A glimpse of the past

I've been going through some of my "treasures", and this last weekend, spent some time looking at old books. I have several textbooks that my dad used when he was in high school, and even a couple that his dad had, and one from his mother. Keep in mind that my dad was born in 1912, and his dad was born in 1870, so these books are pretty old. The ones his mother and dad used when they were students are copyrighted in 1880 and 1883. I have one that's called "New Fourth Grade Reader" that has my grandfather's initials on the back cover, but some pages are missing, so I don't know for sure how old it is, I would venture to say it also was printed in 1880 as well (he would have been 10 years old then). Here's a poem from this reader:

The Sky-Lark

The sky-lark, when the dews of morn
Hang tremulous on flower and thorn,
And violets round his nest exhale
Their fragrance on the early gale,
To the first sunbeam spreads his wings,
Bouyant with joy, and soars, and sing.

He rests not on the leafy spray,
To warble his exulting lay,
But, high above the morning cloud
Mounts in triumphant freedom proud;
And swells, when nearest to the sky,
His sweetest notes of ectasy.

Thus, my Creator! thus the more
My spirit's wing to Thee can soar
The more she triumphs to behold
Thy love in all thy works unfold:
And bids her hymns of rapture be
Most glad when rising most to Thee.

The "exercise" which follows this poem is this: "What should the happiness and the merry singing of the birds teach us?"

Did I mention this came from a 4th grade reader? As someone who works with elementary students, I thought this most interesting. There are many references in this book to God, and even a reading lesson from the Sermon on the Mount.

I have a book my dad used in high school, it's "Elementary Latin". The copyright was 1920. From the scribblings and doodlings in the book, I can see that dad was perhaps not entirely focused on his Latin lessons. He wrote his name on several pages, and it looks like he's traced circles in pencil maybe from a compass. There are 3 assignments on paper folded in the book that look like they were never completed and handed in. On the first page of the book, the introduction, is written in pencil, Bueno Dias, Senorita...so apparently, his mind was not on Latin that day.

But really, the most overwhelming evidence of dad's wandering thoughts is from the inside front cover. In pen, he had written this little verse: "The taller the tree, The thicker the bark, The closer you sit, The bigger the spark." Underneath that are three or four rows of cursive letter "E"s. Hmmm. What or who do you suppose he was thinking of?