Chapter 2

"O dear, dear! Where am I?" said Johnny in despair. "Please let me out! I want my mamma!"

"No, you don't," said Wait-a-bit. "You don't care much about her, and this is really where you belong. This is the kingdom of Procrastination, and yonder comes the king."

"The kingdom of what?" said Johnny, who had never heard such a long word in his life before.

But just then he heard a heavy foot-fall, and a great voice that sounded like a roar, saying, "Has he come? Did you get him?"

"Yes, here he is," said Wait-a-bit, "and he'd just been saying it a little while before we picked him up."

Johnny looked up and saw a monstrous giant, with a bright green body and red legs, and a yellow head and two horrid coal-black eyes.

"Let me have him," said the giant. So he took him up just as if he had been a rag-baby, and looked him all over, turning him from side to side, and from head to feet.

O but Johnny was frightened, and expected every moment to be swallowed!

"Let's see," said the giant; "he always says 'Pretty soon.' No, that isn't it. What is it, my fine fellow, that you always say to your mamma when she asks you to do any thing for her?

"It isn't 'Pretty soon,' nor 'In a minute.' What is it? They all mean about the same thing, to be sure, and bring every body to me in the end; but I must know exactly, or I can't put you in the right place."

Johnny hung his head, and did not want to tell; but an extra hard poke of the giant's big finger made him open his mouth and say with shame, that he always said, "I'm going to."

"O that's it!" said the giant. "Well, then, you stand there."

So he unwound a bit of the web from his fingers--just enough so that he could hold the Procrastinator's Primer--and stood him at the end of a long row of children, who were saying over and over again, just as fast as they could speak, "Going to, going to, going to, going to," just that, and nothing else in the world.

Johnny was tired and hungry by this time, and longed to see his mamma, thinking that, if he could only get back: to her, he would always mind the very moment she told him to do any thing.

He made a great many good resolutions while he stood there. At last the giant called him to come and say his lesson.

"You shall have a short one to-day," said he, "and need say it only a thousand times, because it is your first day here. To-morrow, you must say it a million."

Johnny tried to step forward, but the web was still about his feet, so he fell with, a bang to the floor.

Just then he opened his eyes to find that he had rolled from the rock to the grass, and that mamma was calling him in a loud voice to come to supper, and this time he didn't say, "I'm going to."

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Directions for Reading.--The words in quotation marks should be read in the same manner as in Lesson I.

Read words in dark type in the following sentences with more force than the other words:

"Has he _come?_ Did you _get_ him?"

Words that are read more forcibly than other words in a sentence are called _emphatic words_.

Which are the _emphatic words_ in the following sentences?

"You shall have a short one to-day."

"I must know exactly."

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Language Lesson.--Divide into syllables, accent, and mark the sounds of the letters in the following words: _extra, primer, moment, coal-black_.

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LESSON III.

remark'able, _worthy of notice; unusual_.

moist'ure, _wetness; that which makes wet_.

absorbed', _sucked up; drunk up_.

with'er, _lose freshness_.

starched, _stiffened, as starch_.

germ, _that from which the plant grows; bud_.

hand'some, _pleasing in appearance; very pretty_.

clasped, _surrounded; inclosed_.

* * * * *

THE BEAN AND THE STONE.

"I think I ought to be doing something in the world!" said a little voice out in the garden.

"Pray, what can you do?" asked another and somewhat stronger voice.

"I think I can grow," answered the little voice.

If you had seen the owner of the little voice, perhaps you would not have thought him any thing remarkable.

It is true he had on a clean white coat, so smooth and shining that it looked as if it had been newly starched and ironed, and inside of this, he hugged two stout packages.

The coat had only one fastening; but that fastening extended down the back, and was a curious thing to see.

It looked just as if the coat had been cut with a knife, and had afterward grown together again. It was like a scar on your hand; and a scar it is called.

"Yes, I ought to be growing," said the little voice, "for I am a bean, and in the spring a bean ought to grow."

Now you know how the coat came by its scar, for the scar was the spot which showed where the bean had been broken from the pod.

"What do you mean by growing?" said the other voice, which came from a large red stone.

"Why," said the bean, "don't you know what growing means? I thought every thing knew how to grow. You see, when I grow, my root goes down into the soil to get moisture, and my stem goes up into the light to find heat. Heat and moisture are my food and drink.

"By and by, I shall be a full-grown plant, and that is wonderful! In the ground, my roots will travel far and wide.

"In the air, how happy my stem will be! I shall learn a great deal, and see beautiful things every day. O how I long for that time to come!"

"What you say is very strange," said the red stone. "Here I have been in this same place for many years, and I have not grown at all. I have no root; I have no stem; or, if I have, they never move upward nor downward, as you say. Are you sure you are not mistaken?"

"Why, of course I'm not mistaken," cried the bean. "I feel within myself that I can grow; and I have absorbed so much moisture that I must soon begin."

Just then the bean's coat split from end to end, and for one or two minutes neither the stone nor the bean spoke. The stone was astonished, and the bean was a little frightened. However, he soon recovered his courage.

"There!" said he, showing the two packages he had been carrying; "these are my seed-leaves. In them is the food on which I intend to live when I begin growing.

"When my stem is strong enough to do without them, they will wither away. My coat is all worn-out, too. I shall not need it any longer. Look inside the seed-leaves, and you will see the germ. Part of it is root, and part of it is stem. Do you see?"

"I see two little white lumps," replied the stone; "but I can not understand how they will ever be a root and a stem."

"I do believe you are a poor, dull mineral, after all," said the bean; "and if so, of course you can not understand what pleasure a vegetable has in growing.

"I wouldn't be a mineral for the world! I would not lie still and do nothing, year after year. I would rather spread my branches in the sunshine, and drink in the sweet spring air through my leaves."

"What you say must be all nonsense," said the stone. "I can't understand it."

But the bean grew on without minding him. The roots pushed down into the soil and drank up the moisture from the ground. Then this moisture went into the stem, and the stem climbed bravely up into the light.

"How happy I am!" cried the bean.

It ran over the red stone, and clasped it with long green branches, covered with white bean flowers.

"O indeed!" said the stone. "Is this what you call growing? I thought you were only in fun. How handsome you are!"

"May I hang my pods on you, so that they can ripen in the sun?" said the bean.

"Certainly, friend," said the stone.

He was very polite, now that he saw the bean was a full-grown vine.

* * * * *

Directions for Reading.--Read in a conversational tone of voice, as in Lessons I and II.

What word is emphatic in the third paragraph?

* * * * *

Language Lesson.--Syllabify, accent, and mark sounds of letters in the words, _broken, packages, courage, polite_.

Tell in your own words how the bean grew.

* * * * *

LESSON IV.

elf, _a very small person; an unreal being_.

vex, _make angry; trouble_.

pon'dered, _thought about with care_.

streak, _line; long mark_.

* * * * *

TO-MORROW.

A bright little boy with laughing face, Whose every motion was full of grace, Who knew no trouble and feared no care, Was the light of our household--the youngest there.

He was too young--this little elf-- With troublesome questions to vex himself; But for many days a thought would rise, And bring a shade to the dancing eyes.

He went to one whom he thought more wise Than any other beneath the skies: "Mother,"--O word that makes the home!-- "Tell me, when will to-morrow come?"

"It is almost night," the mother said, "And time for my boy to be in bed; When you wake up and it's day again, It will be to-morrow, my darling, then."

The little boy slept through all the night, But woke with the first red streak of light; He pressed a kiss on his mother's brow, And whispered, "Is it to-morrow now?"

"No, little Eddie, this is to-day; To-morrow is always one night away." He pondered awhile, but joys came fast, And this vexing question quickly passed.

But it came again with the shades of night: "Will it be to-morrow when it is light?" From years to come, he seemed care to borrow, He tried so hard to catch to-morrow.

"You can not catch it, my little Ted; Enjoy to-day," the mother said; "Some wait for to-morrow through many a year-- It always is coming, but never is here."

* * * * *

Directions for Reading.--In reading poetry, pupils should notice the emphatic words, and give them proper force.

Example.

"_Mother_,"--O word that makes the home!--

"_Tell_ me, when will _to-morrow_ come?"

The two dashes in the first line of the preceding example are used instead of a parenthesis, and have the same value.

When there is no pause at the end of a line (see first line, third stanza), it should be closely joined in reading to the line which follows it, thus making the two lines read as one.

* * * * *

LESSON V.

ap'pe tite, _wish for food_.

a muse'ment, _play; enjoyment_.

gaunt, _lean; hungry looking_.

spe'cies, _kind_.

oc curred', _took place; happened_.

en cour'age ment, _hope given by another's words or actions_.

di rec'tion, _way; course_.

dusk'y, _very dark; almost black_.

sin'gu lar, _unusual; strange_.

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AN ADVENTURE WITH DUSKY WOLVES.