untain,
O'er-curtained by wild flowers.

"One morn I ran away,
A madcap, noisy rill;
And many a prank that day
I played adown the hill!

"And then 'mid meadowy banks,
I flirted with the flowers,
That stooped with glowing lips
To woo me to their bowers.

"But these bright scenes are o'er,
And darkly flows my wave;
I hear the ocean's roar--
And there must be my grave!"

Where have you seen a river like the one spoken of in the poem? Are
rivers born? What is meant by "My nurse the April showers"? "I flirted
with the flowers"? Explain the last stanza.

LESSON XXIV.

A MAP

A drawing made to show a room, or a house; or the school-yard, or even a
village, is called a plan.

Drawings which represent land and water are called maps. You may learn
from maps where the countries, and mountains, and rivers, and cities are
that you have seen. It also shows how far places are from one another.

Here is a map showing mountains and rivers. The many short lines facing
each other represent mountains. To show the very high part of the
mountains, the lines are drawn close to each other, making that part of
the map look dark. The line winding about, like the stream itself,
represents a river. The line, as you see, is made thicker and thicker
toward its mouth. From this you may know that the river itself becomes
broader and broader as it flows toward the sea.

But you must not think that the crooked line on the map is a river, or
the lines which face each other are mountains. If you do, you will learn
very little of geography. When you look at these lines, you must _think_
of the real things which they stand for--the lofty mountains, with their
covering of forests, and with long, narrow valleys between them; the
winding, gently flowing river, bearing boats upon its waters.

LESSON XXV.

FORMS OF LAND AND WATER.

You all know what a pond is. Is there a pond near where you live? Did
you ever fish in it? Did you ever walk round it?

When a stream, on its way to the ocean, flows into a basin or hollow in
the land, the water spreads out and fills it. A hollow in the land
filled with water is called a _lake_, or, if it be quite small, a
_pond_.

What is a lake made of? What is round it? Suppose some one who never saw
a lake were to ask you what a lake is, what would you say?

What do we find in lakes? Would you not like to sail on a lake?

In the hollows among mountains