WINTER EARTH STUDY. 485 



And to the ground came tumbling 

 The frightened little folk. 

 Then through the moss and grasses 

 They were compelled to roam 

 Until a brooklet found them, 

 And carried them all home." 



Selected. 



THE CLOUD. 



" 1 bring fresh showers for the thirsting flowers, 



From the seas and the streams ; 

 I bear light shade for the leaves when laid 

 In their noonday dreams. 



From my wings are shaken the dews that waken 



The sweet buds every one, 

 When rocked to rest on their mother's breast, 



As she dances about the sun. 



I sift the snow on the mountains below, 



And their great pines groan aghast ; 

 And all the night 'tis my pillow white, 



While I sleep in the arms of the blast. 



I am the daughter of earth and water, 



And the nursling of the sky ; 

 I pass through the pores of the ocean and shores ; 



I change, but I cannot die." 



PERCY BYSSHE SHELLEY. 



BLACKBOARD READING LESSON. 



The following reading lesson, copied from the blackboard 

 in a second-grade room in the Practice School of the 

 Oswego State Normal School, was prepared, largely gained 

 from the children by questioning, by Miss Bessie Bloom- 

 field. It illustrates the right spirit in the cloud study, and 

 shows how individuality can be encouraged and preserved, 

 even in a class reproduction. 



