Cole's Funny Picture Book No. 1
Not alone commits an error
But a great and grievous wrong.
Give it play, and never fear it;
Active life is no defect.
Never, never break its spirit;
Curb it only to direct.
Would you stop the flowing river,
Thinking it would cease to flow?
Onward in must flow forever;
Better teach it where to go.
[Page 90--Reading Land]
Reading
"And so you do not like to spell,
Mary, my dear, oh, very well:
'Tis dull and troublesome,' you say,
And you had rather be at play.
"Then bring me all your books again;
Nay, Mary, why do you complain?
For as you do not choose to read,
You shall not have your books, indeed.
"So, as you wish to be a dunce,
Pray go and fetch me them at once;
For if you will not learn to spell,
'Tis vain to think of reading well.
"Do you not think you'll blush to own
When you become a woman grown,
Without one good excuse to plead,
That you have never learnt to read?"
"Oh, dear mamma," said Mary then,
"Do let me have my books again;
I'll not fret any more indeed,
If you will let me learn to read."
Jane Taylor
Mrs Grammar's Ball
Mrs Grammar once gave a fine ball
To the nine different parts of our speech;
To the short and the tall,
To the stout and the small,
There were pies, plums and puddings for each.
And first little Articles came,
In a hurry to make themselves known--
Fat _A_, _An_, and _The_;
But none of the three
Could stand for a minute alone.
The Adjectives came to announce
That their dear friends the Nouns were at hand,
_Rough_, _rougher_ and _roughest_,
_Tough_, _tougher_ and _toughest_,
_Fat_, _merry_, _good-natured_ and _grand_.
The Nouns were indeed on their way,
Tens of thousands, and more, I should think;
For each name we could utter,
_Shop_, _shoulder_, or _shutter_,
Is a noun: _lady_, _lion_ or _link_.
The Pronouns were hastening fast
To push the Nouns out of their places:
_I_, _thou_, _he_, and _she_,
_You_, _it_, _they_, and _we_,
With their sprightly intelligent faces.
Some cried out, "Make way for the Verbs!
A great crowd is coming in view!"
To _light_ and to _smile_,
To _fight_ and to _bite_,
To _be_, and to _have_, and to _do_.
The Adverbs attended on the Verbs,
Behind as their footmen they ran;
As this, "to fight _badly_,"
And "run _away gladly_,"
Shows how fighting and running were done.
Prepositions came _in_, _by_, and _near_;
With Conjunctions, a wee little band,
As _either_ you _or_ he,
But _neither_ I _nor_ she;
They held their great friends by the hand.
Then, too, with a _hip_, _hip_, _hurrah_!
Rushed in Interjections uproarious;
_Dear me!_ _well-a-day!_
When they saw the display,
"_Ha! Ha!_" they all shouted out, "glorious!"
But, alas! what misfortunes were nigh!
While the fun and the feasting pleased each,
Pounced on them at once
A monster--a Dunce!
And confounded the nine parts of speech!
Help! friends! to the rescue! on you
For aid Verb and Article call;
Oh! give your protection
To poor Interjection,
Noun, Pronoun, Conjunction, and all!
Grammar In Rhyme
Three little words we often see,
And Article, _a_, _an_, _the_.
Noun's the name of anything,
As _school_ or _garden_, _hoop_ or _string_.
Adjective tells the kind of noun,
As _great_, _small_, _pretty_, _white_ or _brown_.
Instead of nouns, the Pronoun stand
John's head, _his_ face, _my_ arm, _your_ hand.
Verbs tell us of something being done,
To _read_, _write_, _count_, _sing_, _jump_, or _run_.
How things are done, the Adverbs tell,
As _slowly_, _quickly_, _ill_, or _well_.
A Preposition stands before
A noun, as _in_ or _through_ a door.
Conjunctions join the nouns together
as men _and_ children, wind _and_ weather.
The Interjection shows surprise,
As _Oh_, how pretty! _Ah_, how wise!
The whole are called nine parts of speech,
Which reading, writing, speaking teach.
Value of Reading
The poor wretch who digs the mine for bread,
Or ploughs so that others may be fed,--
Feels less fatigue, than that decreed
To him that cannot think or read!
Hannah More
[Page 91--Reading Land]
[Page 92--Writing Land]
Little Flo's Letter
A sweet little baby brother
Had come to live with Flo,
And she wanted it brought to the table,
That it might eat and grow.
"It must wait a while," said grandma,
In answer to her plea,
"For a little thing that hasn't teeth
Can't eat like you and me."
"Why hasn't it got teeth, grandma?"
Asked Flo in great surprise,
"O my, but isn't it funny?--
No teeth, but nose and eyes.
"I guess," after thinking gravely,
They must have been forgot.
Can't we buy him some like grandpa's?
I'd like to know why not."
That afternoon, to the corner,
With paper, and pen, and ink,
Went Flo, saying, "Don't talk to me;
If you do, it'll 'sturb my think.
I'm writing a letter, grandma,
To send away to-night,
An' 'cause it's very 'portant,
I want to get it right."
At last the letter was finished,
A wonderful thing to see,
And directed to "God, in Heaven."
Please read it over to me,"
Said little Flo to her grandma,
"To see if it's right, you know."
And here is the letter written
To God by little Flo:--
"Dear God: The baby you brought us
Is awful nice and sweet,
But 'cause you forgot his tooffies
The poor little thing can't eat.
That's why I'm writing this letter,
A purpose to let you know.
Please come and finish the baby,
That's all--From Little Flo."
Eben. E. Rexford
Exercise Makes Perfect
True ease in writing
Comes from art, not chance,
As those move easiest
Who have learned to dance.
Pope
Hurrah for the Postman
Hurrah for the postman
Who brings us the news!
What a lot it must take
To pay for his shoes.
For he walks many miles
Each day of the week,
And though he would like to,
Must not stay to speak.
Red stripes round his blue cap,
With clothing to match it;
If he lost any letters,
Oh, wouldn't he catch it!
Two Letters
FIRST
Dear Grandmamma--I write to say
(And you'll be glad, I know,)
That I am coming, Saturday,
To spend a week or so.
I'm coming, too, without mamma,
You know I'm eight years old!
And you shall see how good I'll be,
To do as I am told.
I'll help you lots about your word--
There's so much I can do--
I'll weed the garden, hunt for eggs,
And feed the chickens, too.
And maybe I will be so good
You'll keep me there till fall;
Or, better still, perhaps you'll say
I can't go home at all!
Now grandmamma, please don't forget
To meet me at the train,
For I'll be sure to come--unless
It should cloud up and rain!
SECOND
Dear Mamma--Please put on your things,
And take the next express;
I want to go back home again--
I'm very sick, I guess!
My grandma's very good to me,
But grandma isn't you;
And I forgot, when I came here,
I'd got to sleep here, too!
Last night I cried myself to sleep,
I wanted you so bad!
To day, I cannot play or eat,
I feel so very sad.
Please, mamma, come, for I don't see
How I can bear to wait!
You'll find me, with my hat and sack
Out by the garden gate.
And grandma will not care a bit
If you should come, I know;
Because I am your own little girl,
And I do love you so.
Nell's Letter
Dear Grandmamma, I will try to write
A very little letter;
If I don't spell the words all right,
Why next time I'll do better.
My little rabbit is alive,
And likes his milk and clover,
He likes to se me very much,
But is afraid of Rover.
I have a dove as white as snow,
I hall her "Polly Feather";
She flies and hops about the yard,
In every kind of weather.
The hens are picking off the grass,
And singing very loudly;
While our old peacock struts about,
And shows his feathers proudly.
I think I'll close my letter now,
I've nothing more to tell;
Please answer soon, and come to see
Your loving, little Nell.
Baby's Letter to Uncle
Dear Old Uncle--I dot oor letter;
My dear mamma, she ditten better;
She every day a little bit stronger,
Don't mean to be sick very much longer.
Dear little baby had a bad colic;
Had to take three drops of nassy palagolic.
Toot a dose of tatnip--felt worse as ever;
Shan't tate no mors tytnip, never!
Wind on tomit, felt pooty bad;
Worse fit of sickness ever I had!
Ever had stomit ate, ole uncle Bill?
Ain't no fun, now, say what oo will.
I used to sleep all day, and cry all night;
Don't do it now, 'cause it ain't yite.
Got a head of hair jess as black as night
And big boo eyes, yat look very bright.
My mamma say, never did see
Any ozzer baby half as sweet as me.
Grandma come often, aunt Sarah, too;
Baby loves zem, baby loves oo.
Baby sends a pooty kiss to his uncles all,
Aunties and cousins, big folks and small.
Can't say any more, so dood by--
Bully old uncle wiz a glass eye!
The First Letter
"Did you ever get a letter?
I did the other day.
It was in a real envelope,
And it came a long, long way.
A stamp was in the corner
And some printing when it came,
And the one that wrote the letter
Had put 'Miss' before my name.
Then there came a lot more written,
I forget now what it read,
But it told the office people
Where I lived, mamma said.
Don't you s'pose those letter-persons,
If they hadn't just been told,
Would have thought 'twas for a lady
Who was awful, awful old?
For it looked real big and heavy,
The outside was stuck with glue,
So they couldn't know I'm little,
I don't think they could. Do you?"
Youth's Companion
[Page 93--Writing Land]
I'm Going to Write to Papa
I'm going to write to papa,
I guess he'd like to hear
What his little girl is doing,
The same as when he is near;
I'll tell him how I miss him,
And how I'd wish he'd come,
And never, never, leave us,
But always stay at home.
I'll tell him 'bout my dolly,
She's sleeping on the floor,
I fear that noise will wake her,
Oh! please don't slam the door.
For I must not be bothered,
That's just what ma would say,
When she begins a letter,
And sends me off to play.
I'll send him lots of kisses,
And one bright shining curl,
I'll ask him to remember
His lonely little girl;
I want so much to see him,
But I won't cry a wink,
Cause when I write my letter,
The tears would blot my ink.
I'm going to write to papa,
And oh! how glad he'll be.
To get a little letter
That was written all by me.
Old Letters
I gaze upon ye, once again,
Old records of the past,