Beginners' Book in Language Part 2

=6. Correct Usage--_Saw_=

Some pupils use the word _seen_ when they should use _saw_. Mistakes of this kind spoil stories, just as a song is spoiled when some one sings wrong notes. Let us begin to get rid of these unpleasant mistakes by learning how to use the word _saw_ correctly.[19]

=Oral Exercise.= The word _saw_ is used correctly in the three sentences that follow. Read these sentences aloud several times.

1. Tom said he saw an owl in his dream.

2. I saw a pretty dollhouse in my dream last night.

3. I dreamed that I saw a beautiful yellow bird sitting on a fruit tree and singing.

=Game.= Let all the pupils, except one, play that they have fallen asleep. When they have closed their eyes and rested their heads on their folded arms, the one pupil who plays that she is Queen Mab tiptoes up and down between the rows of seats. With a fairy wand she makes a circle round several heads. Then the fairy disappears, the cla.s.s wakes up, and each pupil who has had a dream tells his cla.s.smates the most interesting one thing that he saw in it. Thus, one pupil might say:

I saw an elf. He was sitting in front of the door of his tree-house. He was making a toy for a little boy.

Another pupil might say:

I saw a dwarf. He was riding over the fruit-tree tops. He was on the back of a beautiful eagle.

Another might say:

I saw an owl. It had big, round, s.h.i.+ny eyes. It looked at me, but I was not afraid.

Still another might say:

I saw a fine white horse. It had a golden harness. A brave soldier sat on its back.

Each pupil begins with the words _I saw_ and tries to say something that is very different from what his cla.s.smates say they dreamed, and much more wonderful.[20]

=7. Study of a Fable=

=Oral Exercise.= Did you ever read the story or fable of the ants and the gra.s.shoppers? Read it carefully as it is told on this and the next pages. See whether you can tell your cla.s.smates the lesson that it teaches.

[Ill.u.s.tration]

THE ANTS AND THE GRa.s.sHOPPERS

In a field one summer day some ants were busily at work. They were carrying grain into their storehouses. As they plodded steadily to and fro under their loads, they were watched by a number of gra.s.shoppers. The gra.s.shoppers were not working. Instead, they were sunning themselves by the roadside. Now and then these idle fellows droned out a lazy song, or joined in a dance, or amused themselves by making fun of the ants. But the ants were tireless workers. They kept steadily on. Nothing could take their minds off their business.

"Why don't you come with us and have some fun?" at last called one of the gra.s.shoppers to the ants.

"Oh, stop that work," another cried. "Come and have a good time, as we are doing!"

But the ants kept right on with their work.

"Winter is coming," said an ant. He was busily pus.h.i.+ng a rich grain of wheat before him. "We need to get ready for the days when we can gather no food. You had better do the same."

"Ah, let winter take care of itself," the gra.s.shoppers shouted, all together. "We have enough to eat to-day. We are not going to worry about to-morrow."

But the ants kept on with their work. The gra.s.shoppers kept on with their play.

When winter came, the gra.s.shoppers had no food. One after another they died. At last only one was left. Sick with hunger, he went to the house of an ant and knocked at the door.

"Dear ant," he began, "will you not help a poor fellow who has nothing to eat?"

The ant looked him over a few seconds. "So it is you, is it? As I remember, you are the lazy fellow who did not believe in work. I do not care to have anything to do with you." And he turned his back on the lazy fellow.

Sadly the gra.s.shopper made his way to another door and knocked again.

"You have nothing to eat?" cried the ant that lived here, in great surprise. "Tell me, what were you doing while the weather was warm?

Did you lay nothing by?"

"No," replied the gra.s.shopper. "I felt so happy and gay that I did nothing but dance and sing."

"Well, then," answered the ant, "you will have to dance and sing now, as best you can. We ants never borrow. We ants never lend."

And he showed the lazy fellow out of the place.

The hungry gra.s.shopper dragged himself to a third house.

"I am sorry," said the ant that opened the door. "I can spare you nothing. All that I have I need for my own family. If you spent the summer without working, you will have to spend the winter without eating." And he shut the door in the gra.s.shopper's face.--aeSOP

=Oral Exercise.= 1. Show the cla.s.s how you would carry a heavy load.

Play that a bag of wheat stood before you. Lift it from the ground, balance it on one of your shoulders, walk with it across the room, and set it carefully down in the corner. Then go back for another, and another. Let several cla.s.smates do the same.

2. Play that you and several cla.s.smates are the ants in the fable, busily carrying loads from the field to the storehouses. What might you ants be saying to each other while you work? Should you speak of the sunny day, of the pleasant field, of the fun of working together? Should you probably speak of the pleasure of seeing the grain pile up in the storehouses? Should you be thinking, now and then, of the long, cold winter ahead? What might you say about it? What might you say to each other as you pa.s.s the gra.s.shoppers loafing by the roadside?

3. Show the cla.s.s how you would walk about if you had nothing to do all day long. Would your walk be brisk? Should you look wide-awake? Play that you and several cla.s.smates are the gra.s.shoppers in the fable. What will you do? Will you walk lazily to and fro before the cla.s.s, one of you tw.a.n.ging a guitar, another singing, and the third dancing about?

What might you gra.s.shoppers be saying to each other about the weather?

What might you say about the busy ants you see pa.s.sing by with loads on their backs? What might you say about the coming winter?

4. Play the part of the fable that tells what happened in the summer.

First the ants will be seen at their work. They talk with each other as they work. They say what they think about the lazy gra.s.shoppers they see in the distance. Now the gra.s.shoppers slowly come along, humming tunes.

They talk about the beautiful summer. They laugh at the hard-working ants. At last they call to the ants and invite these to join them in a dance or in a song. Read the fable to see what each thinks and says and does in this part of the story.

5. Now play that winter has come. You and several cla.s.smates may be the gra.s.shoppers. You are s.h.i.+vering in the cold and have no food to eat.

Remember, you gra.s.shoppers are not singing and dancing now. What might you say to each other about the summer that is gone? One gra.s.shopper dies of hunger. What might the others say? Another dies. What does the last one say to himself and decide to do?

6. Can you see the last gra.s.shopper going from house to house, begging for food? How does he look? Show the cla.s.s how he walks and how he talks. What does he say at each door?

7. With three cla.s.smates, that will be the three ants, play the last part of the fable,--the part in which the last gra.s.shopper goes from door to door. The fable tells what each ant says and does.