Count that day lost Whose low descending sun, Views from thy hands No worthy action done.
_Author unknown._
What I must do concerns me, not what people will think.
_Emerson_.
[Footnote 001: Copyrighted by Little, Brown & Company.]
_24_
WHAT HOUSE TO LIKE.
For Recitation:
Some love the glow of outward show, Some love mere wealth and try to win it; The house to me may lowly be If I but like the people in it.
What"s all the gold that glitters cold, When linked to hard or haughty feeling?
Whate"er we"re told, the n.o.ble gold Is truth of heart and manly dealing.
A lowly roof may give us proof That lowly flowers are often fairest; And trees whose bark is hard and dark May yield us fruit and bloom the rarest.
There"s worth as sure "neath garments poor As e"er adorned a loftier station; And minds as just as those, we trust, Whose claim is but of wealth"s creation.
Then let them seek, whose minds are weak, Mere fashion"s smile, and try to win it; The house to me may lowly be If I but like the people in it.
_Anon_.
What is meant by "haughty feeling"?
What does the author say "the n.o.ble gold" is?
Is "bloom" in the third stanza an action-word or a name-word? Why?
Give in your own words the thought of the fourth stanza.
Use _to, too, two,_ properly before each of the following words:
hard, win, people, minds, dark, yield.
What virtues does the poem recommend?
What "lowly flowers are often fairest"?
What "lowly" virtue does the following stanza suggest?
The bird that sings on highest wing, Builds on the ground her lowly nest; And she that doth most sweetly sing, Sings in the shade when all things rest.
_Montgomery_.
Name the two birds referred to.
_25_
sears flecked de signed"
strait"ened il lu"mined
A SONG OF DUTY.
Sorrow comes and sorrow goes; Life is flecked with shine and shower; Now the tear of grieving flows, Now we smile in happy hour; Death awaits us, every one-- Toiler, dreamer, preacher, writer-- Let us then, ere life be done, Make the world a little brighter!
Burdens that our neighbors bear, Easier let us try to make them; Chains perhaps our neighbors wear, Let us do our best to break them.
From the straitened hand and mind, Let us loose the binding fetter, Let us, as the Lord designed, Make the world a little better!