NOTES FOR STUDY.

AP PRE CI ATE, to esteem or value | CHAL ́ICES, cups used in giving the

properly.

NOI'SOME, very offensive, espe-
cially to the sense of smell.
IN E RAD ́I CA BLE, not capable
of being destroyed, lasting.
COM MUNE', to partake of, to en-
joy.

Lord's supper, cup-shaped, as the corolla of some flowers. EF FEM ́I NATE, unmanly, weak. MON OP'O LIZED, controlled, possessed exclusively.

IM PER TI NENT, impudent, out of place, unseemly.

UN COUTH', odd, awkward, un- TRAN'SIENT, brief, fleeting, of

gainly.

short duration.

XXXII.-LESSON OF THE FERN.

MARY L. BOLLES BRANCH.

In the valley, centuries ago,

Grew a little fern leaf, green and slender, Veiling delicate and fibers tender; Waving when the wind crept down so low; Bushes tall and grasses grew around it, Playful sunbeams darted in and found it, Drops of dew stole in by night and crowned it, But no foot of man e'er trod that way; Earth was young and keeping holiday.

Monster fishes swam the silent main,

Stately forests waved their giant branches,
Mountains hurled their snowy avalanches,
Mammoth creatures stalked across the plain;
Nature reveled in grand mysteries,
But the little fern was none of these,
Did not number with the hills and trees,

Only grew and waved its wild sweet way;
No one came to note it day by day.

Earth, one time, put on a frolic mood,

Heaved the rocks and changed the mighty motion
Of the deep, strong currents of the ocean.
Moved the plain and shook the haughty wood.
Crushed the little fern in soft moist clay,
Covered it and hid it safe away.

O the long, long centuries since that day!
O the agony, O life's bitter cost,

Since that useless little fern was lost!

Useless! Lost! There came a thoughtful man
Searching nature's secrets far and deep.
From a fissure in a rocky steep

He withdrew a stone o'er which there ran
Fairy pencilings, a quaint design,
Veinings, leafage, fibres clear and fine;
And the fern's life lay in every line!
So, I think, God hides some souls away,
Sweetly to surprise us the last day.

XXXIII.-APRIL TIME.

April is here!

There's a song in the maple, thrilling and new; There's a flash of wings of heaven's own hue; There's a veil of green on the nearer hills; There's a burst of rapture in woodland rills;

There are stars in the meadow dropped here and

there;

There's a breath of arbutus in the air;

There's a dash of rain, as if flung in jest;
There's an arch of color spanning the west;
April is here!

XXXIV.-INFLUENCE OF NATURE.

WILLIAM WORDSWORTH.

Therefore am I still

A lover of the meadows and the woods
And mountains, and of all that we behold
From this green earth; of all the mighty world
Of eye and ear, both what they half create
And what perceive; well pleased to recognize
In Nature, and the language of the sense,
The anchor of my purest thoughts, the nurse,
The guide, the guardian of my heart and soul,
Of all my moral being.

XXXV.-ACCORDANCE OF NATURE.

RALPH WALDO EMERSON.

For Nature beats in perfect tune,
And rounds with rhyme her every rune,
Whether she work in land or sea,

Or hide underground her alchemy.

Thou canst not wave thy staff in air,
Or dip thy paddle in the lake,

But it carves the bow of beauty there,
And the ripples in rhymes the oar forsake.
The wood is wiser far than thou;

The wood and wave each other know.
Not unrelated, unaffied,

But to each thought and thing allied,
Is perfect Nature's every part,
Rooted in the mighty Heart.

NOTES FOR STUDY.

RUNE, poem, saying, mystery.
AL CHE MY, a process by which
common metals were believed

I.

II.

to be changed into gold, hence any strange process of change. AL LIED', related.

The four poems here given form a beautiful study of Nature. Note the lesson of the fern, how it passed away and yet was not lost.

How many signs of April are given? Note the " stars in the meadow," the cowslips and buttercups. Add other signs of spring. Why is Wordsworth "still a lover of the meadows?”

How does Emerson prove the harmony of Nature? What does he give as a reason for this wonderful harmony?

XXXVI. SIR ROBIN.

LUCY LARCOM.

Rollicking Robin is here again.
What does he care for the April rain?
Care for it? Glad of it. Doesn't he know
That the April rain carries off the snow,