11. What is the answer to the question in the last two lines?
12. What kind of clerk would John make in a store?

13. What kind of a teacher would Nell be? Little Fan?
14. Why does not each person do what he knows to be right?

ADDITIONAL READINGS

Somebody's Mother.

ALICE CARY: An Order for a Picture.

JOHN HOWARD PAYNE: Home, Sweet Home.
LAURA BLANCHARD: The Mother's Hope.
MRS. A. D. T. WHITNEY: Our Mother.
LADY CAREW: True Greatness.

JEAN INGELOW: Love's Thread of Gold.
WHITE: Court of Boyville.

J. G. ADAMS: The Soldier.

BONAR: Be True.

HOLLAND: God Give Us Men.

HANS ANDERSEN: The Girl Who Trod on a Loaf.

HOPE

Once on a time from scenes of light
An angel winged its fairy flight.
Down to the earth in haste he came,
And wrote in lines of living flame

These words in every heart he met:
"Cheer up, cheer up! be not discouraged yet!"
Then back to heaven with speed he flew
And tuned his golden harp anew,
And all the joyful throng came round
To listen to the soul-inspiring sound,
And heaven was filled with pure delight,
For Hope had been to earth that night.

Anonymous.

THE MOUNTAIN AND THE SQUIRREL

IN

N this delightful little conversation between the mountain and the squirrel, Emerson has given us one of his best thoughts. As he understood the world, he felt that everything in it has its own place and its own work. Each one has a work to do, and each one sees things as they contribute toward that work. Even the squirrel happily observes that the mountain makes "a very good squirrel track." If the squirrel cannot do the mountain's work, he can at least do his own.

It is as important that the little things be done as that the larger things be done.

"Without the nail the shoe was lost,
Without the shoe the horse was lost,
Without the horse the rider was lost, and
Without the rider the battle was lost."

Upon stepping-stones of little things we rise to the greatest achievements. In the striking contrast between the giant mountain and the little squirrel, Emerson has emphasized the fact that whether great or small, everything in its own place has something to do to work out the plan of the universe.

THE MOUNTAIN AND THE SQUIRREL1 The mountain and the squirrel

Had a quarrel,

And the former called the latter "Little prig";
Bun replied,

"You are doubtless very big;

But all sorts of things and weather

Must be taken in together

To make up a year,
And a sphere,

And I think it no disgrace
To occupy my place.

If I'm not so large as you,
You are not so small as I,
And not half so spry.

I'll not deny you make

A very pretty squirrel track.

Talents differ; all is well and wisely put;

If I cannot carry forests on my back,

Neither can you crack a nut."

Ralph Waldo Emerson.

NOTES

1. Look up carefully the meanings of the following words: bun, sphere, disgrace, occupy, spry, talents.

2. This poem may be made very fascinating to children by means of dramatization. Have a large and a small person impersonate the mountain and the squirrel, respectively, and have the dramatic action begin with the mountain proudly calling the squirrel a little prig.

1 Used by special arrangement with the publishers, Houghton Mifflin Co.

EXERCISES

1. About what have the mountain and the squirrel quarreled?

2. What insult has the mountain offered to the squirrel?

3. Explain "little prig."

4. Read carefully the squirrel's reply to the mountain.

5. What is the squirrel's manner as he makes this reply?

6. Explain "I think it no disgrace to occupy my place."

7. How has the squirrel brought out the idea that smallness may be as valuable as largeness?

8. Explain "Talents differ."

9. What work can the squirrel do that the mountain cannot do? 10. What do you think is the largest thought Emerson would have us get from the poem?

ADDITIONAL READINGS

SAXE: The Blind Men and the Elephant.

KIPLING: The Bell Buoy.

GOULD: The Pebble and the Acorn.

MACKAY: The Miller of the Dee.
JEAN INGELOW: A Singing Lesson.
AESOP: The Wind and the Sun.
ARNOLD: Self-Dependence.

Is true Freedom but to break
Fetters for our own dear sake,
And, with leathern hearts, forget
That we owe mankind a debt?
No! True Freedom is to share
All the chains our brothers wear,
And, with heart and hand, to be
Earnest to make others free!

James Russell Lowell.

THE FIRST ROSES

EVERY person

is interested in "first

things." We pluck the beautiful rose and wonder how it came to be. It is true that we can not know its real origin, but we are charmed with the story which explains just how some have fancied roses came into existence. The following story is taken from Sir John Mandeville's "Voiage and Travaile” and adapted by Professor Crawford:

THE FIRST ROSES

In the far-away land of Palestine, not far from Bethlehem, there is, so an age-old story tells us, a spot of ground that men call the Flowering Field. In the Flowering Field there grow, and ever will grow, roses white and roses red. And the rose bushes there are the first rose bushes that the world ever saw. And the story of them is the story of how roses first came into the world.

In the long ago a beautiful girl, who loved God, was wrongfully condemned to be burned to death. And in a field near Bethlehem men gathered a great mass of thorn bushes, in the midst of which they were to put the maid to be burned. Then they led her, in her fair white robe, out from the city toward