

E-text prepared by Barbara Tozier, Bill Tozier, and the Project Gutenberg
Online Distributed Proofreading Team (http://www.pgdp.net)



GRADED MEMORY SELECTIONS

Arranged by

S. D. WATERMAN,
Superintendent of Schools, Berkeley, Cal.

J. W. McCLYMONDS,
Superintendent of Schools, Oakland, Cal.

C. C. HUGHES,
Superintendent of Schools, Alameda, Cal.







Educational Publishing Company
Boston
New York Chicago San Francisco

Copyrighted
by Educational Publishing Company
1903.




PREFACE.


It is unfortunately true that the terms education and culture are not
synonymous. Too often we find that the children in our public schools,
while possessed of the one, are signally lacking in the other. This is
a state of things that cannot be remedied by teaching mere facts. The
Greeks, many years ago, found the true method of imparting the latter
grace and we shall probably not be able to discover a better one
to-day. Their youths learned Homer and the other great poets as a part
of their daily tasks, and by thus constantly dwelling upon and storing
in their minds the noblest and most beautifully expressed thought in
their literature, their own mental life became at once refined and
strong.

The basis of all culture lies in a pure and elevated moral nature, and
so noted an authority as President Eliot, of Harvard University, has
said that the short memory gems which he learned as a boy in school,
have done him more good in the hour of temptation than all the sermons
he ever heard preached. A fine thought or beautiful image, once stored
in the mind, even if at first it is received indifferently and with
little understanding, is bound to recur again and again, and its
companionship will have a sure, if unconscious, influence. The mind
that has been filled in youth with many such thoughts and images will
surely bear fruit in fine and gracious actions.

To the teachers who are persuaded of this truth, the present
collection of poems has much to recommend it. The selections have been
chosen both for their moral influence and for their permanent value as
literature. They have been carefully graded to suit the needs of every
class from the primary to the high school. Either the whole poem or a
sufficiently long quotation has been inserted to give the child a
complete mental picture.

The teacher will thus escape the difficulty of choosing among a too
great abundance of riches, or the still greater one of finding for
herself, with few resources, what serves her purpose. This volume has
a further advantage over other books of selections. It is so moderate
in price that it will be possible to place it in the hands of the
children themselves.

The compilers desire to thank Messrs. Houghton, Mifflin & Co., Charles
Scribner's Sons, Bowen, Merrill & Co., Whittaker & Ray Co., and
Doubleday & McClure Co., for their kindness in permitting the use of
copyrighted material.

                                                   S. D. WATERMAN.




CONTENTS.


  FIRST GRADE.

    The Baby                         _George Macdonald_
    The Little Plant                 _Anon._
    Sleep, Baby, Sleep               _E. Prentiss_
    One, Two, Three                  _Margaret Johnson_
    Three Little Bugs in a Basket    _Alice Cary_
    Whenever a Little Child is Born  _Agnes L. Carter_
    Sweet and Low                    _Alfred Tennyson_
    The Ferry for Shadowtown         _Anon._
    My Shadow                        _R. L. Stevenson_
    Quite Like a Stocking            _Anon._
    The Owl and the Pussy-Cat        _Edward Lear_
    Forget-me-not                    _Anon._
    Who Stole the Bird's Nest?       _Anon._
    Two Little Hands                 _Anon._
    The Dandelion                    _Anon._
    A Million Little Diamonds        _M. Butts_
    Daisy Nurses                     _Anon._
    At Little Virgil's Window        _Edwin Markham_
    Dandelions                       _Anon._
    Memory Gems                      _Selected_

  SECOND GRADE.

    Seven Times One                  _Jean Ingelow_
    Christmas Eve                    _Anon._
    Morning Song                     _Alfred Tennyson_
    Suppose, My Little Lady          _Phoebe Cary_
    The Day's Eye                    _Anon._
    The Night Wind                   _Eugene Field_
    The Blue-bird's Song             _Anon._
    Suppose                          _Anon._
    Autumn Leaves                    _Anon._
    If I Were a Sunbeam              _Lucy Larcom_
    Meadow Talk                      _Caroline Leslie_
    The Old Love                     _Charles Kingsley_
    Bed in Summer                    _R. L. Stevenson_
    Three Companions                 _Dinah M. Craik_
    The Wind                         _R. L. Stevenson_
    The Minuet                       _Mary Mapes Dodge_
    Wynken, Blynken and Nod          _Eugene Field_
    Pretty Is That