RAIN

Oh, the dancing leaves are merry,
And the blossoming grass is glad,
But the river's too rough for the ferry,
And the sky is low and sad.

Yet the daisies shake with laughter,
As the surly wind goes by,

For they know what is hurrying after,
As they watch the dim gray sky.

The clovers are rosy with saying,
(The buttercups bend to hear)
"Oh, be patient, it's only delaying;
Be glad for it's very near."
The blushing pimpernel closes;
It is n't because it grieves,

And down in the garden the roses

Smile out from their lattice of leaves.

Such gladness has stirred the flowers;
Yet children only complain,
"Oh, what is the use of showers?

Oh, why does it ever rain? "

Margaret Deland

After practicing the laughter expressed in these passages, read some poem full of joy, such as this about the "Rain.' Have plenty of breath in the lungs, keep the throat free and imagine the gladness of the grass and the daisies. Can you feel how they shook with laughter as they saw the rain coming? Do not, however, try too hard to laugh; imagine the grass and flowers. Do not giggle, for that is mechanical and silly. Only feel the joy that comes from seeing the pictures of the poem in your mind.

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Contrast the spirit of the flowers with the children's tone. Be careful not to go too far with the children's whining, for the chief aim of the poem is to show the joy and brightness of the flowers and their welcome to the rain. should always practice normal things, good things, true and noble emotions, and be careful that bad or negative things, such as whining, are introduced only to emphasize those that are normal.

Mark Twain has told a great many stories about an odd character called Jim Baker; or rather, he has let Jim

Baker tell his own stories in his own way. This is one about a jay bird that makes some people laugh. Possibly you are not affected that way, but if you are, observe carefully the impulses and actions. Then give way to these feelings or tendencies, and allow your breath and body to share in the fun and your vowels to reveal it.

JIM BAKER ON THE BLUEJAY

There's more to a bluejay than to any other creature. He has more kinds of feeling than any other creature; and mind you, whatever a bluejay feels, he can put into words. No common words either, but out-and-out book-talk. You never see a jay at a loss for a word.

You may call a jay a bird. Well, so he is, because he has feathers on him. Otherwise, he is just as human as you are. Yes, sir; a jay is everything that a man is. A jay can laugh, a jay can gossip, a jay can feel ashamed, just as well as you do, maybe better. And there's another thing: in good, clean, outand-out scolding, a bluejay can beat anything alive.

Seven years ago the last man about here but me moved away. There stands his house a log house with just one big room and no more: no ceiling, nothing between the rafters and the floor.

Well, one Sunday morning I was sitting out here in front of my cabin, with my cat, taking the sun, when a bluejay flew down on that house with an acorn in his mouth.

Hello," says he, "I reckon here's something." When he spoke the acorn fell out of his mouth and rolled down on the roof. He did n't care; his mind was on the thing he had found.

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It was a knot-hole in the roof. He cocked his head to one side, shut one eye, and put the other to the hole, like a possum looking down a jug." Then he looked up, gave a wink or two with his wings, and says, "It looks like a hole, it's placed like a hole and - I do think it is a hole!"

Then he cocked his head down and took another look. He looked up with joy, this time winked his wings and his tail both, and says, “If I ain't in luck! Why it's an elegant hole!"

So he flew down and got that acorn and dropped it in, and was tilting his head back with a smile when a queer look of surprise came over his face. Then he says, "Why, I did n't hear it fall."

He cocked his eye at the hole again and took a long look; rose up and shook his head; went to the other side of the hole

and took another look from that side; shook his head again.

No use.

So after thinking awhile, he says, "I reckon it's all right. I'll try it, any way.'

So he flew off and brought another acorn and dropped it in, and tried to get his eye to the hole quick enough to see what became of it. He was too late. He got another acorn and tried to see where it went, but he could n't.

He says, "Well, I never saw such a hole as this before. I reckon it's a new kind." Then he got angry and walked up and down the roof. I never saw a bird take on so.

When he got through he looked in the hole for half a minute; then he says, "Well, you 're a long hole, and a deep hole, and a queer hole, but I have started to fill you, and I'll do it if it takes a hundred years."

And with that away he went. never saw a bird work so hard.

For two hours and a half you He did not stop to look in any more, but just threw acorns in and went for more.

Well, at last he could hardly flap his wings he was so tired out. So he bent down for a look. He looked up, pale with rage. He says, "I've put in enough acorns to keep the family thirty years, and I can't see a sign of them."

Another jay was going by and heard him. So he stopped to ask what was the matter. Our jay told him the whole story. Then he went and looked down the hole and came back and said, "How many tons did you put in there?" "Not less than two,” said our jay.

The other jay looked again, but could not make it out; so he gave a yell and three more jays came. They all talked at once for awhile, and then called in more jays.

Pretty soon the air was blue with jays and every jay put his eye to the hole and told what he thought. They looked the house all over, too. The door was partly open, and at last one old jay happened to look in. There lay the acorns all over the floor.

He flapped his wings and gave a yell, " Come here, everybody! Ha! Ha! He's been trying to fill a house with acorns!"

As each jay took a look, the fun of the thing struck him, and how he did laugh. And for an hour after they roosted on the housetop and trees, and laughed like human beings. It is n't any use to tell me a bluejay has n't any fun in him. I know better.

Samuel L. Clemens (Mark Twain)

XII. THINKING, BREATHING AND STRENGTH OF VOICE
Beloved of children, bards and Spring,

"May-Day."

O birds, your perfect virtues bring,
Your song, your forms, your rhythmic flight,
Your manners for the heart's delight,
Nestle in hedge, or barn, or roof,

Here weave your chamber weather-proof,
Forgive our harms, and condescend
To man, as to a lubber friend,

And, generous, teach his awkward race
Courage and probity and grace!

Emerson

How do you send your voice across the playground or throw your words to a distance?

Your whole body expands; you take a full breath. Though you take the breath quickly and may not think of it, yet if you observe yourself you will find that just while you shout you are full of breath, your throat is open and your body expanded. That is, you increase the conditions of voice as you did in surprise and laughter.

We make voice out of breath and our voices are stronger in proportion to the control we have over our breathing and over the other actions that come with right thinking and feeling.

An exercise is an accentuation of some such fundamental actions and conditions as these.

Choose some sudden surprise and intensify the mental and emotional actions so that you increase the preparatory actions of body and voice, - that is, the taking and retaining of breath, opening and relaxing of the tone passage and sympathetic expanding of the body.

Imagine yourself shouting across a river or making your voice carry to a great distance.

Observe that in calling "Polly" your voice becomes more open and free, you have more breath, you project the tone farther. Be careful that your voice does not go to a high pitch or become hard. Observe in all cases when introducing extra effort, that there are certain abnormal tendencies, such as making tone hard, giving it on a high pitch, using mere loudness, speaking with jerks, or hurry.

These methods do project the tone, but they make it dis

agreeable.

A MIDSUMMER SONG

Oh, father's gone to market-town: he was up before the day,
And Jamie's after robins, and the man is making hay.

And whistling down the hollow goes the boy that minds the mill,
While mother from the kitchen-door is calling with a will,
"Polly! - Polly! The cows are in the corn!

Oh, where 's Polly?"

From all the misty morning air there comes a summer sound,
A murmur as of waters, from skies and trees and ground.
The birds they sing upon the wing, the pigeons bill and coo;
And over hill and hollow rings again the loud halloo:
"Polly! - Polly! - The cows are in the corn!

Oh, where's Polly? "

Above the trees, the honey-bees swarm by with buzz and boom,
And in the field and garden a thousand blossoms bloom.
Within the farmer's meadow a brown-eyed daisy blows,
And down at the edge of the hollow a red and thorny rose.
But "Polly! - Polly! - The cows are in the corn!

Oh, where 's Polly? "

How strange at such a time of day the mill should stop its clatter!
The farmer's wife is listening now, and wonders what's the matter.
Oh, wild the birds are singing in the wood and on the hill,
While whistling up the hollow goes the boy that minds the mill.
But "Polly! - Polly! - The cows are in the corn!
Oh, where's Polly!"

Richard Watson Gilder

Be sure to keep the throat relaxed and the breathing free; manage the breath by the diaphragm, that is, the large muscle at the base of the lungs. When this acts properly the tone will come out free and open, the throat will relax itself and all the conditions of tone will be normal.

TWICKENHAM FERRY

O-ho-ye-ho, Ho-ye-ho,

Who's for the ferry?

(The briar's in bud, the sun going down.)

And I'll row ye so quick, and I'll row ye so steady,
And 't is but a penny to Twickenham Town;
The ferryman's slim and the ferryman 's young,
And he's just a soft twang in the turn of his tongue,