Fill the following blanks with words that will make complete sentences:
Mary -- here, and Susan and Agnes -- coming. They -- delayed on the road.
Mother -- to come with them, but she and father -- obliged to wait till to-morrow.
Puss said to Growler, "I -- not -- a drop of milk to-day, and -- not -- any yesterday."
I -- my work well now. Yesterday I -- it fairly well. To-morrow I shall -- it perfectly.
The boys -- their best, though they -- the game.
John--now the boys he -- last week. He -- not -- them before.
NOTE.--Let two pupils read or recite the conversational parts of this selection, omitting the explanatory matter, while the other pupils simply listen. If done with expressive feeling and in a perfectly natural tone, it will prove quite an interesting exercise. To play or act the story of a selection helps to develop the imagination.
_14_
scared swerve gur" gle rip" ples cur" rent mum" bling ly
THE BROOK SONG.
Little brook! Little brook!
You have such a happy look-- Such a very merry manner, as you swerve and curve and crook-- And your ripples, one and one, Reach each other"s hands and run Like laughing little children in the sun!
Little brook, sing to me; Sing about the b.u.mblebee That tumbled from a lily bell and grumbled mumblingly, Because he wet the film Of his wings, and had to swim, While the water bugs raced round and laughed at him.
Little brook--sing a song Of a leaf that sailed along Down the golden-hearted center of your current swift and strong, And a dragon fly that lit On the tilting rim of it, And rode away and wasn"t scared a bit.
And sing--how oft in glee Came a truant boy like me, Who loved to lean and listen to your lilting melody, Till the gurgle and refrain Of your music in his brain Wrought a happiness as keen to him as pain.
Little brook--laugh and leap!
Do not let the dreamer weep: Sing him all the songs of summer till he sink in softest sleep; And then sing soft and low Through his dreams of long ago-- Sing back to him the rest he used to know!
_James Whitcomb Riley_.
From "Rhymes of Childhood." Used by special permission of the publishers, The Bobbs-Merrill Co. Copyright, 1900.
[Ill.u.s.tration: BY THE BROOK]
RIPPLES, little curling waves FILM, a thin skin or slight covering.
CURRENT, the swiftest part of a stream; also applied to _air, electricity_, etc.
What do the following expressions mean: tilting rim, lilting melody, softest sleep, gurgle and refrain, a happiness as keen to him as pain?
What is a lullaby? Recite a stanza of one.
Insert _may_ or _can_ properly where you see a dash in the following: The boy said, "--I leave the room?" "Mother, I--climb the ladder;--I?"--a dog climb a tree?--I ask a favor?
Copy the following words--they are often misspelled: loving, using, till, until, queer, fulfil, speech, muscle, quite, scheme, success, barely, college, villain, salary, visitor, remedy, hurried, forty-four, enemies, twelfth, marriage, immense, exhaust.
By means of the suffixes, _er, est, ness_, form three new words from each of the following words: happy, sleepy, lively, greedy, steady, lovely, gloomy.
Example: From happy,--happier, happiest, happiness. Note the change of _y_ to _i_.
_15_
rag"ged crin"kly rub"bish fil"tered protect"ed disor"derly disturbed"
imme"diately
THE STORY OF THE SEED-DOWN.
I.
High above the earth, over land and sea, floated the seed-down, borne on the autumn wind"s strong arms.
"Here shall you lie, little seed-down," said he at last, and put it down on the ground, and laid a fallen leaf over it. Then he flew away immediately, because he had much to look after.
That was in the dark evening, and the seed could not see where it was placed, and besides, the leaf covered it.
Something heavy came now, and pressed so hard that the seed came near being destroyed; but the leaf, weak though it was, protected it.