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"Pray

what is the reason (I see none at all) That I always must go when Jane chooses to call? Whatever I'm doing ('tis certainly hard)

I'm forced to leave off, to be milked in the yard.

"I've no will of my own, but must do as they please,
And give them my milk to make butter and cheese;
Sometimes I endeavor to kick down the pail;
Or give her a box on the ear with my tail."

"But, Ma'am," said the Ass, "not presuming to teach -
Oh dear, I beg pardon-pray finish your speech;
Excuse my mistake," said the complaisant swain,
"Go on, and I'll not interrupt you again."

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Ass waited a moment, his answer to scan,
And then, "Not presuming to teach," he began,
"Permit me to say, since my thoughts you invite,
I always saw things in a different light.

"That you afford man an important supply,
No Ass in his senses would ever deny:
But then, in return, 'tis but fair to allow,
They are of some service to you, Mistress Cow.

""Tis their pleasant meadow in which you repose,
And they find you a shelter from wintry snows,
For comforts like these, we're indebted to man;
And for him, in return, should do all that we can.

The Cow, upon this, cast her eyes on the grass, Not pleased to be schooled in this way by an Ass "Yet," said she to herself, "though he's not very bright, I really believe that the fellow is right."

Another interesting reaction to the fable which may be secured from children is to put a fable in verse into prose. The literary translators of "Æsop" have been doing this sort of thing and vice versa from the earliest times and children will enjoy doing it. Third and fourth grade children might put into prose a fable in poetry, such as Lewis Carroll's "The Pig Who Could Not Jump," in "The Hunting of the Snark."

The Pig Who Could Not Jump

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The Pig replied, "Because I cannot jump." "You are too plump," said the Camel, "and I never saw so wide a Pig who wobbled so from side to side, who could jump! Yet if you would trot to those trees which are two miles away, twice a day who can tell?" Then the Camel left. Next a Frog came by and said, "O Pig, what makes you cry?" And the Pig replied in his bitterness, "Because I cannot jump." Then the Frog, grinning gleefully, thumped his chest and said, "I'll teach you how to jump! You may feel faint and you'll get bumps, but if you begin with something small and end with a ten-foot wall, at last you'll find you can jump!"

Thereupon the Pig rushed with all his might upon the ruined pump, rolled over like an empty sack, and broke his back.

The next day the Camel passed that way; and as he saw the cold, still Pig, he said: "It needs something more fairy-like and slim to execute a jump!"

In connection with Lewis Carroll one might mention that in "Through the Looking-Glass," Alice's ballad of "The Walrus and the Carpenter" is a parallel of an Indian fable, "The Fox and the Crabs," given by Raju Ramaswami, p. 28. After reading the ballad, the prose parallel might be told by a pupil, and the moral point indicated.

It might be interesting for the child to make a list of fables in verse and other animal poems, some of which might be read by class members at some special time. The list might include among other poems, the following:

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To the Cuckoo - Wordsworth

The Drowned Cat - Gray

Girl and Fawn- Marvel

The Melancholy Pig - Hunting of the Shark, Lewis Caroll The Precocious Pig - Thomas Hood

The Mad Dog - Cowper

The Jackdaw of Rheims

Binkie Rudyard Kipling

- An Ingloldsby Lgend

The Fox and the Crow - Bernard Barton
The Cow and the Ass Jane Taylor
Jane Taylor

The Horse

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The Donkey's Dialogue — Jefferys Taylor Songs and Pictures, two complete volumes

Randolph Caldecott

The Magpie's Nest - Charles and Mary Lamb, Posy Ring, p. 198
The Mountain and the Squirrel — Emerson, Posy Ring, p. 206
An Old Rat's Tale - Nursery Rime, Children's First Book of Poetry
Ladybird Carline Southey, Children's First Book of Poetry
The City Mouse and the Garden Mouse - C. Rossetti, First Book of
Poetry

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To a Water Fowl - Bryant

The Chambered Nautilus-Holmes
The Stormy Petrel - Barry Cornwal
The Dying Swan - Tennyson
The Snail-Cowper

The Green Linnet - Wordsworth
A Wren's Nest - Wordsworth
Epitaph on a Hare - Cowper

The Kitten at Play - Wordsworth

To a Butterfly - Wordsworth

The Grasshopper and the Cricket - Keats

"The Fable of Jotham," quoted above, is really a Council

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-From an Old Print

it to himself.-Esop's Fables. When people go to law about an uncertain title, and have spent their whole estates in the contest, nothing is more common than some little pettifogging attorney to step in, and secure

of Trees. It might be very interesting for a class to dramatize the various councils of the fables. There is a Council of Fishes in "The Cruel Crane Outwitted," an Indian fable from the "Jatakas" in which a Crab calls a Council of all the Fishes of the Lake; the Council of Fish in the Japanese "The Happy Hunter and the Lucky Fisherman," called by the Princess Umi Ume; the Council of Mice in Æsop's "Belling the Cat"; the "Council of Horses," by John Gay in "Golden Numbers," p. 357; the Council of Birds in Grimm's Tale, "The Wren Chosen as King"; the Council of Frogs in Æsop's "King Log and King Stork"; the Council of Foxes in "The Fox Without a Tail," Æsop; and the Council of Guineas in "Why Guinea Fowls are Speckled," in "Nights With Uncle Remus," p. 196. Having once attempted a collection of this sort, much interest will develop in coming upon a new Council which may be added to the list from time to time.

A number of fairy tales illustrate how a tale may be an amplified fable. One of the best examples of this is the Indian "The Ass in the Lion's Skin," which has been already quoted. The moral of the tale is "The voice betrays the real character."

The fable serves admirably as an exercise in beginning grammar or in composition. A fourth grade class learning the parts of speech might use "The Dog and His Shadow," to distinguish nouns as name-words or verbs as action-words. "The Wolf and the Lamb" would serve very well to teach the use of quotation marks.

Another interesting fable exercise is to take an old fable and write a modification of it or find a modern instance of it. One might be able to find a modern instance of brothers going to law over an estate, so that when the legal proceedings were ended, the lawyers' fees used up the entire estate and the brothers received nothing. Then the following fable of "Æsop" might be told, which has especial interest as it has been illustrated in American lithography by N. Currier, entitled "The Scales of Justice."

The Scales of Justice

Once there were two Cats who, having secured a lump of cheese, could not decide which was to have the cheese. Therefore, in order to settle the dispute, they agreed to refer the matter to a Monkey as Judge.

The Monkey accepted the office readily, and, bringing a pair of scales, put a part into each scale. "Let me see,' he said, "aye- this lump outweighs the other"; and immediately he bit off a considerable piece in order to reduce it to an equilibrium. The opposite scale was now heavier, which gave the conscientious Judge good reason for a second mouthful.

"Hold, hold!" said the two Cats, who began to be alarmed for the event. "Give us our shares and we are satisfied." "If you are satisfied," replied the Monkey, "Justice is not; a cause of this intricate nature is by no means so easily determined." Whereupon he continued to nibble first one piece and then the other, until the poor Cats, seeing their cheese rapidly diminishing, begged the Monkey to give himself no further trouble, but to deliver to them what remained.

"Not so fast, I beseech ye, Friends," replied the Monkey; "we owe justice to ourselves as well as to you. What remains is due to me in right of my office."

Thus saying, the Judge crammed the whole into his mouth, and with great gravity dismissed the court.

The Fox and the Crow

The Fox and the Crow,

In prose, I well know,

Many good little girls can rehearse: Perhaps it will tell

Pretty nearly as well,

If we try the same fable in verse.

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Seasonal Problems for Grade Four

Christmas Activities

Bertha Toelle

is pre

IV

2 doz. candles at $.25 dozen, 1 doz. poinsettas at $.10 each, 4 rolls of red crepe paper at $.20 each.

DURING the month of December everybody is busy mas much baking to do, and candies to make.

Perhaps mother is the busiest person of all, for she has so

paring for Christmas. The spirit of the Christmas

season prevails everywhere.

Mother Nature reminds us that Christmas is coming by sending Jack Frost with snow, ice and cold winter weather. What fun the children then have!

While the children are sleeping the snow falls thick and fast. In the morning they must clear the paths, and then they will have a jolly time building a snow fort and making

a snow man.

The pavement in front of their house is 100 feet long and 4 feet wide. If the snow is 2 feet deep, how many cubic feet of snow will the children have to remove to clear the pavement?

The fort and snow man will be made from the snow which is cleared from the pavement.

Sixteen boys try to hold the fort. Each boy makes 18 snowballs. How many snowballs will they all make together? After 169 snowballs are thrown the fort is captured by the other boys. How many snowballs remain?

With these remaining snowballs they will try to knock the hat off the snow man they have made; 33 balls strike the body of the snow man, 58 balls miss the mark entirely, 17 balls strike the head, and the remaining balls hit the hat. How many balls hit the mark? By this time nothing much remains of the snow man.

Several days before Christmas the farmer is very busy preparing to go to town with his seasonal produce.

A load of Christmns trees must be cut, holly wreaths must be made, and moss must be dyed. All this must be taken to town, beside many other farm products, such as turkeys, potatoes, apples, butter and eggs. He sells a load of trees for $30.00. There are 24 trees on the wagon. How much is each tree worth? The farmer's wife makes 48 holly wreaths to be sold at $.35 each. How much money will she receive for them?

The farmer's son dyes some sawdust green, to be used as moss in Christmas gardens. He will sell the moss at $.10 a quart, If he sells a bushel of moss, how much money will he make?

How much would the trees, moss and holly wreaths net? In addition to this, the farmer reaps quite a profit from his regular produce.

The children in the city are very busy helping their parents, and secretly preparing gifts for the various members of the family.

John has made a sewing basket at school for mother, but he must equip it with the necessary articles.

He needs 2 spools of cotton at $.10 a spool, 2 spools darning cotton at $.08 spool, 1 thimble $.10, 2 packages needles at $.25, 1 pair scissors at $1.50, 1 emory ball at $.15, yd. of cretonne for lining at $.69. How much will it cost to equip the basket?

Sister is busy making handkerchiefs. How many 12inch handerkchiefs can she cut from a yard of 36-inch material? Handkerchief linen costs $2.50 a yard. What will each handkerchief cost?

Mother is going to make a silk shirt for father. If she buys 3 yards of silk at $1.98 a yd., how much will she have to pay for the silk?

Alice is going to make a sweater for her brother. She needs 8 balls of wool. What will the wool cost at $.65 a ball? The children can help mother a great deal by shopping for her. Christmas tree ornaments and decorations must be bought.

Find the total cost of the following articles: 20 yds. tinsel, at $.05 yard, 4 doz. Christmas balls at $1.25 dozen,

Mother usually bakes 4 or 5 pans of sugar cakes. Each pan holds 16 cakes. How many sugar cakes would there be in 5 pans?

Suppose 12 cakes got burned to a crisp. How many edible cakes remain?

If mother bakes twice as many ginger cakes as sugar cakes, how many ginger cakes will she bake?

The spice cookies are made in various shapes. If mother makes 37 star shape, 54 diamond shape and 29 round cakes, How many spice cookies will there be?

She makes 15 pounds of candy-3 pounds of butter creams, 2 pounds of chocolate mints, and the balance. in hard candy. How many pounds of hard candy will there be?

Mother also must do the marketing and buy nuts and fruit. Since the mixed nut are often inferior, she will buy several kinds and mix them herself. If she buys 1 lb. of butternuts at $.38, 1 lb. of almonds at $.40, 1 lb. of hazel at $.33, 1 lb. of English walnuts at $.45, 1 lb. of pecans at $.30, and mixes them herself, what will be the average cost per pound? How does this compare with the market price of mixed nuts?

The fruit will cost $4.50; of this amount is to be spent for oranges; is to be spent for apples; is to be spent for grapes; is to be spent for figs and dates, and the remainder is to be spent for bananas. How much money will be spent for oranges; for apples; for grapes; dates and figs and

bananas?

Not only in the home is there great preparation for Christmas, but in the school and church as well.

The teacher usually likes to surprise her pupils with some remembrance at Christmas. The first grade teacher is going to have a little Christmas party for her pupils. The older boys and girls of the school are going to bring a tree and trim it for the pleasure of the small tots. One side of the room is going to be covered with imitation brick paper to resemble a fireplace. The teacher is going to hang a filled stocking for each pupil at this fireplace.

How many square feet of brick paper will it take to cover a space 18 feet by 4 feet?

If 36 stockings are to be hung along the 18-foot space, how many inches apart must they be hung?

If each stocking contains a chocolate bar costing $.05, an apple $.03, an orange $.06, 2 sugar cakes $.10, and some peanuts $.05, how much does it cost to fill a stocking? What will it cost to fill 36 stockings?

How many yards of tarlatan will the teacher need to make 36 stockings, if one yard makes 6 stockings? When the teacher sees the joy reflected in the little children's faces, she will feel well repaid for her trouble.

The children in the Sunday-school also look forward to the Christmas treat. This, however, means work for the Sunday-school teachers, for the candy boxes must be filled and the tree must be trimmed.

How many pounds of candy must be bought to fill 198 half-pound boxes?

How many dozen oranges will be needed if each child receives 1 orange?

The tree and the ornaments have been donated, but it will be necessary to hire the electric lights to illuminate the tree. If they get 16 sets of tree lights, with 8 bulbs on each set, how many lights will there be on the tree?

After such extensive preparation we are sure that no one will be forgotten and that all will be happy on Christmas Day.

Composition with Beginners

Mabel Styring

VERY pupil needs to be able to express himself accurately in writing. This requires much practice and there is no better practice than in reproducing the thoughts and words of others. As soon as a child masters the rudiments of penmanship the wise teacher directs him to a written expression of his thoughts. In his first year this expression consists of words, phrases, sentences and groups of sentences. During his second year he is able to memorize and reproduce a short story. Reproduction requires careful development. The successful written recitation in the upper grades rests largely with the teacher of composition in the primary grades. To the young teacher this detailed method of presenting a story for written reproduction may be of help.

Sly Fox and Black Crow

Sly Fox walked slowly through the woods. He felt hungry and angry. He had caught Little Red Hen for his supper. Smart Little Red Hen had cut a hole in his bag and had flown away home.

"Red Hen is as smart as I," said Sly Fox. "I shall look for some one who is silly. Then I shall have a good meal." Sly Fox heard a loud "caw." He looked up and saw a black crow. Black Crow had a fine piece of cheese in her mouth. She had stolen it.

Sly Fox thought that he would like the cheese. "Perhaps I can get it by a trick," he said to himself. He came near the tree and began to talk to the crow.

"How beautiful you are!" he exclaimed. "What soft white feathers you have! I have heard that you can sing like a lark. Handsome bird, will you sing for me?"

Black Crow should have known that her loud "caw, caw," was not a song. She was so flattered that she did not stop to think. She opened her mouth to sing. Alas, down fell the cheese to the ground!

That was just what Sly Fox expected. He picked up the cheese and ran away. He did not want to hear the rest of the song.

Poor, silly Black Crow!

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Sly Fox and Black Crow

Where did Black Fox walk? How did he feel? Whom had he caught for his supper? How had Smart Little Red Hen escaped? Where had she flown?

What did Sly Fox say about Little Red Hen? For whom must I look? What shall I have then?

What did Sly Fox hear? What did he see? What did Black Crow have in her mouth? How did she get the cheese?

What did Sly Fox think about the cheese? What did he say to himself? Where did he go?

What did he exclaim to the crow? What did he say about her feathers? Like what did he say she could sing? What did he ask her to do?

What should Black Crow have known? Why did she not stop to think? Why did she open her mouth? What happened to the cheese?

What had Sly Fox expected? What did he do with the cheese? Why did he run away? What does this story teach?

e The story is corrected by the child from his hektographed copy.

STEPS FOR THE THIRD DAY

The work of the third day is to write the story from suggestive words and phrases.

a The story is read by the class.

b The words and phrases are placed on the blackboard, arranged as:

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came near to talk beautiful should have known

Alas,

expected picked rest of the song. Poor,

c The story is corrected by the child as before.

STEPS FOR THE FOUTH DAY

The work of the fourth day is to write the story from memory.

a All previous copies are put away.

b The story is written without comment.

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