THE SCHOOL-HOUSE.
Come, dear ones, to your lessons,
You have so much to say,
Your spelling and your reading,
Before you go to play.
Ah! I know you will be scholars;
You’ve said all rightly o’er:
Good children; and to-morrow
You are to learn some more.
Come now into the garden,
To the fruit and flowers away;
So well you’ve said your lessons,
That you deserve to play.—L. E. L.
O, WHAT a pleasant place that school-house was! How happily did Alfred,
and Walter, and little Sidney, pass their time there; taught so well and
so kindly by good Miss Lee!
There it stands, down in a little dingle, with its deep roof and carved
border, and its green latticed windows. It is shaded by a large elm,
“which, with looks of love,
Spreads its whispering leaves above,
Through long summer hours.”
A cherry-tree stands by the door. White and blue pigeons sit upon the
roof, and coo. The little boys smell the sweet flowers in the garden, as
they study their books. All kinds of sweet flowers grow in that charming
garden, alongside of the school-house. There are whole beds of the
heliotrope, the ever-sweet heliotrope, with its gray, crimped leaves,
and its yellow heart. Lovely mignionette, too, is hiding itself
everywhere. Although you do not see this modest flower, whose pretty
French name means little darling, yet you smell its sweetness
continually. There are white, and pink, and deep red roses, in full
bloom; and verbenas, pink, crimson, blue, white, and purple; and the
snow-white day-lily, which smells like fresh, ripe grapes. And near the
little school-house is the prettiest bower, made entirely of the
cypress-vine. It looks as fine and delicate as lace-work, yet its stalks
are so thickly woven that it will not blow down.
In front of the school-house is a green lawn. When the boys stood upon
it they saw the river, and the hills on the other side, and the noble
Catskill Mountains, as blue as the sky.
In this beautiful little place the boys spent some hours every day. When
their lessons were over they played in the garden, or swung, or
sometimes rode upon the donkey.
One day, as Alfred sat by the door, he saw something run past him, very
swiftly. He called out,
“O, Miss Lee, I see something!”
“What do you see, Alfred?” said Miss Lee.
“A pretty little red thing, with a long, bushy tail,” said he.
“I suppose it is a squirrel,” said Miss Lee.
“O yes, ma’am,” said Alfred. “it is a squirrel. I have seen squirrels in
the woods; but I did not know that they ever lived in a garden.”
As he said this, a little ground-squirrel, with two young ones, came out
of a hole under the green well-curb, by the school-house door. At first
they seemed a little afraid; but the boys were still, and the squirrels
became bolder. After that they would pay Alfred and Walter a daily
visit.
They were wise little squirrels to come and live with such good people.
They need not fear mischievous boys, or cruel guns, in that sweet, quiet
place.
[Illustration]
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