SELECTIONS FOR READING. I. TREES. ALFRED B. STREET. 1. Whether pluming the mountain, edging the lake, eyelashing the stream, roofing the waterfall, sprinkling the meadow, burying the homestead, or darkening leagues of hill, plain, and valley, trees have always "haunted me like a passion." Let me summon a few of them, prime favorites, and familiar to the American forest. 2. The aspen-what soft, silver-gray tints on its leaves, how smooth its mottled bark, its whole shape how delicate and sensitive! You may be sitting on the homestead lawn some summer noon, the trees all motionless, and the hot air trembling over the surface of the unstirred grass. Suddenly you will hear a fluttering like the unloosing of a rapid brook, and looking whence comes the sound, you will see the aspen shaking as if falling to pieces, or as if the leaves were little wings, each striving to fly off. All this time the broad leaf of the maple close by, does not lift even its pointed edges. This soft murmur really sends a coolness through the sultry atmosphere; but while your ear is drinking the music and your eye is filled with the tumultuous dancing, instantly both cease, as if the tree were stricken with a palsy, and the quiet leaves flash back the sunshine like so many fairy mirrors. 3. Next the elm. How noble the lift and droop of its branches! With such graceful downward curves on either side, it has the shape of the Greek vase. Such lavish foliage, also, running down the trunk to the very roots, as if a rich vine were wreathed around it! And what frameworks those branches shape, breaking the landscape beyond into halfoval scenes which look, through the chiar -oscuro, as if beheld through slightly shaded glass. And how finely the elm leans over the brook-its native place-turning the water into ebony, and forming a shelter for the cattle from the heat. It is scattered, too, over the meadow, making shady nooks for the mowers at their noontide meal, shadowing also the farmer's gate, and mantling his homestead in an affluence of green. 4. Then the maple. What a splendid cupola of leaves it builds up into the sky-an almost complete canopy from the summer shower. It reddens brilliantly when the blue-bird tells us spring has come, and, a few days later, its dropped fringes gleam in the fresh grass like flakes of fire. And in autumn, too, its crimson is so rich, one might term it the blush of the wood. 5. And the beech. How cheerful its snow-spotted trunk looks in the deep woods-how fresh the green of its regularly scalloped leaves! At springtide the tips of its sprays feather out in the glossiest and most delicate cream-satin, amid which the young leaf glows like a speck of emerald. And in the fall what rich clusters of fruit burthen the boughs! The pattering of the brown, three-cornered beech-nut upon the dead leaves is constant in the hazy, purple days of our Indian summer, and makes a sweet music, almost as continuous as the dripping of a rill, in the mournful forest. 6. The birch is a great favorite of mine. It reminds me of the whistles of my boyhood. Its fragrant bark—what delight it was to wrench it from the silvery wood for the shrill music I delighted in, particularly by the hearth-stone of my home! 7. "Conscience!" my aunt Katy used to ejaculate, holding her ears, "is that whistling coming again? John (John is my name-John Smith), do, do stop!" And when came a shriller blast, "John, you little torment! if you don't stop, I'll box your ears! " What splendid tassels the birch hangs out at the bidding of April !-tassels that Indian sachems were proud to wear at the most honored feasts of their nation. 8. And into such rich gold is it transmuted by October, that a light almost of its own is shed within the sylvan reThe speckled bark of the black birch is glossy and bright, but give me the beauty of the white birch's coat. cesses. How like a shaft of ivory it gleams in the daylight woods! How the flame of moonlight kindles it into columned pearl! 9. Did you ever, while wandering in the forest about the first of June, have your eyes dazzled at a distance with what you supposed to be a tree laden with snow? It was the dogwood. Glittering in its white blossoms, each one spread over a broad leaf of the brightest verdure, pointed gauze upon emerald, there stands the pretty tree like a bride. The shadbush and cherry have dropped their white honors a month before, but the dogwood keeps company with the basswood and locust in brightening the last days of spring with its floral beauty. Up in the soft blue it lifts its wreathed crown, for it gathers its richest glow of blossom at its head, and makes the forest bright as with silver chandeliers. 10. While admiring the dogwood, an odor of exquisite sweetness may salute you; and, if at all conversant in treeknowledge, you will know the censer dispensing this fragrance. But you will have to travel some distance, and you will do it as the hound tracks the deer, by scent; for the perfume fills the forest long before the tree catches the eye. At length you see it-the basswood-clustered with yellow blossoms, golden bells pouring out such strong, delicious fragrance, you realize the idea of Shelley: "And the hyacinth, purple and white and blue, It was felt like an odor within the sense." And the deep hum, too, about it—an atmosphere of sound— the festival of the bees surrounding the chalices so rich with honey. 11. I have mentioned the flowers of the locust and chestnut in conjunction with the basswood. Delicate pearl does the former hang out amid the vivid green of its beautiful leaves, and sweet is that pearl as the lips of the maiden you love. 12. And the chestnut-scattered thickly among its long, dark-green leaves, are strings of pale gold blossoms-haunts also of the reveling bee. Does the school-boy ever forget “the days that he went " truanting after the auburn fruit em bedded in velvet within, but without protected by porcupines of husks? With what delight did the young good-for-nothings pelt down those yellow husks to be crushed open by indefatigable heels! Ah! the aurora of life-how bright, how merry it is! 13. Forever linked in the minds of these truants with the chestnut is the walnut. How the green, smooth globes that insphere the fruit make the eyes of the young vagabonds dance, and how eagerly they mount to shake down those globes, each fracturing at the fall, and letting out the round ivories that in turn imprison the dark gold meats! ANALYSIS OF A PART OF SELECTION I. Is this prose or poetry? Why? Is it a humorous piece? Is it imaginative? (See the dictionary, for the meaning of these words.) What is the author aiming to do in it? What must the author have done in order to write it? Could he have prepared himself by merely thinking? What must you do in order to read the piece well? Have you in your mind a picture of the objects described here? [The pupil should be induced to form such a picture, making it complete, and supplying whatever is omitted in the description.] Are the objects here described beautiful? What good comes of studying beautiful things, or the descriptions of them? Ought this to be read very loud? very softly? with a high or a low pitch? slowly or rapidly? Tell how it should be read in all respects. [See Principles and General Directions, p. 41]. First Paragraph. What is said about What is the first sentence about? them? What are spoken of as "pluming the mountain”? Why is the word "pluming" used, and what does it mean? Tell the same about "edging," "eye-lashing," "roofing," "sprinkling," "burying," "darkening." What is the meaning of "haunted”? What is it to summon"? Could the author make the trees come before him, as a judge calls a witness? Meaning of "favorites"? "prime"? Give the etymology and meaning of mountain, waterfall, homestead, valley, passion, prime. [In giving etymologies, several steps are to be taken. First, separate the word into its parts; next, give the radical meaning of each part; next, the radical meaning of the whole; next, the actual or received meaning of the word; next, show how the radical meaning gave place to the received meaning. For an example, take the word successor. By consulting the dictionary, it will be seen that its parts are suc, cess, or; suc, sub, means under or after; cess, ceed, means go; and or means one who. The radical meaning of the whole word, then, is one who goes after. It is easy to show how the received meaning, one who follows another in office, comes from this radical meaning. All these steps must be taken, or the exercise is of little value. The last step is usually the most difficult, and often requires much thought.] Tell how this paragraph ought to be read. First, show what words are important, and therefore to be read with more force and a more prolonged utterance than ordinary words. Such words are said to be emphatic. Also show at what pauses the voice is to slide upwards, and where downwards, and where it is to vanish without inclining either way. turning of the voice is called inflection. Second Paragraph. This Give a description of the aspen. What kind of bark is a "mottled" bark? What is the shape of this tree? Why do the leaves of the aspen tremble more readily than other leaves? How do the leaves of the aspen differ in form from those of the maple? What is meant by the ear's "drinking the music"? What "tumultuous dancing" is meant? Why is it called dancing? Why is it said to be tumultuous ? Give the etymology and meaning of tint, delicate, sensitive, motionless, atmosphere, tumultuous, instantly. Show how to read this paragraph. Third Paragraph. 66 What is meant by the "lift" of the branches? What is the shape of the "Greek vase"? What looks as if a rich vine were wreathed around it"? What gives it this appearance? Explain the next sentence. What is "chiar-oscuro" } |