“Yes, I do; let’s wait till she comes back.  No matter if we do lose some coasts,” answered the child who had tried to dissuade her playmate from going to the rescue.

Then I left them; but I think they learned a lesson that day in real politeness; for, as they watched little Katy dutifully supporting the old lady, undaunted by the rusty dress, the big bag, the old socks, and the queer bonnet, both their faces lighted up with new respect and affection for their playmate.

Louisa M. Alcott.

From “Little Women.”  Little, Brown & Co., Publishers.

* * * * *

DISSUADE, to advise against; to turn from a purpose by reasons given.

ANTIQUATED, grown old; old-fashioned.

Tell what each contraction met with in the selection stands for.

Use their or there properly in place of the blanks in the following sentences:  The girls were on —­ way to the Park. —­ was an old lady at the crossing.  Our home is —.  Katy and Mary said —­ mother lived —.

Memory Gems: 

Count that day lost
Whose low descending sun,
Views from thy hands
No worthy action done.

Author unknown.

What I must do concerns me, not what people will think.

Emerson.

[Footnote 001:  Copyrighted by Little, Brown & Company.]

* * * * *

24

WHAT HOUSE TO LIKE.

For Recitation: 

Some love the glow of outward show,
Some love mere wealth and try to win it;
The house to me may lowly be
If I but like the people in it.

What’s all the gold that glitters cold,
When linked to hard or haughty feeling? 
Whate’er we’re told, the noble gold
Is truth of heart and manly dealing.

A lowly roof may give us proof
That lowly flowers are often fairest;
And trees whose bark is hard and dark
May yield us fruit and bloom the rarest.

There’s worth as sure ’neath garments poor
As e’er adorned a loftier station;
And minds as just as those, we trust,
Whose claim is but of wealth’s creation.

Then let them seek, whose minds are weak,
Mere fashion’s smile, and try to win it;
The house to me may lowly be
If I but like the people in it.

Anon.

* * * * *

What is meant by “haughty feeling”?

What does the author say “the noble gold” is?

Is “bloom” in the third stanza an action-word or a name-word?  Why?

Give in your own words the thought of the fourth stanza.

Use to, too, two, properly before each of the following words: 

hard, win, people, minds, dark, yield.

What virtues does the poem recommend?

What “lowly flowers are often fairest”?