WINTER EARTH STUDY. 509 



Follow the rain in imagination into the earth. How it 

 drives out the frost, softens the ground, moistens seeds and 

 roots ! How the seeds welcome it ! How the roots drink 

 it in ! How soon the buds begin to grow ! How the spring 

 flowers waken, and stretch themselves, and push upward. 



t4 The friendly clouds drop down spring violets, 

 And summer columbines, and all the flowers 

 That tuft the woodland floor, or overarch 

 The streamlet: spiky grass for genial June, 

 Brown harvests for the waiting husbandman, 

 And for the woods a deluge of fresh leaves." 



BRYANT. 



Review story. Now, after the children have used their 

 eyes, they are ready to follow the journey of the rain-drops, 

 to become rain-drops themselves : to start in spring or 

 brook or river or sea; listen to the call of the beckon- 

 ing sunbeams ; rise in their filmy vapor dresses to cloud- 

 land, vapor and water dust playing tag and hide-and-seek 

 with one another ; ride in the wind chariots ; laugh at the 

 sun ; race and frolic until they see the thirsting ground, 

 and hear the sleepy call of the seeds and buds ; join hands, 

 with the help of the cooling breezes, drop, gently, slowly, 

 faster and faster, toward the welcoming earth ; dance on 

 the trees, scamper over the roofs, tumble along the ground ; 

 perhaps run and rush toward the brooks, to help them in 

 their spring cleaning and freshening ; perhaps sink into the 

 ground, to help the flowers; perhaps rest quietly in some 

 pool, or perch on the shoulders of some child, until called 

 back toward the smiling sun ; but singing, laughing, gur- 

 gling, always helping, always seeking the home from which 

 they started. 



Literature. An excellent review story entitled, " Aqua, 

 the Water Baby " can be found in The Story IJour " by 

 Kate Douglas Wig^in. 



