, "I'd
lay me down and die."

"Snaw" is "snow."

"Ee" is "eye."

The "gowan" is the mountain daisy of Scotland.

"Fa'" is "fall."

Like many another simple lyric of love and devotion this owes much of
its popularity to the sweet melody of the music to which it is usually
sung.

_The Lost Child_

(Volume VII, page 409)

1. Where did the poet wander? Is the picture on page 409 a beautiful
one? Is it your idea of a sunny glade? On what or on whom was the poet
musing? Where his thoughts pleasant? To what does he liken his
thoughts? What are guideless thoughts? Do you think his "love" is a
person, or is it his work, his calling?

2. What chanced to go astray? Did Lowell sometimes fear for the future?
How does he express the fear? Who brought back the wandering thoughts?
Where did the thoughts rest? Who had the "snowy arms"? If Lowell feared
the future at any time, what was it that brought calm to him again?

3. What is the "soft nest"? Who is the "happy one"? Whose hair "shone
golden in the sun"? How could a thought of fear seem like a "heavenly
child"? Was it Hope that thus transformed all his thoughts?

4. Upon what did Hope's eyes smile mildly down? What was blessed with so
deep a love? What clasped the neck of Hope? What was it that fell
asleep? What was the lost child?

_David Crockett in the Creek War_

(Volume VIII, Page 37)

Almost any child who is able to read for himself will know as soon as he
has read a few sentences from David Crockett's Autobiography that the
man was uneducated, and wrote in what could not be called "good
English." However, when the reader has gone a little farther he will
realize that Crockett shows his own character in his writings, and that
his language is picturesque and entertaining. Moreover, it is language
that was characteristic of the early settlers in the region where the
frontiersman lived, and hence is of some historical interest to us.

No apology is needed for including the selection in these volumes,
although it has no fine literary merit; for it is the plain, direct
story of a strong man with a clear brain, who accomplished whatever he
undertook, whether it was building a home, fighting the Indians, or
writing a book.

The story will speak for itself, and as it is a truthful account of
things that actually happened, it will appeal strongly to the
imagination of all young readers. However, it is worth while to call
specific attention to some of the faul