James Whitcomb Riley.
From “Rhymes of Childhood.” Used
by special permission of the publishers, The Bobbs-Merrill
Co. Copyright, 1900.
* * * *
*
[Illustration: 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
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.
It was a human foot which walked along over the ground,
and pressed the downy seed into the earth. When
the foot was withdrawn, the earth fell, and filled
the little pit it had made.
The cold came, and the snow fell several feet deep;
but the seed lay quietly down there, waiting for warmth
and light. When the spring came, and the snow
melted away, the plant shot up out of the earth.
There was a little gray cottage beside which it grew
up. The tiny plant could not see very far around,
because rubbish and brush-heaps lay near it, and the
little window was so gray and dusty that it could not
peep into the cottage either.
“Who lives here?” asked the little thing.
