AN INVITATION TO THE COUNTRY

Already, close by our summer dwelling,
The Easter sparrow repeats her song;
A merry warbler, she chides the blossoms
The idle blossoms that sleep so long.

The bluebird chants, from the elm's long branches,
A hymn to welcome the budding year.

The south wind wanders from field to forest,
And softly whispers, "The Spring is here."

Though many a flower in the wood is waking,
The daffodil is our doorside queen;

She pushes upward the sward already,
To spot with sunshine the early green.

No lays so joyous as these are warbled
From wiry prison in maiden's bower;

No pampered bloom of the greenhouse chamber
Has half the charm of the lawn's first flower.

Yet these sweet sounds of the early season,
And these fair sights of its sunny days,
Are only sweet when we fondly listen,
And only fair when we fondly gaze.

There is no glory in star or blossom
Till looked upon by a loving eye;
There is no fragrance in April breezes
Till breathed with joy as they wander by.

Biographical. - William Cullen Bryant was but ten years of age when his first poem appeared in a country newspaper. It was probably in his seventeenth year that "Thanatopsis" was written.

While Bryant was attending a law school his father discovered the poem by accident among his papers. He took it to Boston and showed it to several literary men. Their high praise of it led to its publication. Before he was twenty-one, Bryant wrote "Thanatopsis," "To a Waterfowl," "To a Yellow Violet," and other poems of merit.

Bryant was born in 1794 and died in 1878. He is called "The Father of American Poets." For more than a third of a century he was prominent among American authors and journalists. He proved at the age of eighty-three that he had not lost his poetic ability by writing the "Flood of Years."

Word Study.

pam' pered-fed luxuriously.

Notes and Questions.

- Who is the merry warbler? How does she chide the blossoms? Why? What season is indicated by "budding year"? What does the south wind whisper? What is the daffodil called? Why? Compare the lawn's first flower with the greenhouse flower. When are 66 the sweet sounds' sweet and the "fair sights" fair? and blossom?

What makes the glory of star

THE BOYS' CORN CLUBS

I

The story of the Boys' Corn Club movement is one of the most interesting and inspiring chapters in the history of the American people. A number of years ago Mr. William B. Otwell, Secretary of the farmers' institute movement in Macoupin County, Illinois, after making a number of unsuccessful efforts to get the farmers interested

in the work for which his institute stood, concluded that he would be more successful if he would turn his attention and efforts to the boys.

To begin with he decided to offer the boys some improved seed corn and to ask them to grow as many hills of corn as he gave them kernels. He published a notice

in the papers in which he had formerly been advertising his farmers' institute meetings, stating that he would mail to every boy in the state who would send to him a postage stamp as many grains of seed corn as the stamp would carry.

As soon as he had published this notice, Mr. Otwell went about among the public-spirited people of his town and raised by subscription a fund of forty dollars. One hardware company donated a

valuable turnplow for a prize. He then drew up rules governing the contest which he proposed to put on foot, and offered forty prizes of one dollar each, and the turnplow as a sweepstake prize.

INSTRUCTIONS BY MAIL

This energetic secretary then purchased a quantity of the very best seed corn for distribution to the boys who should reply to his notice. In a short time there came to his office about five hundred letters from five hundred farmer boys of the state of Illinois, each inclosing postage for the promised supply of improved seed corn. In a day or two nearly five hundred letters went out from Mr. Otwell's office, bound for the five hundred farmer boys' homes, and the contest was on. These five hundred farmer boys were soon engaged in a struggle in which they were measuring arms against each other, but in which it was possible for every boy to be victor in a degree.

At the end of the year when it came time to meet and decide the contest, it was scarcely necessary to advertise the meeting. Mr. Otwell had merely to name the date and place for the award of the prizes, and the contestants

came. There assembled at that meeting scores of wide-awake, interested boys who came laden with samples of golden grain; but better still, with the boys came their fathers, wide-awake now and interested. Before the inauguration of the contest, very few of the fathers could be persuaded to attend the institute meetings, and those that came would often discourage the movement. After the boys took hold, however, their enthusiasm proved a wonderful stimulus to the older farmers.

The following year the contest was conducted on a larger scale. The enthusiasm of the first year's work had spread to such an extent that when Mr. Otwell announced a meeting for the award of prizes, there gathered approximately sixteen hundred people in and about the building in which, two years before, he had failed to interest the older men. There were exhibited by the boys at this meeting between four hundred and five hundred specimens of fine corn.