, 
 
 IV. Paraphrasing, 
 V. Lessons from Poems, 
 
 VI. The Study of a Story, 
 
 VII. Invention, 
 
 VIII. Pure Description, 
 
 IX. A Daily Journal, . 
 
 X. Prepositional Phrases, 
 
 XI. Selected Passages, 
 
 XII. The Study of Form, . 
 
 XIII. Some Varieties of Exercises, 
 
 XIV. General Suggestions, 
 XV. Errors in Speaking, 
 
 XV r. Subjects for Advanced Classes 
 
 XVI r. Subjects for Pupils of Various 
 
 XV 111. Brief Extracts from Poems 
 
 XIX. Short Poems, . 
 
 Ages, 
 
 PAGE 
 
 74 
 77 
 80 
 88 
 91 
 95 
 
 lOI 
 
 103 
 
 105 
 107 
 III 
 
 113 
 117 
 
 122 
 124 
 126 
 130 
 
 138 
 147 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 THE following lessons are transcripts of actual 
 work done in the school-room by the author, 
 who, however, claims nothing for them in the 
 way of originality. They are simply an attempt 
 at setting down for others, whose tastes and 
 training may not have made composition-work 
 in school agreeable and easy, the methods and 
 results of reasonably successful work during some 
 years of experience in public schools of various 
 grades, ranging from Primary to Senior High 
 School classes. 
 
 Observing that many teachers fail to adapt 
 the material around them to the uses of com- 
 position-work, the author takes pleasure in thus 
 making common property of lessons and plans 
 drawn from various common sources, which have 
 been of service to herself. 
 
 An increasing interest in the study of English, 
 and a growing appreciation in the public mind 
 of its importance, make it unnecessary now to 
 argue concerning the value of this part of a 
 child's education, or to try to show that the 
 ability to use its own language with " force and 
 
iv PREFACE. 
 
 precision " takes precedence of all other tilings 
 acquired at school. A man may be a mathema- 
 tician and not make himself felt as an educated 
 man ; but he cannot have a liberal acquaintance 
 with the literature of his own language without 
 affecting society as a cultured mind. The 
 beginnings of this culture lie in the little lessons 
 that teach the child how to understand and to 
 use his mother tongue as it is used in books and 
 in common life. 
 
 Nor will it be worth while to try to show that 
 the indifferent success of schools, generally, in 
 the attempt to give a fair knowledge of the com- 
 mon branches, is largely owing to the fact that 
 children are set to learning these from books 
 before they have sufficient acquaintance with 
 their own language to understand the text-book 
 use of it. The vocabulary of the average child 
 of school age is exceedingly small, and there are 
 almost no words outside of the home and play- 
 ground list that it is safe to count on his under- 
 standing. Where there are exceptions to this, 
 they are always to be found among children to 
 whom from an early age books have been read. 
 
 Any child will learn the ordinary school branch- 
 es with less than one-half the expenditure of 
 time and strength — to say nothing of absolute 
 waste in these and other matters — if he has first 
 been taught the use of his own language through 
 much reading and writing. Were the first ten, 
 
PREFACE. V 
 
 perhaps twelve, years of a child's life given to 
 the acquisition of language-power, and conse- 
 quent general knowledge and intelligence, through 
 writing, and reading books (real books, not scraps), 
 the necessary " common branches *' could be 
 mastered in a comparatively short time, and 
 without that sad drudgery which wastes both 
 pupil and teacher, and to so little purpose. 
 
 On the subject of the study of the English 
 language. Professor Huxley has written the fol- 
 lowing: 
 
 ** I would assuredly devote a large portion of 
 the time of every English [-speaking] child to the 
 careful study of models of English writing of 
 such varied and wonderful kinds as we possess ; 
 and, what is still more important and still more 
 neglected, to the habit of using that language 
 with precision and with force and with art. 
 
 "• I fancy we are almost the only nation in the 
 world who seem to think that composition comes 
 by nature. The French attend to their own lan- 
 guage, the Germans study theirs ; but the En- 
 glish do not seem to think it worth while." 
 
 '' If you wish to learn to draw," says Edward 
 Everett Hale, '' draw." Facility in writing can 
 be got in no other way than by writing. Daily 
 practice in this, as in any other art, is the only 
 way to insure proficiency in it. Ability, taste, 
 genius, count for little without continual prac- 
 tice in the formative years. 
 
vi PREFACE. 
 
 For such matters as belong to the mere me- 
 chanics of composition, to Syntax, to Rhetoric, 
 and the like, the teacher is referred to the al- 
 ready numerous text-books on those subjects. 
 
 The author gratefully acknowledges indebted- 
 ness, for encouragement and advice, to the late 
 lamented Prof. E. R. Sill, and to Mr. J. B. Mc- 
 Chesney, her worthy principal and co-worker. 
 The author wishes also to express her appre- 
 ciation of valuable aid received from Prof. C. B. 
 Bradley, of the University of California. 
 
 Oakland, California, February, 1890. 
 
INTRODUCTORY SUGGESTIONS. 
 
 WHAT TO DO. 
 
 I. Find out what your predecessor has done. 
 
 II. Provide a regular time for composition 
 during school hours every day. 
 
 III. Prepare every exercise beforehand. 
 
 IV. Exact promptness, neatness, and correct- 
 ness of preparation at every exercise. 
 
 V. Commend when you can, where commen- 
 dation is needed. 
 
 VI. When you find any individual style of 
 expression and thought, encourage it ; but di- 
 rect it. 
 
 VII. Try to instill sincerity of expression and 
 manner. 
 
 VIII. Study good models of writing all the 
 time, yourself. 
 
 WHAT NOT TO DO. 
 
 I. Do not use the word composition in a new 
 class, at first. 
 
 II. Never ask children to write compositions 
 at home. 
 
 III. Never depend on encyclopedias for ma- 
 
viii INTRODUCTORY SUGGESTIONS. 
 
 terial, nor allow your pupils to think that they 
 may. 
 
 IV. Tolerate no affectation or insincerity of 
 ideas, in class writing. If a pupil is habitually 
 untruthful, see that he does not read aloud any 
 statement about truth-telling. 
 
 V. Do not wear yourself out correcting papers. 
 It is necessary that pupils should have daily 
 practice. It is not necessary that everything 
 they write should be corrected and returned. 
 
 VI. Do not make the mistake of giving 
 much time to the writing of mere sentences — "• sen- 
 tence-building''' sentences — nor lose sight of the 
 fact that you cannot teach composition by writ- 
 ing disconnected sentences. Making a thousand 
 finished boards, so long and so wide and so thick, 
 will never teach a man how to build a house. 
 Begin with continued discourse, w^ith the first 
 book-lesson the child has, and go on so every day. 
 
LESSON PRESENTATION. 
 
 IT is perhaps needless to say much about the 
 teacher's preparation for each lesson ; to his 
 own interest and readiness, to freshness of sub- 
 ject and expedient, to personal enthusiasm, must 
 be added definite preparation, else nothing but a 
 half-hearted attention, resulting in weak effort 
 and insipid outcome, can be expected. 
 
 Complete preparation, then, being assumed : 
 
 I. Prepare your class for work. Secure cleared 
 desks, arranged writing materials, and the atti- 
 tude of attention. 
 
 II. By means of a page, outlined on the board, 
 give exact directions about the mechanics of 
 composition : margins, beginnings of paragraphs, 
 place of pupil's name, neatness, and folding, 
 or not folding. Insist on uniformity and exact- 
 ness in these matters. Do not allow a micro- 
 scopic, . or pinched, finger-stroke style of hand- 
 writing. In general, refuse to decipher indistinct 
 writing of any kind. 
 
 III. Give clearly such instruction about what 
 you wish done, and such examples of the work 
 required, as will enable the slowest and dullest 
 in the class to understand. Give these but once, 
 at each new lesson. 
 
 ix 
 
X LESSON PRESENTATION. 
 
 IV. In primary classes take nothing for granted 
 at the outset. Teach paragraphing at the first, 
 simply by saying to each child as you see his 
 work, and that it is necessary : '^ Begin a new 
 paragraph." Write often at the board before 
 such pupils, until paragraphing becomes a matter 
 of feeling and habit. 
 
PART I. 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 WORD EXERCISES. 
 
 THIS exercise, one of the most interesting 
 and suggestive to children, is available for 
 the youngest classes as well as for High School 
 Seniors, and all the way between. It is always 
 new, arid, giving an infinite variety of ways of 
 saying, helps all sorts and conditions of mind at 
 least to begin to express themselves in writing. 
 
 By means of this exercise any teacher can open 
 the way to interest in composition writing ; al- 
 most any class can be led, through it, to more 
 advanced and more profitable writing. For dis- 
 closing to the child himself some of his own 
 powers, and some of the pleasures of composi- 
 tion (that is, making), there is nothing better. 
 
 Select at random (well-considered random) five 
 or six words from the reading-lesson of the day, 
 any book that may be convenient, or from your 
 own vocabulary, at pleasure. At first, let these 
 be such words as the child uses, or knows how to 
 
12 PVORD EXERCISES. 
 
 use. Write at the board before the class, after 
 the list has been written in a column, a brief 
 story, made up at the moment, or in the previous 
 preparation, bringing in the selected words natu- 
 rally and smoothly, in any order. Thus, suppose 
 the list of words to be : 
 
 I. 
 
 Basket. 
 
 5. Thistle-down 
 
 2. 
 
 Thunder. 
 
 6. Since. 
 
 3. 
 
 Afterwards. 
 
 7. Extravagant. 
 
 4. 
 
 Ribbon. 
 
 8. Sailing. 
 
 
 9- 
 
 Initials. 
 
 The written result might be as follows : 
 " Cousin Mary gave Anne a piece of wide yel- 
 low ribbon ; Anne thought she would make a 
 pin-cushion of it for her mother's birthday. But, 
 since she had been so extravagant as to spend all 
 her money for candy as soon as she got it, 
 she had nothing to buy the other materials with. 
 Looking out of the window she saw clouds 
 of thistle-down sailing by in the wind, along the 
 edge of the common, and gathering in puffy heaps 
 in an old basket that lay on its side there. ' Why/ 
 she thought, * that will be just the thing for my 
 cushion.* So, disregarding the thunder that 
 threatened a storm, she ran out and gathered up 
 a large quantity of thistle-down, sewed the rib- 
 bon into shape, made the cushion of muslin, filled 
 it, and afterward embroidered on the outside a 
 thistle, with the down flying off its puffy head. 
 Behind this, she made some grass stems cross 
 
WORD EXERCISES. 1 3 
 
 each other in such a way as to make the initials 
 of her mother's name." 
 Or, again : 
 
 1. Gate. 5. Kitten. 
 
 2. Toad. 6. Quickly. 
 
 3. Three. 7. Pie. 
 
 4. Now. 8. Give. 
 And the result : 
 
 '^ I had a fine pie made of three large apples 
 which I found in the garden under a tree ; I was 
 looking for my kitten there, and found her by 
 the back gate staring at a great toad that sat 
 under a large leaf, winking. If I had the pie 
 now, I would give you some of it, but Jenny, 
 Kate, and I ate it on the porch in the shade of 
 the hop-vine." 
 
 Or, once more: 
 
 1. Cat. 3. Ran. 
 
 2. Bad. 4. Book. 
 
 5. Bread. 
 And the result : 
 
 '' I have a cat ; her name is Fan. A bad dog bit 
 heron the foot; she ran to me and sprang on 
 my new book. I gave her some of my bread, 
 and then I laid her on a mat by the fire." 
 
 Now give a new list, from which all write. 
 When all have finished, call on several pupils, or, 
 if possible, all, to read. Make the first exercises 
 short. Limit older classes to five, seven, or ten 
 minutes for such writing. If there is space suffi- 
 
1 4 WORD EXERCISES. 
 
 cient, allow the whole class to write at the board 
 frequently. Rapid criticism by the class, well- 
 managed, will be of great service, saving time for 
 the teacher in subsequent exercises, as all the 
 commoner mistakes can now be avoided. 
 
 Having made the first lists of familiar words, 
 introduce, after the first four or ^yq^ lessons, at 
 least one which the reading-lesson has shown to 
 be difficult or out of the vocabulary of the aver- 
 age pupils. Observation will show that many 
 simple words of their text-books are meaningless 
 to them. Occasionally, also, include in the words 
 selected such as are constantly misused ; as 
 *' funny,'' '* awful,'' '* expect "for ''suspect," ''fix" 
 for "arrange," "loan" for "lend," and the like. 
 Explain the proper use of these. 
 
 After a few lessons, give longer lists ; substi- 
 tute phrases for some of the numbers, thus : 
 
 1. Bonfire. 5. Tormenting 
 
 2. Hungry. 6. A silk sash. 
 
 3. With angry looks. 7. Steadily, 
 
 4. Running after it. 8. Grief. 
 
 9. One by one. 
 
 In primary and lower grammar grades a five or 
 ten-minute exercise of this kind will soon show 
 the advantage of daily writing. Classes of all 
 grades gain in readiness from it. 
 
 An endless variety of lessons may be made 
 from modifications of this; some may be used 
 to test the knowledge of pupils in their daily 
 
WORD EXERCISER. 
 
 n 
 
 lessons; for example, for older classes, instead of 
 giving the words directly, require each to write 
 on a slip of paper with his name, after the fol- 
 lowing directions : 
 
 WRITE. 
 
 
 PUPIL WRITES. 
 
 I. A common noun. 
 
 I. 
 
 Bush. 
 
 2. A descriptive adjective. 
 
 2. 
 
 Purple. 
 
 3. Adverb (or phrase) of 
 
 3. 
 
 In the morning. 
 
 time. 
 
 
 
 4. Conjunctive adverb. 
 
 4. 
 
 When. 
 
 5. Past participle. 
 
 5. 
 
 Written. 
 
 6. Abstract noun. 
 
 6. 
 
 Wisdom. 
 
 7. Relative pronoun. 
 
 7. 
 
 Whom. 
 
 8. Adverb of manner. 
 
 8. 
 
 Hastily. 
 
 9. Adjective phrase. 
 
 9. 
 
 Of blue silk. 
 
 :o. An exclamation. 
 
 10. 
 
 Pshaw ! 
 
 Exchange lists. 
 
 
 
 For younger classes, ' 
 
 this 1 
 
 list: 
 
 WRITE. 
 
 
 PUPIL WRITES. 
 
 I. Name of a color. 
 
 I. 
 
 Blue. 
 
 2. Name of a kind of grain. 
 
 2. 
 
 Corn. 
 
 3. Words expressing dis- 
 
 3. 
 
 Half a mile. 
 
 tance. 
 
 
 
 4. Name of dress material. 
 
 4. 
 
 Lawn. 
 
 5. Name of flowering plant. 
 
 5. 
 
 Hollyhock. 
 
 6. Words expressing time. 
 
 6. 
 
 To-morrow afternoon, 
 
 7. Name of kitchen utensil. 
 
 7. 
 
 Kettle. 
 
 8. Name of edged tool. 
 
 8. 
 
 Ax. 
 
 9. Word or words telling 
 
 9. 
 
 Quickly. 
 
 how. 
 
 
 
 [o. Time of two actions. 
 
 10. 
 
 Soon after. 
 
 Exchange lists. 
 
1 6 WORD EXERCISES. 
 
 This may be varied each time by using other 
 words from the children's common stock. 
 
 To High School classes and the grades next 
 below, such exercises as the following may be 
 given : 
 
 1. Name of a book and its i. The " Talisman." 
 
 author. — ScoTT. 
 
 2. Quotation — prose. 2. " A man is what he is, 
 
 not what he has." 
 
 3. Two verses from any poet. 3. "Acorns ripe down-pat- 
 
 tering, 
 While the Autumn 
 breezes sing." 
 
 — Keats. 
 
 4. Word introductory to a 4. For. 
 
 reason-clause. 
 
 5. A word used in poetry 5. Ope. 
 
 only. 
 
 6. A geometrical term. 6. An arc. 
 
 7. An original simile. 7. Like, etc. 
 
 Exchange (or otherwise). 
 
 Do not allow pupils to think that they have 
 done what is required when they have merely 
 put the words into sentences with some sort of 
 unnecessary sense. The composition should be 
 connected, and so well put together that the 
 words seem to have been chosen after the writing ; 
 and it should contain nothing that might not have 
 been true within the limits of this species of 
 fiction, etc. 
 
WORD EXERCISES. 1 7 
 
 Exercises from Picture- Words, 
 
 Running. Climbing. 
 
 Flying. Galloping. 
 
 Whispering. Digging. 
 
 Whistling. Calling. 
 
 Crying. Tumbling. 
 
 Throwing. Smashing. 
 
 The pupils being ready, the teacher pronounces 
 a word from this or a similar list, directing each 
 to write a description of the mental picture seen 
 when the word was pronounced. 
 
 Example: 
 
 ' Running. ^' When I wrote that word on the 
 board, I thought of a horse running down a country 
 road, between a wood and a field, as if he were 
 going home ; he had on neither bridle nor saddle ; 
 he was a yellow horse with a white mane which 
 rose and fell in the wind as he ran ; his long white 
 tail floated out on the air; I could almost hear 
 the fall of his feet. While I looked at him he ran 
 into an open gate, up a lane, into a yard. What 
 did you think of when I said ' Running ' ? " 
 
 Familiar concrete nouns may be used in the 
 same way : 
 
 Cat. Melon. 
 
 Dinner. Basket of peaches. 
 
 Kite. Pop-corn. 
 
 Horse and wagon. Mr. — (any familiar name). 
 
l8 WORD EXERCISES. 
 
 Example : 
 
 " Now, listen, children ; I am going to say the 
 name of something, or some one, you have all 
 seen. You will all think of something, and will 
 see a picture of something. I want you to write 
 on your slates, telling what you thought about, 
 how it looked, where it was, whose it was, how 
 pretty it was, and what it was doing in your 
 thought. Kitten, Now, write (or tell orally) 
 what you saw." 
 
 To upper classes, acquainted somewhat with 
 books, after the same manner, give the names of 
 historical or other characters, requiring each pupil 
 to write the particular circumstances connected 
 with the character which came to his mind when 
 the name was pronounced : 
 
 Ivanhoe. Columbus. 
 
 Ichabod Crane. Marley's Ghost. 
 
 Harry East and Tom Brown. King Philip. 
 Daniel Boone. Zachary Taylor. 
 
 Give all instructions and directions before 
 pronouncing the word intended for the class in 
 this exercise. 
 
 Names of celebrated places, or objects, or those 
 connected with remarkable events, may be soused 
 as to make the exercises serve as tests of geo- 
 graphical and other knowledge. The pupils 
 should write of the mental picture, and not merely 
 of remembered facts or statements. 
 
IVORD EXERCISES, 1 9 
 
 Note I. These exercises, vvell-managea, culti- 
 vate ingenuity, ease of expression, and readiness, 
 and add to the vocabulary, by teaching the uses 
 of new words and phrases. They give confidence 
 to shy and timid children, and encourage free- 
 dom of expression in all. 
 
 Note II. Observe that these exercises are in- 
 tended to teach the child how to express zvhat he 
 already knows. He has several years of knowl- 
 edge at his command ; let him use that which is 
 familiar, rather than try to write about what is as 
 yet unassimilated and strange. 
 
 Note III. Commend efforts in the direction 
 of careful arrangement and telling much in few 
 words. 
 
 Note IV. A frequent five-minute oral exer- 
 cise with short and easy lists of words and 
 phrases (written upon the board) helps to culti- 
 vate memory and consecutive thinking. Begin 
 with a list of three words with small children. 
 
CHAPTER II. 
 
 PHRASES AND CLAUSES. 
 
 SIMILAR to exercises given in Chapter I. are 
 the following : 
 First. Selecting some beginning phrase or 
 clause, as ** Along the meadow-brook," "Just 
 before the early morning," *' When the door 
 opened," or '' As I walked along the edge of the 
 wood," say to the pupils, ready with pencil and 
 paper : *' Write what I tell you," giving the phrase 
 or clause ; then direct them to relate whatever 
 is suggested to their minds. . . 
 
 Examples : 
 
 1. Along the quiet country road. 
 
 2. Over the hills in the distance. 
 
 3. While I sat under a tree reading. 
 
 4. After resting by the spring for an hour. 
 
 5. Through the deserted street. 
 
 6. In the thickets of the forest. 
 
 7. With axes and hammers. 
 
 8. Under the great oak-tree by the spring. 
 
 9. On the sandy shore of the — 
 
 10. Near a mossy log which lay across the 
 brook. 
 
 20 
 
PHRASES AND CLAUSES. 21 
 
 11. Down in the orchard. 
 
 12. On the lower branch of an — 
 
 13. When I heard the field larks singing. 
 
 14. Around the towers of the church. 
 
 15. Among the pine-needles that lay like a 
 thick carpet under the tree. 
 
 From this, as from various other kinds of ex- 
 ercises given in this book, may be made general 
 exercises, thus : 
 
 (i.) Write upon the board the selected phrase 
 or clause ; then, standing with chalk in hand, call 
 on the pupils, in turn, to go on with the story, 
 writing what each gives, rejecting whatever seems 
 unsuited, and asking for something better from 
 the same pupil, until the story is finished. Go 
 over the whole with the class, correcting as they 
 suggest, but making no comments or objections 
 to corrections approved by the class, until all has 
 been done with the composition that they can 
 do. Afterward, point out what faults remain 
 unnoticed, comment on the quality, etc. 
 
 (2.) Appoint two leaders and ask the class to 
 choose sides; give a clause, phrase, or sentence; 
 send the two leaders to the board, and, carefully 
 directing both sides so as to prevent confusion, 
 let each side write, as above, each leader writing 
 as dictated to by pupils of his side, always in 
 turn. Limit the individual dictations to a phrase, 
 clause, or sentence, as thought best, going around 
 rapidly several times before the work is com- 
 
2 2 PHRASES AND CLAUSES. 
 
 pleted. Waste no time waiting for slow pupils. 
 After corrections have been made, first by the 
 side which wrote, secondly, by the other side, 
 the teacher may decide which is really the better 
 composition, and point out reasons for her de- 
 cision. 
 
 Picture-Sentences, 
 
 Certain sentences, as those which follow, sug- 
 gest at once some picture to the mind. After 
 instructions as in the preceding exercise, let this 
 be described, always with the effort to make clear 
 (i) the figures represented by ** they,'* and (2) the 
 act predicated. 
 
 Exercise {a,) : 
 
 1. They crossed the bridge. 
 
 2. They rested by the spring. 
 
 3. They played under the walnut-trees. 
 
 4. They looked in at the shop windows and 
 
 wished — 
 
 5. They gathered wild blackberries. 
 
 6. They forded the river. 
 
 7. They shook the pippin-tree. 
 
 8. They ironed their aprons. 
 
 9. They sat on the porch, sewing. 
 
 10. They made cakes on the kitchen table. 
 
 11. They climbed the hill. 
 
 12. They raked hay on the hillside. 
 
 13. They sat in the swing, eating apples. 
 
 14. They sat in a tree, reading a book. 
 
PHRASES AND CLAUSES. 23 
 
 15. They waded in the brook that runs through 
 
 the field. 
 
 16. They quarreled over a bird's-nest. 
 
 17. They behaved badly in the steam-cars. 
 
 18. They played in the woods by the pond. 
 
 19. They all tumbled into the cart. 
 
 20. They caught fire-flies. 
 
 Exercise {b.) — Historical : 
 
 1. He spread his velvet cloak in the mud. r^e/-^^ 
 
 2. He drew lightning from the clouds. '^^x^^M^^^— 
 
 3. He was buried in the Mississippi. 
 
 4. He broke Audubon's beloved violin, chasing 
 
 a bat. 
 
 5. He fiddled while Rome burned. V^-*^ 
 
 6. He sat on the ruins of Carthage. 
 
 7. He drank the cup of hemlock and died5'^^'''*'^''^^ 
 
 8. He wrote the " Pilgrim's Progress " in 
 
 prison. ■.. 
 
 9. He signed the Emancipation Proclamation. 
 
 10. He discovered the law of gravitation. ?U/^ 
 
 11. He received the Tables of the Law. ')i^^viM 
 
 12. He interpreted the king's dream. 
 
 13. He painted the '' Last Supper.'* ^'n-\Iv— . 
 
 14. He was lashed to the mast. 
 
 15. He translated Dante. 
 
 16. He discovered the Pacific, a^^^^-^*^ 
 
 17. He sought the fountain of youth. 
 
 18. He was called "The Lady" at college. ^)'^''- 
 
 19. He wrote the greatest English epic. 
 
CHAPTER III. 
 
 OBJECTS. 
 Natural Objects, 
 
 FOR this kind of exercise choose some natural 
 object common to the region. An ear of 
 corn, a stalk of corn with ears, roots, and tassel, an 
 apple, a grain or stalk of wheat, a cobblestone 
 or large pebble, a blade of grass, an orange, a 
 potato and plant, a piece of wood, a section of a 
 tree, a butterfly, a handful of earth, etc., etc., are 
 easily obtained. 
 
 The first lesson should be conversational, and 
 the facts to be used in a composition-lesson to 
 follow should be mostly obtained from the chil- 
 dren by means of the conversation ; they may be 
 on such topics as the origin, uses, history, varie- 
 ties, properties, qualities, parts, their uses, their 
 relation to the whole, and growth of the object 
 selected. 
 
 The potato and all other garden vegetables are 
 interesting subjects for lessons, and can be made 
 especially so by means of drawings, done at the 
 lesson. Most city children know nothing of these 
 
 24 
 
OBJECTS. 25 
 
 plants, except as they see their edible parts pre- 
 pared for the table, or in the market. 
 
 Example : 
 
 The potato plant ; whole plant, with large and 
 small tubers, roots and rootlets, flowers and fruit, 
 carefully brought to the schoolroom. (See Rus- 
 kin's *'Queen of the Air," II., paragraphs 74-90.) 
 
 The second lesson on the same object concludes 
 the talk, adds new facts found out by investigation, 
 and begins arranging and writing carefully all in- 
 formation so gained in the form of a composition. 
 The order of topics may be placed upon the board. 
 
 The third lesson may be an invented story, in 
 which the object is conspicuous. 
 
 Note I. The teacher ought to know more 
 than the pupils about the object ; not necessarily 
 all that they together know. 
 
 Note II. The teacher may instruct older pupils 
 to read for information on certain topics, as the ori- 
 gin and history, but to read only — to copy nothing. 
 
 Note III. After several lessons, on various 
 objects, require pupils to arrange their paragraphs 
 for themselves. 
 
 Manufactured Objects, 
 
 A shoe, a piece of calico, silk, woolen cloth, or 
 
 carpet ; a knife, a pair of scissors, a needle, a 
 
 coin ; a bottle, a pane of glass, a dish ; a book ; a 
 
 straw hat, a button, a ring ; a hoe, a rake, an axe. 
 
26 OBJECTS. 
 
 First, Conversation, as above. Examples of 
 questions which may be asked ; How made ? For 
 what ? Of what ? By whom ? Where ? When ? 
 Uses? Whose designs? Fashions, and whose ? 
 Good qualities? Prices? History of use ? How 
 they came to be made, perhaps ? Will you brrng 
 specimens? Make drawings. 
 
 Treat as the natural object in the preceding 
 pages, so far as practicable, making three or four 
 lessons, ending with an invented story in which 
 the object is of importance. 
 
 Note I. An example of this last must be 
 given at the board by the teacher. 
 
 Note II. A beginning may be made, even in 
 very young classes, of writing schemes or plans 
 for compositions after a series of such lessons. 
 But this is not necessary until later. If the 
 teacher has been careful to train the pupils to 
 habits of order in thought as well as in material 
 surroundings, there will be no very great need, if 
 any, of such work. Practice and feeling will 
 soon make such method almost habit. 
 
CHAPTER IV. 
 
 LIVING BEINGS. 
 Domestic Animals, 
 
 BEGIN with the familiar domestic animals ; 
 otbain from the pupils in the first lesson all 
 the facts they know about the one selected ; add 
 to these such as they can learn by close and 
 careful questioning and by observation of the 
 living animal when practicable. (These first 
 lessons are not necessarily given in the school- 
 room.) Let such questioning consider, main- 
 ly, external characteristics : notice form, color, 
 size, manner of walking, manner of lying down 
 and rising, feet, toes, claws, hoofs, ears, teeth 
 (why sharp, or otherwise ?), movements of the 
 lower jaw, angle of spine (vertical, as in man ? 
 or horizontal, as in the ox ?) shape of head, 
 facial angle, skin, covering of skin, eyes, eyelids 
 and pupils, nose, mouth, tongue, motions, etc. 
 Question further about food, habits, intelligence, 
 use to man, place in nature, kindred animals, 
 and their resemblances to this and differences 
 from it. 
 
 At the next lesson or lessons, (i) ask for a 
 27 
 
28 LIVING BEINGS. 
 
 written account of these facts, properly arranged. 
 (2.) Add, orally, some account of the origin and 
 history of the creature, species, varieties, etc., 
 for which consult encyclopedias and works on 
 Natural History. (3.) Use also whatever knowl- 
 edge the pupils have about other animals of the 
 same family. (4.) Ask for true stories about 
 their own or their neighbor's animals of the same 
 kind. (5.) Finish with an invented story. 
 
 Suggestions : Dog (wolf, fox) ; cat (tiger, lion, 
 leopard, wild-cat) ; horse, cow, pig, sheep, goat. 
 
 In hoofed animals, show that the toes are 
 solidified and covered with horn, and why; show 
 the extent of the foot, and that most quadrupeds 
 walk on their toes (that is, are digitigrade) ; name 
 the bones of the legs to classes familiar with 
 simple facts in human anatomy ; show the dif- 
 ferences between the feet of cats and dogs. Call 
 attention to the modes and varieties of locomo- 
 tion in animals. 
 
 Birds, 
 
 , Begin with an object-lesson on the common 
 hen, or some other domestic bird well-used 
 to being handled. Find out all that is known by 
 the pupils about birds in general ; if practicable, 
 see with them wild birds or birds in museums, 
 and study the types of the orders, and their 
 characteristics (feet, bill, food, habits, plumage, 
 eyes, song); the birds of the ground, of the lower 
 
LIVING BEINGS. 29 
 
 air, of the upper air, their types and characteris- 
 tics. Talk at some length about the uses and 
 offices of each bird studied. 
 
 Other topics under this head are : migrations, 
 where and why, nests, nesting-places, protective 
 colors, curious habits or features, songs, our duty 
 to protect birds, cage-birds, wearing bird-feathers 
 as ornaments. 
 
 Treat the subject, so far as it will admit, as in 
 the preceding exercise of this chapter. 
 
 In preparation for this work, read, as time al- 
 lows, from the following list i"^ 
 
 Longfellow's ^^ The Birds of Killingworth," 
 ** The Emperor's Bird-nest," '' The Falcon of Ser 
 Federigo." 
 
 Lowell's " The Falcon," ^* The Nightingale in 
 the Study." 
 
 Wordsworth's ^* The Skylark," '' The Cuckoo." 
 
 Shelley's '' The Skylark." 
 
 Keats's "The Nightingale." 
 
 Ruskin's *' Love's Meini^." 
 
 Maurice Thompson. 
 
 John Burroughs. 
 
 Henry D. Thoreau's *^ Excursions.'* 
 
 The Life of John James Au'dubon. 
 
 * The following list and all subsequent similar ones are 
 given as suggestions to the teacher for her own reading, 
 not for reading to classes. But many of the poems, etc., 
 are such as can be used in various i<inds of exercises. 
 
so LIVING BEINGS. 
 
 bisects. 
 
 Lessons on the most conspicuous or common 
 insects of each order are easily prepared, with the 
 aid of an elementary work on Entomology ^ and a 
 pocket magnifying-glass. A large beetle of the 
 locality, the honey bee, or the ant, the house-fly, a 
 butterfly, a dragon-fly, a grasshopper, a squash bug, 
 or a cicada (so-called locust), will each give material 
 enough for several lessons. With the live insect 
 where it can be seen, lead the pupils to observe 
 the kind of wings and their number, legs, eyes, 
 antennae, their relative positions and attachment 
 to the body ; the three regions of body. Get 
 what information is possible relating to the 
 creature's habits, habitat, etc., from each mem- 
 ber of the class, for the benefit of the whole 
 class. Ask for other facts to be gathered before 
 the next lesson by observing the insects in their 
 homes. Before any writing is done on this exer- 
 cise put upon the board enlarged drawings of the 
 insect, and its legs and wings. These may be 
 sketched from the creature, or, if done by the 
 teacher, they may be copied from engravings. 
 When possible, get incomplete forms, showing the 
 life of the insect in its various stages. If it is use- 
 ful to man, in what way? Harmful, how ? Does 
 it make anything which man uses ? Is anything 
 
 * Packard's " Elements of Entomology " is a good book 
 for the purpose. 
 
LIVING BEINGS. 3 1 
 
 made of it or its products? (Cochineal, gum 
 shellac, nut-galls.) When studying the honey- 
 bee, show honeycomb, filled comb, queen cells, 
 and the three kinds of individuals in bee-col- 
 onies, the bees themselves, if possible. 
 
 After all has been learned by seeing, that can 
 be learned with profit for the time being, and has 
 been made use of as composition material, direct 
 the class to read, or read to them, articles on 
 tiie subject, but allow nothing to be copied ; the 
 second paper may be the reproduction of what 
 they have so gained. Criticise carefully the ar- 
 rangement of matter in both. 
 
 A third paper may relate stories or facts given 
 orally by the teacher from her own reading and 
 observation. If the interest has been well kept 
 up, make a fourth exercise the oral recital of 
 other or the same matter ; and a fifth, an in- 
 vented story in which the insect is of importance. 
 (See Chapter VI., Exercise 2.) 
 
 Read the latest scientific works, only, on these 
 subjects ; avoid authorities long out of date. 
 
 Other living forms of lower intelligence (though 
 of varying structure) may be had in almost any 
 region, as fish, crayfish, mussels, snails, slugs, 
 starfish, jelly-fish or spiders, and make good sub- 
 jects of this kind. Seaboard schools have abun- 
 dant material among those just mentioned. City 
 fish-markets give opportunities for observation of 
 the various fresh and salt water animals used as 
 
32 LIVING BEINGS. 
 
 food ; but the seashore and the stream are the 
 best places to see and to learn about these things. 
 Treat whatever may be chosen for study in a 
 manner similar to that of the preceding ex- 
 amples ; each new animal studied gives additional 
 material to be used in the lessons on Comparison. 
 Call attention to the adaptation to their mode of 
 life of corresponding parts in the animals com- 
 pared. (Grass-feeding cud-chewers, animals that 
 become the prey of carnivorous beasts, timid, 
 etc.) 
 
CHAPTER V. 
 
 PLANTS OF THE STREETS. 
 
 IN the streets of most country towns, even of 
 many large towns, and always along country 
 roads, plants are so abundant both in kind and in 
 number, that they afTord excellent material for 
 study and observation. Even with little or no 
 knowledge of botany, other than that derived 
 from ordinary observation, the teacher may make 
 these interesting to children and young people. 
 
 Begin with a conversation about some common 
 and conspicuous plant (with a whole plant before 
 each pupil, if practicable). Find out, first, all 
 that is known by the class about the plant ; sec- 
 ond, all that can be learned by looking, tasting, 
 smelling, feeling (as in hairy, silky, or velvety 
 species), counting the parts, observing their ar- 
 rangement (as of the leaves on the stem and with 
 relation to each other, the relation of the branches 
 to the main stalk), and the colors of various parts. 
 Examine the stem, leaves (upper and under side), 
 roots, buds, flowers, seeds, etc. Consider the 
 qualities, as bitter, disagreeable, useful, trouble- 
 some, medicinal, ornamental, pretty, mucilagi- 
 nous (as common mallow), etc., etc.; the shapes of 
 
 33 
 
34 PLANTS OF THE STREETS. 
 
 parts, stem, root (cross sections, also), leaf, etc.; 
 insects that feed on the plant ; the seeds, their 
 peculiarities, and manner of spreading (that is, 
 how nature contrives to plant them without 
 crowding), their number, and why so many, 
 probably? curious seeds of some weeds, called 
 burrs. 
 
 All these furnish new matter for thought and 
 writing. Each plant thus used will suggest to 
 the teacher more than is given here. 
 
 Use the magnifying glass, and make drawings 
 when practicable. 
 
 Examples : 
 
 Dog-fennel (tradition that it was sown through- 
 out the West by '' Johnny Appleseed/' for 
 whose story see Harper s Magazine^ vol. xliii., 
 830); Jamestown weed ("Jimson weed," see 
 extended history of the Jamestown colony) ; 
 rag-weed (a plant related to the hollyhock) ; 
 mallows (cultivated plant of the same family) ; 
 Indian mallow; purslane; creeping grasses; 
 duckweed ; thistles (*' thistle-down, the only 
 ghost of flowers," T. B. Read in " The Closing 
 Scene ") ; vervains (verbena) ; smart-weed ; iron- 
 weed ; bind-weed (wild morning-glorys) ; dande- 
 lion (see Lowell's poem, ^' The Dandelion"); 
 tar-weed (California) ; mustard ; black mustard ; 
 burdock; sour-dock; sorrel; "pin-grass," etc., 
 etc. Speak of duty to destroy troublesome plants 
 
PLANTS OF THE STREETS, 35 
 
 that spread easily, and of when and how this may 
 be done. Make drawings of hooks of burdock, 
 carrier of dandelion and thistle, '* Spanish nee- 
 dle,** etc. Read Warner*s *' My Summer in a 
 Garden." Consult Gray's ** Structural Botany," 
 " Field Botany," and " How Plants Grow," and 
 Thoreau's writings. 
 
CHAPTER VI. 
 
 THE LANDSCAPE. 
 
 INTRODUCE the subject, as in preceding 
 lessons, by a conversation. 
 
 If the teacher has acquaintance with a certain 
 brook (or other stream), and John has also, it is 
 the fault of the former, if some good talking and 
 satisfactory writing cannot be gotten out of the 
 mutual knowledge. John will probably know 
 more about it than the teacher, but will not, per- 
 haps, be able to tell so well what he knows. 
 
 The questions which open and direct the con- 
 versation should be so managed as to suggest the 
 order of topics for writing. 
 
 Example i . — A Brook : 
 
 Suggestions: Source, direction, feeders. 
 Things likely to be seen along it : water rats and 
 nests, frogs and tad-poles, shell fish, land snails, 
 cases of caddis flies, larvae of insects, slugs, 
 water-beetles, water birds, water spiders, dragon 
 flies, fish, ferns, wild-flowers, blackberry bushes, 
 tliickets, water-plants, trees, logs, stumps, peb- 
 bles, sand and rocks, fishing holes. Things to 
 be heard : running water, notes, hum of insects, 
 
 36 
 
THE LANDSCAPE. J7 
 
 leaping of fish, echoes, song of the brook ; brooks 
 of history; (Tennyson's ** The Brook"; Lowell's 
 prelude to Part II. of *' Sir Launfal's Vision "; 
 Whittier's '* Snowbound," lines 110-115). Value 
 of a brook on a farm. 
 
 In preparing for these lessons, read, as far as 
 practicable, this list : Emerson's ** Two Rivers "; 
 Wordsworth's three poems on ''Yarrow"; 
 Southey's " How does the Water come down 
 atLodore?"; Lowell's " The Fountain," "Beaver 
 Brook," and "The Fountain of Youth." 
 
 Other subjects of the same kind : A wood- 
 land, a field, a mountain, a lake, a bay, a wooded 
 hill, shore of the ocean, a thicket, a gorge, a 
 canon, a spring, a glen, a cliff, a prairie, a sandy 
 plain or desert (Nevada), a quarry, a large soli- 
 tary tree, a clump of trees, a waterfall. 
 
 Use only such of these as are familiar through 
 nearness to the school or the homes of the 
 children. 
 
 Example 2. — A Tree : 
 
 Suggestions: Name, height (calculated by 
 means of its shadow and the shadow of a stake, 
 or approximated by intelligent guess); diameter 
 three, seven, or ten feet from base ; branches, 
 their angle with the trunk ; bark and its color, 
 thickness and general appearance ; shaft ; roots 
 and their extent, lateral root, tap root (approxi- 
 mated from observation of the roots of the same 
 
38 THE LANDSCAPE. 
 
 kind of tree blown down) ; wood, sap-wood, heart- 
 wood, and grain, their color and hardness ; 
 probable age ; aspect in winter, summer, autumn, 
 spring ; foliage in mass ; shape of tree ; shape of 
 leaves, with drawing and description ; fruit, or 
 seed, and flowers; time of flowering and ripen- 
 ing ; buds ; habitat (high or low, moist or dry 
 ground ?) ; shadow of the tree, shape and extent 
 at noon in midsummer. 
 
 Example 3. — A Tree {continued) : 
 
 After the tree has been written of as in No. 2., 
 let it be considered historically. Probably how 
 old ? What was happening when it was a sprout- 
 ing seed ? From its locality (Boston Common ; 
 City Hall Plaza, Oakland, Cal. ; Mound Hill Cem- 
 etery, Eaton, Ohio) what may have taken place 
 near or under it? (Suggestions: Sir Francis 
 Drake, Tecumseh, Anthony Wayne, Gen. St. 
 Clair, Gen. Washington, Cotton Mather, emi- 
 grant wagons, Indian pow wow.) What happens 
 now? (Boys play, people stop to rest, to talk, etc.) 
 
 Note I. Sections of trees may be easily ob- 
 tained when trees are cut in the neighborhood. 
 
 Note H. These are some of the topics which 
 may serve as material for interesting lessons. 
 Use such of them at a lesson as are most available, 
 but do not attempt too much at one time. 
 
 Note HI. Do not ask too many questions — 
 
THE LANDSCAPE. 39 
 
 merely enough to keep the subject well in 
 hand. 
 
 Note IV. Do not talk too much yourself— 
 nor too little. 
 Read : 
 
 1. Wordsworth's "Excursion," Book VII. — 
 beginning ''Among the humbler worthies," etc. 
 to '' Now from the living," etc. 
 
 2. Spenser's '' Faery Queene," Canto I., 8 and 9. 
 
 3. Rossetti's '' The Leaf." 
 
 4. Whittier's '' The Palm Tree." 
 
 5. Jones Very's ''The Tree." 
 
 6. Helen Hunt Jackson's " The Hickory Tree." 
 
 7. Lowell's "The Oak," " Rhoecus," " To a 
 Pine Tree," and '* Under the Willows." 
 
 8. Emerson*s " Wood Notes." 
 
 9. Bryant's " Among the Trees," " The Forest 
 Hymn" and " The Planting of the Apple Tree." 
 
 10. Morris's " Woodman, Spare that Tree." 
 
 11. Wordsworth's " The Fir Tree." 
 
 12. Chaucer's " Canterbury Tales." lines 2915- 
 2940. 
 
 13. Ruskin's "Trees." 
 
 14. Lowell's " The Beggar." 
 
 Example 4. — A Field : 
 
 Suggestions : A map of the field as seen from 
 the school house, or as remembered, if each child 
 selects his own field to write about. Large or 
 small ; level, rolling, or hill land ; fallow, or culti- 
 
40 THE LANDSCAPE. 
 
 vated, or pasture for flocks or herds ; grain, wild- 
 flowers, grasses, or weeds, and kinds ; soil, its 
 color and quality, what adapted for ; bushes or 
 trees, stumps and rocks ; fences and gates ; color 
 in the difl"erent seasons; once forest? Moist 
 spots or springs, streams ; value in money ; value 
 in landscape, whether agreeable or commonplace, 
 or picturesque ; relation to the remainder of 
 the farm ; ill or well-cared for, clear of rubbish ; 
 ditches. Suggestions for improvements. 
 
 As part of the preparation for the lesson read 
 from this list : 
 
 " Field Notes," E. R. Sill. 
 
 "' Home Thoughts from Abroad," Robert 
 Browning. 
 
 " Excursions " (selections), H. D. Thoreau. 
 
 *^ The Excursion," by Wordsworth (selections). 
 
 *^ Michael," by Wordsworth. 
 
 *'Sir Gibbie," by George Macdonald. 
 
 Example 5. — A Woodland: 
 
 Suggestions : Extent, direction of greatest 
 length ; kinds of trees, mainly ; other kinds ; 
 undergrowth and varieties ; flowers and vines ; 
 flowering trees; mosses and lichens; wild fruits 
 and nuts; pools, streams, or springs; knolls and 
 hollows ; birds, nests, and songs ; animals and 
 their homes and food ; burrs and thorns ; edible 
 roots, barks, shoots, and buds ; insects ; aspect 
 in winter, summer, spring, and autumn ; probable 
 
THE LANDSCAPE. 41 
 
 age; advantage to the neighborhood ; fallen trees 
 and stumps; layers of old leaves; sprouting 
 plants; fungi; wind among the trees; strange 
 appearance of some trees (as sycamore or button- 
 ball, white walnut, and birch); odors; pleasant 
 nooks ; " trees easy to climb " ; ^* fun " to be got 
 out of the forest; natural forest, how planted ? 
 artificial forest, how, when, for what ? girth of 
 the largest trees ; uses of the forest ; fire in the 
 forest. 
 
 Read : 
 
 Longfellow's " Evangeline " and " Hiawatha *' 
 (parts). 
 
 Emerson's "" In My Garden," 
 
 Thoreau's '^ Maine Woods." 
 
 Maurice Thompson's '' By- Ways and Bird 
 Notes." 
 
 Bryant's *^ Inscription for an Entrance to a 
 Wood." 
 
 Example 6. — A canon or gorge : 
 
 Suggestions: Extent, length, width, and direc- 
 tion; formation, by water? by what water? 
 depth ; inclination of sides ; springs ; vegetation ; 
 rocks; picturesqueness ; animal life; historical 
 possibilities as connected with the life of man ; 
 temperature as compared with that of open, level 
 land ; effect of storms on it ; and such other 
 topics as are applicable from the preceding 
 examples, 
 
CHAPTER VII. 
 
 PHENOMENA OF NATURE. 
 
 AS this is one of the most difficult kinds of 
 composition for young children and young 
 people, it should not be attempted until after 
 some facility has been acquired by practice in 
 simpler kinds of writing. Whatever is under- 
 taken should be from personal observation. 
 Many of the more ordinary natural occurrences, 
 as thunder-storms, snow-storms, high winds and 
 the like, may be made subjects of lessons, imme- 
 diately after they take place. In the introduc- 
 tory conversation, obtain from the class the results 
 of their observation and experience in the rain, 
 or other storm. Ask questions concerning the 
 appearance of trees, people, animals, houses, 
 streets, roads, streams, and forests ; about the 
 direction of the wind, the temperature, the size 
 of the drops, the sky and clouds, the distant 
 hills or forests, the flower-gardens and fields. 
 
 Suggestion : Snow-storm ; storm at sea ; 
 earthquake ; flood ; land-slide ; eclipse of the 
 sun, of the moon ; shower of meteors ; foggy 
 day ; sprouting of grain, or other seed ; changes 
 
 42 
 
PHENOMENA OF NA TURE. 43 
 
 of caterpillar; growth of a tree, from an acorn ; 
 freezing of a stream or pond. 
 
 Example i. — Seed sprouting : 
 
 Tie tightly a round piece of coarse bobinet, or 
 " wash blonde," over each of two or three plain 
 glass goblets, allowing it to sag in the middle ; 
 fill the glasses with water until it just reaches 
 the sagging net ; lay in each, in the water on the 
 net, two or three squash, pumpkin, pea, or any 
 other easily-sprouting, large seeds, and set the 
 glasses in a window, or on a table near one. Add 
 more water as evaporation requires. Soak for a 
 day or two large squash seeds enough for the 
 whole class to have one apiece ; show by means 
 of these the seed-leaves, the little germ, and the 
 place where the root will start out. Then tell 
 them to watch the seeds in the glasses, on the 
 net, so that they can tell what happens, when 
 and in what order. If practicable, get drawings 
 of each stage of the growth, and during the 
 time have a little journal kept. 
 Example 2. — Nut sprouting : - 
 
 Fill a clear jar with water two-thirds full ; 
 suspend an acorn, or other large nut (native) by 
 a string over a stick, so that it touches the water. 
 Set in the school-room where the children can 
 see it. 
 Example 3. — Transformatiojt of Caterpillar : 
 
 Take a branch of dill, parsley, parsnip, or car- 
 
44 PHENOMENA OF NA TURE. 
 
 rot, on which are banded green caterpillars ; 
 select the two largest of these ; put the branch 
 with the insects into a large, clean fruit or other 
 jar, open at the top. Keep luiwithered branches 
 and leaves constantly in the jar, removing the 
 caterpillars each time to the fresh branch and 
 throwing out the old. When the insects stop 
 feeding and begin to wander about, allow them 
 to crawl into a clean jar in which are two or 
 three dry sticks set slanting ; tie over the mouth 
 of the jar some coarse net, until they settle 
 on the sticks ; then take out and set up in a 
 vase or bottle, so that the metamorphosis can 
 be seen. The insects w^ill remain quiet for a short 
 time, then each will spin two threads (one pos- 
 teriorly, and one around the forward part of the 
 body, by means of which they strap themselves 
 to the sticks), and again remain quiet for a little 
 while. The beginning of the change from cater- 
 pillar to chrysalis will be indicated by paleness of 
 the green skin, and a curious wTiggling motion ; 
 the change will then take place in a few minutes. 
 
 The transformation from the chrysalis to the 
 perfect form will occur in eleven days, in a sunny 
 place ; in fourteen, in the shade. Or, if the time 
 of the first change be late in the summer, the 
 third transformation may be delayed until the fol- 
 lowing spring, as the last brood of this species 
 remains in the chrysalis state through the winter. 
 
 Dark, spiny caterpillars found feeding on wil- 
 
PHENOMENA OF NA TURE. 45 
 
 low leaves will show similar changes. Put into 
 a jar as above and feed on fresh willow-leaves. 
 Some differences in the metamorphosis will be 
 observed. 
 
 Feed two or three silk-worms in the school- 
 room, if mulberry or osage orange leaves are to 
 be had near. 
 
 Note. Let the objective point in this exer- 
 cise be kept in sight by the teacher ; namely, that 
 the pupils are to learn how to record happenings 
 in the actual order of their occurrence. Insist on 
 accuracy. 
 
CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 LOCAL GEOGRAPHY. 
 
 MAPS of the surrounding country, farms, bays, 
 islands, etc., within the school region, to- 
 gether with accounts of their productions, will 
 make interesting work for most classes. Streams, 
 springs, hills, and mountains, slope of land, water- 
 shed, quarries, forests, lakes, ponds (from the 
 standpoint of their importance to the country), 
 their relation to its climate and productiveness, 
 their relative position, size, altitude, etc., are en- 
 tertaining topics, easily made intelligible even to 
 very young children, and tending, as do most nat- 
 ural history subjects, to cultivate the habit of 
 observing. 
 
 With a weathercock, rain-gauge, thermometer 
 and barometer, all or any one of these, interest 
 in many natural phenomena is easily awakened, 
 and various subjects usually considered in the 
 study of Physical Geography are made somewhat 
 familiar to young children, and the way is open to 
 later and broader knowledge. 
 
 Pupils may be appointed weekly, in turn, to 
 take charge of the instruments, and to keep at 
 the same time an accurate record of their read- 
 
 46 
 
LOCAL GEOGRAPHY. 47 
 
 ings. Observations of clouds, whether high or 
 low, kinds and direction of movement, winds, 
 rain-fall, snow-fall, temperature, etc., are easily- 
 made and recorded. Let the pupil who keeps 
 the record of changes and directions of winds 
 take observations at three stated times each day, 
 and particularly at such other times as marked 
 changes occur. He may record these for the 
 benefit of the class, by drawing through a given 
 center a line showing the directions from which 
 and to which the wind blows ; thus, ordinarily 
 he will have three lines marked with arrow-heads ; 
 when unusual disturbances occur, he may add, in 
 colored chalk, the necessary lines showing these. 
 All of these records, with the dates, should be 
 kept in a book for reference. 
 
 The rain-gauge and weathercock can be manu- 
 factured by the boys. If the records are ac- 
 curately kept, instructive comparisons may be 
 made after great storms. 
 
 Ambitious teachers, well situated in country- 
 schools, with comparatively few pupils, may find 
 it possible to make physical or relief maps in the 
 school-yard, showing thereby river-systems, moun^ 
 tain chains, lake-systems, water-sheds, islands, 
 etc., etc. A large, level yard, sand, stones, earth, 
 sod, bits of broken window glass (for bottom of 
 lakes, etc.), blue string (rivers), twigs, clay, etc., 
 etc., answer well for materials. Make railroad 
 maps of broom-straws, cut into .lengths, of fine 
 
4^ LOCAL GEOGRAPHY. 
 
 wire, gravel, common pins, etc. Reproducing 
 bits of their own region thus, then telling how 
 they did it, will be less like work than play. 
 
 Details concerning vegetable and mineral pro- 
 ductions, native animals, domestic animals, curi- 
 osities, manufactures, shipping, pleasant places 
 for rambles — in short, the natural resources of any 
 region are the natural materials for pupils to use 
 in gaining knowledge and the power to give it to 
 others in oral or written discourse. No such 
 knowledge can be had without observation 
 investigation, insight ; the spur to investigation 
 need not be very sharp when once the way has 
 been pointed out. 
 
CHAPTER IX. 
 
 LOCAL HISTORY. 
 
 SUGGESTIONS: This city, town, village, 
 ^ county, parish, township, district, or neigh- 
 borhood was settled when ? By whom ? Under 
 what circumstances, and for what reasons? How 
 did the earliest settlers live? Who was the most 
 distinguished among them? For what ? When 
 did they build churches and school-houses ? Why 
 were they obliged to have a jail, or prison ? Did 
 they have whisky saloons before they had a prison ? 
 Who were their best men? What was the busi- 
 ness of their best men ? Were any of them dis- 
 tinguished in the late war? Did any of them fall 
 in battle ? Who and at what battle? Was there 
 any learned man among them ? Is there now 
 living any distinguished person who was one of 
 these settlers ? What kind of schools did they 
 have at first ? What kind have they now ? How 
 many more people are there here now than at 
 the settlement ? If the place has more people, 
 why has it increased? If fewer, why? Are the 
 people, at present, agricultural, commercial, manu- 
 facturing, or mining? Who are its chief public 
 
 49 
 
50 LOCAL HISTORY. 
 
 officers? Has it any public buildings? What 
 are its views on the ^* whisky question?" Has it 
 many saloons and drunkards? What is the con- 
 dition of its roads, bridges, water supply, drain- 
 age? Is it a healthy place to live in? A good 
 place for boys and girls ? Etc., etc. 
 
CHAPTER X. 
 
 PERSONAL EXPERIENCES. 
 
 THIS may include accounts of early life at 
 home and at school, travels, remarkable 
 occurrences and sights, places of interest visited, 
 and any recollections of early life that a child 
 might like to relate. 
 
 In many schools in remote country districts 
 the children have not been out of the neighbor- 
 hood in which they were born. Their experiences 
 have been confined to what is and what occurs 
 in their own region. But no such child-life is in 
 itself dull, even in the commonest places. The 
 '' Sacred air-cities of Hope '* are as likely to be 
 built on such foundation as anywhere else. The 
 eye of youth, a magic lens, indeed, turns even 
 Childe Roland's ^' bit of stubbed ground " into a 
 garden ; an acorn-cup is a golden goblet ; a yellow 
 leaf will do for a flame to his little woodland fire, 
 when real fire is forbidden ; two chairs, a wooden 
 box, and a piece of tape will make a coach and 
 pair, which will change at a wish to an express 
 wagon or a butcher's cart. 
 
 If, now, one can only get at all this visionary 
 51 
 
52 PERSONAL EXPERIENCES. 
 
 life as the child is leaving it for that which we call 
 real! 
 
 Dreams that have made definite impression, 
 pets, dolls, holidays at a friend's house, play- 
 days in a garret or barn, visits to the country or 
 city, picnics (but beware of introducing this 
 subject !), nutting parties, etc., etc., will, at least, 
 be interesting to members of young classes. 
 
 Care must be taken, however, in such lessons, 
 that unnecessary and uninteresting detail be 
 avoided. Children of the unnoticing and more 
 indolent sorts will write thus: *' We started on 
 a picnic one pleasant morning at half-past seven. 
 We took the train to Long Wharf at 8:io. 
 From there, we went to Angel Island, getting in 
 at 10:30. We rested awhile under the trees, ate 
 our lunch, which we enjoyed very much, and 
 started back at 3, arriving at," etc., etc. Copy 
 such a piece of writing on the board (never fear 
 but you will get such), and show that there is 
 really nothing in such a paper, and that the 
 author of it has missed telling — perhaps missed 
 seeing — anything worth knowing. Such a day's 
 pleasure should have added much to the knowl- 
 edge of the pupil who wrote this; but if it did, 
 no one knows it. 
 
 Get from the class, here, some expression of 
 what might have been of interest. There, surely, 
 were the views from the island, the shipping seen 
 on the way, the touching at Alcatraz, the sight of 
 
PERSONAL EXPERIENCES. 53 
 
 the ocean, the view of San Francisco, the bar- 
 racks on the island, the soldiers, the road around 
 the island, the rim of oak and laurel trees, and the 
 shrubs and vines. 
 
 After a series of lessons on such subjects, the 
 teacher may try the profitable experiment of 
 going with the class to some place of interest 
 within easy distance ; through the day she should 
 make the time spent as interesting as possible, by 
 whatever means are at her command ; games new 
 to the children ; a story told under a tree ; climb- 
 ing a hill ; search for some rare flower, insect, or 
 animal ; or explanation of some curious thing 
 found (case of caddis-fly, cocoon of spinning-moth, 
 imperfect forms of water insects, etc.). 
 
 In a few days ^vj^ as the subject for the day's 
 
 lesson, '* Our Excursion to ," asking the class 
 
 to make as full an account as possible, omitting 
 nothing they can remember. Select from these 
 five or six of the best, and, without comment, 
 ask the authors to read them before the class, 
 requiring all the pupils to express (i) a written 
 opinion of the six, stating which is best and why, 
 and (2) written criticisms on the six. 
 
 Remind young pupils each time they criticise 
 a paper thus that the paper, not the author, is to 
 be considered. 
 
 Visits to factory, shop, mill, dairy, water-works, 
 salt-works, oyster beds, brick-yards, fisheries, 
 mines, canneries, cattle-ranches, fruit-farms, col- 
 
54 PERSONAL EXPERIENCES. 
 
 leges, schools, iron-works, glass-works, observa- 
 tories will be sufficiently suggestive as subjects 
 of this kind. 
 
 Many of these can be made much more inter- 
 esting by voluntary illustrations at tlie board, or 
 on large sheets of coarse paper, of some object, 
 machinery, or what not, given at the time of 
 reading. Require such illustrations occasionally 
 from all, giving subjects suited to the age and 
 capacity of the class. Make this easier by ex- 
 ample, illustrating at some convenient time, 
 Friday afternoon, perhaps, both by some simple 
 apparatus (made or brought for the occasion) and 
 by outline drawing, a simple piece of machinery, 
 as the common pump. (Necessary apparatus for 
 this : a common large hand-basin, a clean glass 
 fruit-jar, and two or three feet of one-third inch 
 rubber pipe. Additional helps : an inch of candle 
 and matches, a common tumbler, a saucer, and a 
 leather " sucker," such as boys lift stones with.) 
 Make a large outline drawing of the common 
 pump (outside only), before beginning the lesson. 
 Show, by experiments (all previously tried and 
 made to work), with the apparatus mentioned, 
 how water is forced up into the jar by pressure of 
 outside air when inside air has been exhausted 
 by the flame. Put in the drawings of the inte- 
 rior of the pump, at the end of the lesson. 
 
CHAPTER XI. 
 
 BUILDING. 
 
 ANY child is likely to see the building of a 
 house, bridge, fence, barn, shed, road, side- 
 walk, flume, ship, or wharf, at times during its 
 construction. He can scarcely have done so 
 without learning something which he may tell. 
 The name, position, use, shapes, dimension, rela- 
 tions to other parts, of the rafters, beams, studding, 
 flooring, shingles, laths, sheeting, casings, sill, 
 panels, etc., etc., of a house, the materials of any 
 structure and their several uses, will interest most 
 children, if any one who knows will take the 
 trouble to show and explain them. 
 
 City children who have most opportunity to 
 see building are generally ignorant of the names 
 of the most common timbers used. Inquiry in 
 a city class studying " Evangeline " found but 
 two or three boys who had an idea of what was 
 meant by gable and rafter. Experiment will 
 show that this was not a case of uncommon 
 ignorance. 
 Example : 
 
 Come, now, let us build a house. What must 
 we do first? Decide upon the place; city, coun- 
 try, village, suburb; then buy the ground, choos- 
 
 55 
 
5 6 BUILDING. 
 
 ing what kind of frontage ? What shall be our 
 plan? A house large enough for how many? 
 We must find a builder and ask about the proba- 
 ble cost. Shall we ''give him the contract," or 
 see to everything ourselves? What other men 
 besides the builder shall we need to consult and 
 employ? What kind of roof, windows, porches, 
 front door, stair, etc., etc. ? What materials shall 
 we buy, and where? 
 
 Having thus obtained a knowledge of how 
 much the pupils know about these matters, add 
 other accurate details, and ask them to be pre- 
 pared to answer questions on these new facts. 
 At the second lesson, continue the conversation, 
 questioning in like manner, and then let them 
 begin to write a composition about *' How I 
 would Build my House." 
 
 Other subjects of the same kind : " A Hot- 
 house for my Flowers," '' A New School-house," 
 a church, a plank sidewalk, a camping-cabin, a 
 log-cabin, a barn, a bridge over a brook. 
 
 Read: 
 
 Sill's '* Field-Notes," chapter viii. 
 
 Sill's ''The House and the Heart." 
 
 Lowell's " The Dead House." 
 
 William Black's " A Princess of Thule." 
 
 Longfellow's " The Old House by the Lindens." 
 
 Thoreau's "Walden." (Chapter on "Econ- 
 omy.") 
 
 Burns's " Cotter's Saturday Night." 
 
CHAPTER XII. 
 
 THE SCHOOL-HOUSE. 
 
 THE approach and situation of the school- 
 house, the surroundings, the outside, the 
 inside, (i) as they are, and (2) as they should be, 
 will form interesting topics. 
 
 What could we do ourselves to improve our 
 school-house ? For country schools this is often 
 a very important question, especially if the lack 
 of interest in education has decreed that an un- 
 inviting, bare, wooden structure, with nothing 
 attractive in itself or in its situation, has been 
 made the educating-place of the district. 
 
 The walls, inside and out, could be cleaned and 
 kept clean of any marring ; if they are not of 
 bare, rough, unpainted wood and are clean, they 
 can be adorned with pictures (good wood-cuts 
 from Harper's weeklies, if nothing else can be 
 had), vases of flowers (brown earthen fruit jars, 
 or glasses), large pressed ferns tastefully arranged, 
 or whatever else suitable the district affords. If 
 they are of unpainted wood, they might be coated, 
 above the blackboards, and out of the reach of 
 rubbing, with whitewash (tinting it gray or buff 
 improves the effect,) and then adorned in the 
 
 57 
 
5^ THE SCHOOL-HOUSE. 
 
 same way, the children doing most of the work, 
 under supervision. 
 
 The grounds can be improved, at least to the 
 extent of clearing away and keeping away all 
 rubbish and litter ; mud-holes can be filled up 
 or drained, so that there is some appearance of 
 comfort in the surroundings. 
 
 However that may be, write about the school- 
 house and grounds ; and perhaps send home the 
 result of the work to be shown to parents. If 
 there are any pupils in the school who have 
 formerly been in better school-houses, let them 
 add a comparison to their papers. A reform in 
 the district notions of a proper school-house will 
 soon build the school-house. 
 
 Note. With a dozen or so borrowed bed 
 sheets and a wagon-load of Woodivardia, an enter- 
 prising teacher once transformed a dingy, bare 
 barn of a school-house into a surprising fairy 
 bower for a Christmas exhibition day. 
 
 Read: 
 
 Whittier's '^ In School Days." 
 
 Eggleston's '' The Hoosier School-master." 
 
 Goldsmith's *' The Deserted Village." 
 
 Irving's " The Legend of Sleepy Hollow." 
 
 Macdonald's " Alec Forbes of Howglen." 
 
CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 COMPARISONS. 
 
 SIMPLE exercises in comparing familiar ob- 
 jects, as two leaves of different kinds and 
 shapes, a beet and a carrot, a peach and a plum, 
 an apple and a pear, a stone and a piece of wood, 
 may be made valuable in cultivating the habit of 
 close observation. 
 
 Consider, first, points of likeness ; then, corre-v 
 sponding qualities ; finally, qualities or character-] 
 istics not common to the two things, if such] 
 exist. 
 
 Suggestions : Materials used in many of the 
 preceding exercises serve well for this. The fol- 
 lowing are good for beginning : an ear of corn 
 and an ear of wheat ; a plant of oats or of rye, 
 barley, or corn. Choose such only as are some- 
 what familiar to the pupils and level with their 
 capacity. 
 
 Let the first exercise of this kind illustrate the 
 general method to be used in making compari- 
 sons ; pass from simple natural objects to those 
 requiring more thought and study; for example, 
 an oak tree and an elm tree ; a pine and a fir ; a 
 
 59 
 
6o COMPARISONS. 
 
 beech and a maple ; an evergreen oak and a 
 eucalyptus. 
 
 Use manufactured articles in the same way, 
 choosing, at first, things of the same genus : a 
 wagon, a carriage ; a spade, a hoe ; a book, a 
 newspaper; a cap, a hat; a silver cup, a china 
 teacup. 
 
 For older pupils, select, after practice in such 
 as the preceding, very different kinds of com- 
 parison, as, for example : Appleton's '' First 
 Reader," '' The Eclectic First Reader "; Higgin- 
 son*s *' History of the United States," Barnes's 
 *' History of the United States"; Longfellow's 
 *' Evangeline," and '' The Courtship of Miles 
 Standish " ; a sonnet of Lowell, and a sonnet 
 of Longfellow ; any two odes ; any two elegies ; 
 two authors, if any pupils are able to take such 
 a subject. 
 
 Other subjects: City life and country life; a 
 
 country boy and a city boy ; a country home, a 
 
 city home ; a cooper shop and a tin shop ; a 
 
 ^ street in town and a country road ; a home on 
 
 the mountain and a home in the valley. 
 
 Read : 
 
 Mrs. Gildersleeve's " Mrs. Lofty." 
 
 Charles Mackay's '' Cleon and L" 
 
 Whittier's '* Among the Hills." 
 
CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 DOMESTIC MANUFACTURES. 
 
 IN country districts, especially, but also in town 
 or city schools, good material for composition- 
 writing may be got out of well-managed lessons 
 in domestic economy. Most children in such 
 schools already know in a practical way something 
 of the manufacture of the commoner sorts of home- 
 made articles, as bread, butter, cheese, canned 
 fruits, jellies, pickles, rag-carpets and rugs, patch- 
 work quilts, stockings, and other clothing, and of 
 mending and darning. To have these things 
 talked of and written about, and then illustrated 
 by actual articles brought in and exhibited as 
 their own work, will give pleasure and encourage- 
 ment, besides furnishing opportunity for intelli- 
 gent telling of processes. For the country girl 
 to see her friends, among them her teacher, en- 
 joying and praising a loaf of bread of her own 
 making and butter of her own churning, turns a 
 little of the prose of making it into poetry. Nor 
 is the idea of dignity which attaches to such 
 work, and which is thus seen and appreciated^ of 
 small value to her. 
 
 When it is proposed to use this material for 
 6i 
 
62 DOMESTIC MAhWFAC'J'URES. 
 
 composition exercises, introduce, say, the sub- 
 ject of bread-materials. In one or two of the 
 first lessons take up such topics as the bread 
 grains, their manufacture into flour and meal (illus- 
 trate with specimens), of bread-grains in other 
 countries, cost of a loaf, its size and weight, and 
 what determine these; specimens of grains and 
 plants (which treat as in Chapter III.). When 
 these, or such of these as are chosen, have been 
 disposed of, take up the details of bread-mak- 
 ing in its various kinds. What is good bread ? 
 Poor bread? What makes the difference? Im- 
 portance to health of the household ? Adulter- 
 ation of flour and bread. 
 
 When these, together with others that may- 
 occur to the teacher, have been exhausted, re- 
 cipes for the common kinds of bread may be 
 written explicitly, by those who have actually 
 made bread, and then may be criticised as to 
 clearness by the class. 
 
 Soon after, on an appointed day, pupils may 
 bring specimens of their own making, to be tested 
 at the noon luncheon. Boys may do this as well 
 as girls and not be harmed. A bread-exhibition 
 on a Friday afternoon may thus add something 
 to the interest of exercises of another nature, 
 common on that day in many schools. 
 
 Suggestions: (i.) Varieties of bread: From 
 yeast, — white, graham, rye, corn-pone, rolls, rusk, 
 coffee cake* "salt-rising"; griddle-cakes, — corn, 
 
DOMESTIC MANUFACTURES. 63 
 
 white, graham, buckwheat, and oatmeal ; soda bis- 
 cuit, waffles, muffins, corn-bread, etc. 
 
 (2.) After lessons in descriptive composition, 
 the literal description of a loaf of bread, inside 
 and out, may be attempted (crust, crumb, shape, 
 color, odor, general appearance, weight, taste). 
 
 (3.) Other subjects : Butter-making, jellies, 
 jams, preserves, canned fruits, and dried fruits, 
 pickles, pies, cakes, puddings, roast meats, broiled 
 meats, boiled meats. 
 
 An imaginative mind, in directing these exer- 
 cises, if fortified with practical knowledge of the 
 subjects, may get some very pretty story-sketches 
 written by pupils on some of these topics. 
 
 Example. — Canning Peaches : 
 
 Kate and John help mother ; go to the 
 orchard for peaches ; beauties ; odors ; select 
 fine ones for mother and father; back porch; 
 clean aprons ; John puts on one of mother's 
 aprons ; cut yellow peaches ; great white bowl ; 
 a double peach ; Kate helps to prepare the jars 
 with hot water, etc., mother goes in and out, 
 tells a story of peaches, — '' When 1 was a little 
 girl,*' etc., etc. 
 
 The practical telling how to can peaches may 
 precede all this, or it may be omitted entirely. 
 
 (4.) Mending and darning. Necessary articles 
 with which to work ; how to put on a patch ; to 
 mend a plain gingham, or other plaid ; a figured 
 
64 DOMESTIC MANUFACTURES. 
 
 calico, a white dress, or other garment ; a rip, a 
 coat-sleeve, a fray, a burn, etc., etc. 
 
 How to darn a heel, a toe ; a torn cloth coat, 
 a woolen dress, a lace curtain, a lace frill, a knit 
 shawl ; French darning of stockings by knitting 
 in new to replace the old, worn-out stitches. 
 
 Specimens of this work and also of ingenious 
 methods of managing accidental damages to 
 good garments may be brought in and shown at 
 recess to those interested. These, as some of 
 the preceding subjects, may be ''romanced" 
 about, in tlie simple way possible to a child's 
 or youth's imagination. 
 
 Note. The value of these lessons from an 
 ethical point of view is not small. Where the 
 habit of observation concerning material and 
 external things is wanting, there is often a cor- 
 responding lack in the perception of those con- 
 ditions which make the moral and spiritual 
 environment. Much that is profitable is possible, 
 therefore, through such lessons and through others 
 which are founded on what lies near to the child's 
 life on the side of the feelings and affections. 
 
 To many a child, all belonging to home-life 
 may seem too commonplace and uninteresting to 
 write about ; yet to many a thoughtless son and 
 daughter such a school-exercise may teach the 
 lesson of noticing how many things mother does 
 for a hitherto unnoticing, if not thankless, child ; 
 of appreciating that the father, who clothes, feeds. 
 
DOMESTIC MANUFACTURES. 65 
 
 educates, and often indulges his child, does it at 
 cost to himself. Lessons of home politeness, 
 kindness, and love are sure to come out of the 
 knowledge that in the homes of other boys and 
 girls these are a part of life. 
 
 Read : 
 
 Mrs. Stowe's *^ House and Home Papers.** 
 
 Longfellow's " The Old Clock on the Stairs,'* 
 '' The Children's Hour." 
 
 Whittier's ^' Snowbound." 
 
 John Quincy Adams's '' Man wants but Little 
 here Below." 
 
 The Life of Hawthorne. 
 
 Irving's '' Abbotsford." 
 
 George Macdonald's " Warlock of Glen War- 
 lock." 
 
 Wordsworth's '' Michael." 
 
CHAPTER XV. 
 
 HOME PAPERS. 
 
 (I.) Description of a room ; the pleasantest 
 place in the house; the kitchen; the out-look; 
 the yards ; the neighbors* houses ; *' My Room 
 as I would Like it"; ** How I would Furnish my 
 Room if I had a Hundred Dollars " (an actual 
 estimate of the cost of things by finding out at 
 shops, included); furnishing a house, etc. 
 
 (H.) A dinner for six — father, mother, grand- 
 mother, three children, each to be named. Din- 
 ing-room described ; table outlined, with each 
 plate and dish drawn, so as to show the table- 
 setting ; table furnishings, food,- conversation, 
 interruptions, serving, manners, etc. 
 
 The teacher may, or may not, as she chooses, 
 name the dishes to be prepared. 
 
 (HI.) A wholesome breakfast for six (the same 
 or different family, in each composition). Men- 
 tion materials for the dishes ; have the pupils de- 
 scribe dishes and their preparation so far as 
 practicable; draw the table as above, and give 
 details of serving. 
 
 (IV.) A good school luncheon for two, neatly 
 put up. 
 
 66 
 
HOME PAPERS, 67 
 
 Note. — The teacher is again reminded that 
 when any new work is required, the pupils should 
 always be told how to do it, if they need to 
 be, but never otherwise. In general, after a nnonth 
 or two, classes will need only the briefest expla- 
 nations, often merely hints. 
 
CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 ORAL COMPOSITION. 
 
 CONSTANT attention should be given to the 
 language used by the pupils in their oral reci- 
 tations. Slovenly, or otherwise faulty, habits of 
 speaking should be rooted out as soon as possible, 
 and with these all of the ordinary errors in 
 grammar and diction. (For certain kinds of mis- 
 takes commonly allowed to pass unnoticed, see 
 Part II., Chap. XV.-) As an aid to this, give, at 
 intervals throughout every month's work, oral 
 exercises in which even the youngest child may 
 take some part. As he sits or stands at his desk, 
 allow him — or encourage, as the case may be — to 
 talk connectedly about some place or thing with 
 which he is familiar. With little beginners, 
 choose some subject about which you yourself 
 know little or nothing, so that your desire for 
 information may help to make them forget 
 themselves as they talk. 
 
 Every such exercise is best in its results when 
 the pupils are wholly at their ease. It should 
 not, indeed, be very different from a conversation 
 
 68 
 
ORAL COMPOSITION-, 69 
 
 at home in one's own parlor, and, wisely used, 
 can be made an excellent aid in improving man- 
 ners and morals. 
 
 At the first trial, especially in older, self-con- 
 scious classes, the pupils may be timid and irre- 
 sponsive, but a few attempts will be likely to 
 encourage all to speak, if the subject be familiar. 
 It is sometimes well to let the work take the form 
 of a discussion, or to plan that it shall. The 
 same exercise may be continued for ten minutes, 
 daily, until all have spoken. 
 
 As the conversation or discussion goes on, the 
 teacher should take note of errors made \\\ speak- 
 ing; in some early future lesson on '^ Common 
 Mistakes," these should be mentioned, with the 
 correct expressions for them. 
 
 Many of the subjects given under other heads 
 will be available material here ; current events of 
 importance, both foreign and domestic, arc espe- 
 cially good. But indiscriminate newspaper read- 
 ing should not be encouraged ; better read noth- 
 ing than everything the newspapers contain. In 
 country districts, and, indeed, in any district, 
 the teacher ought to be an authority on the 
 subject of the best family newspapers. 
 
CHAPTER XVII. 
 
 GENERAL SUGGESTIONS. 
 
 I. In small classes, hear every pupil read his 
 composition, or part of it, every day. In large 
 classes, call for the reading of eight or ten, 
 or fewer, at each lesson, criticising orally such 
 matters as may be noticed, until all of a set have 
 been read. Let this occupy only a part of each 
 lesson-time. But do not call for the reading of 
 a whole set on the same subject, unless there is 
 variety in its treatment, except sometimes, per- 
 haps, in classes of young children. 
 
 II. Do not allow pupils to make again and 
 again the same mistake which you have cor- 
 rected in their papers. See that they get the 
 good of your pains with their work ; make some 
 memorandum of frequent mistakes of individual 
 pupils who are careless ; at a convenient and 
 proper time, call their attention especially to 
 these. (Examples : *' Mary Brown, * Looks like 
 he was,' — third time " ; '^ Henry Green, ' Differ- 
 ent than,' second time.") 
 
 III. Occasionally copy, or cause to be copied, 
 upon the board, short compositions which are 
 correct in spelling, syntax, punctuation, capi- 
 
 70 
 
GENERAL SUGGESTIONS 71 
 
 tals, etc., etc., but uninteresting, full of platitudes, 
 unnecessary assertions, and spun-out sentences. 
 (Use anonymously old papers of previous term 
 or year.) Draw from the class criticisms, reasons 
 why these are dull, etc., etc., but lead the critics 
 to see, first, that the papers are correct in every 
 particular; and, afterwards, that correct writing 
 is not necessarily good writing. 
 
 IV. Let each lesson-time be taken up partly 
 with reading and criticising compositions already 
 prepared (in preceding lesson-hours, in the 
 school-room, and nowhere else), and partly with 
 continuing others already begun, or beginning 
 new ones. 
 
 V. Whatever oral criticism is done by the 
 class should be so directed as to prevent hyper- 
 criticism, and criticism of anything else than the 
 matter and writing. The feeling that all learners 
 make mistakes and that they ought to be grate- 
 ful for correction should be one of the first les- 
 sons learned in the composition class. 
 
 VI. Correct always, yourself, the mistakes 
 made by young children. Indicate by signs the 
 nature of the errors in the exercises of older 
 children, and require them to correct for them- 
 selves, each his own. Occasionally ask each 
 pupil to rise at his desk, after having received a 
 corrected paper, and say whether he understands 
 all the markings made, and whether he can cor- 
 rect according to them. 
 
72 GENERAL SUGGESTIONS. 
 
 VII. Require each pupil to keep a book in 
 which he copies such of his compositions as 
 the teacher may think best, perhaps one a 
 week ; the books to be inspected monthly or 
 fortnightly. 
 
 VIII. Remember that all young pupils need 
 to be told plainly, once, what you mean, when 
 introducing any new kind of lesson. Tell a 
 child, for example, to write something about 
 " Little Chickens," and leave him to himself to do 
 it. A blank stare, or a '* I don't know how " is 
 what may be naturally expected. Try the other 
 plan of asking questions, and talking for a little 
 while on the subject, until the children see what 
 kind of things they may write, or what kind of 
 things will be good enough to write, and then say: 
 " Now write me something about * Little Chick- 
 ens,' " and you may get twenty such little papers 
 as this : 
 
 ** My white hen Snowball has six brown chick- 
 ens and three yellow ones. They are soft as 
 cotton and have dear little red feet. The hen 
 lets me take them in my hand if I stay by her, 
 but she clucks and puts her head up to see what 
 I do. I guess she knows I could not hurt such 
 pretty things. The little brown ones have fine 
 black stripes on the sides of their heads, and a 
 broader one on the back. Ned says they look 
 like baby quails. The yellow chickens will be 
 white when they are older. They are like Snow- 
 
GENERAL SUGGESTIONS 73 
 
 ball, but she does not like them any better, or 
 feed them any more, than she does the others. 
 
 JENNY GREY." 
 Or: 
 
 " Ben had three little chickens that had no 
 hen-mamma. He gave them to me. I keep 
 them in the yard, in a box that has no bottom. 
 When I feed them, they run under my hand to 
 get warm. Every night, I put them into a bas- 
 ket, and cover them with wool, and set them by 
 the fire; if they get cold, they cry, and I have to 
 warm them, for they make so much noise I can- 
 not go to sleep. I have named one of them 
 Dandelion, one of them Squeak, and the other 
 Ducky Daddies, because it always steps in the 
 water-dish. ANNA GREEN." 
 
PART II. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 PANTOMIMES. 
 
 A SIMPLE little play in dumb show affords 
 good material for training in accuracy of 
 detail and its order. With the exception of the 
 names of those acting, nothing is to be left to 
 the imagination in the first lesson, but the whole 
 is to be a literal narrative of the action. In the 
 second, dialogue to suit the action is to be in- 
 vented. This exercise may be modified or 
 elaborated to serve in any grade from the Pri- 
 mary to the High School. Little lessons in the 
 First and Second Readers will lend themselves 
 admirably to this use, the simple lessons being 
 the best to begin with. (McGuffey's First Reader, 
 Lessons XLIIL, LIIL, parts of LIX., and LX., 
 XXII., VIII.; Second Reader, Lessons I., II., 
 XII., 7-1 1., XVI., XX., XXXVIII., L.; Apple- 
 ton's First Reader, Lessons XXII., XXIII., 
 XXVIII., XXXVI. , XVII., XVIII. ; Appleton's 
 Second Reader ; California Series, First Reader 
 
 74 
 
PANTOMIMES. 75 
 
 Lessons, 6j, 72, 47 and 43. Second Reader, 
 Lesson 15, 9, i, 83, and 75.) 
 
 Examples : 
 
 (i.) Lady, winding yarn held by a boy; goes to 
 sleep; another boy looks in; beckons; holds up 
 apples ; shows fish line and pole, etc. Boy tries 
 to get yarn off ; tangles it ; lady wakes up, etc. 
 
 (2.) Mother sewing ; daughter reading ; boy 
 comes in whistling ; tosses hat under table ; pulls 
 girl's hair ; sits on stool and meddles with sew- 
 ing-basket ; upsets it ; teases mother for cake in 
 drawer ; gets it, etc., etc. 
 
 (3.) Two boys sitting on a fence (backs of 
 chairs, their feet on a board laid across the seats), 
 eating apples and reading the New York Weekly 
 (supplied for the occasion by the teacher). A 
 girl comes along with a book-bag and lunch 
 basket ; the boys jump down from the fence, bow, 
 and hide the paper behind them ; give the girl 
 apples. The girl has seen the paper ; begs for it, 
 and finally gets it ; shows by gesture and expres- 
 sion her disapproval ; ridicules the pictures ; holds 
 it up to tear it, and as if to make the boys pro- 
 mise not to read it ; shows a book with pictures, 
 etc., very interesting, etc. ; offers it to them ; 
 tears the paper into bits, the boys helping. All 
 go off to school together, the boys carrying the 
 book-bag and lunch basket. 
 
 (4.) Boy sitting by table working examples in 
 
7^ PANTOMIMED. 
 
 arithmetic ; can't make them come right ; pulls 
 his hair, frowns; rubs out; tries again; grows 
 angry; slams book and pencil on the table; tilts 
 back in the chair, etc. ; tries again ; pitches 
 the book across the room ; snatches his hat and 
 a base ball bat and runs out of the room. Scene 
 II. — School, same boy at the black board ; does 
 not know his lesson ; sent to his seat, etc., etc., 
 with any variations that would be probable. 
 
 (5.) (For High School and upper grammar 
 grades.) An elementary lesson in Physics and 
 an experiment in Chemistry, both in dumb show, 
 brief and clear. 
 
 (6.) (For the same.) A short scene from the 
 *' Merchant of Venice," or ''Julius Caesar," acted 
 in character without words. 
 
 After such lessons in higher grades, the teacher 
 might say : *' You may begin a composition with 
 these w^ords : ' It was Friday afternoon in the 
 * Golden River ' school. Miss Brown, the teacher, 
 sat at her desk writing in the daily register. The 
 scholars also were all quietly busy, looking over 
 the exercises which they were about to recite. As 
 soon as two o'clock came — ' Now you may go 
 on and write a careful account of this afternoon's 
 work." 
 
 Note. Let every such lesson be an attempt 
 at truth-telling as to happenings, order, etc. 
 
CHAPTER II. 
 
 PICTURES. 
 
 FOR the first exercise under this head, choose 
 a large engraving of as good a kind as 
 possible, and hang it where it can be seen by the 
 class. Let the introductory lesson consist of 
 seeing and telling what is in the picture, with 
 some attempt at interpreting its meaning, its 
 title being, of course, unknown. If the pupils do 
 not see all or most that is literally represented, 
 by question and suggestion lead them to notice 
 what they have omitted. 
 
 Disregarding the original intention of the 
 picture, talk a few minutes about what stories 
 could be '' made up " to fit it ; then ask for a trial 
 of what can be done in this way, each pupil giv- 
 ing names to the persons, place, etc., represented. 
 Next, call for a literal description of the picture, 
 written in letter form to a friend. 
 
 Large photographs of celebrated paintings, 
 historical and mythical, may be used with great 
 advantage ; but the invented narrative in this case 
 should be omitted and the account of the real 
 story substituted, from an oral version or rend- 
 ing by the teacher. (See list of subjects, page 
 
 77 
 
7 8 PICTURES. 
 
 130.) Such photographs can be obtained easily, 
 without great expense, from the Soule Pho- 
 tographic Co., 338 Washington Street, Boston, 
 or from any good picture store. 
 
 Small good woodcuts from old magazines 
 {Harper s, Century, St. Nicholas, Harper s Weekly, 
 etc.) make good material for separate subjects of 
 this kind for each member of the class. See that 
 the cuts are, first, good, as woodcuts, or as what- 
 ever else they are supposed to be, and, second, of 
 suitable subjects. Before these are to be used, 
 select as many pictures as there are pupils in the 
 class, cut them out neatly, without titles, and 
 paste each, by the upper ^^^^ only, to a sheet 
 of foolscap paper near the top of the first page, 
 leaving room for a name to be written above. 
 At the lesson-hour distribute these; have each 
 pupil put his name in the space reserved for it 
 and then write a story to suit the picture, with 
 the aim of making it as interesting as possible. 
 Take up the papers at the end of the time and 
 give them out the next day, and every day 
 until finished. The best of these should be read 
 to the class by the writers, but without distin- 
 guishing them as the best ; or, it may be better 
 in some classes to call for six or eight in the 
 usual manner. 
 
 Note I. The same pictures may be used again 
 and again, if care is taken in putting them on the 
 sheets. 
 
PICTURES. 70 
 
 Note II. If the teacher has not already found 
 out what pupils are reading unprofitable or harm- 
 ful books and papers, this exercise will be likely 
 to inform her. Much may be done for individual 
 pupils by means of knowledge so gained. 
 
 Note III. Some geographies and other illus- 
 trated text-books contain pictures, on the cover 
 as well as inside, which may be used in this way. 
 
CHAPTER III. 
 
 SCHOOL READING-BOOKS. 
 
 [NTELLIGENT and intelligible reading de- 
 1 pends primarily on understanding the 
 author's meaning. Every child should be helped 
 in learning how to study his reading lessons in 
 the light of this fact. 
 
 The first reading lessons of every new class 
 should be studied aloud by the teacher with the 
 class, at its regular recitation time, until all have 
 learned how to prepare themselves. Most chil- 
 dren imagine that reading a lesson over two or 
 three times as mechanically and rapidly as pos- 
 sible is studying. No lesson to be read aloud 
 should be given until after two or three days* or 
 a week's lessons in learning how to study. 
 
 What is commonly meant by '' elocution " — 
 the showy, theatrical, unnatural, posturing, grim- 
 acing recitation of pseudo-tragico-sentimental 
 or sensational '' poems which contain enough 
 action" — should have no place in the school-room ; 
 but reading should never be sacrificed to arithe- 
 metic, grammar — so-called — or anything else, as 
 is generally the practice, especially in the upper 
 
 80 
 
SCHOOL READING-BOOKS. 8l 
 
 grades of city schools. A good vocabulary, dis- 
 tinct enunciation, pure tones, correct pronunci- 
 ation, and natural expression and attitude are 
 within the compass of public school training and 
 should be among its distinct aims and achieve- 
 ments. 
 
 Light reading from some well-written, enter- 
 taining book may alternate with reading-book 
 lessons, if reading-books must be used at all. 
 
 Most graded reading-books are really " over 
 the heads " of average school children, owing to 
 the lack in the child's vocabulary, which contains 
 few words other than those of the play-ground 
 and of every-day life at home. It would be 
 well if other books could be substituted for 
 many or most of these, but since, in most public 
 schools, they are prescribed, they must be kept ; 
 a careful and wise use of them may make them 
 valuable. Keep in view the fact that good read- 
 ing is the expression by the voice, and its ad- 
 juncts in expression, of an author's thought. 
 Attending by rule to slides and pauses, inflec- 
 tion and emphasis will never make good readers 
 any more than fitting sentences to diagrams 
 will make the construction of the English 
 language understood by anybody. When a 
 youth knows the laws of English construction, he 
 may briefly show this by use of a diagram ; to 
 begin the other way is an absurdity. When a 
 child understands a thought, and knows perfectly 
 
82 SCHOOL READING-BOOKS, 
 
 the words that express it, he will pause, empha- 
 size and gesticulate correctly, that is, naturally. 
 
 Exercises from Reading-Books : 
 
 I. Select from the reading-book in use in the 
 school a simple narrative lesson which has been 
 read by all the class. Write upon the board the 
 first paragraph, as thus : ^' One day Willie's 
 father saw a boy at the market with four little 
 white rabbits in a basket," etc. (McGuffey's First 
 Reader, Lesson LIV.) 
 
 ** One day." What other words could we use 
 that would tell the time in which something has 
 happened ? 
 
 *' One morning, one evening, one time, yester- 
 day, this morning, last night, this afternoon, yes- 
 terday afternoon, etc." (Write the answers given 
 in columns.) 
 
 " Willie's father." Whose father ? Give some 
 other names. 
 
 " John's, Mary's, Kittie's, Annie's," etc. (Write 
 as above, and treat in the same way the follow- 
 ing-) 
 
 " What other of Willie's friends or relations 
 might have seen a boy? " 
 
 " Brother, uncle, sister, aunt, cousin, mother, 
 grandfather." 
 
 " Saw whom ? Might have seen ? " 
 
 "A man, a girl, a woman, a child, a youth, a 
 lad, an Indian," etc. 
 
SCHOOL READING-BOOKS, 83 
 
 " At what other places might the boy have been 
 seen?'* 
 
 " In the street, on the road, in the woods, in 
 the field, in the lane, in the yard, by the gate, in 
 a wagon, in a store, in a grocery, on the side- 
 walk," etc. 
 
 ** Saw a boy with — what else might the boy 
 have had ? '' 
 
 " Chickens, doves, ducks, white mice, fish, kit- 
 tens, puppies, peaches, pears, boxes of candy, 
 squashes, dolls," etc. 
 
 *^ How many?" 
 
 "A great many, three, five, ever so many, six, 
 a few," etc. 
 
 ^^ Of what color?" 
 
 "• Black, black and white, yellow, gray, red, 
 etc." 
 
 " In what else might they have been?" 
 
 ** In a box, a bag, a cage, a hamper, \\\ his 
 hands, in his lap, in a hat, in a cap, in a dish." 
 
 Repeat this exercise several times, taking a new 
 paragraph at each lesson. Then with the words 
 and phrases taken in the order of the original 
 paragraph, write, with the assistance and sugges- 
 tions of the class, a new paragraph, modeled on it. 
 
 " One morning Mary's grandfather saw a girl 
 by the gate with six white mice \x\ a, box." 
 
 Follow this with others made from the same 
 exercise. Sometimes try to see how many varia- 
 tions of the story in the given paragraph can be 
 
34 SCHOOL READING-BOOKS. 
 
 made, using the words and phrases suggested by 
 the class. 
 
 II. After some degree of readiness in changing 
 and suggesting has been attained, take a suitable 
 short story in the same way, going through the 
 whole of it at the board, in several successive 
 lessons. (Lessons LIV., XLVIL, XXVI., Mc 
 Guffey's First Reader; Lessons XVIL, XVIIL, 
 XXIV., VI., Appleton's First Reader ; Lesson 
 LXVL, McGuffey's Second Reader; Lessons 86, 
 88, and 75, California Series, First Reader; Les- 
 sons 38, 39, and 59, Second Reader.) 
 
 Finally, require the pupils to write the whole, 
 each using the changed phrases and words, so as 
 to make a new story. 
 
 Select at another lesson a new story and re- 
 quire the pupils to do all the work, each writing 
 his own story as above. 
 
 Many of the short, simple poems in the First 
 and Second Readers may serve the same purpose. 
 
 III. Without saying anything about verbs, or 
 using any other technical terms, begin as early as 
 in First Reader lessons, to change the tenses of 
 verbs in sentences, thus (Lesson XXV., Apple- 
 ton's First Reader) : 
 
 *^ Harry has seen the nest." 
 ** How would you say that Harry is looking 
 at the nest now ? " 
 
 *' Harry sees the nest." 
 
 *^ That he was looking at it yesterday ? '* 
 
SCHOOL READING-BOOKS. 85 
 
 ** Harry saw the nest." 
 
 " That he will be looking at it to-morrow ?** 
 
 *' Harry will see the nest." 
 
 *' That nobody shall hinder him from looking 
 at it to-morrow?" 
 
 *' Harry shall see the nest." 
 
 '' That perhaps he will look at it to-morrow ? " 
 
 *' Harry may see the nest." 
 
 " How would you ask whether he will be al- 
 lowed to see it to-morrow ? " 
 
 "" May Harry see the nest ? *' 
 
 '' Whether he will be able to see it ? " 
 
 ** Can Harry see the nest ? " 
 
 '' Whether it would be right for him to see it ? " 
 
 "Ought Harry to see the nest ? " 
 
 *^ How would you say, using other words, that 
 Harry ought to see the nest ? " 
 
 " Harry should see the nest." 
 
 " How would you tell that Harry had been 
 looking at the nest before you went to see it?" 
 
 *' Harry had seen the nest before I went to see 
 it." 
 
 " That you mean that he shall see it ? " 
 
 ** Harry must see the nest," etc., etc. 
 
 In this way all the mode and tense forms of 
 any verbs that a child may use before he can 
 study grammatical terms and definitions intelli- 
 gibly and advantageously (which generally is not 
 much under fourteen years of age), may be made 
 perfectly familiar to him, practically. The idea 
 
86 SCHOOL READING-BOOKS. 
 
 of time and manner will be so developed as to 
 leave little besides classification to be done, when 
 the time comes for learning technicalities, if it 
 must come. And this will be a clear gain of 
 time, labor, and feeling. 
 
 IV. '' Here in your reading-book is the picture 
 of some children gathering apples. What kind 
 of apples do you suppose they are? Ripe or un- 
 ripe, green, yellow, red, striped, rosy, russet, hard, 
 soft, juicy, sweet, sour, tough, round, oval, fiat, long- 
 stemmed, short-stemmed, pink-cheeked, knotty, 
 smooth, rough-skinned, withered, frost-bitten, 
 frozen, mealy, — yes they might be any of these, 
 perhaps, but which do you think they are ? But 
 what do all these words that you have thought 
 of tell? They tell what kind of apples these 
 may be." In prose the words are in their natural 
 order, so that very little of" this exercise is 
 needed. But Third and Fourth Readers have 
 many short metrical lessons which contain the 
 usual inversions, always perplexing at first to 
 children. When such selections are used as read- 
 ing-lessons, prepare the way for a clear under- 
 standing of the matter contained in them by 
 reading the inverted passages in their natural 
 order, calling attention to them when the lesson 
 is assigned. This exercise is sometimes called 
 *' metaphrasing." 
 
 V. (a) Select from the reading-book, or from 
 any convenient book, some familiar lesson, either 
 
SCHOOL READING-BOOKS. 87 
 
 prose or verse ; after showing how a dialogue can 
 be made of it, by writing the beginning of one be- 
 fore the class, choose another similar lesson and 
 ask for the sense of it in dialogue form with as 
 many persons as the nature of the story demands. 
 
 {b) Use a short rhythmical story in the same 
 way, and {c) a piece of description, selected from 
 the reading-books. 
 
 {d) Pictures such, as are to be used in Chapter 
 II., Part II., are easily made to suggest subjects 
 for dialogues. 
 
 (e) Almost any reading lesson, in parts, or as a 
 whole, can be used as the basis of such a lesson. 
 Geography, History, and even Arithmetic lessons 
 may be pressed, also, into this service, and often 
 with surprising results. 
 
 (/) It will be easy to pass from these to origi- 
 nal dialogues on subjects selected from the pages 
 preceding this or from the lists at the end of the 
 book. Two pupils may write together, each writ- 
 ing the part of one speaker. 
 
CHAPTER IV. 
 
 PARAPHRASING. 
 
 THIS kind of writing should begin very early, 
 in a simple way, after metaphrasing has 
 become a familiar exercise. 
 
 The first paraphrasing is necessarily literal and is 
 easily learned if preceded by a lesson in synonyms."^ 
 
 Write upon the board a short extract from 
 some familiar poem, or other writing, selected 
 from the reading-book. Placing the principal 
 words conveniently, write under each, as the 
 children give them, synonymous words and ex- 
 pressions, as in the following from Longfellow : 
 
 " Tell me not in mournful numbers 
 Life is but an empty dream ! 
 For the soul is dead that slumbers, 
 And things are not what they seem." 
 
 Tell 
 
 Mournful, 
 
 Numbers, 
 
 say. 
 
 sad, 
 
 verses. 
 
 inform. 
 
 sorrowful, 
 
 words, 
 
 
 melancholy, 
 
 language , 
 
 
 troubled. 
 
 song, 
 tones. 
 
 * The author is indebted to Miss F. de Laguna, teacher of 
 English Literature in the Sacramento High School, for this 
 simple method of beginning with paraphrases. 
 
PA RA FHRA SING, 89 
 
 But, 
 
 
 Empty, 
 
 Dream, 
 
 only, 
 
 
 meaningless. 
 
 vision. 
 
 just, 
 
 
 hollow, 
 
 unreality, 
 
 merely, 
 
 
 untrue, 
 
 appearance, 
 
 nothing except. 
 
 vain. 
 
 
 
 
 worthless. 
 
 
 For, 
 
 Soul, 
 
 Dead, 
 
 Slumbers, 
 
 because, 
 
 spirit. 
 
 without life. 
 
 sleeps. 
 
 since. 
 
 human 
 
 being, lifeless, 
 
 dreams. 
 
 as. 
 
 creature, not alive. 
 
 lies inactive. 
 
 
 man. 
 
 not living. 
 
 does nothing. 
 
 Now write a new sentence, using words chosen 
 from these synonyms, thus : 
 
 '* Say not to me in sorrowful tones that life is 
 nothing except a worthless unreality, because I 
 know that the man who dreams away his time is 
 not truly living.** 
 
 This may seem like taking unwarranted liberties 
 with language, but it will be found to be a very use- 
 ful first step to translating the language of books 
 into other words temporarily, for the sake of 
 gaining an elastic and ready vocabulary. It has, 
 in some degree, a similar value to that of trans- 
 lating from one language to another. 
 
 Follow this blackboard exercise (i) with others 
 of the same kind for two or three lessons, requir- 
 ing the class to practice writing paraphrases, 
 making several from the same set of words, and 
 reading them aloud in turn ; (2) with others in 
 which the 'pupils choose their own synonyms, in- 
 
90 PARAPHRASING. 
 
 dividually, also making several paraphrases from 
 these, and determining which comes nearest to 
 expressing the ideas of the original ; and (3) with 
 still others in which they write the paraphrases 
 at once, without the intervention of the syno- 
 nym writing. With the reading-book before 
 them, let each now write a paraphrase of some 
 short story, aiming to tell in his own words all it 
 contains. 
 
 This can be followed by paraphrases written 
 from memory of a poem or story read ; and by 
 oral paraphrases of any portions of any text-book 
 lessons in any branch of study. 
 
 Note I. The dictionary should be freely and 
 constantly employed. Instruction in its proper 
 and effective use should be carefully given until 
 all know its various kinds of helpfulness. 
 
 Note II. Paraphrasing should always precede 
 the memorizing of any piece of writing to be 
 used as the basis of other lessons. 
 
 Note III. Taking for granted that all common 
 words are understood will be likely to prove an 
 error. 
 
 Note IV. Paraphrasing, in its various oral and 
 written forms, should be required in all (even in 
 well advanced) classes in English. In the study 
 of Shakespeare, Milton, and other English classics 
 the objective point in paraphrasing should be the 
 expression of the thought in good English prose. 
 
CHAPTER V. 
 
 LESSONS FROM POEMS. 
 
 DICTATE a short, simple, narrative poem 
 requiring accuracy in copying, punctuation, 
 etc. Call for a metaphrase, after the meaning of 
 the poem has been studied silently ; this will 
 show whether the language of the poem is under- 
 stood. After the poem has been read aloud by 
 one or two of the best readers in the class, the 
 whole (including the author's name) may then be 
 committed to memory. 
 
 A careful paraphrase, in which the pupils may 
 supply imagined details, not expressed in, but 
 suggested by, the poem, naturally comes next. 
 
 At this point the class may be taught to write 
 a list (i) of the various events, personages, and 
 places in the story; (2) of the heads, or topics, in 
 their order ; and (3) of the topics of each stanza, 
 or division of the poem. 
 
 After some practice of the kind, show that 
 there must be in every piece of good writing a 
 natural connection and relation of thought ; a 
 continuous thread running through the whole 
 composition. When this is clearly seen, atten- 
 
 91 
 
9^ LESSONS FROM POEMS, 
 
 lion may be paid for some time to tracing out 
 the connections, relations, and interdependen- 
 cies of the various ideas in the poem under con- 
 sideration. 
 
 With advanced classes this will necessarily 
 lead to the study of grammatical construction ; 
 indeed, it may with very young classes, if use be 
 made of the understanding only to determine 
 what each part of the construction tells. 
 
 Example : 
 
 *' Around the fireside at their ease 
 There sat a group of friends, entranced 
 With the delicious melodies." 
 
 '* What does * Around the fireside * tell ? '* 
 *' * Around the fireside' tells where they sat.'* 
 '* What does ' At their ease ' tell ? " 
 '' ' At their ease ' tells how they sat." 
 "What does ^ There' tell?" 
 '* * There ' only begins to tell something." 
 '' * Sat ' tells what a group did." 
 '* * Of friends ' tells the kind of group," etc. 
 As a concluding lesson, older pupils may write 
 about the poem, embodying in the paper the 
 results of their study. After several exercises 
 of the kind they may include notice of the 
 vocabulary, figures, etc., and may make a com- 
 parison between the poem in question and any 
 other that they have thus studied. They may 
 then write the substance of the poem in dia- 
 logue form. 
 
LESSONS FROM POEMS. 
 
 The teacher may now ask: ** Are there any 
 pictures in the poenx? Are there any persons 
 described in it ? What do you learn from it 
 that is not told /;/ it? What have you learned 
 from it that you did not know before ? What 
 has it made you think that you never thought 
 before ? Would you have liked it better in 
 prose? Why, or why not? Is there a word in 
 it that you would like to change? *' 
 
 Suitable Short Poems. ^ 
 " A Fable — The Mountain and the Squirrel/* — 
 Emerson. 
 
 *' Abou Ben Adhem." — Leigh Hunt. 
 
 *' Opportunity." — Edward R. Sill. 
 
 *' Lucy." — Wordsworth. 
 
 '' Ozymandias of Egypt." — Shelley. 
 
 ** Pictures from Memory." — Alice Gary. 
 
 *^ The Emperor's Bird's Nest." — Longfellow. 
 
 " Haroun Al Raschid." — Longfellow. 
 
 *^The Three Kings." — Longfellow. 
 
 *'The Sermon of St. Francis." 
 
 Suitable Longer Poems.\ 
 
 ^'The Bell of Atri."— Longfellow. 
 " The Norman Baron." — Longfellow. 
 "The Birds of Killingworth." — Longfellow. 
 "' The Shoemakers." — Whittier. 
 
 * Simpler poems must be selected for very young children. 
 \ Not to be committed to memory. 
 
94 LESSONS FROM POEMS. 
 
 ^^The Palm Tree."— Whittier. 
 *'John Gilpin." — Covvper. 
 
 *' Goody Blake and Harry Gill." — Wordsworthc 
 " Fidelity." — Wordsworth. 
 " The Fountain." — Wordsworth. 
 *' An Order for a Picture." — Alice Gary. 
 '' The Closing Scene." — T. B. Read. 
 "The Cloud."— Shelley. 
 
 *' To a Lady with a Guitar." — Shelley (begin- 
 ning at "The artist who," etc.). 
 " Excelsior." — Longfellow\ 
 "The Village Blacksmith." — Longfellow. 
 " A Parable."— Lowell. 
 " The Singing Leaves." — Lowell. 
 "The Falcon of Ser Federigo." — Longfellow. 
 " Light and Shade." — Jean Ingelow. 
 Many poems contained in school readers. 
 
 Note. Do not use any of these that are likely 
 to be understood with difficulty. If a short 
 explanation does not make the matter clear in 
 any poem chosen, leave it for something else 
 until later. 
 
CHAPTER VI. 
 
 THE STUDY OF A STORY. 
 
 STUDY with a class of older pupils, for a 
 month or so, ten minutes daily, a good piece 
 of writing which is interesting and within the 
 compass of their understanding. Consider (i) 
 the general meaning; (2) the meaning of parts ; 
 (3) the words and phrases ; (4) ideas or facts 
 new to the class ; (5) subjects of the separate 
 paragraphs ; (6) the characters of the story ; (7) 
 the references, allusions, etc., and (8) the figures 
 of speech, if the advancement of the class will 
 warrant. 
 
 In subsequent lessons about the same, obtain 
 from the pupils their idea of the purpose of the 
 story, and some expression of opinion regarding 
 it. Require each to give a summary of facts of 
 every kind, learned by him from the study of the 
 story, the same to be carefully classified and 
 arranged. 
 
 Hawthorne's '^The Great Stone Face" affords 
 admirable material for this kind of exercise. 
 
 A topical analysis of the story would be a pos- 
 sible additional exercise resulting from the study. 
 
 Paraphrasing of passages and grammatical 
 95 
 
9^ THE STUDY OF A STORY. 
 
 analysis of selected paragraphs will necessarily 
 form a part of these lessons. 
 
 Lamb's ^* Tales from Shakespeare"; "The 
 Snow Image " and " David Swan/' by Hawthorne ; 
 ''Supper at the Mill," by Jean Ingelow; ''The 
 King of the Golden River," by Ruskin, are sug- 
 gested as other material for this kind of work. 
 
 Another exercise may be upon the characters 
 in a story. Prepare for this exercise, some weeks 
 beforehand, by directing the pupils to read care- 
 fully, or re-read before a given date, a suitable 
 story of your selection. 
 
 Soon after the date, limiting the time, without 
 warning, and after the usual preparations for 
 writing have been made, give the subject or sub- 
 jects for the day from the characters of the selected 
 story. 
 
 Example : 
 
 " The boys may write to-day about ' Wamba, the 
 Jester' ; the girls about ' Cedric, the Saxon' " ; 
 or, " The girls may write to-day about 
 ' Felicie,' and the boys about ' Prinhac,' " giving 
 but one subject to each part of the class at one 
 lesson. 
 
 Close to the same time, give such directions as 
 this : (i) "You may write about 'The House of 
 Cedric, the Saxon,' or ' The Customs and Man- 
 ners of the Saxons'; or ' The Costumes of the 
 Saxons,' " and the like. Or as this : (2) " One 
 
THE STUDY OF A STORY. 97 
 
 week from to-day you maybe ready to recite from 
 memory a descriptive passage from the story you 
 have lately read ; you may each select the pas- 
 sage you prefer." 
 
 After the date set, give, as before, the new exer- 
 cise without warning: (i) ''You may put the sub- 
 stance of the passage which you have learned 
 into dialogue form, using the words and phrases 
 as closely as possible." Or thus (2) : '' Separate 
 the passage you have learned into its grammati- 
 cal component parts ; {a) arrange these in columns 
 according to their classes, that is, words, phrases, 
 clauses, members ; {b) place all these in separate 
 columns according to their functions ; arrange 
 words, etc., in the various columns, in alphabeti- 
 cal order." Or thus (3) : '' Write a short descrip- 
 tion of some person, place, or thing, known to 
 yourself, modeling the manner and form of your 
 sentences on those of the passage learned, but 
 using your own vocabulary." 
 
 A fourth exercise may consist of the results of 
 the pupils* independent thinking about parts or 
 characters of the story. 
 
 Example : 
 
 ''You may write, this morning, what you think 
 about the most interesting person of the story ; 
 about the story as a whole." 
 
 Many more exercises in kind will be suggested 
 to the teacher by the conditions of the story 
 
9^ THE STUDY OF A STORY. 
 
 itself. But it will be a mistake to keep the same 
 story too long in hand at one time. It would be 
 better to read a new one, for the sake of the read- 
 ing merely, and to make use of it while it is still 
 fresh in interest, than to dwell too long on one. 
 
 In most schools it will be necessary *' to edu- 
 cate " the classes " up" to reading. A large per- 
 centage, even in the best schools in the best wards 
 of cities, will be found to be ignorant of books of 
 any value ; the scant vocabulary of the brightest 
 pupils will show this to be true, without any 
 inquiry. 
 
 To create a taste for reading, set apart a time 
 once a day if possible, once a week at least, for 
 reading a real book. Begin to read, watching 
 carefully for signs of inattention; if the class do 
 not listen well, either take another book, or take 
 a little time to explain that this story is interest- 
 ing, although the beginning seems dull ; keep 
 maps on the desk, if places are mentioned ; ex- 
 plain freely, at the outset. Simplify the language 
 where it is not clear, at the beginning, by chang- 
 ing, here and there, uncommon to better known 
 words. Read only a little at first. When the 
 book has been read partly through, if the interest 
 is S2ifficient, take no more time with it, but allow 
 the children to finish, directing them where and 
 how to get books. Say that as soon as all have 
 finished, another shall be taken up. Make use 
 of the first for conversation exercises. 
 
THE STUDY OF A STORY. 99 
 
 In young classes read, at first, such stories as 
 can be finished at one short reading. When 
 enough has been done to accustom all to hearing 
 and h'king to hear, choose something that can be 
 finished in two readings, and increase at dis- 
 cretion till a book can be read. The rapid in- 
 crease in understanding book-language will make 
 the value of this practice apparent. 
 
 The every-day reading lessons will be much 
 more easily learned. 
 
 Note I. By means of this and the preceding 
 exercises the teacher will be aided in her efforts 
 to change the character of the reading of her 
 pupils, or even to get it entirely within her 
 control. 
 
 Note II. Even in the youngest classes, it is 
 easy to make valuable oral exercises, in the recital 
 of the story without questions, each one going as 
 far as he can without leaving out, and the next 
 taking up the story where he fails to remember 
 the exact order. 
 
 Note III. Read Hale's '' How to Do it " often. 
 
 Stories for Young Pupils : 
 
 '^ The Princess and the Goblins." — Macdonald. 
 ''The King of the Golden River." — Ruskin. 
 " Pilgrim's Progress." (One syllable.) 
 '' Robinson Crusoe." (One syllable.) 
 '* Water Babies." — Kingsley. 
 
lOO THE STUDY OF A STORY. 
 
 '* Swiss Family Robinson." 
 " Rollo Books." 
 The Nursery ^ etc. 
 
 Stories for Older Pupils : 
 
 ** Ivanhoe."— Scott. 
 
 "' The Talisman." — Scott. 
 
 " Guy Mannering." — Scott. 
 
 *' The Spy." — Cooper. 
 
 '' The Pilot."— Cooper. 
 
 ** Leatherstocking Tales." — Cooper. 
 
 ^^n His Name."— E. E. Hale. 
 
 '' The Man Without a Country."— E. E. Hale, 
 
 '*Ten Times One is Ten." — E. E. Hale. 
 
 ''The New Crusade." — E. E. Hale. 
 
 ''Tom Brown at Rugby." — Hughes (parts). 
 
 "The Great Stone Face." — Hawthorne. 
 
 " Zenobia." — Ware. 
 
 " Aurelian."— Ware. 
 — " The Odyssey." (Translation.) 
 
 " The Boys' King Arthur." 
 — *' Lamb's Tales From Shakespeare." 
 
 " Tales From the Iliad." 
 
 " The Pilgrim's Progress." — Bunyan. 
 
CHAPTER VII. 
 
 INVENTION. 
 
 AS many of the preceding lessons contain sug- 
 gestions for exercises in invention, little 
 more need be said on this subject. But attempts 
 at making up stories will be found to be good 
 indexes of what is going on in the minds of 
 children, and, indirectly, are sure to tell much 
 about their intellectual and moral health. 
 
 Discountenance extravagance and nonsense, 
 and show that in order to make a good little 
 story probabilities must be regarded ; when cer- 
 tain conditions are taken for granted, nothing out 
 of harmony with, or opposed to, those conditions 
 must be made a part of the story. 
 
 Example i : 
 
 ^* Suppose yourselves to be writing a little story 
 to please a six-year-old child, or ten-year-old 
 child, of your acquaintance. Having this child, 
 with what you know of his likes and dislikes, in 
 mind, write in simple language what you think 
 would please him. Take your paper home and 
 read it to him and notice his attention and what 
 
 lOI 
 
I02 ; . ,. ^ ilN^VKHT^lON. 
 
 he says. Write the results on your paper and 
 hand it to me." 
 
 Example 2 : 
 
 A short story illustrating one of the fol- 
 lowing moral statements: (i) It is always best to 
 speak and act the truth ; (2) to be good-tem- 
 pered ; (3) to be neat ; (4) to be prompt ; (5) to 
 be polite ; (6) to be punctual ; (7) to be indus- 
 trious ; (8) to be obedient ; (9) to be kind to ani- 
 mals; (10) to be obliging to strangers; (11) to 
 take care of the health. Let the story, itself, 
 without any preaching, show what is to be illus- 
 trated. 
 
 Example 3 : 
 
 An original fable illustrating (i) The Wisdom 
 of Contentment ; (2) the Duty of Kindness to 
 all, even the Most Insignificant ; (3) the Folly 
 of Procrastination ; (4) the Fate of the Idle ; (5) 
 the Effect of Noble Companionship ; (6) the 
 Effect of Selfishness on the Character; (7) the 
 Value of System in Work. 
 
CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 PURE DESCRIPTION. 
 
 BEFORE giving this lesson, read aloud a short 
 description from Scott, Irving, or Hawthorne, 
 of a woodland scene, or of the fields, as in Irving's 
 ''Legend of Sleepy Hollow," or from some 
 simpler writing, selecting characteristic phrases 
 and other expressions from the piece read. Write, 
 not these, but similar ones on the board. Choos- 
 ing a subject from the familiar surroundings of 
 the children — a field, a hillside, a bridge — ask 
 them to describe it, giving them leave to use any 
 of the phrases placed upon the board as they pro- 
 ceed in their description. 
 
 A second time, read another description, select 
 a similar object, and require a description with- 
 out the help of the phrases. 
 
 Again, choose a well-known hill, stream, forest, 
 or building, and with the aid of the whole class 
 write at the board a description of it. Require 
 each to copy it, and, at the next lesson, to rewrite 
 it, bettering it so far as he is able. 
 
 Subjects : 
 
 An Old Bridge — At Sunrise — At Sunset. 
 
I04 PURE DESCRIPTION. 
 
 7 A Pond. 
 
 A Country or City Church. 
 /A Country School-house. 
 ^ A Tree. 
 
 A Hill or Mountain. 
 
 A Country Churchyard. 
 
 A Capitol Building. 
 
 A Court House. 
 
 A City Hall. 
 7 A Country Barn. 
 7 A Vegetable Garden. 
 
 An Old Man. 
 
 A Farmer at Work. 
 ' A Blacksmith. 
 
 A Child. 
 
 My Neighbor at School. 
 
 My Grandfather. 
 ^ A Boy I Know. 
 
 My Baby Sister. 
 
 Note I. Let early attempts of this kind be 
 wholly from fact, not from imagination. 
 
 Note H. See that each child writes according 
 to some plan of his own, and arranges what he 
 has to say clearly and in good order. 
 
 Note HI. Name a particular one of each 
 object in the list, — one familiar to the pupils. 
 
CHAPTER IX. 
 
 A DAILY JOURNAL. 
 
 A SCHOOL journal of events, containing rec- 
 ord of recitations, visitors, of any deviation 
 from the usual order, any pleasant lessons, 
 accidents, and incidents, and kept in turn by the 
 pupils, furnishes a pleasant and profitable ad- 
 dition to the interest of school. Well-managed, 
 it may even be made an effective aid to dis- 
 cipline, but not as a chronicle of misdeeds or 
 personal failures. Each pupil, as he takes his 
 turn at the school journal, should try to make the 
 record look well and sound well ; his name 
 should be signed to his record, which may be 
 read aloud each evening and approved, or cor- 
 rected by the school. 
 
 Every pupil would be benefited by such 
 journal-keeping for himself. 
 
 On some convenient day, at the last hour of 
 school-session, require the whole class to make a 
 record of the day's events from memory. At 
 the next lesson, ask for the reading of several or 
 all of these, to show the pupils themselves the 
 105 
 
Io6 A DAILY JOURNAL. 
 
 differences in observation. Allow free criticism 
 of the papers. 
 
 Require the class, individually, to keep a 
 daily journal for a week and to read the same 
 aloud, as a composition e-xercise. Any child that 
 can write may do this. 
 
CHAPTER X. 
 
 PREPOSITIONAL PHRASES. 
 
 IN any reading-lesson from any reading-book, 
 as early, even, as the First Reader, very in- 
 teresting exercises on phrases are possible. 
 
 Exercise i : 
 
 " The hen is by the brook with her chickens.*' 
 
 " What words tell where the hen is? " 
 
 '' By the brook." 
 
 '' Can you think of any other word to use with 
 brook that would tell where, too ? '* 
 
 '' In the brook." 
 
 *^ Yes, and what else ? " 
 
 " Across the brook, down the brook, up the 
 brook, out of the brook, to the brook, along the 
 brook, from the brook," etc. 
 
 ** Now, will you use some of these words with 
 another word, not brook ? " 
 
 *' By the house, in the field, to the garden," etc. 
 
 "Out of the — ? down the — ? across the — ? 
 along the — ? " etc., etc. 
 
 ** Do you see any other words in your lesson 
 that belong together like these, and tell where, 
 or how ? See if you can find all such in your 
 107 
 
Io8 PREPOSITIONAL PHRASES. 
 
 next lesson, and I will tell you something else to 
 do with them." 
 Exercise 2 : 
 
 "Can you find any such words in the fol- 
 lowing? " 
 
 "As I walked out yesterday, I saw a large 
 walnut grove which grew where the land sloped 
 downward gently. There were many ripe nuts 
 scattered about ; indeed, their round yellow rinds 
 dotted the grass everywhere. I gathered several 
 particularly fine ones, sat down, and cracked 
 them ; the kernels were very sweet, but I stained 
 my lips and my fingers so that I cannot go out 
 until the color wears off.'* 
 
 Ask older pupils to rewrite the foregoing para- 
 graph, using different words for " where the 
 land," etc., "scattered about," and other words, 
 telling on what " I sat," etc. ; draw attention fre- 
 quently to such groups of words (phrases) and 
 show how much we use them when we talk, and 
 what kind of things we tell with them. 
 
 Show pupils who read books and understand 
 construction practically, how much of the beauty 
 of good writing is often in these little phrases. 
 
 Examples from the Psalms : 
 
 " In the wilderness in a solitary way." 
 " Like rain upon the mown grass." 
 " Upon the top of the mountain." 
 " Song in the night." 
 
PREPOSITIONAL PHRASES. 109 
 
 " Even to this mountain/* 
 * In the great waters." 
 *' With honey out of the rock." 
 
 From Isaiah : 
 
 '' The thickets of the forest." 
 
 *' Doves to their windows." 
 
 '* A banner upon the top of the high mountain." 
 
 "Above the heights of the clouds." 
 
 " Three berries in the top of the uttermost 
 
 bough." 
 *^ A possession for the bittern." 
 " Instead of the thorn." 
 
 From Job : 
 
 " Under the shady tree." 
 
 "The island of the innocent." 
 
 " The place of sapphires." 
 
 " The cliffs of the valleys." 
 
 " A companion to owls." 
 
 " Thistles instead of wheat." 
 
 " In a vision of the night." 
 
 " The sweet influences of Pleiades." 
 
 " In the covert of the reed." 
 
 " Upon the crag of the rock." 
 
 Exercise 3 : 
 
 " Write the phrase which I shall give you (select 
 from the foregoing) ; think about it, and write a 
 short composition in which you express all the 
 thoughts suggested by it." 
 
no PREPOSITIONAL PHRASES. 
 
 Exercise 4 : 
 
 {a) *^ Turn to page — in your reading-book, a 
 
 piece of descriptive writing from . Write a 
 
 list of the prepositional phrases in the para- 
 graph. Say which you think is the most beauti- 
 ful phrase, in sound and in meaning, {b) Rewrite 
 the paragrapli, expressing all that is in it, so far 
 as possible, by using other forms of expression 
 instead of these phrases. Determine what quality 
 the original has lost by this change." 
 
 Exercise 5 : 
 
 Study the etymology of the prepositions. 
 
 Exercise 6 : 
 
 By experiment, find out how many of them by 
 use pass into adverbs ; into other parts of speech. 
 
 Exercise 7 : 
 
 Take note in rending • of uncommon 
 
 uses of these words, both as prepositions and as 
 other parts of speech. 
 
CHAPTER XT. 
 
 SELECTED PASSAGES. 
 
 SELECTING and committing to memory por- 
 tions of the text should be a part of every 
 lesson in the study of English. 
 
 Each pupil's selection should be based on some 
 reason in his own mind ; an admiration of the 
 thought, of the words, the melody of the verse, 
 a rhetorical figure, or a fact which he wishes to 
 remember. 
 
 As these selected passages are to be held per- 
 manently in the memory, they may furnish much 
 good material for wTiting, at a moment's notice. 
 
 Exercise i : 
 
 The class may each write from memory a 
 short selection, learned on account of the beauty 
 of the thought contained, from Lowell. Let them 
 write for ten minutes on what is suggested. Or 
 they may exchange papers and write what the 
 selection suggests. 
 
 Exercise 2 : 
 
 " Write from memory a passage from Long- 
 fellow's ' Morituri Salutamus.' {a) Explain what 
 connection it has with the whole ; (h) give the 
 
112 SELECTED PASSAGES. 
 
 thought that precedes and that which follows, 
 and write a ten-line composition on the thoughts 
 suggested by the independent passage." 
 
 Exercise 3 : 
 
 Comment on the passage, noticing the scan- 
 sion, the words, figures, poetic license, construc- 
 tion, and thought. 
 
 Exercise 4 : 
 
 Annotate minutely, noticing the etymology of 
 uncommon words. 
 
 Exercise 5 : 
 
 " Men whose lives glided on like rivers that water the wood- 
 land. 
 Darkened by shadows of earth but reflecting an image 
 of heaven." 
 
 " Expand the figure which makes up this 
 incomplete extract, showing how men's lives 
 could glide on like rivers, be darkened by shadows, 
 and reflect an image of heaven. Give the literal 
 history of lives which could make this figurative 
 description possible and true." 
 
CHAPTER XII. 
 
 THE STUDY OF FORM. 
 
 AFTER some such study of short and simple 
 pieces, in both prose and verse, as is broadly- 
 outlined in Chapter VL, older pupils may begin 
 to study Irving's " The Legend of Sleepy 
 Hollow," Longfellow's ^' Evangeline," Whittier's 
 " Snow-Bound," or Scott's " Lady of the Lake." 
 
 A good help to appreciating what is in a piece 
 of writing is to examine carefully what man- 
 ner of words, phrases, sentences, figures, etc., the 
 author has used in giving written form to his 
 thought, or, in other words, in telling his story. 
 
 Naturally this does not come first as a part of 
 conscious work. If interested at all, the boy or 
 girl is interested in the story, or matter. 
 
 Neither profit nor pleasure can be expected to 
 come from the study of technicalities as such, out 
 of their order. The study of the letter, when the 
 letter is a thing despised, killeth ; when the letter 
 is perceived to be a thing connected with the life 
 of thought, it giveth life. Word-lore comes late, 
 and as a consequence of a sufficient love of books. 
 
 With all the judgment the teacher has, but- 
 tressed by constantly added experience from ob- 
 serving her pupils during the lesson hours, and by 
 113 
 
114 THE ^STUDY OF FORM, 
 
 enthusiasm, stimulated by their awakening enthu- 
 siasm in the discussion of the literal meanings — 
 the botany, zoology, astronomy, religion, history, 
 and, in its order, the poetry — of the studied poem, 
 she lures them on to notice other things ; to 
 glow over the beauty of a phrase, to smile over 
 the history of a curious word, to wonder at, then 
 to admire, the force of a rhetorical figure, or the 
 felicity of a certain grammatical construction ; 
 she lures them on, in brief, as if she were leading 
 them into the wonders of a field or forest. 
 
 Thestudy of theform of written thought may be 
 simplified a little by adopting and adapting a plan 
 somewhat like that which follows. Be it remem- 
 bered, however, that work of this kind, its time and 
 order of doing, must depend on the advancement 
 in interest, and that each new thing ought to 
 bring itself to notice and lead the way to seeing 
 other things of the same and of different kinds. 
 
 The study of a piece of writing by the single stanza 
 
 or paragraph^, 
 I. Grannnatical Construction: 
 
 1. Syntax in general. 
 
 {a) Kinds of sentences. 
 
 {p) Forms of tenses used for other tense- 
 forms. 
 
 {c) Special constructions (adverbial ob- 
 jective, etc.) 
 
 2. Idioms. 
 
THE STUDY OF FORM, US 
 
 //. Paraphrase : 
 
 1. A free oral translation of the author's 
 thought into the individual vocabulary ; gram- 
 matical, to the point, containing nothing more, 
 nothing less, than the original. 
 
 2. Synonyms. 
 
 ///. Structure: 
 
 1. Comparative length (as in poems like Scott's 
 
 **Lay of the Last Minstrel "). 
 
 2. Logical connection and argument. 
 
 3. Measure — irregularities, etc. 
 
 4. Rhyme. 
 
 {a) Arrangement and variety. 
 (U) Quality and kind. 
 {c) Contrast. 
 
 IV, Words: 
 
 1. As a whole. 
 
 {a) Quality. 
 
 (p) Origin (very rarely). 
 
 2. Special words. 
 
 . {a) Uncommon — in their nature ; in their 
 use. 
 {p) Of peculiar force. 
 {c) Archaic. 
 \d) Obsolete. 
 (e) Of special beauty. 
 (/) Of noticeable origin. 
 {g) Favorite words — much used by the 
 author. 
 
Ii6 THE STUDY OF FORM. 
 
 V, Allusions : 
 
 1. Historical. 
 
 {a) Authentic. 
 {b) Legendary. 
 {c) Biographical. 
 Id) Biblical. 
 {e) Classical. 
 
 2. Literary. 
 
 3. Scientific. 
 
 4. Geographical. 
 
 5. Local. 
 
 VI, Figures: 
 
 1. Of syntax (Ellipsis, Asyndeton, etc.) 
 
 2. Etymology. 
 
 3. Orthography. 
 
 4. Rhetoric. 
 
 (a) Metaphor. 
 
 {b) Simile. 
 
 {c) Synecdoche. 
 
 {d) Metonymy. 
 
 {e) Vision. 
 
 (/) Apostrophe. 
 
 (^g) Personification. 
 
 (Jt) Interrogation. 
 
 (/) Exclamation, etc., etc. 
 
 VII, Melody: 
 
 1. Rhythm, etc. 
 
 2. Intentional, or instinctive alternation of 
 
 vowel sounds — of liquids, etc., etc. 
 
CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 SOME VARIETIES OF EXERCISES. 
 
 1. Metaphrases, Paraphrases (See pages 86 
 and 88). 
 
 2. Words and all their Derivatives, simple and 
 compound. 
 
 3. Phrases; made from clauses and vice versa ; 
 words from phrases and vice versa, 
 
 4. Etymology of words selected from the 
 lesson by the teacher ; of words of the pupiFs 
 own selection. 
 
 5. Grammatical Construction ; separation of 
 connected discourse into its component parts, 
 with the function of each part. 
 
 6. Expand metaphors ; condense similes ; 
 analyze both. 
 
 7. Change figurative language to plain language. 
 
 8. Change all the dependent clauses in a 
 piece of connected discourse to participial or 
 other phrases, and vice versa. 
 
 9. Determine subjects of paragraphs, stanzas, 
 etc. Make topical analysis of a poem, essay, 
 play or story. 
 
 "7 
 
Ii8 VARIETIES OF EXERCISES. 
 
 10. Study of connectives and connecting ideas 
 of a piece of writing. 
 
 11. Connection, Purpose, and Relation to the 
 whole of selected passages. 
 
 12. Change poetical language in a poem to 
 the language of prose, making no change in 
 those portions which are not of themselves 
 poetical. 
 
 13. Change a given piece of prose or verse 
 into prose of one-syllabled words. 
 
 14. Change the rhyming words in a piece of 
 verse into good synonyms, not rhyming, but pre- 
 serving the accent. 
 
 15. Write iambic pentameter or tetrameter 
 couplets and quatrains, on given subjects. 
 
 16. Change bombastic or otherwise faulty 
 newspaper language to good English. 
 
 17. Change plain statements (connected dis- 
 course) to figurative language. 
 
 18. Select beautiful, strong, curious, mimetic, 
 melodious, uneuphonic, harsh, or sonorous words 
 from a given piece of writing, and mention 
 their effect in the connection in which they 
 are found. 
 
 19. Give the function of any character in a 
 poem, story, or play. 
 
 20. Decide upon the necessity of any scene 
 in a dramatic poem studied. 
 
 21. Trace the thread of the plot in each scene 
 of the same. 
 
VARIE TIES OF EXERCISES. 1 1 9 
 
 22. Change direct discourse to indirect and 
 vice versa, and either to dialogue. 
 
 23. Write a short composition on a given 
 subject without using (a) prepositions, {U) con- 
 junctions, {c) descriptive adjectives, (^) compound 
 tenses, {e) adverbs, (/) superlatives. ( Give at 
 six different times.) 
 
 24. An original short story to be read to a 
 six-year child. 
 
 25. Change to good English prose {a) the 
 
 speech of in Shakespeare*s , Scene — , 
 
 Act — ; {U) of in Spenser's '* Faerie Queen " ; 
 
 {c) of in Chaucer's '* Squier's Tale." 
 
 26. Write an alphabet of admired passages 
 from {a) Milton ; {b) Wordsworth ; {c) Tenny- 
 son ; ^d) wShakespeare's comedies ; {e) Shake- 
 speare's tragedies ; (/) Carlyle's "' Hero Wor- 
 ship " and *' Sartor Resartus " ; (^) Lowell; {fi) 
 Hawthorne. 
 
 27. Annotate the first twenty lines of {ci) 
 "• Com us " ; {U) ** Lycidas " ; {c) '' Lady of the 
 Lake"; (d) Keats's ** Hyperion "; (^) Shelley*s 
 ^^ Skylark" ; (/) first — or any selected — paragraph 
 of '^ Sartor Resartus " ; (^g) Tennyson's ** Prin- 
 cess," beginning and ending , etc. 
 
 28. Write an imaginary conversation with 
 Mr. Longfellow on his '' Evangeline," or with 
 ■ on his . 
 
 29. Write a short composition in which all 
 verbs, nouns, adjectives and adverbs are of Anglo- 
 
I20 VARIETIES OF EXERCISES, 
 
 Saxon origin. Rewrite the same, changing the 
 Anglo-Saxon to Latin-derived words. 
 
 30. Write a short exercise n\ which the verbs 
 are Anglo-Saxon and the nouns not Anglo-Saxon. 
 
 31. Write an exercise in which the comma 
 is not needed. 
 
 32. In which all the phrases are {a) preposi- 
 tional adverbial ; {h) prepositional adjectival ; {c) 
 in which all compound modifiers are adjective 
 clauses. 
 
 33. {a) Expand compound words into their 
 original phrases-form, or phrase idea, or clause 
 form ; (p) condense phrases and clauses into 
 compound words. 
 
 34. Change all the clauses in a paragraph 
 from the class reader, to participial phrases, if it 
 can be done. 
 
 35. Write a -preface to some school text- 
 book which is without one. 
 
 36. Write a review of the same book. 
 
 37. Find the proportion of Latin to Saxon 
 words in selections from Shakespeare, Milton, 
 Wordsworth, Keats, Tennyson, etc. 
 
 38. Arrange in alphabetic order, in columns, 
 the grammatical component parts of Longfellow's 
 Sonnet, '' The Three Silences of Molinos." Classi- 
 fy and rearrange the same according to their 
 separate functions. 
 
 39. Alphabetically arrange in their several 
 classes the phrases of Lowell's *' A Parable," 
 
VARIE TIES OF EXERCISES. 1 2 1 
 
 (**Said Christ our Lord/' etc.), or of " Commem- 
 oration Ode/' VI. 
 
 40. Classify the rhetorical figures in a given 
 poem {(i) according to kind, {V) according to base. 
 
 41. Examine the sonnets of a given author 
 to see if they conform to the laws of construction 
 of the sonnet. 
 
CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 GENERAL SUGGESTIONS. 
 
 GIVE, as occasion requires, the following 
 instructions, with such others as the indi- 
 vidual class may need : 
 
 1. Use simple words and expressions. 
 
 2. Avoid the frequent use of long sentences. 
 
 3. Do not end sentences with unimportant 
 words ; with the same word or phrase used in a 
 preceding sentence ; abruptly or awkwardly. 
 
 4. Avoid unnecessary repetitions of words ; 
 but do not be afraid to use the same word twice 
 if its second use is telling. 
 
 5. Use and only when you need it. 
 
 6. Use no word about whose meaning you are 
 doubtful ; avoid French or other foreign words. 
 
 7. Use superlatives sparingly, both in conver- 
 sation and in writing. 
 
 8. Make your written language tell the simple 
 truth without exaggerations. 
 
 9. Learn to notice and correct your own oral 
 language. 
 
 10. Of two words, either of which will equally 
 express your meaning, generally choose the 
 shorter. 
 
GENERAL SUGGESTIONS. 123 
 
 11. Notice the language of educated people. 
 
 12. Read approved (for you) standard books, 
 and observe their style as you read. 
 
 13. Copy into a blank book such passages from 
 what you read as, for any reason, )'ou like. 
 
 14. Cultivate the habit of talking to your 
 parents about what you read. 
 
 1 5. Read aloud every day, 
 
 16. Commit to memory poems or parts of 
 poems as often, at least, as once a week. 
 
 17. Write on uniform paper ; fasten the month's 
 work together, labeled and dated ; lay aside for 
 re-writing. (For advanced classes.) 
 
 18. Heed carefully all mistakes marked in your 
 writing, and avoid repeating them. 
 
CHAPTER XV. 
 
 ERRORS IN SPEAKING. 
 
 CORRECT when made, or soon after, all errors 
 in speaking. In addition to the more com- 
 mon ones, do not allow the following to pass un- 
 noticed : 
 
 *' Try and see," for try to see. 
 
 "Those kind, these kind," for that or this kind. 
 
 *' Looks like he was," for looks as if, etc. 
 
 ** Fix," for arrange. 
 
 *^ He don't." 
 
 " Loan," for lend. 
 
 " She's nicely, thank you." 
 
 " Bring," for take. 
 
 '^Will I?" for shall I? 
 
 ** Laid," for lay. 
 
 ** Lay,'* for lie. 
 
 '' Break it in half." 
 
 " Aint." 
 
 ** Party," for person. 
 
 ** Expect," for suspect. 
 
 ** Aggravate," for irritate. 
 
 '' Their " after distributive, impersonal, and 
 other singular antecedents. 
 
 124 
 
EKJWKS IN SPEAKING. 12$ 
 
 " I would like to have gone/* for I should have 
 liked to go. 
 
 ** Smart," for clever. 
 
 '' Nice man," ^^ nice girl," etc. 
 
 *' Fellow," except in its proper uses. 
 
 ** Like," for as — '* Read like she does." 
 
 Unripped for ripped. 
 
 ** Different than." 
 
 A nominative case after a preposition ** for 
 him and I." 
 
 "Presume," for think (in its ordinary sense). 
 
 " Healthy food," for wholesome food. 
 
 *' Get," and its tenses, improperly used instead 
 of some other verb. 
 
 " Haven't hardly one." 
 
 "Terribly hungry." 
 
CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 SUBJECTS FOR ADVANCED CLASSES.^ 
 
 1. Character Sketches from Real Life. 
 
 2. Literary Essays (Results of study of the Eng- 
 lish Classics). 
 
 3. Study of Howells*s, Hale's, Cable's, Joel 
 Chandler Harris's, Charles Egbert Craddock's 
 styles in their best novels. 
 
 4. The Topography of Hale's stories ; of Crad- 
 dock's. 
 
 5. Study of a Sonnet ; the sonnet ; sonnets of 
 Wordsworth, etc. 
 
 6. The First Chapter of *' Ben Hur." 
 
 7. Famous Rides (E. E. Hale's " In His Name " ; 
 Browning's " From Ghent to Aix " ; *' Sheridan's 
 Ride," by T. B. Read ; ^John Gilpin," by Cowper ; 
 " Tam O'Shanter," by Burns ; *' Don Fulano," in 
 " John Brent," by Winthrop ; '' Paul Revere's 
 Ride," by Longfellow). 
 
 8. Wordsworth and Nature. 
 
 9. Keats's *' Hyperion." 
 
 10. Robert Browning's '^Childe Roland to the 
 
 * But few in this list are within the limits of High School 
 work. They are given rather as suggestions for Teachers' 
 work. 
 
 126 
 
SUBJECTS FOR ADVANCED CLASSES. 127 
 
 Dark Tower Came " (see Scott's *' Bridal of Trier- 
 main"). 
 
 11. Robert Browning's Songs. 
 
 12. Robert Browning's *' An Epistle." 
 
 13. Matthew Arnold's *' Obermann Once 
 More." 
 
 14. Matthew Arnold's '* Sohrab and Rustum." 
 
 15. Matthew Arnold's Sonnets. 
 
 16. Poetry as a teacher of *' How to see " in 
 Nature. 
 
 17. The Poet and the Nation (Lowell, Whittier, 
 Emerson). 
 
 18. The Poet and " Practical" People. 
 
 19. Photographs — Hoffman's '* Christ disput- 
 ing with the Doctors " ; '' Ulysses discovering 
 Achilles at the Court of Lycomedes " ; Riviere's 
 '' Circe and the Friends of Ulysses " ; Michael 
 Angelo's ''The Three Fates "; Riviere's *' Daniel 
 in the Lion's Den "; Gerome's " Napoleon and 
 the Sphinx." 
 
 20. Theodore Winthrop. 
 
 21. Thoreau's '' Excursion," " Maine Woods." 
 
 22. John Burroughs and Maurice Thompson. 
 
 23. Tennyson's Science (" Locksley Hall," 
 '' The Princess," etc). 
 
 24. American Lyrics (Holmes, Halleck, Drake, 
 Longfellow, Emerson, Whittier, Julia Ward 
 Howe). 
 
 25. Hawthorne's ''The House of Seven Ga- 
 bles." 
 
128 SUBJECTS FOR ADVANCED CLASSES. 
 
 26. Dickensland and its People. 
 2J, The Phaedo of Plato (Translation, Mac- 
 millan & Co. or Chas. Scribner's Sons). 
 
 28. Typical School-teachers of Fiction and Poe- 
 try (Goldsmith, VVhittier, Irving, Shenstone, 
 George Macdonald, Dickens, and Eggleston). 
 
 29. Distinguished School-teachers (Thomas 
 Arnold, Froebel, Horace Mann, Agassiz, Guyot). 
 
 30. The Waldenses ('* In His Name " — Hale). 
 
 31. The Poet's Insight. 
 
 32. Biographical Sketches (Abraham Lincoln, 
 Thoreau, Burritt, La Place, Rafinesque, Linnaeus, 
 Sumner, Dr. Arnold, Galileo, Kepler, Milton, De 
 Candolle, Pascal, Humboldt). 
 
 33. Mount Tamalpais. 
 
 34. Study of a Shore Crab, of a Beetle (with 
 pencil and microscope). 
 
 y 35. Natural History in the Poets. 
 
 36. '* Hepzibah," in ** The House of Seven Ga- 
 bles," by Hawthorne. 
 
 37. Keats's *' Sonnet on Chapman's Homer." 
 
 38. The Elegy ; Great Elegies. 
 
 39. The Supernatural in American Literature 
 (Irving, Hawthorne, Poe, Whittier, Mather's His- 
 tory). 
 
 40. American Flower Poems ('' The Rhodora," 
 Emerson; ''The Yellow Violet" and "The 
 Fringed Gentian" — Bryant; "The Columbine" 
 — Jones Very ; " Rose Morals " — Sidney Lanier ; 
 "The Dandelion" — Lowell). 
 
SUBJECTS FOR ADVANCED CLASSES 129 
 
 41. The People and the Few (Literary Tastes). 
 
 42. Sidney Lanier's Works. 
 
 43. '' The Musician's Tales/* in Longfellow's 
 ** Tales of a Wayside Inn." "The Jew's Tales," 
 in the same. 
 
 44. The Birds, Trees, Flowers of the Poets (a 
 search through familiar poets). 
 
 45. The Woods in Poetry (Bryant, Longfel- 
 low, Emerson). 
 
 46. The Woods in Stories (Hawthorne, Cooper, 
 Mrs. Stowe). 
 
 47. The English of Tennyson's "Idyls of the 
 King." 
 
 48. Lowell, the American Scholar's Poet. 
 
 49. The Translations of the Iliad (Chapman, 
 Pope, Derby, Bryant, etc.). 
 
 50. " Coriolanus and Aufidius " (Shakespeare's 
 " Coriolanus "). 
 
 51. " Canace's Ring" (Chaucer's "Squire's 
 Tale "). 
 
 52. Gray and Keats as Showing the Influence 
 of Milton. 
 
CHAPTER XVII. 
 
 SUBJECTS FOR PUPILS OF VARIOUS AGES. 
 
 7 I. An Ant City (from observation). 
 7 2. A Basket of Apples (history from the blos- 
 som to the ripened fruit ; a story about). 
 
 •7 3. A Boy's Adventure (real). 
 ' -> 4. A Coil of Rope (see Longfellow's "The 
 Rope Walk"). 
 
 5. A Cucumber Vine, and What Came of it. 
 
 6. A Day at the River side (nearest stream). 
 ; 7. A Wood and Coal Yard. 
 
 n 8. A Farm of My Own. 
 
 ^ 9. A Fence Corner (blackberry bushes, bird's 
 nest, scoke, stump, moss, lichens, ground squirrel, 
 field mouse, etc.). 
 
 10. A few Insects mentioned by the Poets- • 
 Butterflies, June Beetle (Gray's " Elegy "), Gray 
 Fly (Milton's " Lycidas "), Bee, Ant, Mosquito 
 (Bryant), etc. 
 
 11. A Great Flood. 
 
 12. A Grain of Wheat. 
 
 Y 13. A Hornet's, or a Wasp's Nest, with Draw- 
 ing. 
 
SUBJECTS FOR VARIOUS AGES. 131 
 
 14. A Hundred Years Old (man, house, hat, 
 pitcher, coin, tea-pot, watch, etc.). 
 ^ 15. An Hour in a Country Railway Station. 
 
 16. An Ideal School-room. 
 
 17. A Jelly-fish in a Tumbler. A Sea An- 
 emone. 
 
 1 18. Aladdin's Lamp — if I had it. 
 
 19. Aladdin's Unfinished Window. 
 y 20. A Loaf of Bread — all the work that goes 
 to make it. 
 
 21. An Old First Reader (a) A Review; [b) 
 See Longfellow's *' The Rope-walk," etc. 
 
 22. An Old Hedge and What LSaw There. 
 7 23. An Old Photograph Album. 
 
 24. An Old Blue Pitcher (see *' Keramos," by 
 Longfellow). 
 
 25. An Original Fable. The Hen and the 
 Canary Bird. 
 
 26. A Piece of Machinery, What it Does, How 
 it Moves, How it Looks; with drawings. 
 
 27. A Prehistoric Island. 
 7 2%. A Ride in the Rain. 
 
 729. A Stormy Day Without, or Within. 
 ^^30. A Study of the Cat. Of Cats. 
 
 31. A Stalk of Corn — root and all (see Sidney 
 Lanier's poem *' Corn "). 
 
 32. A Shop of My Own. 
 7 33. At a Country Store. 
 ;7 34. At the Back Door. 
 
 35. A Voice From My Desk. 
 
132 SUBJECTS FOR VARIOUS AGES. 
 
 36. A Week's Journal — in vacation ; in term- 
 time. 
 
 37. A Wild Garden (see Emerson's ''My Gar- 
 den "). 
 
 38. A Wren's, or Sparrow's, or Quail's Nest. 
 
 39. Back Windows. 
 
 40. Beetles of My Garden (Ground Beetles, 
 Rose Weevil, *' Lady Bird," Cucumber Beetle, 
 June Beetle, Spring Beetle, Colorado Potato Bee- 
 tle, Striped Potato Beetle, etc.). 
 
 41. Bird Life (Maurice Thompson's, John Bur- 
 roughs's, and Thoreau's writings. Autobiography 
 of Audubon ; but first, real bird life. Lowell's 
 '* My Garden Acquaintance "). 
 
 42. Bird Poems (Wordsworth, Keats, Shelley, 
 Lanier's ** Mocking Bird," Bryant, Robert Brown- 
 ing's *' Home Thoughts From Abroad "). 
 
 43. Birds of My Acquaintance. 
 
 44. Book People of My Acquaintance. 
 
 45. Burrs. (See Gray's Botany, //^r/^r'^-J/^^^- 
 zine, Vol. LXIIL, page 645 and ff.) 
 
 46. Cats of Story. (See '' Bleak House," Whit- 
 tington's Cat, *' The White Cat," etc.) 
 
 47. Cedric, the Saxon. (See page 95.) 
 
 48. Comparisons. (See page 59.) 
 
 ^49. Curious Family Names (See City Direct- 
 ory) ; their origin. 
 
 ^, 50. Curious Seeds (Burdock, Thistle, and Sal- 
 sify, '' Beggar Burr," Burr Clover, Ehn, Ash, 
 Clematis, Maple, etc.). 
 
SUBJECTS FOR VARIOUS AGES. 133 
 
 51. Description of a Friend Whom I Like Very 
 Much. 
 
 52. Dogs of Story. (See ** Princess of Thule,*' 
 " Hypatia," *' Leatherstocking Tales," '' Rab and 
 His Friends," ^' The Talisman," " The Lady of the 
 Lake," and Dr. John Brown's '* Spare Hours.") 
 
 53. Dreams. (Shakespeare's "" Midsummer 
 Night's Dream," ''Richard HL, " Campbell's 
 ''Last Man," Addison's "Vision of Mirza," 
 Dimond's "The Sailor Boy's Dream," etc.) ' 
 ^54. Eyes of Animals, (With illustrations from 
 life : goat, cat, horse, chicken, fish, owl, dog, 
 sheep, frog, crayfish or crab, spider, dragon-fly, 
 harmless snake, venomous snake, singing-bird, fly 
 and butterfly.) 
 
 55. Fence Lichens and Mosses (Gray). 
 o T 56. Fence Literature. 
 
 57. From the School-house Windows. 
 >58. Glimpses From the Streets into Homes. 
 
 59. Good Health and How to Keep it. 
 
 60. Good Manners. 
 
 61. Grasses of the Roadside. 
 
 62. Hale's " 10 X I = 10." (Its Motto.) 
 
 6}^, How Insects Emigrate (Colorado Potato 
 Beetle, Cabbage Butterfly, Wheat Midge, Cod- 
 ling Moth, Plexippus Butterfly, " Camberwell 
 Beauty,'' Cockroach). 
 
 64. How Plants Emigrate (Jamestown Weed, 
 Poa Annua, apple-tree, elm, oak, etc.). 
 
 65. How Plants Sow Seeds (Gray). 
 
134 . SUBJECTS FOR VARIOUS AGES. 
 
 66. Horses of History and Story. (See Alex- 
 ander the Great, Caligula, " John Brent," by Win- 
 throp, Hale's "' In His Name," Browning's 
 ** How we carried the Good News from Ghent to 
 Aix," Read's "Sheridan's Ride," Longfellow's 
 "Bell of Atri," "Sigurd the Volsung," by 
 Morris.) 
 
 6^, If I could have met Mr. Longfellow — 
 
 68. Isaac of York. (See page 59.) 
 
 69. Jews of Fiction. (See " Ivanhoe," " Our Mu- 
 tual Friend," Ware's " Zenobia," Eliot's " Daniel 
 Deronda," Lessing's " Nathan the Wise.") 
 
 70. Johnny Appleseed (see Vol. XLIIL, page 
 830, Harper s Magazine), 
 
 71. Mary's Little Garden. 
 
 72. Mending a torn Dress. 
 
 7 73. Misfortunes of a Helpless fine Lady. 
 r 74. Monday Morning at the Rush's. 
 -< 75. Monday Morning at the Slack's. 
 ^ 76. Monday Morning at the Thrifty's. 
 
 yj. Modes of Progression in Animals (Feet, 
 wings, scales, fins, bristles (as in earthworms), 
 serpentine curves (see Ruskin's " Deucalion," 
 Vol. II. -i), flippers in seal, suckers of leech, 
 "thousand-legs," stretching of amoeba), with 
 drawings. 
 
 78. Mrs. Robin's Picnic. 
 
 79. Mr. Slacktwist's Farm. 
 
 80. My Doll's Education. 
 
 81. My Favorite Books. 
 
SUBJECTS FOR VARIOUS AGES. IJS 
 
 Z2, My Neighbor at School. 
 
 83. Natural History of the Horse, Sheep, Cat, 
 Dog, and other domestic animals, from observa- 
 tion and reading. 
 
 84. Natural History of the Gray Squirrel, or 
 any other wild animal or bird, from observation. 
 
 85. Native Nut-bearing Trees. 
 
 86. *' Open Sesame '* (see " Forty Thieves "). 
 
 ^ 87. One of Karl's Wishes (that he could change 
 himself into whatever he chose), and what came 
 of it. 
 
 88. Plan for a Day's Work — at home ; at 
 school. 
 
 89. Plants that Climb and Creep. 
 
 90. Ponce de Leon's Fountain. 
 
 91. Pottery, illustrated by specimens. 
 
 92. " Portia." 
 
 93. Rat-Emigration. 
 
 94. *' Rebecca, the Jewess." 
 
 95. Roads (Historic). 
 
 96. Sand Houses — sand bee, myrmelion, etc., 
 spiders. 
 
 97. ^^Shylock." 
 
 98. Street Cries. 
 
 99. Study of a Toad in Our Garden. 
 
 7 100. The Boys Who Used to Sit at Our Desks. 
 7 loi. The Boys Who Will Sit at Our Desks Ten 
 Years from Now. 
 
 102. The Boy who always Forgot. 
 
 103. The Butterfly's Birthday (see page 43). 
 
130 SUBJECTS FOR VARIOUS AGES. 
 
 104. The Circle. 
 
 105. The Colors of the Ground. 
 
 106. The Crowning of Gardyn (see Hogg's 
 "Queen's Wake," III., 5). 
 
 107. The Dragon Fly — Its History. 
 /^lo8. The Geography of our Town. 
 
 109. " " " Farm (with map). 
 
 no. The History of some Curious Words. 
 
 111. The House Beautiful. 
 
 112. The History of the Horse, in America. 
 
 113. The House of Cedric the Saxon. 
 
 1 14. Through a Cornfield. 
 
 115. The Lion in my Way. 
 
 116. The Pleasantest Day of my School Life. 
 
 117. The Shapes of Leaves (with illustrations. 
 See Sir John Lubbock's ** Leaves "). 
 
 118. The Songs of the People. 
 
 119. The Square. 
 
 120. The Straight Line. 
 
 / 121. The Story of ''Mary, Mary, Quite Con- 
 trary." 
 
 122. The Story of Sir Launfal. 
 ^123. The Story of a Pot of Jam. 
 
 124. The Sky (clouds and their shapes, color, 
 height, etc.). 
 
 "> 125. Ten Years from now in the Life of a Tree, 
 of a Boy, of a Girl. 
 
 126. The Triangle. 
 
 127. The Treasures of the Hills {ci) above 
 ground ; {b) beneath. 
 
SUBJECTS FOR VARIOUS AGES. 137 
 
 128. The Weeds in our Streets. 
 
 129. Under a Hedge. 
 
 130. Up in a Tree. 
 
 131. Water Notes (Rain drops on a roof, 
 window-pane, etc., on pools, on leaves, on hard 
 ground ; brook, cascades, waves, breakers, under 
 ice). 
 
 y 132. What I found under a stone ; under a log. 
 
 133. What They Did in the Ark. 
 7134. What I see from my Window. 
 
 135. Wamba, the Jester (see page 59). 
 
 136. Whisky and What it Does. 
 
 137. Why Idleness is a Disgrace. 
 
 138. Wood, what it is, etc. 
 
 139. Work and Working People. 
 
 ;? 140. What a Flying Bird Can See. 
 
 141. You Ought. 
 
 142. You Ought Not. 
 
 143. Youth's Best Wisdom — Obedience, 
 
CHAPTER XVIII. 
 
 SELECTIONS TO BE USED AS SUBJECTS AND SUG- 
 GESTIONS FOR COMPOSITIONS. 
 
 I. 
 A man he was of cheerful Yesterdays 
 And confident To-morrows. 
 
 William Wordsworth. 
 
 2. 
 
 And passing rich on forty pounds a year. 
 
 Oliver Goldsmith. 
 
 3. 
 
 As is your sort of mind, so is your sort of search. 
 
 Robert Browning. 
 
 4. 
 A single raindrop prints the eocene 
 While crowbars fail on lias. 
 
 Bayard Taylor. 
 
 5. 
 
 A pastor such as Chaucer's verse portrays, 
 Such as the heaven-taught skill of Herbert drew 
 And tender Goldsmith crowned with deathless praise. 
 William Wordsworth. 
 
 6. 
 And for my wisdom — glad to know 
 Where the sweetest beech-nuts grow, 
 And to track out the spicy root, 
 
 13S 
 
SUBJECTS FOR COMPOSITIONS, 139 
 
 Or peel the musky core of the wild berry shoot ; 
 
 And how the russet ground-bird bold 
 
 With both slim feet at once will lightly rake the mould ; 
 
 And why moon-shadows from the swaying limb 
 
 Here are sharp and here are dim ; 
 
 And how the ant his zigzag way can hold 
 
 Through the grass that is a grove to him. 
 
 E. R. Sill. 
 
 7. 
 All natural forms conform more or less closely to geomet- 
 rical ideals ; sufficiently near to suggest these ideals to men 
 fitted to receive the suggestion. 
 
 Thomas Hill. 
 
 A single beech-tree grew 
 Within this grove of firs ; and on the fork 
 Of that one beech appeared a thrush's nest. 
 
 William Wordsworth. 
 9. 
 Announced by all the trumpets of the sky, 
 Arrives the snow ; and, driving o'er the fields, 
 Seems nowhere to alight ; the whited air 
 Hides hills and woods, the river and the heaven, 
 And veils the farmhouse at the garden's end. 
 The sled and traveler stopped, the courier's feet 
 Delayed, all friends shut out, the housemates sit 
 In a tumultuous privacy of storm. 
 
 R. W. Emerson. 
 10. 
 Be not amazed at life ; 'tis still 
 
 The mode of God with his elect, 
 Their hopes exactly to fulfill 
 
 In times and ways they least expect. 
 
 Coventry Patmore. 
 
140 SUBJECTS FOR COMPOSITIONS, 
 
 II. 
 
 But tasks in hours of insight willed 
 Can be through hours of gloom fulfilled. 
 
 Matthew Arnold. 
 
 12. 
 
 But the majestic river floated on 
 
 Out of the mist and hum of that low land 
 
 Into the frosty starlight. 
 
 Matthew Arnold. 
 
 13. 
 
 Entire affection hateth nicer hands. 
 
 Edmund Spenser. 
 14. 
 Fool ! All that is at all 
 Lasts ever, past recall ; 
 Earth changes, but thy soul and God stand sure : 
 What entered into thee, 
 That was, is, and shall be : 
 Time's wheel runs back or stops; Potter and clay endure. 
 
 Robert Browning. 
 
 15. 
 
 For praise too dearly loved or warmly sought 
 Enfeebles all internal strength of thought ; 
 For the weak soul within itself unblest 
 Leans for all pleasure on another's breast. 
 
 Oliver Goldsmith. 
 16. 
 Genius is a transcendent capacity for taking trouble. 
 
 Thomas Carlyle. 
 
 17. 
 Go put your creed into your deed. 
 Nor speak with double tongue. 
 
 R. W. Emerson. 
 
SUBJECTS FOR COMPOSITIONS, 141 
 
 18. 
 
 He that at twenty is not, at thirty knows not, and at forty 
 has not, will never be, nor ever know, nor ever have. 
 
 Italian Proverb. 
 19. 
 Happy the man whose wish and care 
 
 A few paternal acres bound, 
 Content to breathe his native air 
 In his own ground. 
 
 Alexander Pope. 
 20. 
 In vain our pent wills fret. 
 
 And would the world subdue ; 
 Limits we did not set 
 Condition all we do. 
 
 Matthew Arnold. 
 
 21. 
 
 In his cool hall, with haggard eyes. 
 
 The Roman noble lay ; 
 He drove abroad in furious guise. 
 
 Along the Appian Way ; 
 
 He made a feast, drank fierce and fast, 
 And crowned his hair with flowers, — 
 
 No easier nor no quicker passed 
 The impracticable hours. 
 
 Matthew Arnold. 
 
 22. 
 I want a steward, butler, cooks, 
 
 A coachman, footman, grooms, 
 A library of well-bound books, 
 
 And picture-garnished rooms — 
 Correggios, Magdalen, and Night, 
 
t42 subjects for compositions. 
 
 The Matron of the Chair — 
 Guide's fleet coursers in their flight, 
 And Claudes, at least a pair. 
 
 O. W. Holmes. 
 23. 
 In a drear-nighted December, 
 
 Too happy, happy Tree, 
 Thy branches ne'er remember 
 
 Their green felicity ; 
 The north cannot undo them 
 With a sleety whistle through them, 
 Nor frozen thawings glue them 
 From budding at the prime. 
 
 John Keats. 
 24. 
 Johnnie Carnegie lais heer, 
 Descendit of Adam and Eve, 
 Gif ony con ging hieher 
 I'se willing give him leve. 
 
 Old Epitaph. 
 25. 
 Life is a game the soul can play 
 With fewer pieces than men say. 
 
 E. R. Sill. 
 26. 
 Look up and not down, 
 Look forward and not back. 
 Look out and not in, 
 Lend a hand. 
 
 E. E. Hale. 
 27. 
 Men may rise on stepping-stones 
 Of their dead selves to higher things. 
 
 Alfred Tennyson. 
 
SUBJECTS FOR COMPOSITIOJVS, 143 
 
 28. 
 My strength is as the strength of ten 
 Because my heart is pure. 
 
 Alfred Tennyson. 
 29. 
 No stir of air was there, 
 Not so much life as on a summer's day 
 Robs not one h'ght seed from the feathered grass, 
 But where the dead leaf fell there did it rest. 
 
 John Keats. 
 
 30. 
 Now who shall arbitrate ? 
 Ten men love what I hate, 
 Shun what I follow, slight what I receive ; 
 Ten, who in ears and eyes 
 Match me ; we all surmise. 
 They this thing, and I that ; whom shall my soul believe ? 
 
 Robert Browning. 
 
 31. 
 One impulse from a vernal wood 
 
 May teach you more of man, 
 Of moral evil and of good. 
 Than all the sages can. 
 
 William Wordsworth. 
 
 32. 
 One lesson, shepherd, let us two divide, 
 
 Taught both by what she [Nature] shows and what con- 
 ceals — 
 Never to blend our pleasure or our pride 
 With sorrow of the meanest thing that feels. 
 
 William Wordsworth. 
 
 33. 
 Obedience is our universal duty and destiny; wherein 
 
144 SUBJECTS FOR COMPOSITIONS, 
 
 whoso will not bend must break ; too early and too thor- 
 oughly we cannot be trained to know that Would, in this 
 world of ours, is as a mere zero to Should, and for most part 
 as the smallest fractions even to Shall. 
 
 Thomas Carlyle. 
 
 34. 
 Observation alone can lead to nothing without insight — 
 without that clearness of inward vision which sees more than 
 the outward fact, sees the divine ideal which the fact par- 
 tially embodies. 
 
 Thomas Hill. 
 
 35. 
 People vmII not be better than the books they read. 
 
 Bishop Potter. 
 
 36. 
 Plain living and high thinking are no more. 
 
 William Wordsworth. 
 
 37. 
 Perhaps a man's character is like a tree and his reputation 
 is like its shadow ; the shadow is what we think of it ; the 
 tree is the real thing. 
 
 Abraham Lincoln. 
 
 33. 
 Quoth a young Sadducee : 
 ** Reader of many rolls, 
 Is it so certain we 
 
 Have, as they tell us, souls " } 
 
 ** Son, there is no reply ! " 
 
 The Rabbi bit his beard : 
 ** Certain, a soul have / — 
 
 We may have none," he sneer'd. 
 
 Robert Browning. 
 
SUBJECTS FOR COMPOSITIONS, 145 
 
 39- 
 * Speeding Saturn cannot halt ; . 
 
 Linger, — thou shalt rue the fault. 
 
 R. W. Emerson. 
 
 40. 
 See how from far upon the eastern road, 
 The star-led wizards haste with odours sweet. 
 
 John Milton. 
 
 41. 
 This day we live in iss better than any day that wass be- 
 fore, or iss to come, bekass it iss here and we are alive. 
 
 William Black. 
 
 42. 
 The hand that rounded Peter's dome 
 And groined the aisles of Christian Rome, 
 Wrought in a sad sincerity. 
 
 R. W. Emerson. 
 
 43. 
 The mind, that ocean where each kind 
 Does straight its own resemblance find ; 
 Yet it creates, transcending these. 
 Far other worlds and other seas. 
 
 Andrew Marvell. 
 
 44- 
 To measure life learn thou betimes, and know 
 Toward solid good what leads the nearest way ; 
 For other things mild Heaven a time ordains, 
 And disapproves that care, though wise in show, 
 That with superfluous burdens loads the day, 
 And when God sends a cheerful hour, refrains. 
 
 John Milton. 
 
146 SUBJECTS FOR COMPOSITIONS. 
 
 45. 
 
 Who, grown familiar with the sky, will grope 
 Henceforward among groundlings ? 
 
 Robert Browning. 
 46. 
 Wrong ever builds on quicksands, but the right 
 To the firm center lays its moveless base. 
 
 J. R. Lowell. 
 
CHAPTER XIX. 
 
 SHORT POEMS TO BE USED IN EXERCISES OF THE 
 VARIETIES ILLUSTRATED IN THE LESSONS OF 
 PART I. 
 
 I. — ABOU BEN ADHEM. 
 
 Abou Ben Adhem (may his tribe increase !) 
 Awoke one night from a deep dream of peace. 
 And saw within the moonlight in his room, 
 Making it rich and like* a Hly in bloom, 
 An angel writing in a book of gold : 
 Exceeding peace had made Ben Adhem bold, 
 And to the presence in the room he said, 
 
 " What writest thou ? " The vision raised its head 
 And, with a look made of all sweet accord, 
 Answered, " The names of those who love the Lord." 
 
 " And is mine one?" said Abou. " Nay, not so," 
 Replied the angel. Abou spoke more low. 
 But cheerily still ; and said, " I pray thee, then, 
 Write me as one that loves his fellow-men." 
 The angel wrote, and vanished ; the next night 
 It came again with a great wakening light 
 And showed the names whom love of God had blest, — 
 And lo, Ben Adhem's name led all the rest. 
 
 Leigh Hunt. 
 
 ii.— the midges dance aboon the burn. 
 
 The midges dance aboon the burn ; 
 The dews begin to fa' ; 
 
 147 
 
148 POETICAL EXERCISES. 
 
 The pairtricks clown the rushy holm 
 
 Set up their evening ca'. 
 Now loud and clear the blackbird's sang 
 
 Rings through the briery shaw, 
 While flitting gay the swallows play 
 
 Around the castle wa'. 
 
 Beneath the golden gloamin' sky 
 
 The mavis mends her lay ; 
 The redbreast pours his sweetest strains, 
 
 To charm the ling'ring day ; 
 While weary yaldrins seem to wail 
 
 Their little nestlings torn, 
 The merry wren, frae den to den, 
 
 Gaes jinking through the thorn. 
 
 The roses fauld their silken leaves, 
 
 The foxglove shuts its bell ; 
 The honeysuckle and the birk 
 
 Spread fragrance through the dell. 
 Let others crowd the giddy court 
 
 Of mirth and revelry, 
 The simple joys that Nature yields 
 
 Are dearer far to me. 
 
 Robert Tannahill. 
 
 III. —A WISH. 
 
 Mine be a cot beside the hill ; 
 
 A bee-hive's hum shall soothe my ear 
 A willowy brook that turns a mill, 
 
 With many a fall shall linger near. 
 
 The swallow, oft, beneath my thatch 
 Shall twitter from her clay-built nest ; 
 
POETICAL EXERCISES, I49 
 
 Oft shall the pilgrim lift the latch, 
 
 And share my meal, a welcome guest. 
 
 Around my ivied porch shall spring 
 
 Each fragrant flower that drinks the dew ; 
 
 And Lucy, at her wheel, shall sing 
 In russet gown and apron blue. 
 
 The village church among the trees. 
 
 Where first our marriage-vows were given. 
 
 With merry peals shall swell the breeze. 
 And point with taper spire to heaven. 
 
 Samuel Rogers. 
 
 iv.— the bird. 
 
 Hither thou com'st. The busy wind all night 
 
 Blew through thy lodging, where thy own warm wing 
 
 Thy pillow was. Many a sullen storm. 
 
 For which coarse man seems much the fitter born. 
 
 Rained on thy bed 
 
 And harmless head ; 
 
 And now, as fresh and cheerful as the light, 
 Thy little heart in early hymns doth sing 
 Unto that Providence whose unseen arm 
 Curbed them, and clothed thee well and warm. 
 All things that be praise Him ; and had 
 Their lesson taught them when first made. 
 
 Henry Vaughan. 
 
 V. — the lost love. 
 
 She dwelt among the untrodden ways 
 
 Beside the springs of Dove ; 
 A maid whom there were none to praise 
 
 And very few to love. 
 
ISO POETICAL EXERCISES. 
 
 A violet by a mossy stone 
 
 Half-hidden from the eye ! 
 Fair as a star, when only one 
 
 Is shining in the sky. 
 
 She lived unknown, and few could know 
 
 When Lucy ceased lo be; 
 But she is in her grave, and O ! 
 
 The difference to me ! 
 
 William Wordsworth. 
 
 VI.— OZYMANDIAS OF EGYPT. 
 
 I met a traveller from an antique land 
 Who said : Two vast and trunkless legs of stone 
 Stand in the desert. Near them on the sand 
 Half sunk, a shattered visage lies, whose frown 
 And wrinkled lip and sneer of cold command 
 Tell that its sculptor well those passions read 
 Which yet survive, stamp'd on those lifeless things, 
 The hand that mock'd them and the heart that fed ; 
 And on the pedestal these words appear : 
 " My name is Ozymandias, king of kings ; 
 Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair ! " 
 Nothing beside remains. Round the decay 
 Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare, 
 The lone and level sands stretch far away. 
 
 P. B. Shelley. 
 
 VII.— THE GUITAR. 
 
 * * * * ijt 
 
 The artist who this viol wrought 
 To echo all harmonious thought 
 Felled a tree, while on the steep 
 
POETICAL EXERCISES, 15' 
 
 The woods were in their winter sleep, 
 
 Rocked in that repose divine 
 
 On the wind-swept Appenine ; 
 
 And dreaming, some of autumn past. 
 
 And some of spring approaching fast, 
 
 And some of April buds and showers. 
 
 And some of songs in July bowers, 
 
 And all of love ; and so this tree — 
 
 O that such our death may be ! — 
 
 Died in sleep, and felt no pain. 
 
 To live in happier form agam : 
 
 From which, beneath Heaven's fairest star, 
 
 The artist wrought this loved Guitar ; 
 
 And taught it justly to reply 
 
 To all who question skillfully 
 
 In language gentle as thine own ; 
 
 Whispering in enam.oured tone 
 
 Sweet oracles of woods and dells, 
 
 And summer winds in sylvan cells ; 
 
 For it had learned all harmonies 
 
 Of the plains and of the skies. 
 
 Of the forests and the mountains, 
 
 And the many-voiced fountains ; 
 
 The clearest echoes of the hills. 
 
 The softest notes of falling rills. 
 
 The melodies of birds and bees, 
 
 The murmuring of summer seas. 
 
 And pattering rain, and breathing deWp 
 
 And airs of evening ; and it knew 
 
 That seldom-heard mysterious sound 
 
 Which, driven on its diurnal round. 
 
 As it floats through boundless day. 
 
 Our world enkindles on its way : 
 
 All this it knows, but will not tell 
 To those who cannot question well 
 
152 POETICAL EXERCISES. 
 
 The spirit that inhabits it ; 
 It talks according to the wit 
 Of its companions ; and no more 
 Is heard than has been felt before 
 By those who tempt it to betray 
 These secrets of an elder day. 
 But, sweetly as its answers will 
 Flatter hands of perfect skill, 
 It keeps its highest, holiest tone 
 For one beloved Friend alone. 
 
 P. B. Shelley. 
 
 Vin.— THE WIDOW BIRD. 
 
 A widow bird sate mourning for her Love 
 
 Upon a wintry bough ; 
 The frozen wind crept on above, 
 
 The freezing stream below. 
 
 There was no leaf upon the forest bare. 
 
 No flower upon the ground. 
 And little motion in the air. 
 
 Except the mill-wheel's sound. 
 
 P. B. ShelleYc 
 
 IX.— FROM " THE REALM OF FANCY." 
 
 . . . Thou shalt hear 
 Distant harvest carols clear ; 
 Rustle of the reaped corn ; 
 Sweet birds antheming the morn : 
 And in the same moment — hark ! 
 'Tis the early April lark. 
 Or the rooks, with busy caw, 
 Foraging for sticks and straw. 
 
POETICAL EXERCISES. 153 
 
 Thou shalt, at one glance, behold 
 The daisy and the marigold ; 
 White-plumed lilies and the first 
 Hedge-grown primrose that hath burst ; 
 Shaded hyacinth, alway 
 Sapphire queen of the mid-May ; 
 And every leaf, and every flower. 
 Pearled with the self-same shower. 
 Thou shalt see the field-mouse peep 
 Meagre from his celled sleep ; 
 And the snake all winter-thin 
 Cast on sunny bank its skin ; 
 Freckled nest eggs thou shalt see 
 Hatching in the hawthorn tree, 
 When the hen-bird's wing doth rest 
 Quiet on her mossy nest ; 
 Then the hurry and alarm, 
 When the bee-hive casts its swarm ; 
 Acorns ripe down-pattering 
 While the autumn breezes sing. 
 
 John Keats. 
 
 x.-— the quiet life. 
 
 Happy the man, whose wish and care 
 
 A few paternal acres bound, 
 Content to breathe his native air 
 
 In his own ground. 
 
 Whose herds with milk, whose fields with bread. 
 
 Whose flocks supply him with attire ; 
 Whose trees in summer yield him shade. 
 In winter, fire. 
 
 Blest, who can unconcern 'dly find 
 Hours, days, and years slide soft away 
 
154 POETICAL EXERCISES. 
 
 In health of body, peace of mind, 
 Quiet ])y day, 
 
 Sound sleep by night ; study and ease 
 Together mix'd ; sweet recreation, 
 And innocence, which most does please 
 With meditation. 
 
 Thus let me live, unseen, unknown ; 
 
 Thus unlamented let me die ; 
 Steal from the world, and not a stone 
 Tell where I lie. 
 
 Alexander Pope. 
 
 XI.— THE noble nature. 
 
 It is not growing like a tree 
 
 In bulk, doth make Man better be ; 
 Or standing long an oak, three hundred year, 
 • To fall a log at last, dry, bald, and sere : 
 A lily of a d^y 
 Is fairer far in May, 
 Although it fall and die that night — 
 
 It was the plant and flower of Light. 
 In small proportions we just beauties see ; 
 And in short measures life may perfect be. 
 
 Ben Jonson. 
 
 xiL— the lessons of nature. 
 
 Of this fair volume which we World do name 
 If we the sheets and leaves could turn with care, 
 
 Of him wlio it corrects, and did it frame, 
 
 We clear might read the art and wisdom rare. 
 
POETICAL EXERCISES. 155 
 
 Find out his power which wildest powers doth tame, 
 
 His providence extending everywhere, 
 His justice which proud rebels doth not spare, 
 
 In every page, no period of the same. 
 
 But silly we, like foolish children, rest 
 
 Well pleased with colour'd vellum, leaves of gold, 
 
 Fair dangling ribbands, leaving what is best, 
 On the great writer's sense ne'er taking hold ; 
 
 Or if by chance we stay our minds on aught. 
 It is some picture on the margin wrought. 
 
 William Drummond. 
 
 XIII.— THE REVERIE OF POOR SUSAN. 
 
 At the corner of Wood Street, when daylight appears. 
 Hangs a Thrush that sings loud, it has sung for three years : 
 Poor Susan has pass'rl by the spot, and has heard 
 In the silence of morning the song of the bird. 
 
 'Tis a note of enchantment ; what ails her .^ She sees 
 A mountain ascending, a vision of trees ; 
 Bright volumes of vapour through Lothbury glide. 
 And a river flows on through the vale of Cheapside. 
 
 Green pastures she views in the midst of the dale 
 Down which she so often has tripp'd with her pail ; 
 And a single small cottage, a nest like a dove's. 
 The one only dwelling on earth that she loves. 
 
 She looks, and her heart is in heaven ; but they fade, 
 The mist and the river, the hill and the shade ; 
 The stream will nofflow and the hill will not rise. 
 And the colors have all passed away from her eyes ! 
 
 William Wordsworth. 
 
IS^ POETICAL EXERCISES. 
 
 XIV.— A STRIP OF BLUE. 
 
 I do not own an inch of land, 
 
 But all I see is mine, — 
 The orchard and the mowing-fields, 
 
 The lawns and gardens fine. 
 The winds my tax-collectors are. 
 
 They bring me tithes divine. — 
 Wild scents and subtle essences 
 
 A tribute rare and free. 
 And more magnificent than all. 
 
 My window keeps for me 
 A glimpse of the immensity, — 
 
 A little strip of sea. 
 
 Here sit I, as a little child : 
 
 The threshold of God's door 
 Is that clear band of chrysoprase ; 
 
 Now the vast temple floor. 
 The blinding glory of the dome 
 
 I bow my head before : 
 The universe, O God, is home 
 
 In height or depth, to me ; 
 Set here upon thy footstool green. 
 
 Content am I to be ; 
 Glad, when is opened to my need 
 
 Some sea-like glimpse of thee. 
 
 Lucy Larcom. 
 
 XV.— UNDER THE GREENWOOD TREE. 
 
 Under the greenwood tree 
 Who loves to lie with me. 
 And tune his merry note 
 Unto the sweet bird's throat- 
 
POETICAL EXERCISES. 157 
 
 Come hither, come hither, come hither! 
 
 Here shall he see 
 
 No enemy 
 But winter and rough weather. 
 
 Who doth ambition shun 
 
 And loves to live i' the sun. 
 
 Seeking the food he eats 
 
 And pleased witli what he gets — 
 
 Come hither, come hither, come hither ! 
 
 Here shall he see 
 
 No enemy 
 But winter and rough weather. 
 
 William Shakespeare. 
 
 XVI. — THE AZIOLA. 
 
 " Do you hear the Aziola cry ? 
 Methinks she must be* nigh " — 
 Said Mary as we sate 
 In dusk, ere the stars were lit, or candles brought ; 
 And I, who thought 
 
 This Aziola was some tedious woman, 
 
 Asked, •• Who is Aziola.^ " How elate 
 I felt to know that it was nothing human, 
 No mockery of myself to fear and hate ! 
 And Mary saw my soul 
 And laughed and said, " Disquiet yourself not, 
 'Tis nothing but a little downy owl." 
 
 Sad Aziola ! many an eventide 
 
 Thy music I had heard 
 By wood and stream, meadow and mountain side, 
 And field and marshes wide — 
 
 Such as nor voice, nor lute, nor wind, nor bird, 
 
158 POETICAL EXERCISES. 
 
 The soul ever stirred : 
 Unlike and far sweeter than they all : 
 Sad Aziola ! from that moment, I 
 Loved thee and thy sad cry. 
 
 P. B. Shelley. 
 
 XVn. — THE FOUNTAIN. 
 
 A Conversaiz'on. 
 
 We talked with open heart, and tongue 
 
 Affectionate and true, 
 A pair of friends, though I was young, 
 
 A.nd Matthew seventy-two. 
 
 We lay beneath a spreading oak. 
 
 Beside a mossy seat ; 
 And from the turf a fountain broke 
 
 And gurgled at our feet. 
 
 *' Now, Matthew ! " said I, " let us match 
 
 This water's pleasant tune 
 With some old border song, or catch 
 
 That suits a summer's noon. 
 
 " Or of the church-clock and the chimes 
 
 Sing here beneath the shade 
 That half-mad thing of witty rhymes 
 
 Which you last April made ! " 
 
 In silence Matthew lay, and eyed 
 The spring beneath the tree ; 
 
 And thus the dear old man replied, 
 The gray-haired man of glee : 
 
 ** No check, no stay, this streamlet fears. 
 How merrily it goes ! 
 
POETICAL EXERCISES. 159 
 
 'Twill murmur on a thousand years 
 And flow as now it flows. 
 
 " And here, on this delightful day 
 
 I cannot choose but think 
 •How oft, a vigorous man, I lay 
 Beside this fountain's brink. 
 
 " My eyes are dim with childish tears, 
 
 My heart is idly stirred. 
 For the same sound is in my ears 
 
 That in those days I heard. 
 
 " Thus fares it still in our decay ; 
 
 And yet the wiser mind 
 Mourns less for what Age takes away, 
 
 Than what it leaves behind. 
 
 " The blackbird amid leafy tree — 
 
 The lark above the hill 
 Let loose their carols when they please, 
 
 Are quiet when they will. 
 
 " With Nature never do they wage 
 
 A foolish strife ; they see 
 A happy youth, and their old age 
 
 Is beautiful and free. 
 
 '* But we are pressed by heavy laws ; 
 
 And often, glad no more, 
 We wear a face of joy, because 
 
 We have been glad of yore. 
 
 *' If there be one who need bemoan 
 
 His kindred laid in earth, 
 The household hearts that were his own, 
 
 It is the man of mirth. 
 
l6o POETICAL EXERCISES. 
 
 '* My days, my friend, are almost gone, 
 
 My life has been approved, 
 And many love me ; but by none 
 
 Am I enough beloved." 
 
 " Now both himself and me he wrongs, 
 
 The man who thus complains ! 
 I live and sing my idle songs 
 
 Upon these happy plains : 
 
 " And Matthew, for thy children dead 
 
 I'll be a son to thee ! " 
 At this he grasped my hand and said, 
 
 " Alas ! that cannot be." 
 
 We rose up from the fountain-side ; 
 
 And down the smooth descent 
 Of the green sheep-track did we glide ; 
 
 And through the wood we went ; 
 
 And ere we came to Leonard's Rock 
 
 He sang those witty rhymes 
 About the crazy old church clock, 
 
 And the bewildered chimes. 
 
 William Wordsworth. 
 
 THE END. 
 
INDEX. 
 
 Abbott, Jacob: " Rollo Books," 
 
 lOO 
 
 Accidents, 64 
 Accuracy, 45, 74, 91 
 Adams, John Quincy: " Man 
 Wants but Little Here Below," 
 
 65 
 Adaptation of parts of animals to 
 
 mode of life, 32 
 Adjective clauses, 120 
 Adjectives, 86, 119 
 Adulteration, 62 
 Adverbial construction, 114 
 Adverbs, no, 119 
 Affectation in writing, viii 
 Affections, how to work on, 64 
 Allusions, 95, 116 
 Alphabetical order, 97, 120 
 Analysis, 95, 117 
 Anatomy of animals, 28 
 "And," 122 
 
 Anglo-Saxon words, 119, 120 
 Animal life, study of lower forms 
 
 of, 31 
 Animals, 27, 28, 32, 48, 102, 133, 
 
 135 
 Annotation, 112, 119 
 Apostrophe, 116 
 
 Appleton's " Readers," 60, 74, 84 
 Arnold, Matthew : Extracts, 140, 
 
 141 
 Arrangement, 19, 95, 104 
 Argument, j'5 
 Arithmetic, 80, 87 
 Attitude, natural, 81 
 Audubon, John James, "Life," 
 
 29 
 Author's construction analyzed, 
 
 "3 
 
 Barnes : " History of the United 
 States," 60 
 
 Barometer, use of, 46 
 
 Bees, study of, 31 
 
 Beetles, 132 
 
 Biographical sketches, 128 
 
 Birds, 28, 29 ; literature of, 29, 
 132 
 
 Black, William : 
 Extract, 145 
 " Princess of Thule, A," 56 
 
 Blackboard work ; ix, x, 12, 14, 
 19, 21, 25, 26, 52, 54, 70, 82, 84, 
 88, 89, 103 
 
 Books, ignorance of, 98 ; love of, 
 T13 ; reading harmful, 79 ; stan- 
 dard, 123 ; to read, 29, 30, note 
 
 Botany, study of, 33 
 
 Boys, as bread-makers, 62 
 
 Bread, 61, 62 
 
 Bridges, 50 
 
 Brook, a (example), 36, 37 ; liter- 
 ature of, 36 
 
 Browning, Robert : 
 
 Extracts, 138, 140, 143, 144, 146 
 " Home Thoughts from 
 Abroad," 40 
 
 Bryant, William Cullen : 
 " Among the Trees," 39 
 " Forest Hymn, The," 39 
 " Inscription for an Entrance to 
 
 a Wood," 41 
 " Planting of the Apple-Tree, 
 The," 39 
 
 Building, 55 ; literature of, 56 
 
 Bunyan, John: "The Pilgrim's 
 Progress," 99, 100 
 
 Burns, Robert : " The Cotter's 
 Saturday Night," 56 
 
 161 
 
l62 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Burroughs, John, 29, 127 
 Burrs, 34 
 Butter, 61 
 
 California Series of Readers, 74, 
 
 84 
 Canning peaches (example), 63 
 Canon (example), 41 
 Carlyle, Thomas : 
 
 Extracts, 140, 144 
 
 " Hero Worship," 119 
 
 "Sartor Resartus," 119 
 Cary, Alice : 
 
 " Order for a Picture, An," 94 
 
 " Pictures from Memory," 93 
 Caterpillar (example), 43 
 Character sketches, 126 
 Characters, function of, 118 ; to 
 
 be studied, 95, 96 ; examples, 96 
 Chaucer, Geoffrey : 
 
 " Canterbury Tales, The," 39 
 
 " Squier's Tale, The," 119 
 Chemistry, 76 
 Children, matters of ignorance in 
 
 city, 55 ; indolent, 52 ; unnoti- 
 
 cing, 52 ; visionary life of, 51 
 Christmas decorations, 58 
 Chrysalis, transformation of, 43 
 City, subject, 49 
 
 City schools, materials for com- 
 position in, 61 
 Civil war, subject, 49 
 Class exercises, 103 
 Classes, large, 70 ; lessons for 
 
 very young, 26 ; small, 70 
 Classification, 95, 120, 121 
 Clauses, 20, 117, 120 
 Clouds, observation of, 47 
 Color, expression of, 83 
 Comma, 120 
 Commendation, vii, 19 
 Common errors,68-70, 90, 124, 125 
 Comparison, 32, 58-60, 92, 132 
 Composition, iii 
 
 books, 72 ; inspection of, 72 
 
 by class, 21 
 
 choosing sides in, 21 
 
 continuous thread in, 91 
 
 correct examples, 70 
 
 correct, not necessarily good, 71 
 
 descriptive, 63 
 
 early work in, 11 
 
 examples of uninteresting, 71 
 
 C omposi ti on — con tm ued. 
 
 home, not for children, vii 
 
 how not to teach, viii 
 
 interest in, 11, 113, 114 
 
 letters, 77 
 
 materials for, in country dis- 
 tricts, 61 
 
 mechanics of, ix 
 
 natural materials for, 47, 48 
 
 oral, 68 
 
 plans for, 26 
 
 reading in class, 13, 70, 71, 78 
 
 regular time for, vii 
 
 schemes for, 26 
 
 subjects for, 138-146 
 
 the word, vii 
 
 truth-telling in, viii, 16, 76, 102, 
 122 
 
 use of pictures in, 77 
 
 where to be prepared, 71 
 Compound tenses, 119 
 
 words, 120 
 Condensation, 120 
 Confidence, how instilled, 19 
 Conjunctions, 119 
 Connected discourse, 118 
 Connection, 91, 118 
 Connectives, study of, 118 
 Consecutive thinking, to cultivate, 
 
 19 
 Construction, 81, 92, 112-114, 121 
 Conversation lessons, 24, 26, 33, 
 
 36, 42, 98 
 Cooper, James Fenimore : 
 
 " Leatherstocking Tales," 100 
 
 "Pilot, The," 100 
 
 *' Spy, The," 100 
 Copying, 102, 123 
 Correction of papers, viii 
 Correctness, vii 
 Country districts, 51, 61 
 Country roads, plants of the, 33 
 Country schools, facilities in, 47 
 County, subject, 49 
 Couplets, 118 
 Cowper, William: "John Gilpin," 
 
 94, 126 
 Criticism, 31, 106 ; class, 14, 21, 
 
 62, 71; of individuals, 70 ; 
 
 only on matter and writing, 71; 
 
 oral, 70, 71 ; written, 53 
 Curiosities, as subjects, 48, 114,132 
 Current events, 69 ; literature of, 31 
 
INDEX, 
 
 163 
 
 Darning, 63, 64 
 Decorations, 58 
 Defoe, Daniel : *' Robinson 
 
 Crusoe," 99 
 Dependent clauses, 117 
 Description, 103, 112 
 Descriptive adjectives, 119 
 Detail, 52, 74, 91 
 Diagrams, use of, 81 ; weather, 
 
 47 
 
 Dialogue, 74, 87, 92, 97 
 
 Dictation, 91 
 
 Diction, correct, 68-70 
 
 Dictionary, use of, 90 
 
 Digitigrade animals, 28 
 
 Dignity, 61 
 
 Dinner, 66 
 
 Direct discourse, 119 
 
 Discipline, aids to, 105 
 
 Discussion, 69 
 
 District, as subject, 49 
 
 Dog-fennel, tradition, 34 
 
 Dogs, 1^3 
 
 Domestic economy, 61; manufac- 
 tures, 61 
 
 Drainage, as subject, 50 
 
 Dramatic poems, 118 
 
 Drawings, use of, 24, 26, 30, 34, 
 35, 38, 39, 43, 46, 54, 130, 131 
 
 Dreams, 52, 133 
 
 Drummond, William: '* The Les- 
 sons of Nature," 154 
 
 Drunkards, 50 
 
 Dumb show, 74-76 
 
 Early life, as subject, 51 
 
 Early settlers, 49 
 
 " Eclectic First Reader," 60 
 
 " Educating up," 98 
 
 Eggleston, Edward, 128; "The 
 
 Hoosier Schoolmaster," 58 
 Elegies, 128 
 Elocution, 80 
 Emerson, Ralph Waldo, 127 
 
 Extracts, 139, 140, 145 
 
 '* In my Garden," 41 
 
 "Mountain and the Squirrel, 
 The," 93 
 
 " Two Rivers," 37 
 
 " Wood Notes," 39 
 Emphasis, 81, 82 
 Encyclopaedias, vii, 28 
 English, study of, iii, v, 126 
 
 Engravings, use of, 30, 77 
 
 Enthusiasm, 114 
 
 Entomology, 30 
 
 Enunciation, distinct, 81 
 
 Epitaph, old, 142 
 
 Errors, correction of, 71 ; gram- 
 matical, 68-70 ; in speaking, 124 
 
 Essays, literary, 126 
 
 Ethical points, 64 
 
 Etymology, no, 112, 116, 117 
 
 Exactness, ix 
 
 Exaggeration, 122 
 
 Exclamation, 116 
 
 Excursions, 52, 53 
 
 Exercises, 82-87, ^^1 
 
 Expansion, of compound words, 
 120 ; of figures, 112 
 
 Experiments, 54 
 
 Explanations to pupils, 67, 72, 98 
 
 Expression, ease of, how culti- 
 vated, 19 ; freedom of, how en- 
 couraged, 19 ; natural, 81 ; of 
 author's thought, 81 
 
 Extravagance, loi 
 
 Eyes, 133 
 
 Facility, gained by practice, v, 
 
 42; of expression, want of, 36 
 Familiar examples to be used, 11, 
 
 14, 19, 24, 27, 28, 33, 37 
 Feeling, saving in, 86 
 Feelings, how to work on, 64 
 Field, a (example), 39; literature 
 
 of, 40 
 Figures, 95, 112, 114, 116, 121 
 " First Reader," 60, 74, 84, 107 
 Fish-markets as supply of objects, 
 
 Flour, manufacture, 62 
 Flowers, 128, 129 
 F'orms, study of, 113 
 " Fourth Readers," 86 
 French darning, 64 
 Fresh-water specimens, how ob- 
 tained, 31 
 Furnishing, 66 
 
 Games, 53 
 
 General suggestions, 70, 122 
 Geography, 18, 46, 47, 87 
 Gesticulation, 82 
 Gildersleeve, Mrs., " Mrs. Lofty," 
 60 
 
164 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Goldsmith, Oliver, 128 
 
 " Deserted Village, The," 58 
 Extracts, 138, 140 
 
 Good temper, importance of, 102 
 
 Gorge (example), 41 
 
 Grain, 62 
 
 Grammar, relation to reading, 80 
 
 Grammatical analysis, 95, 97; con- 
 struction, 92, 114, 117 
 
 Gray, Asa : 
 
 " Field Botany," 35 
 
 *' How Plants Grow," 35 
 
 " Structural Botany," 35 
 
 Habit, 26 
 
 Hale, Edward Everett : 
 
 Extracts, 142 
 
 *' How to Do It," 99 
 
 " In His Name," 100, 126, 128 
 
 " Man without a Country, The," 
 100 
 
 " New Crusade, The," 100 
 
 on drawing, v 
 
 " Ten Times One is Ten," 100 
 Handwriting, ix 
 Harmony in parts of story, loi 
 Hawthorne, Nathaniel, 103, 119 
 
 " David Swan," 96 
 
 " Great Stone Face, The," 95, 
 100 
 
 Life of, 65 
 
 " Snow Image, The," 96 
 Health, 50, 62, 102 ; intellectual 
 
 and moral, 101 
 Higginson, Thomas Went worth: 
 
 " History of the United States," 
 
 60 
 High-school classes, exercises for, 
 
 14, 76 
 Hill, Thomas, extracts, 139, 144 
 Hints, to children, 72 ; to teachers, 
 
 67, 94, 99, 104, 122, 126 
 Historical exercises, 18, 23 
 History, 49, 87 
 Holmes. Oliver Wendell, 127 ; 
 
 extracts, 141, 142 
 Home life, 64 ; papers, 66 
 Homer : 
 
 " Iliad, The," tales from, 100 
 
 *' Odyssey, The," 100 
 Horse, the, 134, 136 
 House topics, 55, 66 
 
 Hughes, Thomas : " Tom Brown 
 
 at Rugby," 100 
 Hunt, Leigh: " Abouben Adhem, 
 
 93, 147 
 Huxley, Prof., on study of 
 
 English, V 
 Hydrodynamic experiments, 54 
 Hypercriticism, 71 
 
 Iambics, 118 
 
 Ideas, connecting, 118 
 
 Idioms, 114 
 
 Illustrated text-books, 79 
 
 Imaginary conversations, 119 
 
 Imaginary details, supplying, 91 
 
 Imaginative minds, advantage of, 
 
 63 
 
 Inattention, 98 
 
 Independent thinking (example), 
 
 97 
 Industry, importance of, 102 
 Inflection, 81 
 Ingelow, Jean : 
 
 *' Light and Shade," 94 
 
 *' Supper at the Mill," 96 
 Ingenuity, how cultivated, 19 
 Insects, 30, 34, 130, 133 
 Insincerity in writing, viii 
 Instructions, ix, 122 
 Instruments, keepers of, 46, 47 
 Interest, 113, 114 
 Interrogation, 116 
 Introductory suggestions, vii 
 Invented stories, 25, 26, 28, 31 
 Invention, loi 
 Inverted expressions, 86 
 Investigation, importance of, 48 
 Irving, Washington : 103, 128 
 
 " Abbotsford," 65 
 
 " Legend of Sleepy Hollow, 
 The," 58, 103, 113 
 Isaiah, examples from, 109 
 
 Jackson, Helen Hunt: "The 
 Hickory Tree," 39 
 
 Jamestown weed, 34 
 
 Jews, 134 
 
 Job, examples from, 109 
 
 "Johnny Appleseed," 34, 134 
 
 Jonson, Ben : "The Noble Na- 
 ture," 154 
 
 Journal, keeping, 43, 105, 106 
 
INDEX. 
 
 165 
 
 Keats, John, 120 
 
 Extracts, 142, 143, 152 
 
 *' Hyperion," 119, 126 
 
 " Nightingale, The," 29 
 
 *' Realm of Fancy, The," 152 
 
 Kindness, 65, 102 
 
 " King Arthur, The Boys'," 100 
 
 Kingsley, Charles : " The Water 
 Babies," 99 
 
 Knitting, 64 
 
 Knowledge, how transmitted, 48 
 
 Known facts, expression of, 19 
 
 Labor, saving, 86 
 Lake systems, 47 
 Lamb, Charles: "Tales from 
 
 Shakespeare," 96, 100 
 Landscape, the, 36 
 Language, bombastic, 118 ; correct 
 
 use of, 68-70; figurative, 117, 
 
 118; newspaper, 118; poetical, 
 
 118; simplification of, 98; use 
 
 of, iii-v 
 Larconi, Lucy : "A Strip of Blue," 
 
 156 
 Larvce, etc., 30 
 Latin words, 120 
 Leaves, 136 
 Lesson, presentation, ix ; time, 
 
 division of, 70, 71 
 Letter and spirit, 113 
 Letter composition, 77 
 Lincoln, Abraham, 128; extract, 
 
 144 
 Literary tastes, 129 
 Living beings, 27 
 Local geography, 46 ; history, 49 
 Logical connection, 115 
 Long sentences, 122 
 Longfellow, Henry Wadsworth, 
 60, 127, 129 
 
 " Bell of Atri, The," 93, 134 
 
 " Birds of Killingworth, The," 
 
 29» 93 
 " Children's Hour, The," 65 
 " Courtship of Miles Standish, 
 
 The," 60 
 " Emperor's Bird-Nest, The," 
 
 29,93 
 "Evangeline," 41, 60, 113, 119 
 ** Excelsior," 94 
 ** Falcon of Ser Federigo, The," 
 
 29.94 
 
 " Haroun al Raschid," 93 
 
 " Hiawatha," 41 
 
 " Morituri Salutamus," iii 
 
 " Norman Baron, The," 93 
 
 '• Old Clock on the Stairs, The," 
 65 
 
 "Old House by the Lindens, 
 The," 56 
 
 " Psalm of Life, A," 88 
 
 "Three Kings, The," 93 
 
 "Three Silences of Molinos, 
 The," 120 
 
 " Village Blacksmith, The," 94 
 Love, 65 
 
 Lowell, James Russell, 60, iii, 
 119, 120, 127, 129 
 
 " Beaver Brook," 37 
 
 " Beggar, The," 39 
 
 " Commemoration Ode," 121 
 
 " DandeHon, The," 34 
 
 " Dead House, The," 56 
 
 Extract, 146 
 
 " Falcon, The," 29 
 
 " Fountain, The," 37 
 
 " Fountain of Youth, The," 37 
 
 " Nightingale in the Study, 
 The," 29 
 
 "Oak, the," 39 
 
 " Parable, A," 94, 120 
 
 " Rhoecus," 39 
 
 " Singing Leaves, The," 94 
 
 " Sir Launfal's Vision," 37 
 
 " To a Pine Tree," 39 
 
 " Under the Willows," 39 
 Lower grammar grades, exercises 
 
 for, 14 
 Luncheon, 62 
 
 Macdonald, George, 128 
 
 " Alec Forbes of Howglen," 58 
 " Princess and the Goblins, 
 
 The," 99 
 " Sir Gibbie," 40 
 "Warlock of Glen Warlock," 
 
 65 
 Machinery, 54, 131 
 Mackay, Charles: " Cleon and I," 
 
 60 
 Magazine pictures, use of, 78 
 Magnifying-glass, use of, 30, 34 
 Manners, to improve, 69 
 Manufactories, visits to, 53, 54 
 Manufactures, 48, 60, 61 
 
i66 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Maps, 46, 47, 98 
 
 Margins, ix 
 
 Markets, fish, as supply of objects, 
 
 31 
 Marvell, Andrew, extract, 145 
 McGuffey's *' First Reader," 74, 
 
 82, 84 
 Meal, manufacture, 62 
 Meanings to be studied, 95 
 Measure, 115 
 Melody, 116 
 
 Memorizing, 90, 105, in, 123 
 Memory, to cultivate, 19 ; writing 
 
 from, III 
 Mending, 63, 64 
 Mental, pictures, 17, 18; processes, 
 
 indexes of, loi 
 Metaphor, 116, 117 
 Metaphrase, 86, 91, 117 
 Method, 26 
 Metonymy, 116 
 Metrical lessons, 86 
 Microscope, uses of, 128 
 Milton, John, 119, 120 
 
 " Comus," 119 
 
 extracts, 145 
 
 influence of, 129 
 
 " Lycidas," 119, 130 
 
 paraphrasing, 90 
 Minerals, 48 
 Mistakes, common, 68-70 ; of 
 
 young children to be person- 
 ally corrected, 71 ; repeated, 70, 
 
 123 
 Modes, exercises in, 85 
 Moral health, indexes to, loi 
 Morals, to improve, 69 
 Morris, William : " Woodman, 
 
 Spare that Tree," 39 
 Mountain chains, 47 
 Museum studies, 28 
 
 Names, curious, 132; of places, 
 
 for exercises, 18 
 Narrative lesson, 82 
 Natural history, 128, 135 ; use of 
 works on, 28 
 
 phenomena, 42, 46 
 Neatness, vii, ix, 102 
 Neighborhood, as subject, 49 
 New lessons, introducing, 67, 72 
 Newspaper reading, 69 
 
 Newspapers, family, 69 ; harmful, 
 
 79 
 Nonsense, to be avoided, loi 
 Nouns, 119 
 
 Novels, study of style in, 126 
 Nut-sprouting (example), 43 
 
 Obedience, 102 
 
 Objects, manufactured, 25 ; nat- 
 ural, 24 
 
 Obliging, importance of being, 
 102 
 
 Observation, 46, 48, 59, 64 ; dif- 
 ferences in, 106; of pupils, 113 
 
 Older pupils, studies for, 95, 113 
 
 Old papers, use of, 71 
 
 " One day," phrase, 82 
 
 Oral exercises, 19, 28, 31, 99; 
 paraphrasing, 90 
 
 Order in thought, 26 
 
 Original fables, 102, 131 ; stories. 
 
 Orthography, 116 
 Outline drawing, 54 
 Overwork, to be avoided, viii 
 
 Packard : " Elements of Entom- 
 ology," 30 
 
 Pantomimes, 74-76 
 
 Papers, folding, ix 
 read by authors, 53 
 
 Paragraphs, ix, x, 25, 117 
 
 Paraphrase, 88-90, 95, 115, 117 
 
 Parents, appreciation of, 64 ; talk- 
 ing to, 123 ; to be interested, 58 
 
 Parish, as subject, 49 
 
 Passages, selected, in, 119 
 
 Patching, 63 
 
 Patmore, Coventry : extract, 139 
 
 Pauses, 81, 82 
 
 Pentameters, 118 
 
 Perceptions, 64 
 
 Personal, criticism, forbidden, 71 ; 
 enthusiasm, ix ; experiences, 51; 
 observation, 42 
 
 Personification, 116 
 
 Persons, expression of, 82 
 
 Photographs, 77, 127 
 
 Phrases, 14, 20, 107, no, 114, 117, 
 120; participial, 117, 120, pre- 
 positional adjectival, 120 ; pre- 
 positional adverbial, 120 
 
INDEX, 
 
 167 
 
 Phrases and clauses, 20 
 Phrases and words, 82-86, 88, 93 
 Physics, 76 
 Picnics, 52 
 Picture-lessons, 77 
 Pictures, historical, 77 ; in text- 
 books, use of, 79 ; magazine, 78 ; 
 
 mythical, 77 ; story- writing 
 
 from, 78 ; use of, 77, 87 
 Picture-words, exercises from, 17 
 Picture-sentences, exercises from, 
 
 22 
 Place, expression of , 83 
 Places of interest, 51 
 Plants, 33, 34, 133, 135-137 
 Plot, 118 
 
 Poems, 84, 88, 91, 93, 94, 118, 123 
 Poetic license, 112 
 Poetry, 127 
 
 and prose compared, 93 
 Poets, 129 
 Politeness, 65, 102 
 Pope, Alexander : 
 
 Extract, 141 
 
 "Quiet Life, The," 153 
 Population, 49 
 Potato, 24, 25 
 Potter, Bishop, extract, 144 
 Pottery, 135 
 Practice, v, 42 
 
 Preaching, to be avoided, 102 
 Predicate, 82, 83 
 Pre face- writing, 120 
 Preparation, vii, ix, 29, 96 
 Prepositions, no, 119 
 Primary classes, ix, 14 
 Probabilities, to be regarded, .101 
 Promptness, vii, 102 
 Pronunciation, correct, 81 
 Prose, 119 
 
 and poetry compared, 93 
 Proverb, Italian, 141 
 Psalms, the, examples from, 108 
 Public buildings, 50 
 
 officers, 49 
 Pump, 54 
 Punctuality, 102 
 Pupils, capacity of, 59 ; careless, 
 
 70 ; observation of, 113 ; slow, 
 
 22 
 Purpose, 118 
 
 Quatrains, 118 
 
 Ragweed, 34 
 
 Railroad maps, 47 
 
 Rainfall records, 47 
 
 Rain gauge, 46, 47 
 
 Read, Thomas Buchanan : '* The 
 
 Closing Scene," 34, 94 
 *' Readers," lessons from, 74, 84 
 Readiness, how cultivated, 19 
 Reading aloud, 123 
 
 for information, 25, 31 
 
 good, what constitutes, 81 
 
 in class, 13, 70, 71, 78 
 
 intelligent, 80 
 
 light, 81 
 
 of daily journal, 105 
 
 of pupils, to control, 99 
 
 to create taste for, 98 
 
 unprofitable, to detect, 79 
 Reading-books. 80-87 
 Reading-lessons, self-preparation 
 
 for, 80 ; to facilitate, 99 
 Recitations, 97; objectionable, 80 
 Records, keeping, 46, 47, 105 
 Reform in schoolhouse matters, 58 
 Relation, ii8 ; of thought, 91 
 Remarkable events, 18, 51 
 Repetition, 122 
 Reviews, 120 
 Rhetoric, 116 
 
 Rhetorical figures, 114, 121 
 Rhyme, 115 
 Rhythm, 116 
 Rhythmical stories, 87 
 River systems, 47 
 Roads, 50 
 Roadside plants, 33 
 Rogers, Samuel: "A Wish," 148 
 Romancing, 64 
 Rossetti, Dante Gabriel : " The 
 
 Leaf," 39 
 Ruskin, John : 
 
 "King of the Golden River, 
 The," 96,99 
 
 " Love's Meinie," 29 
 
 "Queen of the Air, The," 25 
 
 "Trees," 39 
 
 Saloons, 50 
 
 Salt-water specimens, how ob- 
 tained, 31 
 
 Scansion, 112 
 
 Schoolhouse, grounds, to improve, 
 58 ; literature of, 58 
 
i68 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 School life, 51 
 Schools, as subjects, 49 
 Scientific works, 31 
 Scott, Sir Walter, 103 
 '' Guy Mannering," 100 
 " Ivanhoe," 100 
 " Lady of the Lake, The," 113, 
 
 119 
 " Lay of the Last Minstrel, 
 The," 115 
 
 " Talisman, The," 100 
 Seaboard schools, 31 
 Seashore, field for research, 32 
 "Second Reader," lessons from, 
 
 74,84 
 Seeds, 34, 132 
 
 Seed-sprouting (example), 43 
 Selections, iii, 138-146 
 Self-correction, 122 
 Self-instruction, vii, 29 
 Self-preparation, vii, ix, 29, 80 
 Sentences, 114; avoid long, 122; 
 
 ending, 122 
 Sentence-building, viii 
 " Sermon of St. Francis, The," 93 
 Settlement of county, city, etc., 49 
 Shakespeare, William, 119, 120 
 
 lessons from, in dumb show, 76 
 
 paraphrasing, 90 
 
 *' Under the Greenwood Tree,'' 
 156 
 Shakespearian scenes, 76 
 Shelley, Percy Bysshe : 
 
 *'Aziola, The," 157 
 
 " Cloud, The," 94 
 
 " Guitar, The," 150 
 
 " Lady with a Guitar, To a," 94 
 
 " Ozymandias of Egypt," 93, 
 150 
 
 " Skylark, The," 29 
 
 "Skylark, To the," 119 
 
 " Widow Bird, The," 152 
 Shipping, 48 
 Signatures, ix 
 
 Signs, use of, in correcting, 71 
 Silent study, 91 
 
 Silkworms, experiments with, 45 
 Sill, Edward R. : 
 
 Extracts, 139, 142 
 
 " Field Notes," 40, 56 
 
 "House and the Heart, The," 56 
 
 " Opportunity," 93 
 Simile, 116, 117 
 
 Simplicity, 122 
 Sincerity, vii 
 Sky, the, 136 
 Slides, 81 
 
 Slovenly speaking, 68, 70 
 Snowfall records, 47 
 Songs, 136 
 Sonnets, 121, 126 
 
 Southey, Robert: " How Does the 
 Water Come Down at Lodore?" 
 37 
 Speaking, errors in, 124 
 Speech, figures of, 95 
 Spenser, Edmund: 
 Extract, 140 
 
 " Faery Queene, The," 39, 119 
 Spirit and letter, 113 
 Sprouting nuts (example), 43 
 
 seeds (example), 43 
 Stanzas, 114, 117 
 
 Stories, 53, 63, 82-87, 95, 99-101, 
 119; building, 82-87, loi; for 
 young pupils, 99 ; for older pu- 
 pils, 100 
 Storms, records of, 47 
 Story-writing from pictures, 78 
 Stowe, Harriet Beecher: "House 
 
 and Home Papers," 65 
 Stream, field for research, 32 
 Streets, plants of the, 33, r37 
 Structure, 115 
 
 Studying, what constitutes, 80 
 Style, vii, 123, 126 
 Subject, 82, 83 
 
 Subjects for advanced classes, 126 ; 
 for composition, 138-146 ; for 
 pupils of various ages, 130-137 
 Summarizing, 95 
 Superlatives, 119, 122 
 Supernatural, the, 128 
 " Swiss Family Robinson, The," 
 
 128 
 Synecdoche, 116 
 Synonyms, 88, 89, 115, 118 
 Syntax, 114, 116 
 
 Table matters, 66 
 
 Tannahill, Robert: ''The Midges 
 
 Dance Aboon the Burn," 147 
 Taylor, Bayard, extracts, 138 
 Teachers, hints to, vii, viii, ix, 25, 
 
 38, 39. 67, 80, 94, 99, 104, 122, 126 
 Technicalities, study of, 113 
 
INDEX, 
 
 169 
 
 Temperature records, 47 
 
 Tennyson, Alfred, 119, 120 
 " Brook, The," 37 
 Extracts, 142, 143 
 " Princess, The," 119, 127 
 
 Tenses, 84, 85, 114, no 
 
 Tetrameters, 118 
 
 Thermometer, use of, 46, 47 
 
 " Third Readers," 86 
 
 Thistle-down, 34 
 
 Thompson, Maurice, 29, 127; "By- 
 Ways and Bird-notes," 41 
 
 Thoreau, Henry David, 35, 128 
 " Excursions,'' 29, 40 
 " Maine Woods," 41, 127 
 "Walden,"56 
 
 Thought, 91 
 
 Time, 82, 86 
 
 Tones, pure, 81 
 
 Topography, 126 
 
 Town, subject, 49 
 
 Township, subject, 49 
 
 Translation, oral, 115 
 
 Travels, 51 
 
 Tree (example), 37, 38, 129, 135; 
 historically considered, 38 ; lit- 
 erature of, 39 
 
 Uniformity, ix 
 
 Upper classes, exercises for, 18, 76 
 
 Vaughan, Henry: ** The Bird," 
 
 149 
 Vegetable productions, 24, 48 
 Verbs, 84-86, 119 
 Very, Jones: " The Tree," 39 
 Village, subject, 49 
 Vision, 116 
 Vocabulary, limited, iv, 81, 98 ; 
 
 good, 81 ; to improve, 19, 89 
 Vowel sounds, 116 
 
 Ware : 
 
 " Aurelian," 100 
 
 " Zenobia," 100 
 Warner, Charles Dudley: *' My 
 
 Summer in a Garden," 35 
 Water, 137 
 
 Water-sheds, mapped, 47 
 Water-supply, subject, 50 
 
 Weathercock, use of, 46, 47 
 Weather records, 46, 47 
 Whisky question, 49, 50, 137 
 Whittier, John Greenleaf, 127, 128 
 
 " Among the Hills," 60 
 
 " In School Days," 58 
 
 ** Palm-tree, The," 39, 94 
 
 " Shoemakers, The," 93 
 
 " Snowbound," 37, 65, 113 
 Woodcuts, use of, 78 
 Woodland, a (example), 40, IC3; 
 
 literature of, 41 
 Woods, 129 
 Words, II, 82-86, 88-93, 98, no, 
 
 112-115, 117-120, 122 
 
 Anglo-Saxon, 119, 120 
 
 and derivatives, 117 
 
 curious, 114 
 
 doubtful, 122 
 
 foreign, 122 
 
 Latin, 120 
 
 misused, 14 
 
 obsolete, 115 
 
 one-syllabled, 118 
 
 proportion of Latin to Saxon, 
 120 
 
 rhyming, 118 
 
 short, 122 
 
 uncommon, 98, no, 112, 115 
 Wordsworth, William, 119, 120 
 
 " Cuckoo, The," 29 
 
 " Excursion, The," 39, 40 
 
 Extracts, 138, 139, 143, 144, 150, 
 155, 158-160 
 
 " Fidelity," 94 
 
 *' Fir Tree, The," 39 
 
 "Fountain, The," 94, 158 
 
 " Goody Blake and Harry Gill," 
 
 94 
 "Lost Love, The," 149 
 " Lucy," 93 
 " Michael, "40, 65 
 " Reverie of Poor Susan, The," 
 
 155 
 
 " Skylark, The," 29 
 
 " Yarrow," 37 
 Writing, facility in, v ; from 
 
 memory, in ; system in, 123 
 Written thought, study of, 114 
 
 Young classes, reading for, 99 
 
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 UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LIBRARY 
 
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