School Reading By Grades: Fifth Year

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Baldwin James. School Reading By Grades: Fifth Year

PREFACE

TO THE LEARNER

SOMETHING ABOUT BOOKS

OLD CHIRON’S SCHOOL

THE DOG OF MONTARGIS

THE OLD OAKEN BUCKET

THE VILLAGE BLACKSMITH

THE CHOICE OF HERCULES

CHRISTMAS AT THE CRATCHITS’

ON THE MOUNTAIN

BETSEY HULL’S WEDDING

ULYSSES AND THE CYCLOPS

THE BROOK

THE LADY OF SHALOTT

LESSONS FROM NATURE’S BOOK

THE GOODMAN OF BALLENGIECH

BUGLE SONG

SOME EXPERIENCES AT SEA

THE KING AND THE REBEL

DANIEL BOONE

FULTON’S FIRST STEAMBOAT

THE PLANTING OF THE APPLE TREE

THE CORN SONG

HUNTING THE WALRUS

THE DESTRUCTION OF POMPEII

THE STRANGER ON THE SILL

OUR COUNTRY

A LEGEND OF SLEEPY HOLLOW

THE MARINER’S DREAM

THE SANDS O’ DEE

THE INVENTION OF PRINTING

THE WANDERER

LEAD THOU ME ON

THE AMERICAN INDIAN

THE PASSING OF KING ARTHUR

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A famous writer has said that the habit of reading is one’s pass to the greatest, the purest, the most perfect pleasures that have been prepared for human beings. “But,” he continued, “you cannot acquire this habit in your old age; you cannot acquire it in middle age; you must do it now, when you are young. You must learn to read, and to like reading now, or you cannot do so when you are old.” Now, no one can derive very great pleasure or very great profit from reading unless he is able to read well. The boy or girl who stumbles over every hard word, or who is at a loss to know the meaning of this or that expression, is not likely to find much enjoyment in books. To read well to one’s self, one must be able to read aloud in such a manner as to interest and delight those who listen to him: and this is the chief reason why we have so many reading books at school, and why your teachers are so careful that you should acquire the ability to enunciate every sound distinctly, pronounce every word properly, and read every sentence readily and with a clear understanding of its meaning.

Is the reading exercise a task to you? Try to make it a pleasure. Ask yourself: What is there in this lesson that teaches me something which I did not know before? What is there in this lesson that is beautiful, or grand, or inspiring? Has the writer said anything in a manner that is particularly pleasing – in a manner that perhaps no one else would have thought to say it? What particular thought or saying, in this lesson, is so good and true that it is worth learning by heart and remembering always. Does the selection as a whole teach anything that will tend to make me wiser, or better, or stronger than before? Or is it merely a source of temporary amusement to be soon forgotten and as though it had never been? Or does it, like fine music or a noble picture, not only give present pleasure, but enlarge my capacity for enjoyment and enable me to discover and appreciate beautiful things in literature and art and nature which I would otherwise never have known?

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They made a litter of green branches, and laid the body upon it. Then, the dog following them, they carried it back to the city and buried it in the king’s cemetery. And all Paris mourned the untimely end of the brave young knight.

After this, the greyhound went to live with the young Sieur de Narsac. He followed the knight wherever he went. He slept in his room and ate from his hand. He seemed to be as much devoted to his new master as he had been to the old.

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