FIFTH READER  49

  Charles G. Eastman (b. 1816, d. 1861) was born in Maine, but removed
  at an early age to Vermont, where he was connected with the press at
  Burlington, Woodstock, and Montpelier. He published a volume of
  poems in 1848, written in a happy lyric and ballad style, and faithfully
  portraying rural life in New England.
  
  1. THE farmer sat in his easy chair
  Smoking his pipe of clay,
  While his hale old wife with busy care,
  Was clearing the dinner away;
  A sweet little girl with fine blue eyes,
  On her grandfather's knee, was catching flies.
  
  2. The old man laid his hand on her head,
  With a tear on his wrinkled face,
  He thought how often her mother, dead,
  Had sat in the selfsame place;
  As the tear stole down from his half shut eye,
  "Don't smoke!" said the child, "how it makes you cry."
 
  3. The house dog lay stretched out on the floor,
  Where the shade, afternoons, used to steal;
  The busy old wife by the open door
  Was turning the spinning wheel,
  And the old brass clock on the manteltree
  Had plodded along to almost three.

  4. Still the farmer sat in his easy chair,
  While close to his heaving breast
  The moistened brow and the cheek. so fair    
  Of his sweet grandchild were pressed;
  His head bent down, on her soft hair lay;
  Fast asleep were they both on that summer day.
  
DEFINITIONS.   1. Hale, healthy. 3. Manteltree shelf over a
 fireplace Plodded, went slowly. 4. Heaving rising and falling.