falls flat. MARGARET fails on table and CASPAR over back of chair.) What was that? CASPAR. Another wish come true! It's a rough way the fairies have. MARTIN (getting up). Another wish! What wish? CASPAR. That the sausages were grown on Margaret's MARTIN. They can't be grown to you. Caspar! Pull them off! CASPAR (touching them). They're hot- they burnt me. MARGARET. Oh oh I am a ruined woman! CASPAR (laughing inwardly). Never mind. It's not every woman who can nibble her own nose for breakfast! (He laughs.) MARTIN. Stop laughing. I tell you-stop! Two wishes gone! Two aw, what good's the third! What good to be rich like the Duke with that beside me for a wife! (He points to MARGARET:) Look at her-look! An elephant with his nose in curl paper. (CASPAR gives suppressed laughter.) Stop swinging them, I say! I can't bear it! This ring has brought nothing but torment. By magic they came and by magic they must go. I wish the sausages were off Margaret's nose! (Thunder and lightning. MARTIN, MARGARET and CASPAR fall to the floor. The FAIRY appears. FAIRY. So all three wishes came to naught! You know I rather thought they would, To wise or foolish any good. If fools could have the things they wish, And wise folks, when they want a thing, They just make sure they want it first, CURTAIN CLASS ACTIVITIES 1. Name the three wishes. Was the third a sensible wish? 2. What happenings in the play show the character of Martin? 3. In what way does this story resemble "The Foolish Fir-Tree"? 4. What sort of man was Caspar? Find a place in which he says something, and another in which he does something that shows his character. CLASS-LIBRARY READINGS THE MATERIALS WITH WHICH WE BUILD 1. "Phaethon," C. M. Gayley, in Children's Literature, 340–343. 2. "The Narcissus," R. E. Francillon, ibid., 330-332. 3. "The Fir-Tree," Hans C. Andersen, ibid., 190–195. 4. "Lazy Jack,” ibid., 70-71. 5. "The Fisherman and His Wife," ibid., 138–142. 6. "The King's High Way," The Van Dyke Book, 128–131. 7. "The King's Jewel," ibid., 132–135. 8. "Simplicity," ibid., 169. 9. "What a Boy Scout Needs to Know," Compton's Pictured Ency 12. "The Deaf Musician" (Ludwig von Beethoven), More Than Con querors, 3-25. 13. "The Girl Who Saved a Fort," Book of Knowledge, 1:241–243. 14. "The Heroism of Grace Darling," ibid., 6:1733-1734. 15. "The Boy Scouts of America," ibid., 12:3583-3589. 16. "Out of the Wilderness," John Muir, in Atlantic Prose and Poetry, 241-255. C. CARRYING HARD TASKS THROUGH FIVE POEMS ON "OPPORTUNITY” On the next pages are printed five poems upon the same subject. During the class period carry out this group exercise: 1. Read the five poems to yourself silently. 2. When you have finished, close your books and listen intently while a good reader reads the five poems aloud. 3. Open your books again and reread the poems silently. Then write upon a slip of paper the name of the poem you like best; second, the one you like next best; and so on. 1. OPPORTUNITY EDWIN MARKHAM In an old city by the storied shores Where the bright summit of Olympus soars, "O statue, tell your name," a traveler cried, My winged feet from earth to show how swift How Fate is ever waiting on the way." "But why that tossing ringlet on your brow?" Though deep in mire, wring not your hands and weep: No shamefaced outcast ever sank so deep, 5. OPPORTUNITY EDWARD ROWLAND SILL This I beheld, or dreamed it in a dream: A furious battle, and men yelled, and swords A craven hung along the battle's edge, And thought, "Had I a sword of keener steel That blue blade that the king's son bears - but this Blunt thing "he snapped and flung it from his hand And lowering, crept away and left the field. Then came the king's son, wounded, sore bestead, Hilt-buried in the dry and trodden sand, And ran and snatched it, and with battle shout |