you read passages without thinking, then the words and not their meaning are the objects of attention.

Breaking the phrases apart prevents the mind from making pictures or thinking. The beauty of reading consists not in pronouncing a printed page, but in giving single vivid ideas and letting the words fall into groups to express the mind's action.

In these lines how would Mary read "I-saw-a-boy " or "Thomas-have-you-seen-the-cat "? Her little brother or sister who is talking in the poem is supposed to have been able to observe the difference, and in fact it is very noticeable. In reading she doubtless took one word at a time and pronounced it as a word. She had a printed page before her and her eye did not act very freely for she was not familiar with the words or she was reading as a mere task. But when she told stories to "Bob and me she saw real pictures in her mind, she gave attention to each one successively and then the words were gathered into natural groups.

WHEN MARY READS

When Mary reads at school, you know,
She speaks the words off very slow:
"I-see-a-boy," and things like that,
And "Thomas-have-you-seen-the-cat?"
And teacher says (don't ever tell),
That Mary can't read very well!

But when she reads to Bob and me,
We scarcely want to stop for tea.
She reads the most surprising things
Of birds that talk, and beasts with wings,
And mother always smiles to see,
When Mary reads to Bob and me.

Hannah G. Fernald

Right phrasing is one of the chief characteristics of good reading. Phrasing is the control of words by our attention, the speaking of the idea for which words stand. To phrase well we must really think the ideas before we speak them. Can you speak the following words so as to bring sense out of them? People give it like this as a puzzle sometimes, and it is interesting because the problem of putting sense

into the words is really the problem of phrasing. Speaking one word at a time, it sounds like nonsense.

That that is is that that is not is not is that it?

If you take a sentence or a poem and give words without phrasing and but one word at a time it makes as much nonsense as you made in repeating the words of the puzzle. We must think, and one of the first effects of genuine thinking shows itself in the grouping of the words that we speak.

Did you observe when you solved the puzzle how you separated the words? Note how it is changed by phrasing and pauses. "That that is, is; that that is not, is not. Punctuation sometimes helps as here; but in a majority of cases it gives no aid whatever. Vocal expression must bring out the meaning.

Is that it?"

THE ROBIN

When father takes his spade to dig,

Then Robin comes along;

He sits upon a little twig

And sings a little song.

Or, if the trees are rather far,

He does not stay alone,

But comes up close to where we are

And bobs upon a stone.

Give some poem

Laurence Alma-Tadema

that you like very much, that your mind freely pictures, pausing frequently and gathering the words as closely as you can around your images. Let each phrase tell of a single thing.

AN EMERALD IS AS GREEN AS GRASS

An emerald is as green as grass;

A ruby red as blood;

A sapphire shines as blue as heaven;

A flint lies in the mud.

A diamond is a brilliant stone

To catch the world's desire;
An opal holds a fiery spark;
But a flint holds fire.

Christina Georgina Rossetti

Read a poem or story and give each successive idea not only in unison with the words that belong to it, but with natural movement in your thinking from idea to idea or group to group of words, and observe that this gathering of words together takes place in proportion to the definiteness and clearness with which you think. In right phrasing the words become transparent and a listener thinks only of the ideas.

HOW THE THRUSHES CROSSED THE SEA

In Egypt, not far from the pyramids, a mother thrush had spent a pleasant winter with a fine brood of young thrushes. But as the days began to grow warmer, a strange restlessness warned them that it was time to take their flight to a more northern country and a less sunny clime.

The mother thrush gathered her children together, and having joined a flock of friends from the banks of the upper Nile, they spread their wings and fluttered away toward the Mediterranean Sea. There in due time they arrived, and alighted not far from the shore.

"Where shall we go now?" asked one of the young birds, whose name was Songful.

"How

"We must cross the great sea," said his mother. "What!" cried another, who was called Thinklittle. can we do that? We shall drown before we are halfway across." Then a third, whom everybody knew as Grumbler, began to complain. "Oh dear!" he cried. "You have brought us here only to drown us in the sea.' ""

Then Songful, and Thinklittle, and Thankful, the rest of Mother Thrush's family, all joined in the cry of Grumbler. "You have brought us here only to drown us in the sea!"

"Wait a little while," said their mother, quietly. We must find a ship to carry us across."

The very next day a strange sound was heard high up in the air: "Honk! honk! honk!"

"There are our ships!" cried Mother Thrush.

"What do you mean?" piped Thinklittle. And he hopped upon a twig, looked up into the sky, and shook his wings. "I see nothing but a flock of those clumsy storks that wade in the mud by the river banks." "Wait a

But his mother only nodded her head and said, little while!"

The storks settled down upon the shore, quite near to the little company of thrushes. There, for a while, they fed among the tall plants that grew by the margin of the water. But soon they began to make a great stir; and they called to one another among the reeds, "Honk, creek! Honk, creek!"

"There!" said Mother Thrush.

"They're going! Get

ready, my children! We must go with them.”

"How are we going to do that?" cried Grumbler.

"Yes, how? " said Thinklittle. "We are not strong enough

to keep up with those storks."

"Silence!" cried Mother Thrush, now much excited.

not a word, but do as I do."

"Say

The storks slowly raised their awkward bodies and spread their huge wings. Then they soared into the air, trailed their legs behind them, and crying hoarsely, took their course straight across the sea.

"Now!" cried Mother Thrush. "Be quick! Follow me, and do as I do!"

She darted into the midst of the flock of storks, with her four broodlings close beside her. For a moment or two, she fluttered over a gray-winged stork, and then settled down upon the bird's broad back and nestled between her wings. All her family followed, and cuddled down beside her. For a short time they felt so strange in their odd resting place that they kept very still. But after a while the young ones began to talk.

"This is a pleasant voyage, indeed," said Thinklittle. "How nice to ride on the backs of these big storks! The people who ride on camels, or on the little donkeys that trot to and from the pyramids, have not half so pleasant a time."

"Now I understand what mother meant when she spoke of ships," said Songful. "I wonder if she thinks our stork will

carry us all the way across."

"Indeed, she will!" said Mother Thrush.

They rode on for many and many a mile, sometimes being a little frightened as the stork fluttered to and fro, or sank and rose again. But now and then they ventured to peep out between the widespread wings, and look down upon the green sea that rolled beneath them.

"Mother," at last said Thankful.

"Well, my dear."

"Don't you think that the stork must be very tired, and that we ought to do something to comfort and cheer her as she flies?"

"Hush!" cried Thinklittle. "If the stork finds that we are here, she will toss us off of her back."

66 Oh, who cares if the stork is tired," said Grumbler. can feel no worse than we do."

"She

Thankful was silent for a little while. Then she crept close to her brother Songful, and the two twittered softly together for a moment. At last, without a word to the others, they lifted their heads and broke forth together into song. The notes of the duet rose sweet and clear above the fluttering of the stork's wings and the whistling of the shrill north wind.

"Ah!" cried Thinklittle, as he heard the song; "it is very sweet, indeed, and I feel almost like singing too. But what if the old stork should hear us!"

"Yes, indeed," said Grumbler. know that we are here."

"It is very foolish to let her

But the stork listened to the song with pleasure and was not at all angry. More that once she turned her head backward, and out of her deep round eyes looked kindly upon the singers. "Thank you," she said when the song was ended. "You have cheered the way with your pleasant song. I am so glad that you chose to come with me."

At last the northern shore was reached, and the thrushes rose from the back of the great bird that had carried them so far and so safely. Then breaking into a chorus of song, with sweet words of farewell, they flew away to make the rest of the journey home upon their own wings.

When they reached the green fields and broad canals of Holland, they found the good stork and her friends already at home on the tall chimneys of an old town; and after friendly greetings they set to work building their own nests.

XVIII. THINKING AND THE PHRASE ACCENT

Whene'er a noble deed is wrought,
Whene'er is spoken a noble thought,
Our hearts in glad surprise
To higher levels rise.

Henry C. McCook

Longfellow

If you speak the word "superintendent" and then the phrase "in the tall pine tree" what is the difference in your utterance? There is very little difference. In speaking the word "superintendent" we have one syllable which we call the accented syllable. In the same way,