Look, dear mother, the flowers all lie
Languidly, under the bright blue sky.

2. See, how slowly the streamlet glides ;
Look, how the violet roguishly hides;
Even the butterfly rests on the rose,
And scarcely sips the sweets as he goes.

3. Poor Tray is asleep in the noon-day sun,
And the flies go about him one by one;
And pussy sits near with a sleepy grace,
Without ever thinking of washing her face.

4. There flies a bird to a neighboring tree,
But very lazily flieth he,

And he sits and twitters a gentle note,
That scarcely ruffles his little throat.

5. You bid me be busy, but, mother, hear
How the hum-drum grasshopper soundeth near,
And the soft west wind is so light in its play,
It scarcely moves a leaf on the spray.

6. I wish, oh, I wish, I was yonder cloud,
That sails about with its misty shroud;
Books and work I no more should see,

And I'd come and float, dear mother o'er thee.

ERRORS.

1. wins for winds. 4. neighbring or neighbrin for neighbring. 5. win for wind; soff for soft. 6. sroud for shroud.

QUESTIONS.

What Rule is given for reading Poetry ?

What does i. e. stand for? What is the meaning of emphasis?

1. Which is the emphatical word in the second line?

2. What is the emphatical word in the first line?

3. What two words are most emphatical in the first line?

ditto

ditto

in the fourth line?

6. The apostrophe is twice used in the fourth line. What letters are omitted?

MARCH

1. THE stormy March is come at last
With wind and cloud and changing skies
I hear the rushing of the blast,

That through the snowy valley flies.

2. Ah, passing few are they who speak,

Wild, stormy month! in praise of thee;
Yet though thy winds are loud and bleak,
Thou art a welcome month to me,

8. For thou to northern lands again.

The glad and glorious sun dost bring,
And thou hast joined the gentle train
And wearest the gentle name of Spring.

4. And in thy reign of blast and storm,

Smiles many a long, bright, sunny day,
When the changed winds are soft and warm,
And heaven puts on the blue of May.

5. Then sing aloud the gushing rills

And the full springs, from frost set free;
That, brightly leaping down the hills,
Are just set out to meet the sea.

6. The year's departing beauty hides,
Of wintry storms the sullen threat:
But in thy sternest frown, abides

A look of kindly promise you

7. Thou bringest the hope of those calm skies
And that soft tone of sunny showers,
When the wide bloom, on earth that lies,
Seems of a brighter world than ouis

ERRORS.

1. stawmy for stormy; Mahch for March; larst for last. 2. yit for yet; wins for winds. 3. fur for for; nothern for northern; jined for joined; lans for lands. 4. wen for when; wawm for warm. 5. frum for from. 6. wentry for wintry; tawrms for storms.

QUESTIONS.

1. Which syllable is accented in stormy?—in snowy?

6. How many syllables are there in departing? Which is accented

RULE. Be careful to sound o and ow distinctly at the end

of words and syllables.

Many persons pronounce hollow, follow, potato, and similar words, nearly as though they ended in er; thus, holler, foller, potater or tater.

WHAT IS THAT, MOTHER?

1 WHAT is that, Mother?

The lark, my child.

The morn has but just looked out, and smiled,
When he starts from his humble grassy nest,

And is up and away with the dew on his breast,
And a hymn in his heart, to yon pure, bright sphere,

To warble it out in his Maker's ear.

Ever, my child, be thy morn's first lays

Tuned, like the lark's, to thy Maker's praise.

2. What is that, Mother?

The dove, my son:

And that low, sweet voice, like a widow's moan
İs flowing out from her gentle breast,
Constant and pure by that lonely nest,

As the wave is poured from some crystal urn,
For her distant dear one's quick return.
Ever, my son, be thou like the dove,-

In friendship as faithful, as constant in love.

Proudly careering his course of joy,
Firm on his own mountain vigor relying,
Breasting the dark storm, the red bolt defying ;'
His wing on the wind, and his eye on the sun,
He swerves not a hair, but bears onward, right on.
Boy, may the eagle's flight ever be thine,
Onward and upward, true to the line.

4. What is that, Mother?

The swan, my love :

He is floating down from his native grove,
No loved one now, no nestling nigh;
He is floating down by himself to die :
Death darkens his eye, and unplumes his wings,
Yet the sweetest song is the last he sings.
Live so, my love, that when death shall come,
Swan-like and sweet, it may waft thee home.

ERRORS.

1. lahk for lark; mawn for morn; jist for just. 2. widder for widow 3. staum for storm; onwud and upwud for onward and upward. 4. dahkens for darkens; larst for last.

QUESTIONS.

What is the Rule? How should you pronounce potato, tobacco, motto, fellow, mellow, willow, billow, hollow, wallow, follow, swallow, marrow, sparrow, harrow, widow, window, meadow,

shadow, shallow?

ilar words.

Remember to give the true sound to all sim

Does the voice rise, or fall, at the end of the first line of each of

What is a line? What is a verse? What is poetry? What is prose

THE BUCKET.

1. How dear to this heart are the scenes of my childhood,
When fond recollection presents them to view !
The orchard, the meadow, the deep tangled wild wood,
And every loved spot which my infancy knew ;
The wide spreading pond, and the mill which stood by it,
The bridge, and the rock where the cataract feil ;
The cot of my father, the dairy house nigh it,

And even the rude bucket which hung in the well.
The old oaken bucket, the iron-bound bucket,

The moss-covered bucket, which hung in the well.

2. That moss-covered vessel I hail as a treasure ;
For often, at noon, when returned from the field,

I found it the source of an exquisite pleasure,

The purest and sweetest that nature can yield.
How ardent I seized it, with hands that were glowing,
And quick to the white pebbled bottom it fell;
Then soon, with the emblem of truth overflowing,
And dripping with coolness, it rose from the well :
The old oaken bucket, the iron-bound bucket,

The moss-covered bucket arose from the well.

3 How sweet from the green mossy brim to receive it,
As poised on the curb it inclined to my lips!
Not a full blushing goblet could tempt me to leave it,
Though filled with the nectar that Jupiter sips.
And now, far removed from thy loved situation,
The tear of regret will intrusively swell,

As fancy reverts to my father's plantation,

And sighs for the bucket which hangs in the well ;
The old oaken bucket, the iron-bound bucket,

The moss-covered bucket, which hangs in his well.