CHAPTER VIII
TO THE TEACHER
I believe this to be one of the most important chapters in the volume, dark and terrible as its lesson may appear. But grim, dark death itself is not so dark as fear of the truth. If you teach nothing else, by precept and example, teach love for the truth—for the whole truth in nature as everywhere else. Winter is a fact; let us face it. Death is a fact; let us face it; and by facing it half of its terror will disappear; nay more, for something of its deep reasonableness and meaning will begin to appear, and we shall be no more afraid. The all of this is beyond a child, as it is beyond us; but the habit of looking honestly and fearlessly at things must be part of a child’s education, as later on it must be the very sum of it.
Great tact and fine feeling must be exercised if you happen to have among the scholars one of the handicapped—one lacking any part, as the muskrat lacked—lest the application be taken personally. But let the lesson be driven home: the need every boy and girl has for a strong, full-membered body,—even for every one of his teeth,—if he is to live at his physical best.
FOR THE PUPIL
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incisor teeth: the four long front teeth of the rodents,—rats, mice, beavers, etc. These incisor teeth, are heavily enameled with a sharp cutting edge and keep growing continuously.
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voles: meadow mice.
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chimney swallows: more properly swifts; as these birds do not belong to the swallow family at all.
vermin: The swifts are generally infested with vermin.
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clapper rails: or marsh-hens (Rallus crepitans).
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“List’ning the doors an’ winnocks rattle”: lines from Burns’s “A Winter Night.”