and run behind me, and seize upon yon bush of poison oak; before I could reach it, that would have blazed up; over the bush I see a pine tree hung with moss; that too would fly in fire upon the instant to its topmost bough; and the flame of that long torch - how would the trade wind take and brandish that through the inflammable forest! I hear this dell roar in a moment with the joint voice of wind and fire, I see myself gallop for my soul, and the flying conflagration chase and outflank me through the hills; I see this pleasant forest burn for days, and the cattle roasted, and the springs dried up, and the farmer ruined, and his children cast upon the world. What a world hangs upon this moment!"

With that he struck the match, and it missed fire. "Thank God," said the traveler, and put his pipe in his pocket.

run, ran, run

What is the situation at the opening of this story? Could a single match have started all the trouble that the traveler feared? What was certain to result if he did not try to strike the match? Was he too much exercised over the matter?

SUGGESTIONS FOR ORAL AND WRITTEN ENGLISH

THEME SUBJECTS

The Two Matches is a fable. Look up “fable” in a dictionary and see if you can understand why this is one. Read one of Æsop's fables, and tell it to the class. Explain the difference between a fable and other short stories. Write a fable on a subject of your own selection, or on

one of these:

No Cloud Without a Silver Lining.

All is Not Gold That Glisters.
Nothing Venture, Nothing Have.
A Stitch in Time Saves Nine.

H. & B. READINGS-8

What is Forestry?

The Duties of a Forester.

How Forestry May Control Floods.
The Best Way to Make a Camp
Fire.

Some Forestry Laws in my State.
Tree Surgery.

Our National Forests.

How to Make a Fire Without a
Match.

SUGGESTIONS FOR ADDITIONAL READINGS

Kidnapped. Robert Louis Stevenson.

The Master of Ballantrae. Robert Louis Stevenson.
Sire De Maletroit's Door.
Æsop's Fables:

The Dog in the Manger.

Robert Louis Stevenson.

The Horse, Hunter, and Stag.
The Shepherd Boy.

The Wind and the Sun.

The Lion in Love.

The Town Mouse and the Country
Mouse.

The Goose with the Golden Eggs.

THE BALLAD OF THE OYSTERMAN 1

OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES

Oliver Wendell Holmes (1809-1894) was born in Cambridge, Massachusetts, in the same year as Abraham Lincoln. He belonged to the group of writers known as the New England Group, which included Emerson, Thoreau, Hawthorne, Longfellow, Whittier, and Lowell. He wrote novels, essays, and poems, all of which show a delightful vein of humor. In his poetry the humor is particularly rollicking, as is plainly shown in the selection given below. See also:

Halleck's History of American Literature, pp. 258–265, 284.
Morse's Life and Letters of Oliver Wendell Holmes.

It was a tall young oysterman lived by the riverside,
His shop was just upon the bank, his boat was on the tide;
The daughter of a fisherman, that was so straight and slim,
Lived over on the other bank, right opposite to him.

It was the pensive oysterman that saw a lovely maid,
Upon a moonlight evening, a-sitting in the shade;
He saw her wave a handkerchief, as much as if to say,
"I'm wide awake, young oysterman, and all the folks away."

Then up rose the oysterman, and to himself said he,

"I

guess I'll leave the skiff at home, for fear that folks should

see;

I read it in the story book, that, for to kiss his dear,

Leander swam the Hellespont 2 and I will swim this here."

1 This poem is used by permission of, and by arrangement with, Houghton Mifflin Company, authorized publishers of Holmes's works.

2 Leander loved Hero, and visited her every night by swimming across the Hellespont. He was drowned in a storm, and Hero, in her grief, flung herself into the water.

And he has leaped into the waves, and crossed the shining

stream,

And he has clambered up the bank, all in the moonlight gleam; Oh, there are kisses sweet as dew, and words as soft as rain But they have heard her father's steps, and in he leaps again!

Out spoke the ancient fisherman: "Oh, what was that, my daughter?"

""Twas nothing but a pebble, sir, I threw into the water." "And what is that, pray tell me, love, that paddles off so fast?"

"It's nothing but a porpoise, sir, that's been a-swimming past."

Out spoke the ancient fisherman: "Now bring me my harpoon !

I'll get into my fishing boat, and fix the fellow soon.'
Down fell the pretty innocent, as falls a snow-white lamb;
Her hair drooped round her pallid cheeks, like seaweed on a
clam.

Alas for those two loving ones! she waked not from her swound,

And he was taken with the cramp, and in the waves was drowned;

But Fate has metamorphosed 1 them, in pity of their woe, And now they keep an oyster shop for mermaids down below.

SUGGESTIONS FOR ADDITIONAL READINGS

The Deacon's Masterpiece. Oliver Wendell Holmes.
The Diverting History of John Gilpin. William Cowper.
The Walrus and the Carpenter. Lewis Carroll.

The Courtin'. James Russell Lowell.

For the teacher to read to the class:

The Chambered Nautilus and The Boys, by Holmes.

1 Changed.

THREE SEA PICTURES AND A MORAL

SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE

Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772-1834) was born in Devonshire, England. He was a daydreamer from early childhood. For many years Coleridge lived in the Lake Country and he is known as one of the Lake Poets. The Ancient Mariner, from which these selections are taken, was composed while the poet was on a walking tour with his friends, Wordsworth and his sister Dorothy. It is his poetical masterpiece. See also:

Halleck's New English Literature, pp. 398–406.
Herford's The Age of Wordsworth (Coleridge).
Traill's Coleridge.

Caine's Life of Coleridge.

The Antarctic Ocean and the Albatross

AND now there came both mist and snow,
And it grew wondrous cold:

And ice, mast-high, came floating by,
As green as emerald.

And through the drifts the snowy clifts

Did send a dismal sheen:

Nor shapes of men nor beasts we ken

The ice was all between.

The ice was here, the ice was there,

The ice was all around:

It cracked and growled, and roared and howled,
Like voices in a swound!