Chapter VI: To the Teacher

Read to the pupils Emerson’s poem “The Titmouse,” dwelling on
the lines,--

“Here was this atom in full breath,
Hurling defiance at vast death,” etc.

and the part beginning,--

“’Tis good will makes intelligence,”

letting the students learn by heart the chickadee’s little
song,--

“Live out of doors
In the great woods, on prairie floors,” etc.

Poem and chapter ought mutually to help each other. Read the
chapter slowly, explaining clearly as you go on, making it
finally plain that this mere “atom” of life is greater than all
the winter death, no matter how “vast.”

FOR THE PUPIL

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“_The Lilac_”: My lilac bush with its suet has become a kind of
hotel, or inn, or boarding-house, for the chickadees.

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_Phœ-ee-bee!_: more often the spring call than the winter
call of Chickadee. It is to be distinguished from the
“phœ’be” call of the phœbe, the flycatcher, by its greater
softness and purity, and by its very distinct _middle syllable_,
as if Chickadee said “Phœ’--ee--bee.” Phœbe’s note is
two-syllabled.

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_protective coloration_: a favorite term with Darwin and many
later naturalists to describe the wonderful harmony in the
colors of animals, insects, etc., and their natural
surroundings, the animal’s color blending so perfectly into the
color of its surroundings as to be a protection to the creature.

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_card house_: as if made of cards, easily pushed, even blown
down.

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_the workman’s chips:_ Look on the ground under a newly
excavated woodpecker’s hole, and you will find his “chips.”

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_a tiny window:_ The tough birch-bark would bend readily. I
would shut the window in leaving by means of a long, sharp
thorn.