(v) What plays you have on ice.

(vi) If it is true that you can make ice in sum

mer.

(vii) What you enjoy most about snow and ice. (viii) How you skate.

e. Tell her of Jack Frost:

(i) As painter, designer, and carver on the window panes.

(ii) As a player of pranks and a performer of feats.

(iii) As assistant in preparing the earth for

sports.

(iv) As a useful agent in making the soil ready for the seeds.

f. Speak of:

(i) The breaking up of the ice periods as shown in the streets.

(ii) The miniature river systems and glacial forms seen in the streets after the frozen water has commenced to melt.

(iii) Note the power of the water to carry sand and earth.

(iv) The frost-foliage everywhere.

(v) The sounds peculiar to cold weather.
(vi) Cold-weather signs that can be detected by

the eye.

(vii) The animal life visible.

(viii) The trees in winter.

g. (From Saint Nicholas.)

Jing-a-ling, jing-a-
Let me

ling. Whoa! Prancer. Whoa! Dancer.

drop this letter for Miss

-'s children into the box.

Here's what I've said to them:

Dear Little Boys and Girls:

So you are looking for me Xmas morning. I'll not disappoint you. Did I forget Picciola? Your eyes are as bright as hers, and you will not fail to find what I bring for you to love.

I'll ring the Xmas bells, too, that you may hear the song the angels sang of "Peace on Earth-Good Will to Men."

And now a "Merry, Merry Xmas to you all."
Your loving friend,

4. JOURNALS.

SAINT NICHOLAS.

a. A weather record of the winter months.

b. Write leaves from an imaginary journal of a raindrop, telling of:

(i) Its encounter with the heat, the cold, the

wind;

(ii) Its sail in the clouds and what it saw;
(iii) Its fall to earth and what then became of it;
(iv) Its final meeting with another drop from
another part of the country, giving its
different experiences.

c. Imagine that you are visiting in the arctic regions and make journal entries of what impresses you most. (Get your ideas from the Geography and The Seven Little Sisters.)

5. AUTOBIOGRAPHIES.

Write the autobiography of a lump of coal.

Of a Christmas tree.

Of some hibernating animal.

6. SUGGESTIVE READING.

Archibald Story of the Atmosphere.

Buckley-Fairyland of Science. Two great
Sculptors-water, ice.

Burroughs-Signs and Seasons. Snow storm,
pp. 99-107.

Bryant-The Snow Storm. (See his Wind
and Sea poems.)
Cheney-Winter.

Chambers-The Story of the Weather.

Emerson-The Snow Storm.

Harrington-About the Weather.

Longfellow-Snow Flakes.

Lovejoy-Poetry of the Seasons. (See Index
to Saint Nicholas.)

Tyndall-Forms of Water in Clouds and
Rivers.

van Dyke-Nature for Its Own Sake.

III-SPRING.

Earth is a wintry clod:

But spring-wind, like a dancing psaltress, passes
Over its breast to waken it, rare verdure

Buds tenderly upon rough banks, between

The withered tree roots and the cracks of frost,
Like a smile striving with a wrinkled face.

The grass grows bright, the boughs are swoln with blooms

Like chrysalids impatient for the air,

The shining dorrs are busy, beetles run
Along the furrows, ants make their ado;
Above, birds fly in merry flocks, the lark
Soars up and up, shivering for very joy;
Afar the ocean sleeps; white fishing gulls
Flit where the strand is purple with its tribe
Of nested limpets; savage creatures seek
Their loves in wood and plain-and God renews
His ancient rapture. Thus he dwells in all,
From life's minute beginnings, up at last
To man-the consummation of this scheme.
Of being, the completion of this sphere
Of life;"

BROWNING; Paracelsus.

1. THINGS TO BE OBSERVED:

a. Signs of spring everywhere.

b. The return of the birds.

c. The passage of the wild geese.

d. The mounting of the sap.

e. The bursting of the buds.

f. The pussy-willows.

g. The blooming wild flowers.

h. The new-born (butterfly) moth.

i. The appearance of the hibernating animals from their winter quarters.

j. Birds nesting.

k. Seed-sowing in garden and farm.

7. Sugar-making.

m. Tree-planting (Arbor Day a fine time for the study of trees and their legends).

n. The new-born lambs.

o. The Easter thought everywhere in the return of light and the newly-awakened life.

p. The myths of Proserpina, of Freya, of Psyche.
q. The legends of the spring flowers.

r. The waters bursting their icy bounds.
s. The earth putting on her green covering.
t. The gladness of nature everywhere. The true
joys of living (see Lowell's "And what is so
rare as a day in June").

Good morning! Welcome back! We heard your happy note in the old maple-tree this morning. We looked out and saw that your feathers were as blue as they were last year and that you flitted about and chatted with your mate just as gaily as you did then.