Beginners' Book in Language Part 22

"Oh, Apollo," cried Ceres, while the tears streamed down her cheeks, "I have lost Proserpina. Only yesterday I allowed her to go into the meadow near my house to gather flowers. She did not return, and I can find no trace of her. Oh, tell me, have you seen her? You see everything as you drive across the sky."

Apollo thought a moment. "Let me see," he said. "Could that have been little Proserpina I saw in Pluto's[62] chariot--"

"In Pluto's chariot?" cried Ceres. "What would she be doing in Pluto's chariot?"

"It was she," said Apollo. "Now that I think of it, I am certain it was she."

Then Apollo told Ceres all that had happened. He told her about the shrub of marvellous flowers. He told of the hole that its roots left in the ground. He told of Pluto and his six black horses, and of how Pluto had carried off Proserpina.

"He will never bring her back," said Apollo.

Then Ceres dried her tears. Her face grew stern and cold. She stood straight and held her head high, like a queen.

"He will bring her back," she said. "I shall make him bring her.

Until he does, I shall allow nothing on the earth to grow. Until he brings Proserpina to me, no tree shall put forth leaves or fruit, no gra.s.s shall become green, no grain shall sprout,--nothing, nothing at all, shall grow on the earth."

Scarcely had she said this when a change came over the earth. The leaves on trees and shrubs everywhere grew yellow and dropped to the ground. The green fields became brown and gray. Fruits rotted on the stem, and vegetables dried where they grew. Even flowerbeds lost their bloom and became patches of dry stalks.

Mother Ceres looked upon all these changes with a hard heart.

"Never," she said, "will the earth grow green again, until my daughter is returned to me."

=Oral Exercise.= 1. Play that you are Ceres working in her house and glancing out of the window now and then. Say what she said when she saw Proserpina sit down in the long gra.s.s. Say what she said when, after several hours, her daughter was still absent. Say it in the way you think she said it. Now show your cla.s.smates how she hurried into the meadow to find Proserpina; how she picked up the half-finished wreath and crossed the brook; how she looked when she saw her daughter's footprint in the soft ground near the brook. What do you think she was thinking then?

2. One of your cla.s.smates will be the farmer in the story, another the old woman, another the robin, two others the pair of squirrels. Still other pupils will be the people in the houses at whose doors Ceres knocks. Now play that you are Ceres looking for her daughter, and asking everywhere for her. Remember how Ceres must have felt. Show that feeling in what you say and in the way you say it. The pupils playing the other speakers in the story will answer your questions. Try not to ask your questions always in the same words.

=Group Exercise.= 1. Now let other groups of pupils play this part of the story.

2. Each time[57] the cla.s.s will say what they liked and what they did not like. The following questions should be answered by the cla.s.s:

1. Did the pupil playing Ceres look very much worried over Proserpina's not returning? Several pupils should try to show the cla.s.s how the player ought to have looked.

2. Did the pupil playing Ceres talk like a worried person? Several pupils should show how Ceres probably did talk.

3. Did the pupil playing Ceres talk enough? What might she say as she looks out of the window now and then? What might she say when she finds the unfinished wreath? What might she say when she sees Proserpina's footprint and, a little farther along, the beautiful shrub pulled out of the ground?

4. Did the pupils playing the farmer, the old woman, the robin, the squirrels, and the other people speak as persons really would speak if a poor woman should ask them where her daughter was? What might these say that none of the players said?

5. Did the pupil playing Ceres ask each of the other players the same question in the same way? Would it be better if this player asked the question differently of different persons? Should this player grow more worried and more excited all the time?

=Oral Exercise.= 1. Make believe that you are Apollo. Obtain a long rope and harness your six horses. Choose six cla.s.smates to be the horses, but first explain to the cla.s.s how you plan to harness them. Then drive them up and down in front of the cla.s.s once or twice. As you do so, you see Ceres coming toward you. You pull in your horses in great surprise. Show your cla.s.smates this surprise. What might you say in a low tone to yourself to express this surprise?

2. Talk with Ceres. The pupil playing Ceres will answer you very sadly at first. But at the end of the story the manner of Ceres changes. How does Apollo look and what does he say when Ceres declares that nothing shall grow on earth until Proserpina is returned?

=Group Exercise.= 1. Several pairs of pupils should play the meeting between Apollo and Ceres. Each pair should try to show the cla.s.s exactly how they think Apollo and Ceres looked and spoke and acted.

2. Then the cla.s.s will tell what they liked and what they did not like in each playing.

3. Now the entire story should be played several times. After each time the cla.s.s will explain to the players how the story might have been played better.

=57. Correct Usage--_I am not_[65]=

=Game.= The teacher asks a pupil to stand before the cla.s.s. This pupil plays that he is a certain bird, flower, or animal other than a bird, that is seen in the woods in the spring, but he tells no one except the teacher what he is. The cla.s.s must guess this. No pupil may guess more than once, and only ten guesses are allowed the whole cla.s.s. The pupil before the cla.s.s says nothing except that he is or is not the bird, flower, or animal guessed. The game moves along as follows:

FIRST GUESSER: Are you a dandelion, John?

PUPIL BEFORE THE CLa.s.s: No, Fred, I am not a dandelion.

SECOND GUESSER: Are you a turtle, John?

PUPIL BEFORE THE CLa.s.s: No, Mary, I am not a turtle.

THIRD GUESSER: Are you a song sparrow, John?

PUPIL BEFORE THE CLa.s.s: Yes, Nellie, I am a song sparrow.

The pupil who guesses correctly is the next flower or bird. If no one of the ten guesses is correct, the pupil before the cla.s.s says, "Cla.s.smates, I am a song sparrow." Then he names the pupil who is to take his place in the game.

=58. Riddles=

One day our old friend Tom read his mother a riddle he had made. This is it:

I am a tiny little thing and have an orange face. What am I?

"Can you guess it, mother?" he asked. "A dandelion," she answered. "Yes, that's right," said Tom. "What do you think of it?"

"It's a pretty good little riddle," his mother replied, "but I think you can make it better. Is _orange_ the best word for a dandelion? And should you not put in something to show that you do not mean a bird?

Your riddle, as it is, would do for a yellow bird as well as for a dandelion."

Tom thought this over. Then he wrote the following riddle:

I am a tiny little thing with a bright yellow face. I have no legs or wings, but I come and go with spring. What am I?

Tom's mother was very much pleased with this riddle, and so was Tom. Tom thought he could not make it the least bit better. The next day, however, he had made the riddle over once more. "This," said Tom, "is the very best that I can do."

Here it is:

My face is bright yellow. I have hundreds of brothers and sisters.

We have fine parties on the lawn. I cannot walk, but I can fly when I am old and white-haired. What am I?

=Oral Exercise.= 1. Which of Tom's three riddles do you like the best?