the tooth of a fish. These questions came all to be asked afterwards, and then I saw how egregiously erroneous had been our 140 boyish identifications. But, in the meantime, knowing little of the subject, I believed everything, and with implicit faith piled up dragon flies, ferns, fishes, beetle cases, violets, seaweeds, and shells.

The shadows of twilight had begun to fall while we still bent 145 eagerly over the stones. The sun, with a fiery glare, had sunk behind the distant hills, and the long lines of ruddy light that mottled the sky as he went down had crept slowly after him, and left the clouds to come trooping up from the east, cold, lifeless, and gray. The chill of evening now began to fall over everything, 150 save the spirits of the treasure seekers. And yet they too in the end succumbed. The ring of the hammer became less frequent, and the shout that announced the discovery of each fresh marvel seldomer broke the stillness of the scene. And, as the moanings of the night-wind swept across the fields, and rustled fitfully 155 among the withered weeds of the quarry, it was wisely resolved that we should all go home.

Then came the packing up. Each had amassed a pile of specimens, well-nigh as large as himself, and it was of course impossible to carry everything away. A rapid selection had therefore to be 160 made. And oh! with how much reluctance were we compelled to relinquish many of the stones, the discovery whereof had made the opposite cavern ring again with our jubilee. Not one of us had had the foresight to provide himself with a bag, so we stowed away the treasures in our pockets. Surely practical geometry 165 offers not a more perplexing problem than to gauge the capacity of these parts of a schoolboy's dress. So we loaded ourselves to the full, and marched along with the fossils crowded into every available corner.

Despite our loads, we left the quarry in high glee. Arranging 170 ourselves instinctively into a concave phalanx, with the speaker in the center, we resumed a tale of thrilling interest, that had come to its most tragic part just as we arrived at the quarry

several hours before. It lasted all the way back, beguiling the tedium, darkness, and chill of the four miles that lay between the limeworks and our homes; and the final consummation of 175 the story was artfully reached just as we came to the door of the first of the party who had to wish us good night.

Such was my first geological excursion-a simple event enough, and yet the turning point in a life. Thenceforward the rocks and their fossil treasures formed the chief subject of my everyday 180 thoughts. That day stamped my fate, and I became a geologist. From "Geological Sketches at Home and Abroad."

GLOSSARY. Watch-peels; traditionary; declivity; ingenious; indefatigable; gnomes; scolopendriums; petrified; fossil; unequivocally; extinct; William of Deloraine; analogue; conglomeration; pirouette; egregiously. STUDY. Tell the story of this trip. How much more was it than just an ordinary picnic excursion? What was there in the day and the surroundings that added a glamour to it? What did they find in the cave? What revelation came to them of the relative value of books and nature? What humor do you find in their efforts to get their treasures home? Can you understand how such an experience could be the turning point of a life?

METAMORPHOSIS

LLOYD MIFFLIN

She spake so kindly unto all,

So tenderly and true,

She seemed the sweetest soul, I thought,

That ever met my view.

Her form and features, grace and mien,

Were lovely past compare;

To me, a halo seemed to rest
Above her yellow hair;

When lo! a scornful lip she curled,

One venomed word she spake,

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Did he really observe speaking which grew What is the real test

STUDY. What kind of character is sketched in the first two stanzas? What transformation takes place with stanza 2? To what is this great change due? What effect did it have upon the speaker? "serpent shapes," or is that a figurative way of out of his familiarity with old symbolic stories? of beauty and loveliness? Is it ever safe to judge wholly by external appearances?

THE FOOL'S PRAYER

EDWARD ROWLAND SILL

The royal feast was done; the king
Sought some new sport to banish care,

And to his jester cried: "Sir Fool,

Kneel now, and make for us a prayer!"

The jester doffed his cap and bells,

And stood the mocking court before;

"The ill-timed truth we might have kept— Who knows how sharp it pierced and stung? The word we had not sense to say—

Who knows how grandly it had rung?

"Our faults no tenderness should ask,

The chastening stripes must cleanse them all;
But for our blunders-oh, in shame
Before the eyes of heaven we fall.

"Earth bears no balsam for mistakes;

Men crown the knave, and scourge the tool