GRADED SELECTIONS.

FIFTH YEAR.

I. THE YELLOW VIOLET.

WHEN beechen buds begin to swell,

And woods the bluebird's warble know, The yellow violet's modest bell

Peeps from the last year's leaves below.

Oft, in the sunless April day,

Thy early smile has stayed my walk; But 'midst the gorgeous blooms of May, I passed thee on thy humble stalk.

So they, who climb to wealth, forget
The friends in darker fortunes tried.

I copied them—but I regret

That I should ape the ways of pride.

And when again the genial hour
Awakes the painted tribes of light,
I'll not o'erlook the modest flower
That made the woods of April bright.

-William Cullen Bryant.

II.

I SHOT an arrow into the air,
It fell to earth, I knew not where;
For, so swiftly it flew, the sight
Could not follow it in its flight.

I breathed a song into the air,
It fell to earth, I knew not where;
For who has sight so keen and strong,
That it can follow the flight of song?

Long, long afterward, in an oak
I found the arrow, still unbroke;
And the song, from beginning to end,
I found again in the heart of a friend.
-Henry W. Longfellow.

III.

WOULDST thou shut up the avenues of ill,
Pay every debt as if God wrote the bill.

-Ralph Waldo Emerson.

IV.

UPON the valley's lap,

The dewy morning throws
A thousand pearly drops,
To wake a single rose.

Thus, often in the course

Of life's few fleeting years,

A single pleasure costs

The soul a thousand tears.

-From the Spanish.

V.

TRUE worth is in being, not seeming,—
In doing each day that goes by
Some little good-not in the dreaming
Of great things to do by and by.
For whatever men say in blindness,
And spite of the fancies of youth,
There's nothing so kingly as kindness,
And nothing so royal as truth.

Our good lieth not in pursuing,
Nor gaining of great nor of small,
But just in the doing, and doing
As we would be done by, is all.

G. S. 6.

Through envy, through malice, through hating, Against the world, early and late,

No jot of our courage abating—

Our part is to work and to wait. And slight is the sting of his trouble

Whose winnings are less than his worth,

For he who is honest is noble,

Whatever his fortunes or birth.

-Alice Cary.

VI.

THE proudest motto for the young!
Write it in lines of gold

Upon thy heart, and in thy mind
The stirring words enfold:

And in misfortune's dreary hour,
Or fortune's prosperous gale,
"Twill have a holy, cheering power,
"There's no such word as fail."

DARE to do right! dare to be true!

The failings of others can never save you;

Stand by your conscience, your honor, your faith,Stand like a hero, and battle till death.

Wilson.

VIII.

CHISEL in hand stood a sculptor-boy,
With his marble block before him,
And his face lit up with a smile of joy
As an angel-dream passed o'er him:

He carved the dream on that shapeless stone
With many a sharp incision;

With heaven's own light the sculpture shone:
He had caught that angel-vision.

Sculptors of life are we, as we stand
With our souls uncarved before us,
Waiting the hour when, at God's command,
Our life-dream shall pass o'er us.

If we carve it then on the yielding stone
With many a sharp incision,

Its heavenly beauty shall be our own;

Our lives that angel-vision.

-Bishop Doane.

IX.

BELIEVE not each accusing tongue,
As most weak people do;

But still believe that story wrong

Which ought not to be true.

--Richard Brinsley Sheridan.