Overhead was the clear blue sky.

At his feet was the clear blue water.

Around the pond were green rushes. Among the rushes were the frogs.

There were big frogs and little frogs.

Jack counted ten in all.

The frogs had on green coats.

"Sing!" said Jack to a big frog.

66

'Sing to me. Sing to me!"

But the frog did not sing.

"Not a note! NOT A NOTE!"

"NOT A NOTE! SORE THROAT! NOT A NOTE!

SORE THROAT! NOTA NOTE! SORE THROAT!"

The big frog said it over and over.

And little Jack had to go home

without the concert.

And what is so rare as a day in June?
Then, if ever, come perfect days;

Then Heaven tries the earth if it be in tune,

And over it softly her warm ear lays.

-James Russell Lowell.

By permission of, and by special arrangement with, Houghton, Mifflin & Co., Publishers.

RAIN IN SUMMER.

(To be memorized.)

How beautiful is the rain!
After the dust and heat,

In the broad and fiery street,
In the narrow lane,

How beautiful is the rain!

How it clatters along the roofs,

Like the tramp of hoofs!

How it struggles and gushes out From the throat of the overflowing spout!

Across the window pane

It pours and pours;

And swift and wide,

With a muddy tide,

Like a river down the gutter roars
The rain, the welcome rain.

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.

By permission of, and by special arrangement with, Houghton, Mifflin & Co., Publishers.

in the moon?

I will tell you about them.

Once there was a little earth boy.

And there was a little earth girl, too.

The little boy was Jack.