Christian Brothers

“ In the early morning the Angels came to the Forest singing the same song about the Child, and the Stars sang in chorus with them, until every part of the woods rang with echoes of that wondrous song. They were clad all in white, and there were crowns upon their fair heads, and golden harps in their hands. Love, hope, joy and compassion beamed from their beautiful faces. The Angels came through the Forest to where the little Tree stood, and gathering around it, they touched it with their hands, kissed its little branches, and sang even more sweetly than before. ”

“ For the production of the broad sounds of D and T the tongue is pressed against the upper teeth (the tongue does not touch the gums) . The only difference between d and t is that d is voiced (§ 3) , t voiceless.
Throughout the most of Ireland the English sounds of “th” are never heard. The vast majority of Irishmen employ the broad sounds of t and d. In English “th” is not a “stop,” it is a spirant, the tongue being placed between the teeth in such a way that the breath is not completely stopped.
(a) Broad s in Irish has not quite so hissing a sound as the English “s.” ”

“ Young men and rosy-cheeked girls, with smiles on their faces, were dancing to the sound of a fiddle.
"Let us stop here," cried Daffy-down-dilly to his companion; "for Mr. Toil will never dare to show his face where there is a fiddler, and where people are dancing and making merry. We shall be quite safe here."
But these last words died away upon Daffy-down-dilly's tongue, for, happening to cast his eyes on the fiddler, whom should he behold again, but the likeness of Mr. Toil, holding a fiddle bow instead of a birch rod. ”

“ Now, if we wish to get the sound of b aspirated (or ḃ) , we must breathe the whole time whilst trying to form the sound of b; i.e. we must not close the lips entirely, and the resulting sound is like the English consonant v. Hence we say that the sound of ḃ (in some positions) is v.
The Irish letter c corresponds very much to the English k, and the breathed sound of k corresponds to the sound of ċ (when broad) . To sound the English k, we press the centre of the tongue against the palate, and cut off the breath completely for an instant. ”

“ As the verb “have” is translated by tá and the preposition ag, so in a similar manner the verb “own” is translated by the verb IS and the preposition LE. Not only is the verb “to own,” but also all expressions conveying the idea of ownership, such as: The book belongs to me: the book is mine, &c.; are translated by the same idiom.
Notice the position of the words. In translating the verb “have” the verb tá is separated from the preposition ag by the noun or pronoun; but in the case of “own” the verb is and the preposition le come together. ”

“ He walked to the wood, and there, when he came to the border of a little tinkling stream, he sat down and began to brood over his grievances.
"Now, I'll tell you what," said Tom to himself, "it's much pleasanter sitting here in the shade, than broiling over celery trenches, and thinning wall fruit, with a baking sun at one's back, and a hot wall before one's eyes. But I'm a miserable slave. I must either work or see my family starve; a very hard lot it is to be a workingman." ”

“ First, the toil worn craftsman, that with earth-made implement laboriously conquers the earth, and makes her man's. Venerable to me is the hard hand, crooked, coarse, wherein, notwithstanding, lies a cunning virtue, indefeasibly royal, as of the scepter of this planet. Venerable, too, is the rugged face, all weather tanned, besoiled, with its rude intelligence; for it is the face of a man living manlike. ”

“ In English, when the relative or interrogative pronoun is governed by a preposition, the pronoun very often comes before the governing word: as, What are you speaking about? The man that he gave the book to is here. In colloquial Irish it is a very common practice to separate the relative particle from the preposition which governs it ; but instead of using a simple preposition at the end of the sentence, as in English, we use a prepositional pronoun. Thus we can say—an fear ag a ḃfuil an ḃó, or more usually, an fear a ḃfuil an ḃó aige, [2] the man who has the cow ”

“ At last he threw down his drawing and said to the lily:
"You are too beautiful to draw with a pencil. How I wish I were a painter!"
As he said these words he felt the flower move. He looked, and the cluster of stamens at the bottom of the lily-cup glittered like a crown of gold. The dewdrops which hung upon the stamens changed to diamonds before his eyes. The white petals flowed together, and the next moment a beautiful little fairy stood on his hand. She was no taller than the lily from which she came, and she was dressed in a robe of the purest white. ”

“ The next day the guests assembled as before, and to their astonishment and the anger of Xanthus nothing but tongues was provided. "How, sir," said Xanthus, "should tongues be the best of meat one day and the worst another?" "What," replied Aesop, "can be worse than the tongue? What wickedness is there under the sun that it has not a part in? Treasons, violence, injustice, fraud, are debated and resolved upon, and communicated by the tongue. It is the ruin of empires, cities, and of private friendships." ”

“ I part from you, as I have lived with you, in peace,' 'Not so,' replied Corvinus, now purple in the face with fury; 'but-'"
The boy's countenance became crimsoned, his voice quivered, his body trembled, and, half-choked, he sobbed out, "I cannot go on; I dare not tell the rest!"
"I entreat you, for God's sake, and for the love you bear your father's memory," said the mother, placing her hand upon her son's head, "conceal nothing from me. I shall never again have rest if you tell me not all. What further said or did Corvinus?" ”

“ He had no sooner cleared the ground than he was on his knees, and with tears in his eyes raised up the bruised and fainting boy as tenderly as a mother could have done, and in most gentle tones asked him, "Are you much hurt, Tarcisius?"
"Never mind me, Quadratus," answered he, opening his eyes with a smile; "but I am carrying the Divine Mysteries; take care of them."
The soldier raised the boy in his arms with tenfold reverence, as if bearing, not only the sweet victim of a youthful sacrifice, a martyr's relics, but the very King and Lord of Martyrs, and the divine Victim of eternal salvation. ”

“ If I may use such a word when I am speaking of religious subjects, it is by voice and words that men mesmerize each other. Hence it is that the world is converted by the voice of the preacher. Hence it is that an angry word rankles longer in the heart than an angry gesture, nay, very often even longer than a blow. Thus, all that has been said of the power of kindness in general applies with an additional and peculiar force to kind words. ”

“ Gluck sat down quite close to the fire, for it was raining very hard. He turned and turned, and the roast got nice and brown.
"What a pity," thought Gluck, "that my brothers never ask anybody to dinner. I'm sure, when they have such a nice piece of mutton as this, it would do their hearts good to have somebody to eat it with them." Just as he spoke there came a double knock at the house door, yet heavy and dull, as though the knocker had been tied up. "It must be the wind," said Gluck; "nobody else would venture to knock double knocks at our door." ”

“ Write a composition on the story from the following hints: Where did Little Bell go? In what season of the year? At what time of day? How old was she? How did she look? What companions did she meet? What did the three friends do? How did the little girl close the day?
In your composition, use as many words and phrases of the poem as you can.
Memorize:
Prayer is the dew of faith,
Its raindrop, night and day,
That guards its vital power from death
When cherished hopes decay,
And keeps it mid this changeful scene,
A bright, perennial evergreen. ”

“ Well, let's not call it a lesson, but only a truth which it will do every one of us good to remember; and that is, that none of the beauty in this fair world around us, nor anything that is sweet and lovely in our own hearts, and lives, will ever be useless and lost. For, as the little fern leaf lay hidden away for years and years, and yet finally was found by the wise man and given a place with his other rare and precious possessions where it could still, though silently, aid those who looked upon it ”

“ Gone!" and down came the hammer with a sharp rap.
I do not know how or why it was, but the words struck me with a new force and significance. I had heard them hundreds of times before, with only a sense of amusement. This time they sounded solemn.
"Going! Going! Gone!"
"That is the way it is with life," I said to myself;-"with time." This world is a sort of auction-room; we do not know that we are buyers: we are, in fact, more like beggars; we have brought no money to exchange for precious minutes, hours, days, or years; they are given to us. ”

“ So the years passed, and the boy grew to be a man. He had never broken the charm. The lily had never faded, and he still worked every day with his magic palette.
But no one cared for his pictures. Even his mother did not like them. His forests and misty hills and common clouds were too much like the real ones. She said she could see as good any day by looking out of her window. All this made the young man very unhappy. He began to doubt whether he should ever be a painter, and one day he threw down his palette. He thought the fairy had deserted him. ”

“ The master was forgotten; but the poet remembered him, and named him, and wrote down his thoughts concerning the subject:
"How foolish it would be of the violin and the bow to boast of their achievements. And yet we men often commit this folly-the poet, the artist, the laborer in the domain of science, the general-we all do it. We are only the instruments which the Almighty uses: to Him alone be the honor! We have nothing of which we should be proud." ”

“ Is more of a hero, I say,
Than he who leads soldiers to battle,
And conquers by arms in the fray.
Be steadfast, my boy, when you're tempted,
And do what you know to be right;
Stand firm by the colors of manhood,
And you will o'ercome in the fight.
"The right!" be your battle cry ever
In waging the warfare of life;
And God, who knows who are the heroes,
Will give you the strength for the strife.
Phoebe Cary.
From "Poems for the Study of Language." Houghton, Mifflin & Co., Publishers.
Write sentences each containing one of the following words:
I, me; he, him; she, her; they, them. ”

“ They had lived in the Forest many, many years; but never had they seen such marvelous sights as were to be seen now in the sky, and upon the hills, and in the distant village.
"Pray tell us what you see," pleaded a little Vine; "we who are not so tall as you can behold none of these wonderful things."
"The whole sky seems to be aflame," said one of the Cedars, "and the Stars appear to be dancing among the clouds; angels walk down from heaven to the earth and talk with the shepherds upon the hills." ”

“ This seemed to go beyond a joke, and Xanthus demanded in an angry manner of Aesop, "Did I not tell you to provide the choicest dainties that money could procure?" "And what excels the tongue?" replied Aesop, "It is the channel of learning and philosophy. By it addresses and eulogies are made, and commerce carried on, contracts executed, and marriages consummated. Nothing is equal to the tongue." The company applauded Aesop's wit, and good feeling was restored.
"Well," said Xanthus to the guests, "pray do me the favor of dining with me again to-morrow. ”

“ Let's begin right away."
"Maggie, you said," continued James, "that you never could find out when the angels were created. Neither could our teacher tell me. And I'm told St. Augustine could only make a guess when they were created.
"He thought the angels were created when God separated the light from the darkness. But that's no matter, anyhow. We're sure there are angels; that's the chief point."
"Are you quite certain?" asked Maggie.
"To be sure I am," said James. "If I met a man in the street I would know he must have a father and a mother, although I had never heard when he was born." ”