Be still, sad heart, and cease repining; Some days must be dark and dreary. H. W. Longfellow. FOR PREPARATION.-I. Have you read this author's poem, "Afternoon in February"? (See Lesson LXI.) Note the resemblances and differences. The day, cold, dark, dreary, rainy, with dead leaves falling, corresponds to the life within, the thoughts, hopes, etc. In the poem referred to (LXI.) there is a similar correspondence. II. Drear'-y, wēa'-ry. III. Correct: It rain; the vine cling. IV. "Moldering past," repining. V. What is the consolation which the poem mentions? What, in the second stanza, corresponds to the day, the vine, the dead leaves, in the first stanza? XXXIV.-AX GRINDING. 1. When I was a little boy, I remember, one cold winter's morning, I was accosted by a smiling man with an ax on his shoulder. "My pretty boy," said he, "has your father a grindstone?" "Yes, sir," said I. "You are a fine little fellow!" said he. let me grind my ax on it?" "Will you 2. Pleased with the compliment of "fine little fellow," "Oh, yes, sir," I answered. "It is down in the shop." "And will you, my man," said he, patting me on the head, "get me a little hot water?" How could I refuse? I ran, and soon brought a kettleful. 3. "How old are you ?-and what's your name?" continued he, without waiting for a reply. "I'm sure you are one of the finest lads that I have ever seen. you just turn a few minutes for me?" Will 4. Tickled with the flattery, like a little fool, I went to work, and bitterly did I rue the day. It was a new ax, and I toiled and tugged till I was almost tired to death. The school bell rang, and I could not get away. My hands were blistered, and the ax was not half ground. 5. At length, however, it was sharpened, and the man turned to me with, "Now, you little rascal, you've played truant! Scud to the school, or you'll rue it!" "Alas!" thought I, "it was hard enough to turn a grindstone this cold day, but now to be called a little rascal is too much." 6. It sank deep into my mind, and often have I thought of it since. When I see a merchant over-polite to his customers, begging them to take a little brandy, and throwing his goods on the counter, thinks I, "That man has an ax to grind." 7. When I see a man flattering the people, making great professions of attachment to liberty, who is in private life a tyrant, methinks, "Look out, good people! That fellow would set you turning grindstones!" 8. When I see a man hoisted into office by party spirit, without a single qualification to render him either respectable or useful, "Alas!" methinks, "deluded people, you are doomed for a season to turn the grindstone for a booby." Benjamin Franklin. FOR PREPARATION.-I. Who wrote this piece? (See the signature at the end.) Supposing that the event described actually occurred in the life of the author of this piece, about what year was it? (See Lessons I. and LXV. for the date of his birth.) II. Write, with diacritical marks (as here indicated), dividing into syllables, marking the accent and the pronunciation of the important vowels, the following words: Shōul'-der, pret'-ty (prit'-), said (sẽd), ăn'-swered (serd), brought (brawt), pēo'-ple (pē’pl), minʼ-utes (-its), ǎx. Write these words in a column, and explain in each case the difficulties of spelling and pronunciation, as in the following model. (See spelling lessons in the Appendix for fuller directions.) WORDS. Shōul'-der. EXPLANATION OF DIFFICULTIES OF SPELLING, ETC. .uses the combination ou to represent the sound ō. It is more common to use o, oa, or ow; less common to use oe, oo, eau, ew, eo, or au. Pret'-ty (prit'ty)....uses e for Ĭ; more common to use i, y, ui, or u; less said. ǎn'-swered...... brought.... common, ee, ie, or o. uses ai for ě; more common, e or ea; less common, æ, a, ei, eo, ie, u, or ue. .w is silent; also an e in the final syllable. ..uses ou for a; more common, aw, au, or o; less com mon, oa. The gh also is silent. min'-utes (min'its). . uses u for Ĭ (see above, "pretty"); also e silent. pēo'-ple... ǎx. uses eo for ē; more common, e, ea, ee, ie, ei, i, ey, and æ; less common, uay. ..spelled by English authorities, and by Worcester, axe. WEBSTER'S DIACRITICAL MARKS: ā, ē, i, ō, ū, ÿ, long; ă, ě, Ĭ, Ŏ, ů, y, short; câre, fär, last, fall, what; thêre, veil, term; pïque, firm; done, fôr, do, wolf, food, foot; fûrl, rude, push; silent letters in italics; ç as s; ch as sh; e, eh, as k; g as j; g as in get; § as z; x as gz; n as in linger, link; th as in thine. III. Explain the use of the apostrophe in winter's, what's, you've ;—the use of the hyphen in over-polite, and its omission in grindstone. What is the use of s in minutes ? "Look out, good people!"-why is capital L ased, and why the ! at the end? IV. Define compliment, accosted, scud, rue, flattery, blistered, booby; use synonyms for these in the sentences where they occur, if possible. V. Why "a smiling man"? (i. e., why did he smile?) Explain the motive for the use of the words, "fine little fellow," "my man," "how old are you?" etc. Why did he pat the boy on the head? (Dr. Frank lin's style is regarded as a model of purity and simplicity. It contains many colloquial expressions, however, that should not be approved in writing; e. g., he frequently uses such phrases as "says I," "thinks I.") Point out some sentence in this piece which you think particularly clear and strong in style. What is the thought of the piece, stated in your own words? Compare the style and thought of this piece with that of Lesson I., on "The Whistle." Each conveys a moral. XXXV. MARCH. 1. The cock is crowing, The green field sleeps in the sun; Are at work with the strongest; The cattle are grazing, Their heads never raising; 2. Like an army defeated, On the top of the bare hill; Blue sky prevailing ; The rain is over and gone! William Wordsworth. FOR PREPARATION.-I. Have you read any other selection from Wordsworth? (Lesson II., "The Kitten and the Falling Leaves"; Lesson XIII., "Alice Fell.") He is famed for deep thought, but sometimes wrote childish and whimsical pieces. II. Plow'-boy, whoop'-ing (hoop'-), pre-vāil'-ing, small. III. Explain the th in doth (expresses present time and person addressed); s in sleeps (present time and person spoken of); est in oldest (what form of the describing-word would you use, if only two things were , compared?); ing in grazing; ed in defeated; ne in gone (past time). Difference in meaning between is and are? When do you use is, and when are? indicate its meaning by its sound? IV. "Twitter"-does this word What does "anon mean? (“anon, anon"—again and again.) V. Notice the rhymes, fare ill and bare hill. Do the English pronounce the has strongly as we do? Anon rhymes with gone: this is the way the English pronounce gone. We ought to say gon, and not gôn. “Forty feeding like one”—what effect does this sentence have in painting the picture? Can you see, in imagination, how the scene looked? Why were the cattle so intent on eating? Was it the taste of the new grass growing after the shower, and the fact that the cattle had had no fresh grass all winter? XXXVI. THE CAREFUL OBSERVER. "You have lost a "Indeed we have," 1. A dervish was journeying alone in a desert, when two merchants suddenly met him. camel," said he to the merchants. they replied. 2. "Was he not blind in his right eye, and lame in his left leg?" said the dervise. "He was," replied the merchants. "Had he not lost a front tooth?" "He had," said the merchants. "And was he not loaded with honey on one side, and with wheat on the other?" "Most certainly he was," they replied; "and, as you have seen him so lately, and marked him so particularly, you can, in all probability, conduct us to him." 3. "My friends," said the dervish, "I have never seen your camel, nor ever heard of him, but from you!" "A pretty story, truly," said the merchants; "but where are the jewels which formed a part of his burden?" "I |