opening of the development of the main incident, and arouses your interest in the story. The conclusion is usually very brief. Discussion. 1. What old prophecy did Ernest hope to see fulfilled? 2. What did he see in the Great Stone Face that influenced him? 3. What did Gathergold care most for? 4. For what did he use his wealth? 5. The Introduction on page 296 closed with the question, "What is America to me, and what can I do to make her happy?" How would Ernest have answered this question? 6. Ernest was seeking all his life for the ideal American citizen. The village folk at first thought that Gathergold was such a man; what did he represent? Why did he fail? 7. How may a wealthy man show himself an ideal citizen of his homeland? 8. Mention some very wealthy men who have used their riches to help their fellow men (founding libraries, etc.). 9. Next, the village folks looked upon Old Blood-and-Thunder as the ideal citizen; what did he represent? 10. Why did he fail to measure up to the ideal? 11. Mention some great soldiers who have proved ideal American citizens; tell what they did for our country. 12. Why did Old Stony Phiz fail to meet the standard? Compare him with Patrick Henry and Abraham Lincoln. 13. Why did the poet fail? Compare him with Longfellow. 14. Read again what is said in the Introduction on page 20 about what the poets do for us; also what is said in the Introduction on page 220 about the part poets have played in the struggle for freedom. 15. How did Ernest show by his simple life that he was himself the ideal citizen? 16. How does a legend such as this help us to understand what America is, and how we can help to make her happy? 17. This selection is taken from Hawthorne's "Tales of the White Hills," in The Snow Image and Other Twice-Told Tales. In the White Mountains of New Hampshire there is a cliff that resembles a human face. It was this rugged profile, known as "The Old Man of the Mountain," that gave Hawthorne the suggestion for this story. 18. Why do you think this is a typical short story? 19. On page 296 you read that you can become acquainted with your homeland partly through "snapshots" of the scenes that show her "infinite variety of moods," and partly through her legends. Mention some "moods" and legends found in the five selections you have just read in the group called "American Scenes and Legends." 20. Find in the Glossary the meaning of: spacious; perpendicular; Titanic; visage; prophecy; ardor; pensive; commodity; portico (pp. 400-404); sordid; meditate; ignoble; clangor; verdant; epaulet (pp. 406-409); truculent; illustrious; spectacle; array; despondent; grandeur (pp. 411-415); utterance (p. 417). 21. Pronounce: benign (p. 401); harbinger; beneficence; wound (pp. 405407); buoyantly (p. 412); obliquely; draught (pp. 419-420). Phrases for Study tamed by human cunning, 400, 15 touch of transmutation, 404, 17 communicated electricity, 409, 13 Class Reading. Gathergold's wealth and his mansion, page 403, line 7, to page 405, line 4; the festival for Old Blood-and-Thunder, page 408, line 13, to page 410, line 12; Ernest addresses the assemblage, page 419, line 10, to end of story. Bring to class and read "The Old Man of the Mountain," Shattuck (in St. Nicholas, September, 1920). Outline for Testing Silent Reading. (a) The Great Stone Face; (b) The prophecy; (c) The story of Gathergold; (d) The story of Old Blood-and-Thunder; (e) The story of Old Stony Phiz; (f) The meeting of Ernest and the poet; (g) The poet's discovery. Library Reading. Other stories from The Snow Image and Other Twice-Told Tales, Hawthorne; a story from Twice-Told Tales, Hawthorne ; Will o' the Mill, Stevenson. Suggestions for Theme Topics. 1. Apply to Washington and Lincoln the principle that the life we live is reflected in our features, spirit, and actions. 2. My favorite hero or heroine. 3. The kind of boy or girl I should like to be. 4. How ideals can be realized. 5. How a study of Hawthorne may help me to increase my vocabulary. (Note the different names Hawthorne uses in referring to the face.) In compliance with the request of a friend of mine, who wrote me from the East, I called on good-natured, garrulous old Simon Wheeler, and inquired after my friend's friend, Leonidas W. Smiley, as requested to do, and I hereunto append the result. I 5 have a lurking suspicion that Leonidas W. Smiley is a myth; that my friend never knew such a personage; and that he only conjectured that, if I asked old Wheeler about him, it would remind him of his infamous Jim Smiley, and he would go to work and bore me nearly to death with some infernal remi10 niscence of him as long and tedious as it should be useless to me. If that was the design, it certainly succeeded. I found Simon Wheeler dozing comfortably by the barroom stove of the old, dilapidated tavern in the ancient mining camp of Angel's, and I noticed that he was fat and bald-headed, and 15 had an expression of winning gentleness and simplicity upon his tranquil countenance. He roused up and gave me good-day. I *See Silent and Oral Reading, page 40. told him a friend of mine had commissioned me to make some inquiries about a cherished companion of his boyhood named Leonidas W. Smiley-Rev. Leonidas W. Smiley-a young minister of the Gospel, who he had heard was at one time a resident 5 of Angel's Camp. I added that, if Mr. Wheeler could tell me anything about this Rev. Leonidas W. Smiley, I would feel under many obligations to him. Simon Wheeler backed me into a corner and blockaded me there with his chair, and then sat me down and reeled off the 10 monotonous narrative which follows this paragraph. He never smiled, he never frowned, he never changed his voice from the gentle-flowing key to which he tuned the initial sentence, he never betrayed the slightest suspicion of enthusiasm; but all through the interminable narrative there ran a vein of impressive 15 earnestness and sincerity, which showed me plainly that, so far from his imagining that there was anything ridiculous or funny about his story, he regarded it as a really important matter, and admired its two heroes as men of transcendent genius in finesse. To me, the spectacle of a man drifting serenely along through 20 such a queer yarn without ever smiling was exquisitely absurd. As I said before, I asked him to tell me what he knew of Rev. Leonidas W. Smiley, and he replied as follows. I let him go on in his own way, and never interrupted him once: There was a feller here once by the name of Jim Smiley, in 25 the winter of '49-or maybe it was the spring of '50-I don't recollect exactly, somehow, though what makes me think it was one or the other is because I remember the big flume wasn't finished when he first came to the camp; but anyway, he was the curiosest man about always betting on anything that turned 30 up you ever see, if he could get anybody to bet on the other side; and if he couldn't, he'd change sides. Any way that suited the other man would suit him-any way just so's he got a bet, he was satisfied. But still he was lucky, uncommon lucky; he most always come out winner. He was always ready and laying for 35 a chance; there couldn't be no solitry thing mentioned but that feller'd offer to bet on it, and take any side you please, as I was just telling you. If there was a horse-race, you'd find him flush or you'd find him busted at the end of it; if there was a dog-fight, he'd bet on it; if there was a cat-fight, he'd bet on it; if there 5 was a chicken-fight, he'd bet on it; why, if there was two birds setting on a fence, he would bet you which one would fly first; or if there was a camp meeting, he would be there reg'lar, to bet on Parson Walker, which he judged to be the best exhorter about here, and so he was, too, and a good man. If he even seen a 10 straddle-bug start to go anywheres, he would bet you how long it would take him to get to wherever he was going to, and if you took him up, he would foller that straddle-bug to Mexico but what he would find out where he was bound for and how long he was on the road. Lots of the boys here has seen that 15 Smiley, and can tell you about him. Why, it never made no difference to him-he would bet on any thing-the dangdest feller. Parson Walker's wife laid very sick once, for a good while, and it seemed as if they warn't going to save her; but one morning he come in, and Smiley asked how she was, and he said 20 she was considerable better-thank the Lord for His inf'nit mercy -and coming on so smart that, with the blessing of Prov'dence, she'd get well yet; and Smiley, before he thought, says, "Well, I'll risk two-and-a-half that she don't, anyway." Thish-yer Smiley had a mare-the boys called her the fifteen25 minute nag, but that was only in fun, you know, because, of course, she was faster than that-and he used to win money on that horse, for all she was so slow and always had the asthma, or the distemper, or the consumption, or something of that kind. They used to give her two or three hundred yards start, and then 30 pass her under way; but always at the fag-end of the race she'd get excited and desperate-like, and come cavorting and straddling up, and scattering her legs around limber, sometimes in the air, and sometimes out to one side amongst the fences, and kicking up m-o-r-e dust, and raising m-o-r-e racket with her cough85 ing and sneezing and blowing her nose-and always reach the |