"The Gleaners," was a poor boy brought up in the country on a farm in France. He lived most of his life in the country and among the poor, and he painted chiefly pictures of the lives of the poor.

Van Dyck, who painted "Two Royal Dukes," was the son of a wealthy man, who had all the advantages of the best training and, of travel. He was born in Flanders, but he spent his later years at the court of King Charles the First, of England, where he was court painter. His chief occupation then was to paint portraits of the great people of the court.

Study the two pictures together. Find as many points of likeness and of difference as you can. Which do you like better? Why? Which artist chose the nobler subject? Why do you think so?

Write a comparison of the pictures. Write a description of each picture, telling what each shows of the lives of the persons painted.

Read:

XLVI

RULES OF BEHAVIOR

(1)

1. Turn not your back to others, especially in speaking; jar not the table or desk on which another reads or writes; lean not on any one.

2. Make no show of taking great delight in your vićtuals; feed not with greediness; lean not on the table; neither find fault with what you eat.

3. Be not angry at table, whatever happens; and if you have reason to be so, show it not; put on a cheerful countenance, especially if there be strangers, for good humor makes one dish of meat a feast.

4. Play not the peacock, looking everywhere about you, to see if you be well decked, if your shoes fit well, if your stockings set neatly and clothes handsomely.

These are a few of the "Rules of Behavior" copied by George Washington when a boy, for his guidance. Discuss them and decide whether they are good for the present day.

(2)

Write a set of rules for table manners, or one for good manners in school.

Which kind of sentences do you use, declarative, imperative, interrogative or exclamatory? See pages 161, 162.

(3)

Topics suggested for making outlines and writing:

Field Day at School.

A Field Excursion.

Fishing.

Our School Garden—its History.

Making a Bookcase for the Schoolroom.
Making a Tennis Court.

XLVII

PURITAN AND CAVALIER

Find out from your histories and from other books all you can about the early settlers of New England and of Virginia. Talk over in class what you have learned, using the following outline :

1. In England - Puritan and Cavalier: rank, character, religious belief, social customs and dress.

2. As emigrants - Plymouth and Virginia, their founders' reasons for emigrating, different ambitions.

3. In America-mode of life, dress, customs, government, character, beliefs, leading men.

Read Hawthorne's "Maypole of Merrymount." Have a debate on the question: Which contributed more to this country, the Puritan or the Cavalier?

For the correct manner of stating the question and conducting the debate, see the lesson on Tubal Cain, page 28.

XLVIII

THE NIGHTINGALE AND THE GLOWWORM

Read:

Study of a Poem-Meter- Rhyme

(1)

A nightingale, that all day long

Had cheered the village with his song,
Nor yet at eve his note suspended,
Nor yet when eventide was ended,
Began to feel, as well he might,
The keen demands of appetite;
When, looking eagerly around,
He spied far off, upon the ground,
A something shining in the dark,
And knew the glowworm by his spark:
So, stooping down from hawthorn top,
He thought to put him in his crop.
The worm, aware of his intent,
Harangued him thus, right eloquent:-
"Did you admire my lamp," quoth he,
"As much as I your minstrelsy,
You would abhor to do me wrong,
As much as I to spoil your song;

For 'twas the self-same power divine,
Taught you to sing and me to shine,
That you with music, I with light,
Might beautify and cheer the night."
The songster heard his short oration,
And warbling out his approbation,
Released him, as my story tells,

And found a supper somewhere else.

This is a fable in verse or poetry.

Discussion:

WILLIAM COWPER.

What had the nightingale been doing?
Had he a right to claim his supper?

Was it cruel of him in the first place to think of eating the glowworm ?

How did the glowworm persuade the nightingale to spare his life?

Was his argument good? Did he show tact?

(2) Meter

We have seen that a poem usually has many figures of speech, and that it is often more beautiful than prose in thought. But besides these characteristics, you will notice that a poem is written in a different form from prose.

Read aloud the first line of this poem. What syllables do you accent?

Notice that you accent every other one beginning with the second:

A nightingale that all day long