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."

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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.

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_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.

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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_.

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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.

And then _Conjunctions_ join two words or sentences to