THE SEASONS. It is winter now, cold winter. It snows How fast it snows! We cannot see the grass, nor the gravel walk, nor the road; they are covered with snow. When the sun shines, and the weather is warmer, the snow will melt; and it will sink into the earth as the rain does. When the winter is quite over, spring will come again. O, spring is very pleasant! There will be lilies and violets, and a great many pretty flowers; there will be blossoms and green leaves upon the trees. The birds will sing sweetly, and they will be very busy picking up bits of hay, moss, and wool, to build their nests. The days will be longer than they are in winter, and the weather will be warmer. When spring is over, it will be summer. Then the weather is hot, and the days are long. There will be hay-time and harvest, and thunder and lightning. The fruit will be ripe-cherries, currants, peaches, and plums, and a great many other kinds of fruit; and there will be moss-roses that smell so sweet, and fine pinks. When summer is over, the days will become short: there will be very few flowers left in the fields and in the gardens; the leaves on the trees will begin to fade, and fall off. The weather will be cold, and there will be thick fogs. But it will not be winter, as soon as summer is over. No--it will be autumn. Then apples and pears, filberts and walnuts, will be ripe. When autumn is over, winter, cold winter, will come again, and frost, and ice, and snow, and short dark days, and long nights. Spring, Summer, Autumn, and Winter, are called SEASONS. There is scarcely any thing (says Mr. Walker) which distinguishes a person of mean from good education, more than the pronunciation of the unaccented vowels. Vowels under the accent are pronounced nearly alike by the learned and the unlearned; but the unaccented vowels in the mouths of the former have a distinct, open, specific sound, while the latter often sink or change them into some other sound. Those, therefore, who would pronounce elegantly, must be particularly attentive to the unaccented words; as a neat pronunciation of them, forms one of the greatest beauties of speaking. Words of three syllables, with the accent on the first, The first syllable short, the others long. a, 1 syl. as in far... ab di cate can di date pal li ate Ich as k. con se crate con gre gate pros e cute fur be low fas ci nate Jan ti quate a" gi tate mach i nate ↓ phar i see I* mat ri cide 9, 1 syl. as in not. T phas |