› gray Barns, looking from their hazy
D'er the dim waters widening in the Thre

On the dull thunder of alternate frie

nt down the air a greeting to the M

ll sights were mellowed and all sounds subnet: The hills seemed farther, and the streams sagione: As in a dream, the distant woodman hewed

His winter log with many a muffled bion.

ed;

ne;

piece, was ity that this cts of Indian ensitive nature,

phěas'-ant (fez'-),

Crew twice, and all was stiller fiche person speaking;— Silent till some replying warler er

it time;-past time with as that you can with I;with they.

"alternate flails," subdued, artial hue," "remotest blue," garrulous, unfledged, censer, forestubble, loom, "inverted torch," tremulous, distaff.

," and "Mills "-note personification. rns the grain was being threshed, to send flails" (two men with flails stand at d strike the grain in alternate blows). ne easily painted, and every one hav

9. Where every bird which charmed the vernal feast Shook the sweet slumber from its wings at morn, To warn the reaper of the rosy east

All now was songless, empty, and forlorn.

10. Alone from out the stubble piped the quail, And croaked the crow through all the dreary

gloom;

Alone the pheasant, drumming in the vale,
Made echo to the distant cottage loom.

11. There was no bud, no bloom upon the bowers;
The spiders wove their thin shrouds night by night;
The thistle down, the only ghost of flowers,
Sailed slowly by, passed noiseless out of sight.

12. Amid all this, in this most cheerless air,

And where the woodbine shed upon the porch
Its crimson leaves, as if the Year stood there
Firing the floor with his inverted torch-

13. Amid all this, the center of the scene,

The white-haired matron, with monotonous tread,
Plied the swift wheel, and with her joyless mien
Sat like a Fate, and watched the flying thread.

14. She had known sorrow-he had walked with her, Oft supped, and broke with her the ashen crust; And in the dead leaves still she heard the stir

Of his black mantle trailing in the dust.

15. While yet her cheek was bright with summer bloom Her country summoned, and she gave her all; And twice War bowed to her his sable plume— Regave the sword to rust upon the wall.

16. Regave the sword-but not the hand that drew
And struck for liberty its dying blow,
Nor him who, to his sire and country true,
Fell 'mid the ranks of the invading foe.

17. Long, but not loud, the droning wheel went on,
Like the low murmur of a hive at noon;
Long, but not loud, the memory of the gone
Breathed through her lips a sad and tremulous tune

18. At last the thread was snapped: her head was bowed;
Life dropped the distaff through his hands serene;
And loving neighbors smoothed her careful shroud,
While death and winter closed the autumn scene.、

Thomas Buchanan Read.

FOR PREPARATION.-I. As the poet and painter, author of this piece, was a native of Pennsylvania, the fact suggests to us the probability that this unequaled poetic painting of the scenery and atmospheric effects of Indian summer, together with the impressions made by it upon a sensitive nature, is descriptive of a Pennsylvania landscape in November.

II. Realm, ha'-zy, ǎl-ter'-nate, fields, plěn'-te-ous, phĕaş'-ant (fez'-), ĕeh'-o, ma'-tron, se-rēne'.

III. Give the forms of the verb be that agree with the person speaking;person spoken to;-spoken of; that express present time;-past time with have;-past time without have. Use all the forms that you can with I;— with we;—with thou;-with you;—with he;-with they.

IV. Sober, russet, year, inhaled, tanned, "alternate flails," subdued, mellowed, hewed, embattled, erewhile, "martial hue," remotest blue," vulture, sentinel, warder, alien, erst, crest, garrulous, unfledged, censer, foreboding, rustic, charmed, "vernal feast," stubble, loom, "inverted torch," monotonous, mien, sable, sire, invading, tremulous, distaff.

V. "Russet Year," 99 66 gray Barns," and "Mills "-note personification. "A greeting to the Mills" (in the barns the grain was being threshed, to send to the mills for flour). "Alternate flails" (two men with flails stand at opposite ends of the threshing floor and strike the grain in alternate blows). Note the pictures in this piece, every one easily painted, and every one hav

99.66

ing the peculiar tones of "Indian summer" (e. g., "the embattled forests," on slumbrous wings," etc.). "Where erst the jay" (now gone with the swallows to the south for the winter). Why is the thistle down called the "ghost of flowers"? Why does he say spiders wove "shrouds "? "Inverted torch" (a symbol of death). "Sat like a Fate" (the Fates were represented as spinning the thread of human life). "Twice War bowed to her" (her husband falls in battle-in the Revolutionary War—and then her son). Compare this poem with Gray's "Elegy" (first a long introduction descriptive of scenery and surroundings, and meditations on them; and at last a person described in keeping with the scene. In Gray's "Elegy " it is the pensive poet himself; in this it is the aged relict of a revolutionary chaplain).

APPENDIX.

WORDS DIFFICULT TO SPELL.

THE difficulty of spelling English words arises from uncertainty in regard to the combinations used to represent elementary sounds. For instance, the sound ĕ is represented in eleven different ways in the words ebb, dead, again, æsthetics, many, nonpareil, jeopardy, friend, bury, guest, says. Again, the words bead, head, great, heart, wear, ocean, earth, present ea with seven sounds.

The pupil will readily learn to spell all words in which the sounds are represented by the usual combinations of letters, by seeing them in print whenever he reads a book or newspaper.

A list of words to spell should not be cumbered by the introduction of easy words, such as contain only the usual combinations, but should have only those that are difficult because of the exceptional combinations of letters used.

The spelling book, then, may be a very small book, containing about fifteen hundred words. This small list of words should be so thoroughly learned that the pupil can spell orally or write every word in it without hesitation. This can be accomplished by the pupil of twelve years of age in six months' time, having one lesson of twenty words a day to write from dictation, and using every fifth day for an oral review of all words from the beginning.

This thorough drill on a few words will train the child's faculty of observing unusual combinations of letters, and his memory thus trained will make him a good speller without spending any further time over the spelling book. His memory will absorb and retain hard words wherever he sees them, just as a sponge absorbs and retains water.