7 Out in the fields one summer night

We were together, half afraid

Of the corn-leaves' rustling, and of the shade Of the high hills, stretching so still and far, Loitering till after the low little light.

Of the candle shone through the open door,
And over the haystack's pointed top,
All of a tremble and ready to drop,

The first half-hour the great yellow star,
That we, with staring, ignorant eyes,
Had often and often watched to see
Propped and held in its place in the skies
By the fork of a tall red mulberry-tree,
Which close in the edge of our flax-field° grew,
Dead at the top, — just one branch full
Of leaves, notched round, and lined with wool,
From which it tenderly shook the dew
Over our heads, when we came to play
In its hand-breadth of shadow, day after day.

Afraid to go home, sir; for one of us bore
A nest full of speckled and thin-shelled eggs, -
The other, a bird, held fast by the legs,
Not so big as a straw of wheat:

The berries we gave her she would n't eat,
But cried and cried, till we held her bill,

So slim and shining, to keep her still.

• At last we stood at our mother's knee.
Do you think, sir, if you try,
You can paint the look of a lie?
If you can, pray have the grace
To put it solely in the face

Of the urchin that is likest me:

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The eyes of our mother -- (take good heed) Looking not on the nestful of eggs,

Nor the fluttering bird, held so fast by the legs,
But straight through our faces down to our lies,
And, oh, with such injured, reproachful surprise!
I felt my heart bleed where that glance went, as
though

A sharp blade struck through it.

You, sir, know

That you on the canvas are to repeat

Things that are fairest, things most sweet,

Woods and corn fields and mulberry tree, —

The mother, the lads, with their bird, at her knee: But, oh, that look of reproachful woe!

High as the heavens your name I'll shout,

If you paint me the picture, and leave that out.

1. Write ten questions to ask your classmates about the scenes in this poem. 2. Which different things did this man want painted? Read aloud the lines that show them. 3. What look did he want in each face? 4. Which things could not be painted?

5. What made the boys afraid to go home? 6. What was the lie? 7. What became of the brother? Describe him.

8. Arrange a Mother's Day program. (Manual.)

9. Conversation and discussion: (a) The look I like best in my mother's face; (b) Should we collect birds' eggs or birds' nests? Why not?

THE GREAT OUTDOORS

MORNING-GLORIES

MADISON CAWEIN (kā win')

Once upon a time people believed that on moonlight nights Titania, queen of the fays, or fairies, would come to the glens with these tiny folk, and all would dance. Ariel, one of the sprites, was as graceful as a dancing breeze, and so, to call something "Ariel-airy" is to say that it is very graceful. Close your books and listen to this story:

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THEY swing from the garden-trellis

In Ariel-airy ease;

And their aromatic honey

Is sought by the earliest bees.

The rose, it knows their secret,
And the jessamine° also knows:
And the rose told me the story

That the jessamine told the rose.

And the jessamine said: "At midnight,
Ere the red cock woke and crew,

The fays of Queen Titania

Came here to bathe in the dew.

And the yellow moonlight glistened
On braids of elfin° hair;
And fairy feet on the flowers

Fell softer than any air.

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And their petticoats, gay as bubbles,
They hung up, every one,

On the morning-glory's tendrils,°

Till their moonlight bath was done.

But the red cock crew too early,

And the fairies fled in fear,

Leaving their petticoats, purple and pink,
Like blossoms hanging there.”

aromatic1 (ǎr' o măt' ik), spicy

elfin

jessamine2 (jěs' à mín), a flower

(ěl' fin), belonging to an elf tendril 5 (těn' dril), the coiling stem fay 3 (fā), a fairy trellis1 (trěl' is), lattice-work

1. Read aloud all the lines that make pictures and tell which you think is the prettiest. 2. Repeat the story that the Jessamine told the Rose. Where does it begin? 3. Why are these flowers called Morning-glories? 4. Which pupils can memorize the poem first?

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5. Draw and color pictures of morning-glories to show "tendrils and "petticoats purple and pink.” “ 6. Read aloud Frank Dempster Sherman's "Goldenrod" and Helen Gray Cone's "The Dandelions" (Riverside Readers IV and V), for other pretty fancies.

7. Oral or written composition: Make up a story telling how Jack in the Pulpit, Silver Fir, Spanish Moss, or Tiger Lily got its name.

AUTUMN+

EMILY DICKINSON

THE morns are meeker than they were,

The nuts are getting brown;

The berry's cheek is plumper,

The rose is out of town.

The maple wears a gayer scarf,

The field a scarlet gown.
Lest I should be old-fashioned,

I'll put a trinket on.

I. Tell what each line means? 2. What is "a trinket"?

+ Copyrighted and used by arrangement with Little, Brown & Co.

THE FLOWERPHONE

ABBIE FARWELL BROWN

After you have read Madison Cawein's poem on the morning-glories, read this. Practice it aloud at home. Then, in class see who can make it sound most like a real telephone conversation.