Chapter I: Front Matter

Transcriber's note

Minor changes have been made to correct typesetter errors; otherwise, every effort has been made to remain true to the authors' words and intent.

Characters that could not be displayed directly in Latin-1 are transcribed as follows:

[)a], [)e], [)i], [)o], [)y] - breve above letter
[=a], [=e], [=i], [=o], [=y] - macron above letter
[:a], [:i], [:o], [:u] - umlaut above letter
[+s] - tack up below letter

(See page 23).]

READING WITH EXPRESSION

EIGHTH READER

BY

JAMES BALDWIN

AUTHOR OF "SCHOOL READING BY GRADES--BALDWIN'S READERS,"
"HARPER'S READERS," ETC.

AND

IDA C. BENDER

SUPERVISOR OF PRIMARY GRADES, BUFFALO, NEW YORK

_EIGHT-BOOK SERIES_

NEW YORK .:. CINCINNATI .:. CHICAGO
AMERICAN BOOK COMPANY

COPYRIGHT, 1911, BY

AMERICAN BOOK COMPANY.

ENTERED AT STATIONERS' HALL, LONDON.

B. & B. EIGHTH READER.

W. P. 2

TO THE TEACHER

The paramount design of this series of School Readers is to help young people to acquire the art and the habit of reading well--that is, of interpreting the printed page in such manner as to give pleasure and instruction to themselves and to those who listen to them. In his eighth year at school the pupil is supposed to be able to read, with ease and with some degree of fluency, anything in the English language that may come to his hand; but, that he may read always with the understanding and in a manner pleasing to his hearers and satisfactory to himself, he must still have daily systematic practice in the rendering of selections not too difficult for comprehension and yet embracing various styles of literary workmanship and illustrating the different forms of English composition. The contents of this volume have been chosen and arranged to supply--or, where not supplying, to suggest--the materials for this kind of practice.

Particular attention is called both to the high quality and to the wide variety of the selections herein presented. They include specimens of many styles of literary workmanship--the products of the best thought of modern times. It is believed that their study will not only prove interesting to pupils, but will inspire them with a desire to read still more upon the same subjects or from the works of the same authors; for it is only by loving books and learning to know them that any one can become a really good reader.

The pupils should be encouraged to seek for and point out the particular passages in each selection that are distinguished for their beauty, their truth, or their peculiar adaptability to the purpose in view. The habit should be cultivated of looking for and enjoying the admirable qualities of any worthy literary production; and special attention should be given to the style of writing which characterizes and gives value to the works of various authors. These points should be the subjects of daily discussions between teacher and pupils.

The notes under the head of "Expression," which follow many of the lessons, are intended, not only to aid in securing correctness of expression, but also to afford suggestions for the appreciative reading of the selections and an intelligent comparison of their literary peculiarities. In the study of new, difficult, or unusual words, the pupils should invariably refer to the dictionary.

CONTENTS

PAGE

Brother and Sister _George Eliot_ 11

My Last Day at Salem House _Charles Dickens_ 22

The Departure from Miss Pinkerton's _W. M. Thackeray_ 27

Two Gems from Browning:
I. Incident of the French Camp _Robert Browning_ 36
II. Dog Tray _Robert Browning_ 41

The Discovery of America _Washington Irving_ 43

The Glove and the Lions _Leigh Hunt_ 48

St. Francis, the Gentle _William Canton_ 51

The Sermon of St. Francis _Henry W. Longfellow_ 54

In the Woods _John Burroughs_ 56

Bees and Flowers _Arabella B. Buckley_ 59

Song of the River _Abram J. Ryan_ 64

Song of the Chattahoochee _Sidney Lanier_ 66

War and Peace:
I. War as the Mother of Valor and Civilization
_Andrew Carnegie_ 68
II. Friendship among Nations _Victor Hugo_ 71
III. Soldier, Rest _Sir Walter Scott_ 74
IV. The Soldier's Dream _Thomas Campbell_ 75
V. How Sleep the Brave? _William Collins_ 76

Early Times in New York _Washington Irving_ 77

A Winter Evening in Old New England _J. G. Whittier_ 82

The Old-fashioned Thanksgiving _Donald G. Mitchell_ 84

A Thanksgiving _Robert Herrick_ 92

First Days at Wakefield _Oliver Goldsmith_ 94

Doubting Castle _John Bunyan_ 100

Shooting with the Longbow _Sir Walter Scott_ 108

A Christmas Hymn _Alfred Domett_ 117

Christmas Eve at Fezziwig's _Charles Dickens_ 120

The Christmas Holly _Eliza Cook_ 124

The New Year's Dinner Party _Charles Lamb_ 125

The Town Pump _Nathaniel Hawthorne_ 128

Come up from the Fields, Father _Walt Whitman_ 135

The Address at Gettysburg _Abraham Lincoln_ 139

Ode to the Confederate Dead _Henry Timrod_ 140

The Chariot Race _From Sophocles_ 141

The Coliseum at Midnight _Henry W. Longfellow_ 145

The Deacon's Masterpiece _Oliver Wendell Holmes_ 147

Dogs and Cats _Alexandre Dumas_ 154

The Owl Critic _James T. Fields_ 157

Mrs. Caudle's Umbrella Lecture _Douglas William Jerrold_ 161

The Dark Day in Connecticut _J. G. Whittier_ 164

Two Interesting Letters:
I. Columbus to the Lord Treasurer of Spain 167
II. Governor Winslow to a Friend in England 171

Poems of Home and Country:
I. "This is My Own, My Native Land" _Sir Walter Scott_ 174
II. The Green Little Shamrock of Ireland _Andrew Cherry_ 175
III. My Heart's in the Highlands _Robert Burns_ 176
IV. The Fatherland _James R. Lowell_ 177
V. Home _Oliver Goldsmith_ 178

The Age of Coal _Agnes Giberne_ 179

Something about the Moon _Richard A. Proctor_ 183

The Coming of the Birds _Ralph Waldo Emerson_ 187

The Return of the Birds _John Burroughs_ 188

The Poet and the Bird:
I. The Song of the Lark 193
II. To a Skylark _Percy B. Shelley_ 197

Hark, Hark! the Lark _William Shakespeare_ 201

Echoes of the American Revolution:
I. Patrick Henry's Famous Speech 202
II. Marion's Men _W. Gilmore Simms_ 206
III. In Memory of George Washington _Henry Lee_ 209

Three Great American Poems:
I. Thanatopsis _William Cullen Bryant_ 213
II. The Bells _Edgar Allan Poe_ 219
III. Marco Bozzaris _Fitz-Greene Halleck_ 224

The Indian _Edward Everett_ 228

National Retribution _Theodore Parker_ 231

Who are Blessed _The Bible_ 233

Little Gems from the Older Poets:
I. The Noble Nature _Ben Jonson_ 235
II. A Contented Mind _Joshua Sylvester_ 235
III. A Happy Life _Sir Henry Wotton_ 236
IV. Solitude _Alexander Pope_ 237
V. A Wish _Samuel Rogers_ 238

How King Arthur got his Name _Fiona Macleod_ 239

Antony's Oration over Caesar's Dead Body _William Shakespeare_ 244

Selections to be Memorized:
I. The Prayer Perfect _James Whitcomb Riley_ 250
II. Be Just and Fear Not _William Shakespeare_ 250
III. If I can Live _Author Unknown_ 251
IV. The Bugle Song _Alfred Tennyson_ 251
V. The Ninetieth Psalm _Book of Psalms_ 252
VI. Recessional _Rudyard Kipling_ 253

Proper Names 255

List of Authors 257

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Acknowledgment and thanks are proffered to Andrew Carnegie for permission to reprint in this volume his tract on "War as the Mother of Civilization and Valor"; to the Bobbs-Merrill Company for their courtesy in allowing us to use "The Prayer Perfect," from James Whitcomb Riley's _Rhymes of Childhood_; to David Mackay for the poem by Walt Whitman entitled "Come up from the Fields, Father"; to Charles Scribner's Sons for the "Song of the Chattahoochee," from the _Poems of Sidney Lanier_; and, also, to the same publishers for the selection, "The Old-fashioned Thanksgiving," from _Bound Together_ by Donald G. Mitchell. The selections from John Burroughs, Ralph Waldo Emerson, James T. Fields, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Oliver Wendell Holmes, Henry W. Longfellow, and John G. Whittier are used by permission of, and special arrangement with, Houghton Mifflin Company, the authorized publishers of the works of those authors.

EIGHTH READER

BROTHER AND SISTER[1]