---
title: Improvement Era
description: Monthly periodical of the Mormon church, 1897 onward. This library holds the issues of November 1897 to December 1930.
authors:
  - Harrison, H. R.
collections:
  - periodicals
tags:
  - magazine
  - improvement-era
periodical: Improvement Era
volume: 20
number: 6
published: 1917-04
publisher: Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations
publisher_place: Salt Lake City
language: en
type: magazine
reference: 'H. R. Harrison, "My Mother: A Poem," *Improvement Era* 20, no. 6 (April 1917): 507.'
source:
  url: https://archive.org/details/improvementera2006unse
  transcription: Transcribed from the Internet Archive scan of each issue (the item for each issue is named in the issue's own source); unnumbered advertising leaves are omitted, printed page numbers are kept as page markers.
  identifier: improvementera2006unse
start_page: 507
end_page: 507
rights:
  status: public-domain
  basis: US publication 1930 or earlier (published 1917-04)
  source: https://archive.org/details/improvementera2006unse
  publication_year: 1917
  note: The Internet Archive item metadata carries a blanket "© Copyright by Intellectual Reserve, Inc." notice. The library owner judged it inapplicable because this issue was published in 1917, before 1931; a scan-level notice does not restore copyright.
---

# My Mother: A Poem

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Outlines for Scout Workers

                        By Mariza Clay and D. W. Parratt

                         XVII—The California Gull
                              A Visit from the Sea
Far from the loud sea beaches, where he goes fishing and crying,
Here in the inland garden, why is the sea gull flying?
Here are no fish to dive for: here is the corn and lea;
Here are the green trees rustling. Hie away home to sea!

Fresh is the river water and quiet among the rushes;
This is no home for the sea gull, but for the rooks and thrushes.

Pity the bird that has wandered! Pity the sailor ashore!
Hurry him home to the ocean, let him come here no more!
High on the sea cliff ledges the white gulls are trooping and crying;
Here among rocks and roses, why is the sea gull flying?
                                                     —
                                                   Robert Louis Stevenson.

      1.    How many kinds of gulls are found in our Great Basin? Which is
the most     common?
      2.    What color markings has this gull?
       3.   Contrast the male and female California gulls in size and color.
      4.    Where and of what do these birds build their nests?
       5.   Upon what does the California gull subsist?
       6.   Where does it winter?
       7.   Why should the people of Utah hold the gull in esteem?
       8.  What, of late, has been done to show the reverence in which the gull
is   held in our community?
       9.  Should the gull be protected by law? Why?

                               Handy Material
                   "I have slain the Mishe-Nahma,
                   Slain the King of Fishes!" said he;