Exercises

1. Describe the reed growing in the marshy place.

2. Describe a large oak or elm or some other large tree you have seen.

a. Its trunk.

b. Its branching, strength and reach of limbs.

C. The tree in summer foliage.

d. At what times of the year is such a tree most interesting and picturesque ?

3. Describe a tree that has been uprooted and cast down by the storm.

4. Study this story till you can tell it completely and accurately.

What useful lesson can be drawn from this story?

5. After a study of the particular words of this story, write it from memory.

6. Make oral sentences containing the following words in their proper use:

STUDY 14

THE BEE

When a bee brings pollen into the hive, he advances to the cell in which it is to be deposited and kicks it off as one might his overalls or rubber boots, making one foot help the other; then he walks off without ever looking behind him; another bee, one of the indoor hands, comes along and rams it down with his head and packs it into the cell as the dairy maid packs butter into a firkin.—Burroughs.

If you would know the delights of bee-hunting, and how many sweets such a trip yields beside honey, come with me some bright, warm, late September or early October day.-Burroughs.

An interesting book to read is Burroughs' Birds and Bees.

Exercises

1. Write a paragraph or two telling what you have observed about bees.

a. Honey bees. The life of the bees in the hive.

What flowers and trees do they visit to gather honey? b. The swarming of bees.

c. Bumble-bees. Describe them and their habits.

Where are their nests found?

2. The bumble-bee is sometimes called humble-bee. Memorize the following:

Burly, dozing humble-bee!

Where thou art is clime for me;
Let them sail for Porto Rique,
Far-off heats through seas to seek,

I will follow thee alone,

Thou animated torrid zone!

-Ralph Waldo Emerson.

3. What do you understand by bee-hunting in the woods?

What do you know about bees in winter and what they do?

To what extent are bees useful to man?

4. Memorize one of the short passages given above and write it from memory. In order to do this properly observe the correct spelling of words, the use of capitals, and the placing of punctuation marks.

STUDY 15

CAMPING OUT

When I was a little boy I thought there was no fun equal to camping out. I had been camping two summers with my parents and some neighbors, and had been very happy, but I kept thinking how much more fun it would be to camp by myself. So when, on my ninth birthday, I was given a small tent, I went to my mother and said, "Mother, I want to go camping by myself." Mother looked astonished and thoughtful. Finally she said, "Well, you may begin by camping in the yard." This was not what I wanted to do, but I decided to try it.

Exercises

Finish this story as indicated by the following outline: 1. Selecting a place for the tent: under a tree at the foot of the garden, or in the side yard near mother's window. Give reasons for choice.

2. Pitching the tent; furnishing it.

3. Building an oven outside for cooking; selecting cooking utensils; what to cook.

4. Your first night in the tent: noises that disturbed; time of getting up in the morning; thought of breakfast in the house. Did you go in or did you cook your own breakfast? What did you have for breakfast?

5. How long did you camp out? Did you enjoy it? Tell about breaking up camp.

6. Collect pictures for the class of camping-out par

ties and tell about them.

STUDY 16

USE OF THE DICTIONARY

Make a study of the following points as a preparation for using the dictionary:

1. Note the alphabetical arrangement of the words in the dictionary, that you may turn quickly to any word.

Example: Tradition. This word is found well toward the latter part of the book because it is near the latter end of the alphabet. Among the t's it is found near the end of the list because the next letter r is also toward the end of the alphabet.

2. In order to pronounce a new word correctly we must be able to interpret quickly the markings of the letters (the diacritical marks). In the first part of the dictionary, after the preface, a table of letters and sounds is given. It is called a "Key to the symbols."

Study the markings of the letters, especially of the vowels, a, e, i, o, and u, and note the illustrative words that show what sound each mark requires.