279 "Susan Coolidge" was the pseudonym used by Sarah C. Woolsey (1845-1905). She wrote numerous tales and verses for young people, and her series of Katy Books was widely known and enjoyed. The poem that follows is a very familiar one, and its treatment of its theme may be compared with that in Henry Ward Beecher's little prose apologue (No. 249). HOW THE LEAVES CAME DOWN "SUSAN COOLIDGE " I'll tell you how the leaves came down: Yes, very sleepy, little Red; "Ah!" begged each silly, pouting leaf, "Let us a little longer stay; Dear Father Tree, behold our grief! 'Tis such a very pleasant day, We do not want to go away." So, just for one more merry day To the great Tree the leaflets clung, Frolicked and danced and had their way Upon the autumn breezes swung, Whispering all their sports among, "Perhaps the great Tree will forget And let us stay until the spring, If we all beg and coax and fret." But the great Tree did no such thing; He smiled to hear their whispering. "Come, children all, to bed," he cried; And ere the leaves could urge their prayer, He shook his head, and far and wide, Fluttering and rustling everywhere, Down sped the leaflets through the air. I saw them; on the ground they lay, arm, Should come to wrap them safe and warm. The great bare Tree looked down and smiled. "Good-night, dear little leaves," he said; And from below each sleepy child Replied, "Good-night," and murmurèd, "It is so nice to go to bed." The poems for young readers produced by the sisters Alice Cary (1820-1871) and Phoebe Cary (1824-1871) constitute the most successful body of juvenile verse yet produced in this country. One of Alice Cary's poems, "An Order for a Picture," is of a very distinguished quality, but as its appeal is largely to mature readers, two of Phoebe Cary's poems of simpler quality are chosen for use here. The first of these marks, by means of three illustrations within the range of children's observation, a very common defect of child nature and is, by the force of these illustrations, a good lesson in practical ethics. The appeal of the second is to that inherent ideal of disinterested heroism which is so strong in children. The setting of the story amidst the ever-present threat of the sea affords a good chance for the teacher to do effective work in emphasizing the geographical background. This should be done, however, not as geography merely, but with the attention on the human elements involved. 280 THEY DID N'T THINK PHOEBE CARY Once a trap was baited With a piece of cheese; Which tickled so a little mouse Then he took a bite; Once a little turkey, Fond of her own way, Where to go or stay; To run about alone!" Hiding saw her pass; Covered all the grass. So she made a supper For a sly young mink, 'Cause she was so headstrong That she would n't think. Once there was a robin And hop upon the floor. "Ho, no," said the mother, "You must stay with me; Little birds are safest Sitting in a tree." "I don't care," said Robin, And gave his tail a fling, "I don't think the old folks Know quite everything." Down he flew, and Kitty seized him, Now my little children, Than anybody knows; But when you're warned of ruin, Pause upon the brink, And don't go under headlong, 'Cause you did n't think. 281 THE LEAK IN THE DIKE A Story of Holland PHOEBE CARY The good dame looked from her cottage "Come, Peter, come! I want you to go, While there is light to see, To the hut of the blind old man who lives And take these cakes I made for him- Then the good-wife turned to her labor, Humming a simple song, And thought of her husband, working hard At the sluices all day long; The mother looked from her door again, A leak in the dike! The stoutest heart Shading her anxious eyes; And saw the shadows deepen And birds to their homes come back, Grows faint that cry to hear, And the bravest man in all the land Turns white with mortal fear. For he knows the smallest leak may grow sea When loosed in its angry might. And the boy! He has seen the danger, And, shouting a wild alarm, He forces back the weight of the sea With the strength of his single arm! He listens for the joyful sound Of a footstep passing nigh; And lays his ear to the ground, to catch The answer to his cry. And he hears the rough winds blowing, And the waters rise and fall, His feeble voice is lost; Yet what shall he do but watch and wait, Though he perish at his post! So, faintly calling and crying Till the sun is under the sea; Crying and moaning till the stars Come out for company; He thinks of his brother and sister, Asleep in their safe warm bed; He thinks of his father and mother, Of himself as dying—and dead; And of how, when the night is over, They must come and find him at last: But he never thinks he can leave the place Where duty holds him fast. The good dame in the cottage Is up and astir with the light, But what does she see so strange and black Against the rising sun? Her neighbors are bearing between them Her child is coming home, but not "He is dead!" she cries; "my darling!" Till a glad shout from the bearers And God has saved his life!" They knelt about the boy; 'Tis many a year since then; but still, Takes his son by the hand, Whose courage saved the land. They have many a valiant hero, Is named with loving tears. Divide the land from the sea! The world's greatest writer of verse for children, Robert Louis Stevenson, was born in Edinburgh, Scotland, in 1850. After he was twenty-five years old he spent much of the rest of his short life traveling in search of health. From 1889 to the time of his death in 1894 he resided in Samoa. The verses given here (Nos. 282-295) are taken from his famous book, A Child's Garden of Verses, which, says Professor Saintsbury, "is, perhaps, the most perfectly natural book of the kind. It was supplemented later by other poems for children; and some of his work outside this, culminating in the widely known epitaph Home is the sailor, home from sea, And the hunter home from the hill, has the rarely combined merits of simplicity, sincerity, music, and strength." One of the best of Stevenson's poems for children outside the Child's Garden of Verses is the powerfully dramatic story called Heather Ale. In attempting to solve the secret of Stevenson's supremacy, Edmund Gosse calls attention to the "curiously candid and confidential attitude of mind" in these poems, to the "extraordinary clearness and precision Iwith which the immature fancies of eager childhood" are reproduced, and particularly, to the fact that they give us "a transcript of that child-mind which we have all possessed and enjoyed, but of which no one, except Mr. Stevenson, seems to have carried away a photograph." It is this ability to hand on a photographic transcript of the child's way of seeing things that, according to Mr. Gosse, puts Stevenson in a class which contains only two other members, Hans Christian Andersen in nursery stories, and Juliana Horatia Ewing in the more realistic prose tale. Children find expressed in these poems their own active fancies. It has been objected to them that the child pictured there is a lonely child, but every child, like every mature person, has an inner world of dreams and experiences in which he delights now and then to dwell. The presence of the qualities mentioned put at least two of Stevenson's prose romances among the most splendid adventure stories for young people, Treasure Island and Kidnapped. Perhaps no book is more popular among pupils of the seventh and eighth grades than the former. It has been called a "sublimated dime novel," that is, it has all the decidedly attractive features of the "dime novel" plus the fine art of storytelling which is always lacking in that sensational type of story. 282 WHOLE DUTY OF CHILDREN ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON A child should always say what's true, 283 THE COW ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON The friendly cow all red and white, She wanders lowing here and there, The pleasant light of day; And blown by all the winds that pass She walks among the meadow grass 284 TIME TO RISE ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON A birdie with a yellow bill "Ain't you 'shamed, you sleepy-head?" 285 RAIN ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON The rain is raining all around, |