I know a little brown-eyed boy, His name is Harley Hart; And with a naughty boy or girl, Our Harley has no part. He cons his lessons o'er and o'er, And once he fell asleep, With finger marking A, B, C, As 'twere the place to keep. And then he dreamed a funny dream-- The page jumps up to dance, The letters laugh, and by and by, Like imps they leap and prance. {121} Now Harley oft had wondered whence The letters first had come; And I'm afraid he sometimes wished They all had staid at home, Instead of teasing him with quirks, And bothering him with names That seemed to help him hardly more In learning words than games. One little imp squeaked: "I am _A;_ You could not be a man Without me." Then another cried: "I am E" and quickly ran, Exclaiming: "And without us both You could not have a h_e_ad." Another says: "You'd have no l_i_mbs If _I_ were lost or dead." Then _O_, "You'd have no n_o_se nor t_o_es, If it were not for me;" "And what is more, were I not here," Says _U_, "yo_u_ could not be." {122} And thus they each and all lay claim To parcel and to part Of what he was, or what should do With hand, or head, or heart. They hung a ladder 'gainst the tree, And clambered up and down; They played a thousand pranks as wild As any gipsey clown. They whispered that they came from Rome, And that, if rightly placed, They'd serve our Harley with a feast A king would joy to taste. So when he woke and knew they were The little mystic keys That open Learning's gates so wide, He loved his A, B, C's. {123} _OUR LANGUAGE KEY_. A E I O U Y We are small, and we are few, But we're wondrous mighty, too,-- For no word can language wear, Save in it we hold a share. One of us in May is met,-- One is caught in every net; One is in the clambering vine, One, in Moon, must ever shine; One's in you,--and all so shy, The last is hiding in your eye. {124} THE SPEECH FAMILY. The name of everything we know, as _slate_, or _book_, or _toy_, Is called a _Noun_. All names are nouns; remember this, my boy. A word that means to be, to act, or to be acted on, Is called a _Verb_; as _is_, or _eat_, or _sing_; or he _is gone_. {125} A word that tells the color, form, or quality of things, Is called an _Adjective_; as, _bright_, or _round_, or _softest_ wings. A word that tells how things are done, as _quickly_, _bravely_, _well_. Is called an _Adverb_; and I'm sure you many more can tell. A word that's used in place of nouns, a _Pronoun_ we may call; As, _I_ for mother; _you_, for James; _this_, _that_, for hoop or ball A _Preposition's_ placed before a noun, and serves to show Relation to some other word; as, Rover's _in_ the snow.