Part 14 (2/2)

FOR THE PUPIL

PAGE 80

_the unabridged dictionary_: What does ”unabridged” mean?

_hay-rig_: a simple farm wagon with a ”rigging” put on for carting hay.

PAGE 81

_cord wood_: wood cut into four-foot lengths to be cut up smaller for burning in the stove. What are the dimensions of a cord of wood?

PAGE 82

_through the cold gray of the maple swamp below you, peers the face of Winter_: What does one see in a maple swamp at this time of year that looks like the ”face of winter.” Think.

_he that gathers leaves for his pig spreads a blanket of down over his own winter bed_: How is this meant to be taken?

_round at the barn_: It is a common custom with farmers to make this nightly round in order to see that the stock is safe for the night. Were you ever in a barn at night where the horses were still munching hay, and the cattle rattling their stanchions and horns? Recall the picture in Whittier's ”Snow-Bound.”

PAGE 83

_diameters_: the unit of measure in the ”field” or the lens of the microscope, equivalent to ”times.”

_white-footed wood mouse_: Text should read _or_ wood mouse.

There are other wood mice, but Whitefoot is known as the wood mouse.

_gives at the touch_: an idiom, meaning _moves_ back, gives way.

_red-backed salamander_: very common under stones; his scientific name is _Plethodon erythronolus_.

_His ”red” salamander_: Read chapter V in ”Pepacton,” by Burroughs. His salamander is the red triton, _Spelerpes ruber_.

PAGE 84

_dull ears_: Our ears are dulled by the loud and ceaseless noises of our city life, so that we cannot hear the small voices of nature that doubtless many of the wild creatures are capable of hearing.

_tiny tree-frog, Pickering's hyla_: the one who peeps so shrill from the meadows in spring.

”_skirl_”: a Scotch term; see ”Tam O'Shanter,” by Burns: ”He screwed the pipes and gart them skirl.”

_bunches of Christmas fern_: Gathered all through the winter here in the ledges about Mullein Hill by the florists for floral pieces.

PAGE 85

_yellow-jacket's nest_: one of the Vespa Wasps, _Vespa Germanica_. Read the first chapter of ”Wasps Social and Solitary,” by G. W. and E. G. Peckham.

<script>