PUBLIC LIBRARY ASTOR, LENOX AND R 1915 L THE PROGRESSIVE COMPOSITION SERIES BOOK ONE For Third and Fourth Years BOOK TWO For Fifth and Sixth Years BOOK THREE For Seventh and Eighth Years Copyright, 1913, by SILVER, BURDETT AND COMPANY PREFACE IN compiling these books the authors have had in mind an arrangement of material that will make an easy, systematic, and interesting study of that part of English known as Composition. It has been their purpose, not to give a so-called "graded course in English," but rather to deal primarily with composition per se. The other related branches have been touched upon only so far as they are necessarily involved in composition. In the lower grades teachers have been confused by the wealth of material, both in composition and in language work, that is presented in the text-books. In the upper grades teachers have experienced great difficulty in getting models of true literary excellence which appeal to the pupils. To assist in these two particulars "The Progressive Composition Lessons" have been prepared. Each lesson has grown out of classroom work covering a number of years; and no lesson has been included that has not stood the test of actual classroom experience. The aim has been to give the child power to express himself readily and clearly. The method is essentially inductive. Each week's work consists of three lessons. In general these lessons are divided into: I. The preparatory oral work, which must be thorough; II. The written composition; III. The correction exercise, which affords the teacher and the pupils opportunity to correct expression. The illustrative compositions in the Appendix of the teachers' edition have been taken from pupils' work. Grateful acknowledgments are made to the teachers of Public School No. 184, Manhattan, for the intelligent assastance rendered by them in the development of the lessons. For permission to include copyrighted selections thanks are also extended to: The American Book Company for selections from Frank G. Carpenter's "Geographical Reader"; and from Frank R. Stockton's "Stories of New Jersey." The Bobbs-Merrill Company for "A Sudden Shower" from "Rhymes of Childhood" by James Whitcomb Riley, copyright 1890, used by special permission. The Century Co. for a letter by Edwin Booth. Dodd, Mead & Company for a selection from "The Money Moon" by Jeffery Farnol. E. P. Dutton & Co. for a letter by Phillips Brooks. Houghton Mifflin Company for three selections by John Burroughs; for the poem "Rhodora" by Ralph Waldo Emerson; for "Paul Revere's Ride" and a letter by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow; for "The First Snowfall" by James Russell Lowell; for selections from "In New England Fields and Woods" by Rowland E. Robinson; and from "My Summer in a Garden" by Charles Dudley Warner. The J. B. Lippincott Company for two selections from "Bird-Land Echoes" by Charles C. Abbott. Little, Brown and Company for two selections from "A New England Boyhood" by Edward Everett Hale. Longmans, Green & Co. for a passage from "The One Dog and the Others" by Frances Slaughter. Moffatt, Yard & Company for extracts from Frances Duncan's "When Mother Lets Us Garden" and from Constance Johnson's "When Mother Lets Us Help." Charles Scribner's Sons for a selection from "The Hoosier School Boy," copyright 1910 by Frances G. Eggleston; for a letter by Robert Louis Stevenson; for selections from "Fanciful Tales" by Frank R. Stockton, copyright 1894; and from "Fisherman's Luck" by Henry van Dyke. CONTENTS PAGE I. ORIGINAL COMPOSITION (A Mistake)-THE OWL IN THE CHERRY TREE: John Bur- roughs. Narration defined. Climax. . . 115 III. LETTER WRITING-AN INVITATION. The parts of a letter. Letter from outline IV. ORIGINAL COMPOSITION (An Adventure)— HOW TEMPE SAVED HER HORSE: Frank R. Stockton. How to hold the attention V. ORIGINAL COMPOSITION (How to Play a Game)-THE FARMYARD. Exposition de- fined. Requirements of good exposition VI. ORIGINAL COMPOSITION (Story of a Pet)— A "HELPFUL" DOG: Frances Slaughter. Sequence of events in story telling VII. ORIGINAL COMPOSITION (Description of a Room)-AN INN-KITCHEN IN SPAIN: Henry |