Part 14 (1/2)

=HELPS TO STUDY=

Mark Twain's humor was noted for exaggeration. Find examples of exaggeration in this selection. Old Probabilities was the name signed by a weather prophet of the period. How was he affected by New England weather? At what point did Twain drop his fun and begin a beautiful tribute to a New England landscape? How does the tribute close?

SUPPLEMENTARY READING

Three Men in a Boat--Jerome K. Jerome.

The House Boat on the Styx--John Kendrick Bangs.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Silence Deep and White]

THE FIRST SNOWFALL

The snow had begun in the gloaming, And busily all the night Had been heaping fields and highway With a silence deep and white.

Every pine and fir and hemlock Wore ermine too dear for an earl, And the poorest twig on the elm tree Was ridged inch deep with pearl.

From sheds new roofed with Carrara Came chanticleer's m.u.f.fled crow, The stiff rails were softened to swan's-down And still fluttered down the snow.

I stood and watched by the window That noiseless work of the sky, And the sudden flurries of s...o...b..rds, Like brown leaves whirling by.

I thought of a mound in sweet Auburn Where a little headstone stood; How the flakes were folding it gently, As did robins the babes in the wood.

Up spoke our own little Mabel, Saying, ”Father, who makes it snow?”

And I told of the good All-Father Who cares for us here below.

Again I looked at the snowfall, And thought of the leaden sky That arched o'er our first great sorrow, When that mound was heaped so high.

I remembered the gradual patience That fell from that cloud like snow, Flake by flake, healing and hiding The scar on our deep-plunged woe.

And again to the child I whispered, ”The snow that husheth all, Darling, the merciful Father Alone can make it fall.”

Then, with eyes that saw not, I kissed her; And she, kissing back, could not know That _my_ kiss was given to her sister, Folded close under deepening snow.

JAMES RUSSELL LOWELL.

=HELPS TO STUDY=

When did the snow begin? How do you know? What time is it now? Is snow still falling? Read the lines that show this. Of what sorrow does the snow remind the poet? Read the lines which show that peace had come to the parents. Make a list of the comparisons (or similes) used by the poet. Read the lines which show that the storm was a quiet one. Which lines do you like best?

OLD EPHRAIM

For some days after our arrival on the Bighorn range we did not come across any grizzly. There were plenty of black-tail deer in the woods, and we encountered a number of bands of cow and calf elk, or of young bulls; but after several days' hunting, we were still without any game worth taking home, and we had seen no sign of grizzly, which was the game we were especially anxious to kill, for neither Merrifield nor I had ever seen a bear alive.