XLI.  THE FOUNTAIN. (116)

By James Russell Lowell, one of the most noted of American poets; also well known as an essayist and lecturer.  He was born at Cambridge, Mass., in 1819, and died there in 1891.

1. 
Into the sunshine,
Full of the light,
Leaping and flashing,
From morn till night!

2. 
Into the moonlight,
Whiter than snow,
Waving so flower-like
When the winds blow!

3. 
Into the starlight,
Rushing in spray,
Happy at midnight,
Happy by day!

4. 
Ever in motion,
Blithesome and cheery,
Still climbing heavenward,
Never aweary;

5. 
Glad of all weathers,
Still seeming best,
Upward or downward,
Motion, thy rest;

6. 
Full of a nature
Nothing can tame,
Changed every moment,
Ever the same;

7. 
Ceaseless aspiring,
Ceaseless content,
Darkness or sunshine
Thy element;

8. 
Glorious fountain! 
Let my heart be
Fresh, changeful, constant,
Upward like thee!

Definitions.—­4.  Blithe’some, gay.  Cheer’y, in good spirits.  A-wea’ry, weary, tired. 7.  As-pir’ing, ambitious.  El’e-ment, the proper habitation or sphere of anything, suitable state. 8.  Con’-stant, fixed, not to be changed.

XLII.  COFFEE. (117)

1.  The coffee tree is a native of eastern Africa, but it was in Arabia that it first became known to the people of Europe, and until about the year 1700 A. D. that country afforded the entire supply.

2.  Then the coffee seeds found their way to Java, by means of some traders, and one of the first plants grown on that island was sent as a present to the governor of the Dutch East India Company, who lived in Holland.

3.  It was planted in the Botanical Gardens at Amsterdam, and in a few years seeds taken from it were sent to South America, where the cultivation of coffee has steadily increased, extending to the West Indies, until now the offspring of this one plant produce more coffee than is obtained from all the other plants in the world.

4.  The plant is an evergreen, and is from six to twelve feet high, the stem being from ten to fifteen inches in diameter.  The lower branches bend down when the tree begins to grow old, and extend themselves into a round form somewhat like an umbrella; and the wood is so pliable that the ends of the largest branches may be bent down to within two or three feet of the earth.

5.  The bark is whitish and somewhat rough.  A tree is never without leaves, which are at small distances from one another, and on almost opposite sides of a bough.  Blossoms and green and ripe fruit may be seen on the same tree at the same time.  When the blossom falls off, there grows in its place a small green fruit, which becomes dark red as it ripens.