In the Third Reader, the lessons on "The Fountain", "The Brook", "The Tide River", and "A Song of the Sea" form a group that can be used in connection with lessons in geography. "A Song for April", "An Apple Orchard in the Spring", "The Gladness of Nature", "The Orchard", "A Midsummer Song", "Corn-fields", "The Corn Song", "The Death of the Flowers", "The Frost", "The Snow-storm", make another group to accompany a study of the seasons. A similar group may be selected from the Fourth Reader.
The pupil who has made a study of a "brook" as a lesson in geography and defined it as "a small natural stream of water flowing from a spring or fountain" will, if he studies the following lines from Tennyson's "The Brook" and perceives by careful observation the descriptive accuracy and aptness of the words in italics, realize that the poet sees much that the geographer has not included in his definition.
I chatter over stony ways,
In little sharps and trebles,
I bubble into eddying bays,
I babble on the pebbles.
* * * *
I slip, I slide, I gloom, I glance.
Among my skimming swallows;
* * * *
I murmur under moon and stars.
* * * *
I linger by my shingly bars.
I loiter round my cresses.
Correlations such as these add greatly to the pupil's interest in this subject.