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[Illustration: The naval battle between the Serapis and the Poor
Richard.]

[Illustration:




                       GRADED LITERATURE READERS


                               EDITED BY
                      HARRY PRATT JUDSON, LL.D.,
                PRESIDENT OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO
                                  AND
                             IDA C. <DW12>
  SUPERVISOR OF PRIMARY GRADES IN THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS OF BUFFALO, NEW
                                 YORK

                              FOURTH BOOK

                  CHARLES E. MERRILL CO., PUBLISHERS]

                          COPYRIGHT, 1900, BY
                        MAYNARD, MERRILL, & CO.
                                 [24]




PREFACE


It is believed that the Graded Literature Readers will commend
themselves to thoughtful teachers by their careful grading, their sound
methods, and the variety and literary character of their subject-matter.

They have been made not only in recognition of the growing discontent
with the selections in the older readers, but also with an appreciation
of the value of the educational features which many of those readers
contained. Their chief points of divergence from other new books,
therefore, are their choice of subject-matter and their conservatism in
method.

A great consideration governing the choice of all the selections has
been that they shall interest children. The difficulty of learning to
read is minimized when the interest is aroused.

School readers, which supply almost the only reading of many children,
should stimulate a taste for good literature and awaken interest in a
wide range of subjects.

In the Graded Literature Readers good literature has been presented as
early as possible, and the classic tales and fables, to which constant
allusion is made in literature and daily life, are largely used.

Nature study has received due attention. The lessons on scientific
subjects, though necessarily simple at first, preserve always a strict
accuracy.

The careful drawings of plants and animals, and the illustrations in
color--many of them photographs from nature--will be attractive to the
pupil and helpful in connection with nature study.

No expense has been spared to maintain a high standard in the
illustrations, and excellent engravings of masterpieces are given
throughout the series with a view to quickening appreciation of the
best in art.

These books have been prepared with the hearty sympathy and very
practical assistance of many distinguished educators in different parts
of the country, including some of the most successful teachers of
reading in primary, intermediate, and advanced grades.

Thanks are due to Messrs. G. P. Putnam's Sons and to President
Roosevelt for their courtesy in permitting the use of the selection
from "Hunting Trips of a Ranchman."




INTRODUCTION


In the Fourth and Fifth Readers the selections are longer, the language
more advanced, and the literature of a more mature and less imaginative
character than in the earlier books.

The teacher should now place increased emphasis on the literary
side of the reading, pointing out beauties of language and thought,
and endeavoring to create an interest in the books from which the
selections are taken. Pupils will be glad to know something about the
lives of the authors whose works they are reading, and will welcome the
biographical notes given at the head of the selections, and the longer
biographical sketches throughout the book. These can be made the basis
of further biographical study at the discretion of the teacher.

Exercises and word lists at the end of the selections contain all
necessary explanations of the text, and also furnish suggestive
material for language work. For convenience, the more difficult words,
with definitions and complete diacritical markings, are grouped
together in the vocabulary at the end of the book.

A basal series of readers can do little more than broadly outline a
course in reading, relying on the teacher to carry it forward. If a
public library is within reach, the children should be encouraged to
use it; if not, the school should exert every effort to accumulate a
library of standard works to which the pupils may have ready access.

The primary purpose of a reading book is to give pupils the mastery of
the printed page, but through oral reading it also becomes a source of
valuable training of the vocal organs. Almost every one finds pleasure
in listening to good reading. Many feel that the power to give this
pleasure comes only as a natural gift, but an analysis of the art shows
that with practice any normal child may acquire it. The qualities
which are essential to good oral reading may be considered in three
groups:

First--An agreeable voice and clear articulation, which, although
possessed by many children naturally, may also be cultivated.

Second--Correct inflection and emphasis, with that due regard for
rhetorical pauses which will appear whenever a child fully understands
what he is reading and is sufficiently interested in it to lose his
self-consciousness.

Third--Proper pronunciation, which can be acquired only by association
or by direct teaching.

Clear articulation implies accurate utterance of each syllable and a
distinct termination of one syllable before another is begun.

Frequent drill on pronunciation and articulation before or after
the reading lesson will be found profitable in teaching the proper
pronunciation of new words and in overcoming faulty habits of speech.

Attention should be called to the omission of unaccented syllables in
such words as _history_ (not _histry_), _valuable_ (not _valuble_),
and to the substitution of _unt_ for _ent_, _id_ for _ed_, _iss_ for
_ess_, _unce_ for _ence_, _in_ for _ing_, in such words as _moment_,
_delighted_, _goodness_, _sentence_, _walking_. Pupils should also
learn to make such distinctions as appear between _u_ long, as in
_duty_, and _u_ after _r_, as in _rude_; between _a_ as in _hat_, _a_
as in _far_, and _a_ as in _ask_.

The above hints are suggestive only. The experienced teacher will
devise for herself exercises fitting special cases which arise in her
own work. It will be found that the best results are secured when the
interest of the class is sustained and when the pupil who is reading
aloud is made to feel that it is his personal duty and privilege to
arouse and hold this interest by conveying to his fellow pupils, in an
acceptable manner, the thought presented on the printed page.




CONTENTS


                                                                PAGE

  THE STRAW, THE COAL, AND THE BEAN  The Brothers Grimm            9

  SEPTEMBER                          Helen Hunt Jackson           12

  ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON                                          13

  TRAVEL                             Robert Louis Stevenson       16

  TRAVELERS' WONDERS                 Dr. John Aikin               19

  ANTS                                                            24

  THE FOUR SUNBEAMS                                               28

  SIFTING BOYS                                                    30

  THE FOUNTAIN                       James Russell Lowell         34

  LEWIS CARROLL                                                   36

  WHAT ALICE SAID TO THE KITTEN      Lewis Carroll                38

  THE KITTEN AND THE FALLING LEAVES  William Wordsworth           43

  THE SNOW IMAGE                     Nathaniel Hawthorne          45

  LITTLE BY LITTLE                                                63

  THE HOUSE I LIVE IN                                             63

  JEFFERSON'S TEN RULES                                           70

  THE PET LAMB                       William Wordsworth           71

  THE STORY OF FLORINDA              Abby Morton Diaz             75

  THE EAGLE                          Alfred, Lord Tennyson        90

  PSALM XXIII                                                     91

  TILLY'S CHRISTMAS                  Louisa May Alcott            92

  UNDER THE GREENWOOD TREE           William Shakspere           101

  OUR FIRST NAVAL HERO                                           102

  HIAWATHA'S SAILING                 Henry Wadsworth Longfellow  108

  SHUN DELAY                                                     114

  THE WALRUS AND THE CARPENTER       Lewis Carroll               119

  PRINCE AHMED                       "The Arabian Nights"        124

  THE PLANTING OF THE APPLE TREE     William Cullen Bryant       149

  NESTS                              John Ruskin                 153

  SIR ISAAC NEWTON                   Nathaniel Hawthorne         153

  LUCY                               William Wordsworth          165

  TO A SKYLARK                       William Wordsworth          167

  TOM GOES DOWN TO THE SEA           Charles Kingsley            167

  PSALM XXIV                                                     