[Grateful acknowledgments are due the authors and publishers who have permitted the use in this book of selections from their copyright works. The poem by Father Ryan is used by permission of Mr. P. J. Kennedy; the poem by Ticknor is used by permission of Messrs. J. B. Lippincott Company and Miss K. M. Rowland; and the selection from H. W. Grady is included through the courtesy of the proprietors of the Atlanta Constitution. The selections from Lowell, Longfellow, Holmes, Emerson, Larcom, and Johnston are used by special arrangement with and permission of Messrs. Houghton, Mifflin & Co., the authorized publishers of the writings of these authors. The selections from Lanier are used by business arrangement with Messrs. Charles Scribner's Sons.]

ENUNCIATION

Speak clearly if you speak at all;

Carve every word before you let it fall.

-

- HOLMES

Practice pronouncing vowel and consonant sounds separately, clearly, forcibly. Remember that you must open the mouth and move the lips in order to pronounce distinctly. Practice these vowels ā, ah, 00, — 00, ah, ā, — ah, ā, ōo.

Pronounce distinctly, but do not accent, the vowels in unaccented syllables:

every
real

belief
several

mountain
appetite

history
usual

Do not pronounce silent vowels; as e before final n in participles and in most other words:

given

laden

Woven

beaten

Give each unaccented vowel its correct, unaccented sound:

friend

risk

skip smile

whip

Pronounce the final consonants of a syllable or word :

Separate the final sound of one word from the initial sound of the

Notice your own reading, and see which of these things you fail to do. Make out lists of words under each of the above rules on which you need practice.

TONE, EMPHASIS, AND INFLECTION

Read these sentences so as to render their meaning as naturally and as forcibly as you can:

"I'm to be queen o' the May, mother, I'm to be queen o' the May."

"It is more blessed to give than to receive."

"I said an elder soldier, not a better."

"Each morning sees some task begun,
Each evening sees its close."

"Silence!' in undertones they cry,
No whisper -- not a breath

66

The sound that warns thy comrades nigh,
Shall sentence thee to death.'"

Merrily swinging on brier and weed,

Near to the nest of his little dame,

Over the mountain side or mead

Robert of Lincoln is telling his name,
'Bobolink, bobolink, spink, spank, spink !''

"Hark! from yonder tower

The solemn bell has tolled the midnight hour.”

"And the little girl with golden hair

And one with dark eyes bright,

On Hampshire's hills and Georgia's plain,
Were fatherless that night."

"We should make the same use of a book that the bee does of a flower. She gathers sweets from it, but does not injure it."

"Come over, come over the river to me!"

666

"“Quickstep! forward! march!' cried a gruff voice."

"Forward the Light Brigade!
Charge for the guns!' he said."

Have you seen Mary to-day?
Have you seen Mary to-day?
Have you seen Mary to-day?
Have you seen Mary to-day?
Have you seen Mary to-day?

No, I have not.
No, but Dora has.

No, but I have heard from her.
No, but I saw Rose.
No, I saw her yesterday.

FIFTH READER

A BALLAD OF TREES AND THE MASTER 1

BY SIDNEY LANIER

(See biographical sketch on page 19)

Into the woods my Master went,
Clean forspent, clean forspent.
Into the woods my Master came,
Forspent with love and shame.

But the olives they were not blind to Him;
The little gray leaves were kind to Him;
The thorn tree had a mind to Him,

When into the woods He came.

Out of the woods my Master went,

And He was well content.

Out of the woods my Master came,

Content with death and shame.

When Death and Shame would woo Him last,
From under the trees they drew Him last :
'Twas on a tree they slew Him — last,

When out of the woods He came.

1 From "The Poems of Sidney Lanier," copyright, 1884, 1891, by Mary D. Lanier, and published by Charles Scribner's Sons.