66

vi ô lět

"I," said the duck, "I call it fun,
For I have my little red rubbers on;
They make a cunning three-toed track
In the soft, cool mud. Quack! quack!"
"I," cried the violet, "I!

My roots are thirsty, my buds are dry."
And she lifted a pretty yellow head
Out of her green grass bed.

"I hope 't will pour! I hope 't will pour!"
Purred the tree- toad at his gray bark door.
"For with a broad leaf for a roof,

66

I am perfectly water-proof."

Says the brook, "I laugh at every drop,
And I wish they never need to stop
Till a big, big river I grew to be,
And could find my way to the sea."

"I," shouted Ted, "for I can run,

With my high top-boots and rain coat on,
Through every puddle and runlet and pool
I find on the road to school."

Definitions. Runlet, a little stream.

- Our Little Ones.

Spell: pour, broad, purred, thirsty, perfectly, laugh, through, three-toed, tree - toad, leaf, leaves.

Read, if accessible, "How Beautiful is the Rain." - Longfellow. Also, "The Rain upon the Roof." - Coates Kinney.

Once there were five peas in one pod. The peas were green, the pod was green, the vine was green, and they thought all the world was green.

But while they were sitting all in a row, just as peas should sit, the pod grew larger and larger, and the peas grew bigger and bigger.

Then the peas began to crowd each other and fret because their house was so small.

"Are we to lie here forever?" cried the biggest pea.

"I am tired of it!" said the next pea. "Let me alone!" said the third.

"I am afraid we shall get hard!" cried the fourth.

"Never mind," said the little one; "what is to be will be," and she nestled down in her corner.

At last the vine turned yellow, the pod turned yellow, and the peas turned yellow. "All the world is turning yellow," cried the peas.

One day "crack!" went the pod, and the five peas rolled out into the sunshine. A small boy found them, and said, "What fine large peas for my pop-gun!" Then he put the biggest one into his gun and shot it out.

"Now I am flying into the wide world!" said the pea. "Catch me if you can!" "We can sleep wherever we go!" cried two lazy peas, when their turn came.

แ

"I shall fly right into the sun!" said the next.

"What is to be will be!" said the little pea again, as she shot up into the air.

And what became of the peas? The one that said "catch me if you can!" fell upon the roof of the house, and found a home in a dove's crop. The two lazy ones got just as far, for they, too, were eaten by doves. The pea that wanted to go up

into the sun, fell into a ditch and lay there for weeks and weeks, and then burst.

But the little pea that was always happy, fell into a flower-pot in a room where lay a poor sick girl.

Soon the little pea took root and put out its tiny green leaves. Then the sick girl's bed was moved near the window so that she might always see it.

"Dear mother, I think I shall get well," she said one day. "Just see how my sweet-pea is growing!"

"God grant it," said the mother, and she tied a string across the window for the pea to climb by.

After many days there opened out a lovely pink pea-blossom, and as the little girl kissed it, she cried, "Now I am sure I am going to get well."

- Adapted from Hans Andersen.

Spell: crowd, wherever, nestle, corner, bigger.

Read to the class, if accessible, "How the Indian Corn Grows," in "Stories Mother Nature Told." - Jane Andrews.

Copy and learn:

"Hark!" says Morning-Glory,

"Hear what all my bells are chiming,
Blue and pink so softly rhyming,
'Keep on climbing! Keep on climbing!'
This is all their story.

An old lark had her nest in a field of

grain. As the grain grew tall the little larks grew strong, and their proud mother counted the days until they should be able to fly.

One day, while she was away, the farmer and his son came to look at the grain. "My son," said the farmer, "this grain is nearly ripe. Go and ask our friends and neighbors to come and help us reap it to-morrow,"