IV. THE GRANDFATHER. Charles G. Eastman (b. 1816, d. 1861) was born in Maine, but removed at an early age to Vermont, where he was connected with the press at Burlington, Woodstock and Montpelier. He published a volume of poems in 1848, written in a happy lyric and ballad style, and faithfully portraying rural life in New England. 1. THE farmer sat in his easy-chair While his hale old wife with busy care, A sweet little girl with fine blue eyes, On her grandfather's knee, was catching flies. 2. The old man laid his hand on her head, As the tear stole down from his half-shut eye, "Don't smoke!" said the child, "how it makes you cry!" 3. The house-dog lay stretched out on the floor, Where the shade, afternoons, used to steal; The busy old wife by the open door Was turning the spinning-wheel, And the old brass clock on the mantel-tree 4. Still the farmer sat in his easy-chair, DEFINITIONS.-1. Hale, healthy. 3. Măn'tel-tree, shelf over a fire-place. Plod'ded, went slowly. 4. Heav'ing, rising and falling. (5.-4.) V. A BOY ON A FARM. Charles Dudley Warner (b. 1829, -) was born at Plainfield, Mass. In 1851 he graduated at Hamilton College, and in 1856 was admitted to the bar at Philadelphia, but moved to Chicago to practice his profession. There he remained until 1860, when he became connected with the Press at Hartford, Conn., and has ever since devoted himself to literature. "My Summer in a Garden," "Saunterings," and "Backlog Studies" are his best known works. The following extract is from "Being a Boy." 1. SAY what you will about the general usefulness of boys, it is my impression that a farm without a boy would very soon come to grief. What the boy does is the life of the farm. He is the factotum, always in demand, always expected to do the thousand indispensable things that nobody else will do. Upon him fall all the odds and ends, the most difficult things. 2. After every body else is through, he has to finish up. His work is like a woman's,-perpetually waiting on others. Every body knows how much easier it is to eat a good dinner than it is to wash the dishes afterwards. Consider what a boy on a farm is required to do; things that must be done, or life would actually stop. 3. It is understood, in the first place, that he is to do all the errands, to go to the store, to the post-office, and to carry all sorts of messages. If he had as many legs as a centiped, they would tire before night. His two short limbs seem to him entirely inadequate to the task. He would like to have as many legs as a wheel has spokes, and rotate about in the same way. 4. This he sometimes tries to do; and the people who have seen him "turning cart-wheels" along the side of the road, have supposed that he was amusing himself and idling his time; he was only trying to invent a new mode of locomotion, so that he could economize, his legs, and do his errands with greater dispatch. 5. He practices standing on his head, in order to accustom himself to any position. Leap-frog is one of his methods of getting over the ground quickly. He would willingly go an errand any distance if he could leap-frog it with a few other boys. 6. He has a natural genius for combining pleasure with business. This is the reason why, when he is sent to the spring for a pitcher of water, he is absent so long; for he stops to poke the frog that sits on the stone, or, if there is a pen-stock, to put his hand over the spout, and squirt the water a little while. 7. He is the one who spreads the grass when the men have cut it; he mows it away in the barn; he rides the horse, to cultivate the corn, up and down the hot, weary rows; he picks up the potatoes when they are dug; he drives the cows night and morning; he brings wood and water, and splits kindling; he gets up the horse, and puts out the horse; whether he is in the house or out of it, there is always something for him to do. 8. Just before the school in winter he shovels paths; in summer he turns the grindstone. He knows where there are lots of wintergreens and sweet-flags, but, instead of going for them, he is to stay in doors and pare apples, and stone raisins, and pound something in a mortar. And yet, with his mind full of schemes of what he would like to do, and his hands full of occupations, he is an idle boy, who has nothing to busy himself with but school and chores! 9. He would gladly do all the work if somebody else would do the chores, he thinks; and yet I doubt if any boy ever amounted to any thing in the world, or was of much use as a man, who did not enjoy the advantages of a liberal education in the way of chores. DEFINITIONS.—1. Fae-tō'tum, a person employed to do all kinds of work. In-dis-pěn ́sa-ble, absolutely necessary. 2. Per-pětíu-al-ly, continually. 3. Cěn ́ti-pēd, an insect with a great number of feet. 4. E-cŎn'o-mize, to save. Dis-pătch', diligence, haste. 6. Pěn'stock, a wooden tube for conducting water. 8. Chōres, the light work of the household either within or without doors. VI. THE SINGING LESSON. Jean Ingelow (b. 1830, was born at Boston, Lincolnshire, England. Her fame as a poetess was at once established upon the publication of her "Poems" in 1863; since which time several other volumes have appeared. The most generally admired of her poems are "Songs of Seven" and "The High Tide on the Coast of Lincolnshire." She has also written several successful novels, of which "Off the Skelligs" is the most popular. "Stories Told to a Child," "The Cumberers," "Poor Mat," "Studies for Stories," and "Mopsa, the Fairy" are also well known. Miss Ingelow now resides in London, England, and spends much of her time in deeds of charity. 1. A NIGHTINGALE made a mistake; She sang a few notes out of tune: And she hid away from the moon. 2. A lark, arm in arm with a thrush, 3. "O nightingale!" cooed a dove; "O nightingale! what's the use? Why behave like a goose? Like a common, contemptible fowl; You bird of joy and delight, Why behave like an owl? 4. "Only think of all you have done; A false note is really fun From such a bird as you! 5. The nightingale shyly took Her head from under her wing, There was never a bird could pass; 6. The nightingale did not care, Her song ascended there, And there she fixed her eyes. The people that stood below. She knew but little about; And this tale has a moral, I know, DEFINITIONS.-2. Säun'ter-ing, wandering idly, strolling. Snick'er, to laugh in a half suppressed manner. 4. Crěst, a tuft growing on an animal's head. 5. DĬ-vine ́ly, in a supreme degree. 6. Moral, the practical lesson which any thing is fitted to teach. NOTES.-The nightingale is a small bird, about six inches in length, with a coat of dark-brown feathers above and of grayishwhite beneath. Its voice is astonishingly strong and sweet, and, when wild, it usually sings throughout the evening and night from April to the middle of summer. The bird is common in Europe, but is not found in America. |