"I'm not worrying about your keeping the family record bright, Ernest. And, however things may go with me, you will be able to hang fast to the doctrine which helped you today, that your father, too, doesn't know when he is whipped."

CLASS ACTIVITIES

1. Would you have been satisfied if the story had ended with the kicking of the goal? Explain.

2. Who is the hero - Mr. Seeley or Ernest? Which helped the other

more?

3. Can you suggest a better title for the story? 4. Name the important parts or episodes in the story. Can you point out where each begins and ends? Would the story suffer if any episode were omitted? How does the author bridge the gaps between these episodes; that is, how does he link them together?

5. Would it have been better if the author had put the cause of Mr. Seeley's failure in journalism at the very beginning of the story instead of deferring it until later?

6. Explain: "chip of the old block"; "blood will tell."

7. Is this more than a football story? Explain what it has to do with home or family.

3. THE HOUSEHOLD FAIRY

ALICE HULING

No word grips the heart as does the word Mother. She is the centre and maker of the home. No one can take her place. In the next three selections three authors pay tribute to her, but no two of them honor her in quite the same way. Read these selections through silently, and then decide which of them best describes your own mother.

Have you heard of the household fairy sweet,
Who keeps the home so bright and neat?
Who enters the rooms of boys and girls,

And finds lost marbles or smooths out curls?
Who mends the rent in a girlie's frock -
Or darns the hole in a Tomboy's sock?

If you don't believe it is true, I say

You may search and find her this very day
In your home.

You must not look for a maiden fair,
With starry eyes and golden hair;

Her hair may be threaded with silver gray,
But one glance of her eyes drives care away,

And the touch of her hand is so soft and light
When it smooths out a place for your head at night.
If you know of some one just like this,

My household fairy you cannot miss

It's "Mother."

4. MOTHER

KATHLEEN NORRIS

No, Mother never worried, or if she did, nobody ever knew it. Care, fatigue, responsibility, hard long years of busy days and broken nights had left their mark on her face; but there was a contagious serenity in her smile, a clear steadiness in her calm eyes, and her forehead, beneath an unfashionably plain sweep of hair, was untroubled and smooth.

Mother was a simple woman; so absorbed in the hourly problems attendant upon the housing and feeding of her husband and family that her own personal ambitions, if she had any, were quite lost sight of, and the actual outlines of her character were forgotten by every one, herself included. If her busy day marched successfully to nightfall; if darkness found her husband reading in his big chair, the younger children sprawled safe and asleep in the nursery, the older ones contented with books or games, the clothes sprinkled, the bread set, the kitchen dark and clean, she asked no more of life.

She would sit, her overflowing work-basket beside her, looking from one absorbed face to another, thinking perhaps of Julie's new school dress, of Ted's impending siege with the

dentist, or of the old bureau in the attic that might be mended for Bruce's room. "Thank God, we all have warm beds," she would say, when they all went up-stairs yawning and chilly.

She had married, at twenty, the man she loved, and had found him better than her dreams in many ways, and perhaps disappointing in some few others, but "the best man in the world" for all that. That for more than twenty years he had been satisfied to stand for nine hours daily behind one dingy desk, and to carry home to her his unopened salary envelope twice a month, she found only admirable. Daddy was "steady," he was "so gentle with the children," he was "the easiest man in the world to cook for." "Bless his heart, no woman ever had less to worry over in her husband!" she would say, looking from her kitchen window to the garden where he trained the pea-vines, with the children's yellow heads bobbing about him. She never analyzed his character, much less criticised him. Good and bad, he was taken for granted; she was much more lenient to him than to any of the children.

She welcomed the babies as gifts from God, marvelled over their tiny perfectness, dreamed over the soft little forms with a heart almost too full for prayer. She secretly regarded her children as marvellous, even while she laughed down their youthful conceit and punished their naughtiness.

5. A WORTHY WOMAN

THE BIBLE

A worthy woman who can find?
For her price is far above rubies.

The heart of her husband trusteth in her,

And he shall have no lack of gain.

She doeth him good and not evil

All the days of her life.

She seeketh wool and flax,

And worketh willingly with her hands.
She is like the merchant-ships;

She bringeth her bread from afar.

She riseth also while it is yet night,
And giveth food to her household,
And their task to her maidens.

She considereth a field, and buyeth it;

With the fruit of her hands she planteth a vineyard. She girdeth her loins with strength,

And maketh strong her arms.

She perceiveth that her merchandise is profitable;
Her lamp goeth not out by night.

She layeth her hands to the distaff,

And her hands to the spindle.

She stretcheth out her hands to the poor;

Yea, she reacheth forth her hands to the needy.

She is not afraid of the snow for her household;
For all her household are clothed with scarlet.
She maketh for herself carpets of tapestry;
Her clothing is fine linen and purple.
Her husband is known in the gates,

When he sitteth among the elders of the land.
She maketh linen garments and selleth them,
And delivereth girdles unto the merchant.
Strength and dignity are her clothing;
And she laugheth at the time to come.
She openeth her mouth with wisdom;

And the law of kindness is on her tongue.
She looketh well to the ways of her household.
And eateth not the bread of idleness.

Her children rise up, and call her blessed;
Her husband also, and he praiseth her, saying:

Many daughters have done worthily,

But thou excellest them all.

Grace is deceitful, and beauty is vain;

But a woman that feareth Jehovah, she shall be praised. Give her of the fruit of her hands;

And let her works praise her in the gates.

CLASS ACTIVITIES

1. Write a short poem or essay picturing your mother as you most often think of her. Send the best three to the principal. 2. Which of these selections reminds you most of your mother? 3. What different view of mother is emphasized in each of these selections?

4. Name the tasks mentioned in "The Household Fairy” and "Mother" as the work of a mother which could be done by boys or girls.

5. How many of these lines from the last selection can you explain? a. "For her price is far above rubies."

b. "She stretcheth out her hands to the poor."

c. "She is not afraid of the snow for her household."

d. "And she laugheth at the time to come."

e.

f.

"And the law of kindness is on her tongue."

"And eateth not the bread of idleness."

g. "And let her works praise her in the gates."

6. Which is the finest tribute to a mother in the last selection? In any of the three selections? Give reasons for your answers. ADDITIONAL READINGS. 1. "The Revolt of Mother," M. E. Wilkins, in A New England Nun and Other Stories. 2. "The Knight's Toast," Sir Walter Scott. 3. "Pies," Anonymous, in Atlantic Monthly, 128:715-716. 4. "Her Words," A. H. Branch, in M. Wilkinson's New Voices, 131. 5. "The House and the Road," J. P. Peabody,

ibid., 296.

6. HOME, SWEET HOME

JOHN HOWARD PAYNE

'Mid pleasures and palaces though we may roam, Be it ever so humble, there's no place like home; A charm from the sky seems to hallow us there,