New National Fourth Reader Part 42

Through the forest it roared, and cried gayly, "Now You st.u.r.dy old oaks, I'll make you bow!"

And it made them bow without more ado, Or it cracked their great branches through and through.

Then it rushed like a monster o'er cottage and farm, Striking their inmates with sudden alarm; And they ran out like bees in a midsummer swarm.

There were dames with their kerchiefs tied over their caps, To see if their poultry were free from mishaps; The turkeys they gobbled, the geese screamed aloud, And the hens crept to roost in a terrified crowd; There was raising of ladders, and logs laying on, Where the thatch from the roof threatened soon to be gone.

But the wind had pa.s.sed on, and had met in a lane With a school-boy, who panted and struggled in vain; For it tossed him, and whirled him, then pa.s.sed, and he stood With his hat in a pool, and his shoe in the mud.

Then away went the wind in its holiday glee, And now it was far on the billowy sea; And the lordly ships felt its powerful blow, And the little boats darted to and fro.

But, lo! it was night, and it sunk to rest On the sea-birds' rock in the gleaming west, Laughing to think, in its frolicsome fun, How little of mischief it really had done.

Directions for Reading.--Let some pupil in the cla.s.s state the manner in which the lesson should be read.

Point out four lines that should be read more quietly than the rest of the lesson.

Vary the reading by having parts of lesson read as a concert exercise.

What effect has the repet.i.tion of the word _now_, in the second and third lines?

Language Lesson.--Let pupils write six sentences, each containing one of the following words, used in such a manner as to show its proper meaning: _right, write; reed, read; tied, tide_.

Let pupils make out an _a.n.a.lysis_ of the lesson, and use it in giving the story in their own words.

LESSON XLI.

veg e ta'tion, _every thing that grows out of the ground_.

meth'od, _way; manner_.

ta'per ing, _growing smaller toward the end_.

men'tioned, _spoken of_.

struct'ure, _arrangement of parts; a building of any kind_.

marsh'y, _wet_.

swamp, _low ground filled with water_.

sprung, _started; begun_.

SOMETHING ABOUT PLANTS.

The name plant belongs in a general way to all vegetation, from the tiniest spear of gra.s.s or creeping flower one sees on the rocks by the brook-side, to the largest and tallest of forest trees.

Plants are divided into numerous groups of families, and the study of the many species belonging to each family, is very interesting.

There are thousands of kinds of gra.s.ses, shrubs, and trees, scattered over the different parts of the earth, and the larger portion of them are in some way useful to mankind.

In speaking of gra.s.ses, we are apt to think only of the gra.s.s in the meadows, which is the food for our horses and cattle; but there are other kinds of gra.s.ses which are just as important to man as the gra.s.s of the meadow is to the beast. These are oats, rye, barley, wheat, corn, and others, all of which belong to the gra.s.s family.

Perhaps it appears strange to you to hear wheat and corn called gra.s.s, and you ask how can that be.

In the first place, all plants that have the same general form and method of growth, belong to the same family.

Now, if you will pull up a stalk of gra.s.s and a stalk of wheat or rye and compare them, you will find that they are alike in all important respects.

The roots of each look like a little bundle of strings or fibers, and are therefore called fibrous; the stalks you will find jointed and hollow; and the leaves are long and narrow, tapering to a point at their ends.

Then, if you examine the seeds, you will see that they are placed near together and form what we call an ear or head, as in an ear of corn, or a head of wheat.

This same general form or structure applies to every one of the plants belonging to the gra.s.s family; and in this family are included all the different kinds of canes and reeds that grow in swamps and marshy places, as well as the bamboo of the tropics.

Shrubs are those plants which have woody stems and branches. They are generally of small size, rarely reaching over twenty feet in height.

Small shrubs are usually called bushes.

In this cla.s.s of plants, the branches generally start close to the ground, and in some cases, a little below the surface of the ground, rising and spreading out in all directions.

The common currant bushes, blackberry bushes, and rose bushes which we see in gardens, are shrubs.

So also are grape-vines, honeysuckles, ivy, and all other creeping vines. These are called climbing plants, because little tendrils or claspers which grow out of their branches, wind around and fasten themselves to any thing in their way.

Trees are the largest and strongest of all plants.

They have woody stems or trunks, and branches. These branches do not, as in shrubs, start close to the ground, but at some distance above, from which height they extend in different directions.

It is difficult to believe that some of the large trees we see, sprung from small seeds; yet it is true that all trees started in this manner.