The scheme of nature study, as outlined in the school work of the year, has been carefully followed. Plants, flowers, insects, birds, clouds and wind, rain and snow, and other phenomena, form the subject of diverse poems by different authors, and the teacher will find no difficulty in selecting such as are best suited to her grade, and to the lesson in hand. Though primarily intended for school use, it is believed that the volume will prove no less attractive for children in the home. The poems are largely by the best English and American authors, and will bear frequent reading; while the memorizing of them will afford lasting pleasure and profit to their young readers. The copyrighted material is used by permission of and by arrangement with Messrs. Houghton, Mifflin and Co., Roberts Bros., D. Appleton and Co., Harper and Bros., The Century Co., Lothrop Publishing Co., Charles Scribner's Sons, Kindergarten Publishing Co., Educational Publishing Co., and the publishers of the Youth's Companion, Independent, New England Magazine, and Ladies' Home Journal, to all of whom the compiler desires to make cordial acknowledgment for their courtesy and good will. Her thanks are also gratefully extended to the authors who so graciously granted permission for the use of their poems, and whose kindly letters have been a source of gratification and encouragement. That the book into which so much good thought has been incorporated may awaken in children a true love of the beautiful in nature, and a reverence for its Creator, is the earnest desire of the compiler. |