FOURTH READER THE RIVULET LUCY LARCOM Run, little rivulet, run! Bear to the meadow the hymn of the pines, Run, little rivulet, run! Run, little rivulet, run! Sing of the flowers, every one: Of the delicate harebell and violet blue; Of the red mountain rosebud, all dripping with dew; Run, little rivulet, run! Run, little rivulet, run! Carry the perfume you won From the lily, that woke when the morning was gray, To the white waiting moonbeam adrift on the bay; Run, little rivulet, run! Run, little rivulet, run! Stay not till summer is done! 9 Carry the city the mountain birds' glee; Carry the joy of the hills to the sea; Riv'u ět, a small stream; hâre'běll', a flower, same as bluebell; per'fume, pleasant odor, smell. STUDY HELPS Who seems to be speaking to the rivulet? How can you tell what time of year it is? Point out expressions that tell what the rivulet is to do. How can the rivulet do all these things? Make a list of words and phrases that tell what the rivulet was to do. Make a list of descriptive words used in the lesson. Draw a picture of a waterfall, mountain, bird, flower, and hill. Copy one stanza of the poem, and be prepared to write one from dictation. WHY THE SUNFLOWERS HANG THEIR HEADS MADGE A. BIGHAM One night, soon after Daisy-Fair came to town, the moon was very, very bright, and of course you have not forgotten how much the flowers liked to hear stories on moonlight nights. So, when they asked the Lady Petunia to tell them one, she smiled and said, "I will tell you why the sunflowers hang their heads. Once upon a time, when the earth mother was busy taking care of her seed children -long, long ago, when the world was very new-a redbird brought her two small brown seeds and told her to take good care of them. If they are brave seeds and grow their best, they shall have blossoms like the sun and almost as beautiful,' said the redbird, and then flew quickly away. "Now the earth mother loved the sun, because he never failed to send the sunbeams to help her care for her` seeds -he even drew water drops from the rivers and made clouds of them, that the raindrops might help her, too; so she felt very glad that these two little seeds could bear blossoms that would look like the sun, and she covered them over very gently near the tall fence and left them to grow. Each day she whispered to them, 'Wake up, little seeds, wake and grow, higher and higher, to the top of the fence. Wake, wake and look first for the sun-your blossoms will be large and bright like him-wake, wake, I say.' By and by the sleeping seeds heard, and stirred in their brown beds. 'Come,' said the little sister, 'don't you hear?' "Now the little brother seed was very fat and very lazy- he wanted to sleep all the time, so when he heard the dear earth mother calling to him, he rubbed his eyes drowsily and said, 'I don't want to get up! I'm not going to try to grow; it's too much trouble to reach the top of the fence; I don't believe any plant can grow that high, and I don't believe we will have blossoms to look like the sun, either; no, I don't!' ""Why-y,' said the little sister seed, 'I A redbird brought her two small brown seeds believe what the dear earth mother says, and I am going to try my very best to grow-try, try, try, try—try to climb even higher than the fence! You try, too, little brother; there is always somebody to help, you know'— "We'll help!' said the sunbeams. "So, you see, all were ready to do their part, if the little brother seed would only try. But he would not; he just turned over in his soft bed and lay right still, night and day, night and day, sleeping, sleeping, sleeping, sleeping. But the little sister seed began at once to grow; she stretched her tiny roots down, and her tiny hand up, and pushed and pushed until she pushed right through the brown earth covering, into the light of the bright outside world with the blue sky and sailing clouds overhead, and the grasses and flowers below. Then she remembered what the earth mother had told her about the sun, and just then he came from behind a gray cloud in all of his glorious splendor, and shone down on the little sister seed, making her feel warm and glad. "Oh, you wonderful sun,' she said, 'to think that I, a little brown seed, will some day have a blossom to look like you! Oh, joy, joy, joy!' "All day she kept her face turned to his golden light, and longed for her blossom which was to be like him, and she thought of the little brother seed asleep in the earth and felt so sorry that he, too, was not with her to see and grow. She kept calling to him as she climbed higher and higher: |