fa mil'iar friend'ly LXIV. WHAT THE MOON SAW. - Part I. ex act'ly scēnes fre'quent ly faith'ful ly A Lonely Boy. 1. I am a poor lad. I live round the corner in one of the narrowest lanes of the city. I have plenty of light, though; for my room is in the top of the house, and I can look out over all the roofs. 2. The first days after I came to live in town, I felt very lonely. Instead of the forest and the green hills, I now had nothing but the dingy chimneys all around as far as I could see. Not a single friend had I here, not one familiar face to greet me. 3. One evening I was standing, with a very sad heart, at my window. I opened it, and looked out. Oh, what gladness came over me! I beheld a face I knew, a round, friendly face, my best friend over there from home. 4. It was the moon, the dear old moon, just the same without a bit of change, looking exactly as she used to do when she peeped in upon me through the willows on the moor. 5. I kissed my hand to her over and over again, and she shone right into my room, and promised that, every evening when she was out, she would look in upon me for a short time. 6. And this promise she has faithfully kept ever since. It is a pity that she cannot make a longer stay. Every time she comes, she tells me of something or other that she has seen the night before or the same evening. 7. Just paint you the scenes that I tell of," said she, on her first visit, "and you will possess a very pretty picture-book." This I have done for many an evening now. I could, in my fashion, give a new "Thousand and One Nights,"* in pictures. It was not every evening, however, that the moon came; frequently a cloud stood between her and me. LANGUAGE. Use other words in the place of plenty, familiar, beheld, possess, fashion, frequently. The "painting" that the story speaks of is what we call word-painting; that is, making pictures in our minds. One of the names that the author gave to the stories was "A Picture Book without Pictures." The same author wrote "The Ugly Duckling," "The Tinder-Box," and many other stories. * "Thousand and One Nights" is the name of a book of stories. The Little Girl and the Chickens. 1. "Yesterday," said the moon to me, “I was peeping down upon a little court-yard, with houses on every side. There lay a hen with eleven chickens, and a beautiful little girl was jumping round among them. 2. "The hen clucked, and spread her wings in great terror over her little young ones. Then the girl's father came out and scolded her; and I glided away, and thought no more of the matter. 3. "But this evening, only a few minutes ago, I looked down again into the same court-yard. There was perfect stillness. But presently the little girl came out. 4. "She stepped softly over to the hen-house, raised the latch, and slipped in among the hens and chickens. They cried out loudly, and flew fluttering round about, while the little one ran after them. I saw it all plainly, for I was peeping in through a hole in the wall. 5. "I was quite angry with the naughty child, and felt glad when her father came out and caught her fast by the arm, and scolded her still more severely than he did yesterday. She hung down her head and turned it away; there were big tears in her blue eyes. 666 6. What are you doing here?' he asked. 66 She wept. 'I wanted,' she said, 'to kiss the hen, and to beg her pardon for yesterday, but I did not like to tell you.' 66 And the father kissed the sweet child on the forehead; I kissed her myself on the eyes and the mouth." LXVI. UNDER THE GREENWOOD TREE. [MEMORY GEM.] Under the greenwood tree, Who loves to lie with me, And tune his merry note Unto the sweet bird's throat? Come hither, come hither, come hither; Here shall we see No enemy But winter and rough weather. * Let this be recited without comment unless children ask the meaning of such words as enemy, ambition, and shun. When it is entirely familiar as it is, tell them what it means in simple words; that is, paraphrase it for them. Who doth ambition shun, And loves to live in the sun, Seeking the food he eats, And pleased with what he gets? Come hither, come hither, come hither; 1. "I saw a little girl weeping," said the moon; 66 she was weeping because of the badness there was in the world. "She had had as a present the most beautiful of dolls. Oh! was it not a doll!-so nice and delicate, and not at all made for rough handling. 2. "But the little girl's brothers, those big fellows, had taken the doll and set it up in a high tree in the garden and then run away. The little girl could not reach the doll, she could do |