5 The housewife's hand has turned the lock; ९९ Co', boss! co', boss! co'! co'! co'!" And oft the milkmaid, in her dreams, Drums in the pail with the flashing streams, QUESTIONS AND HELPS 1. Where was Mr. Trowbridge born? 2. What had his father and mother done to make a home before that time? 3. Tell something about how the farm looked when Mr. Trowbridge was a boy. 4. What canal ran near the house? 5. What are some of the things that the boy did on the farm? (Questions 1-5 may be written out in the form of a short story. Other groups of questions may be treated in the same way.) 6. Tell about his earliest verses. 7. What did he do for a few years after leaving school? 8. What did he finally decide to do for a living? 9. Where did he go to start this work? 10. What success did he have there? 11. Where did he go after that? 12. Name a few of the books that he has written. 13. Have you ever noticed your shadow toward evening, when the sun is going down? If you have, explain the second and third lines. 14. What is a katydid? How does it sing, and at what time of the day does it begin to sing? 15. Tell what a mink is. Why did it dart into the stone heap? 16. Tell what you know about crows. Why did the crows fly home? (As the boy goes farther over the hill his voice seems fainter. Make this so in your reading.) 17. Describe in your own words the picture in the first stanza, writing it out. 18. While the farm-boy is going after the cows, what does the farmer do? 19. How does he feel, and why? 20. Where have the farm tools been put? 21. What about the straw and the hay? What does all this tell us about the kind of man that the farmer was? 22. What do the animals do when the farmer comes into the yard? How does each greet him? What does that tell us about the farmer? 23. Describe the picture in the second stanza. 24. What is a milkmaid? 25. Why do the cattle go first to the trough? 26. What is a "yearling"? 27. What is a "new milch heifer"? 28. Why does the milkmaid call "soothingly"? 29. Describe the picture in the third stanza. ee 30. What does the farmer do after the milking is done? 31. Describe the picture in lines 20-24, page 75. 32. Tell about the cricket, and why its song is called a ceaseless song. 33. What does the line "The housewife's hand has turned the lock" tell you about the time of day? 34. Think of that line," Drowsily ticks the kitchen clock." Does the sound of the words in it make you think of anything? 35. What is the "household"? 36. Say" sinks to deep repose" in easier words. 37. What is meant by the farm-boy "singing, calling," in his sleep, and why, in the last line, does the milkmaid murmur "so, boss"? 38. Describe the picture in lines 1-9, page 76. e Other good poems by Mr. Trowbridge are "Midwinter" and "The Vagabonds." If you are interested in farm life you will enjoy reading Hopkins's "The Sandman," Garland's "Boy Life on the Prairie," and Eggleston's "Hoosier School Boy." Good stories about cows may be found in Eddy's "Friends and Helpers" and Poulsson's "In the Child's World." Aanrud's "Lisbeth Longfrock" is a story of farm life in Norway. TWO RIDDLES In marble walls as white as milk, No doors there are to this stronghold, Yet thieves break in and steal the gold. [An egg.] As I went through a garden gap, Whom should I meet but Dick Red-Cap! A stick in his hand, a stone in his throat, 'll tell me this riddle, I'll give you a groat. stronghold (strong ́hōld): a fort, or a secure place. [A cherry.] groat (grōat): an old English coin worth about eight cents. THE CIRCUS-DAY PARADE1 JAMES WHITCOMB RILEY [In the town of Greenfield, Indiana, about twenty miles from Indianapolis, stands an old-fashioned white house with green blinds. There is a porch across the front of it and trees and shrubbery on all sides. It seems like a generous, comfortable, good-natured sort of house, just like 5 its owner, for the place belongs to James Whitcomb Riley, the poet. He was born there October 7, 1853, and soon grew to be a happy, freckle-faced, tow-headed boy such as you would meet in almost any town and would never think remarkable in any way. He was full of fun, but had a 10 heart that was tender and overflowing with love, and a way of looking very closely at the common things and the common people around him, finding something interesting and beautiful in them all. He went to school in Greenfield until he was sixteen and then found a job with a house 15 painter. He liked to draw and could make very good letters. So after a while he took his paint pots and brushes and traveled from town to town, painting signs wherever he could find anybody to pay for them. Then he joined a company of people who went about in a big wagon giving minstrel 20 1 From "Rhymes of Childhood," by James Whitcomb Riley. Copyright, 1890. Used by special permission of the publishers, The Bobbs-Merrill Company. shows and selling medicines in the small towns of Indiana. He sometimes beat the drum and sometimes played the banjo, and very likely he sometimes took part in the play, for he was a good actor. His father was a lawyer and wanted 5 "Jim" to be a lawyer, too. "Jim" tried to study law in his father's office, but it was of no use. He just could n't do it. At about this time he began to work for a country newspaper in Anderson, Indiana. He wrote bits of verse from time to time, and some of these found their way into 10 the Indianapolis Journal. They were so good that the editor of the Journal asked young Riley to come to Indianapolis and write a column of them for the paper, every week. Many of these verses were written just as an Indiana farmer or farm boy would talk. They were different from 15 most poems, and everybody liked them because they were so lifelike. He told about the old swimming hole where he used to go swimming when he was a boy; and about the circus-day parade that the boys followed through the streets, half wild with joy; and about "Old Aunt Mary's,' 20 where he used to go on Saturday afternoons and stuff himself with jam and quince preserves; and about "Little Orphant Annie," who told stories of the goblins; and about the "Raggedy Man," who worked on the old place. For many years Mr. Riley made journeys all over the 25 country, reciting his poems in public, and crowds of people came to see and hear him. He spends a part of his summers |