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THE
BEACON SECOND READER

BY
JAMES H. FASSETT

GINN AND COMPANY
BOSTON - NEW YORK - CHICAGO - LONDON
ATLANTA - DALLAS - COLUMBUS - SAN FRANCISCO


COPYRIGHT, 1914, BY JAMES H. FASSETT
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
431.1

The Athenaeum Press

GINN AND COMPANY - PROPRIETORS -
BOSTON - U.S.A.




PREFACE


In the "Beacon Second Reader" the author has chosen for his stories only
those of recognized literary merit; and while it has been necessary to
rearrange and sometimes rewrite them for the purpose of simplification,
yet he has endeavored to retain the spirit which has served to endear
these ancient tales to the children of all ages. The fairy story appeals
particularly to children who are in the second school year. It has been
proved by our ablest psychologists that at about this period of
development, children are especially susceptible to the stimulus of the
old folklore. They are in fact passing through the stage which
corresponds to the dawn of the human race, when demons, dragons,
fairies, and hobgoblins were as firmly believed in as rivers and
mountains.

As a test of this theory the author asked hundreds of second-grade and
third-grade school children to recall the stories which they had read
during the preceding year, and to express their preferences. The choice
of more than ninety per cent proved to be either folklore stories, pure
and simple, or such tales as contained the folklore element. To be sure,
children like other stories, but they respond at once with sparkling
eyes and animated voices when the fairy tale is suggested. How unwise,
therefore, it is to neglect this powerful stimulus which lies ready at
our hands! Even a pupil who is naturally slow will wade painfully and
laboriously through a fairy story, while he would throw down in disgust
an account of the sprouting of the bean or the mining of coal.

It can hardly be questioned, moreover, that the real culture which the
child derives from these literary classics is far greater than that
which he would gain from the "information" stories so common in the
average second and third readers.




CONTENTS


                                                              PAGE
THE SHIP                            _Old English Rhyme_         13
THE WOLF AND THE SEVEN YOUNG KIDS   _William and Jacob Grimm_   14
THEY DIDN'T THINK                   _Phoebe Cary_               22
TOM THUMB                           _English Fairy Tale_        24
SUPPOSE                             _Alice Cary_                34
CINDERELLA                          _English Fairy Tale_        36
RAINDROPS                           _Ann Hawkshawe_             43
THE FOUR FRIENDS                    _William and Jacob Grimm_   44
LITTLE BIRDIE                       _Alfred Tennyson_           54
MOTHER FROST                        _William and Jacob Grimm_   55
IF EVER I SEE                       _Lydia Maria Child_         65
WHY THE BEAR'S TAIL IS SHORT        _German Folk Tale_          66
RUMPELSTILTSKIN                     _William and Jacob Grimm_   70
BED IN SUMMER                       _Robert Louis Stevenson_    81
THE GOLDEN TOUCH                    _Greek Myth_                82
OVER IN THE MEADOW                  _Olive A. Wadsworth_        89
THE BELL OF ATRI                    _German Folk Tale_          92
THE BABY                            _Hugh Miller_               96
BRUCE AND THE SPIDER                _Scottish Tradition_        97
THE WISE LITTLE PIG                 _Anonymous_                100
AN INDIAN STORY                                                102
A GOOD PLAY                         _Robert Louis Stevenson_   112
DICK WHITTINGTON                    _English Folk Tale_        113
THE NEW MOON                        _Eliza Lee Follen_         124
BRIAR ROSE                          _William and Jacob Grimm_  126
ALL THINGS BEAUTIFUL                _Mrs. C.F. Alexander_      135
THE BAKER BOYS AND THE