THE NEW CENTURY THIRD READER COMPILED BY H. S. TIBBITS, CHICAGO AND NEW YORK: RAND, MCNALLY & COMPANY. 608 Educ T 758,99.856 HARVARD COLLEGE LIBRARY GINN & CO COPYRIGHT, 1899, BY RAND, MCNALLY & COMPANY. PUBLISHERS' PREFACE. This volume has been prepared with the greatest care. The design has been to use only such matter as will please, attract, interest, and instruct the pupil. Each article has been selected with a view to some particular literary merit of its own. As the pupil has now reached the period of his life when he begins to realize that books may be his friends, our object has been to place before him reading matter of such high quality that he will involuntarily form a taste for good literature. The subject-matter of this book covers a wide range of thought and adjusts itself very carefully to the sympathies of childhood. The friendships which the child is thus enabled to form with good authors, will be of inestimable value to him in after life. The mind of the pupil of this age is in the formative period and his tastes are easily directed toward high ideals. To this end careful thought has been given to the selection of matter which can not fail to lead the child to turn unconsciously toward the best things in the life about him, and eventually to branch out into the larger fields beyond. The true teacher will always keep in sight this great purpose in school reading-to so awaken the interest and kindle the enthusiasm of the child that the oral expression will conform to the dramatic requirements of the article. That this volume may contribute its share toward the formation of sturdy character and the uplifting of man hood and womanhood is the sincere desire of both publishers and compilers. Grateful acknowledgments are made to Mrs. Nellie F. Kingsley of Evanston, Ill., and to others who have contributed by their timely suggestions to whatever of peculiar merit may be found in the volume. The selections entitled "October's Bright Blue Weather," by Helen Hunt Jackson, copyright, 1886, by Roberts Brothers, and "Eva's Visit to Fairy-land," from Lulu's Library, copyright, 1887, by Louisa M. Alcott, are used by permission of, and special arrangement with, Little, Brown & Co., publishers of the works of these authors. The selections entitled "The Poppy Seed" and "Tragedy," by Celia Thaxter, "The Village Blacksmith" and "Hiawatha's Sailing," by Longfellow, are used by permission of, and arrangement with, Houghton, Mifflin & Co., the authorized publishers of the writings of these authors. By permission of, and arrangement with, the publishing houses mentioned below, we are permitted to use "The Anxious Leaf," from Henry Ward Beecher's Norwood (Ford, Howard & Hulbert); "What I Fear," by Chauncey M. Depew (Cosmopolitan Magazine); "The Invitation," by John Burroughs; "The Snowball" (Thomas Y. Crowell & Co.); Knee-deep in June" and "The Raggedy Man," by James Whitcomb Riley (The Bowen-Merrill Co.); Extract from "Uncle Robert's Visit," by Francis W. Parker (D. Appleton & Co.); "Angling," by George Howland, and "Hephaestus, the Smith-god," from "Greek Gods, Heroes, and Men," by the Hardings (Scott, Foresman & Co.). 66 66 SUGGESTIONS TO TEACHERS. 'There is nothing that so stimulates our vocal expression as the desire to impress upon others the beauty and the sentiment of what has impressed ourselves."-S. H. CLARK. The Third Reader finds the pupil at the transition stage in the process of learning to read. Previous training has been largely in the recognition of symbols for well-known or readily understood ideas. Later instruction will place the emphasis upon ability to master the thought, with less effort upon the mechanics of reading. Then the pupil will "read that he may know and understand," as Bacon says. However, at the Third Reader age it is necessary to prepare the mind of the pupil for what he is to read, in order that association may be formed between the unknown and the related known. The teacher therefore begins a lesson with a broad view of its contents, questioning whatever spontaneous interest the subject may possess into a voluntary and sustained interest. This necessitates full and accurate information upon the subject-matter of the lesson upon the teacher's part, and some simple plan or idea as to how she will proceed. To aid her, the words which may offer some difficulties in pronunciation are appended to each lesson. If these are pronounced distinctly and clearly to begin with, much of the abrupt hesitation which might follow from first meeting them in the text will not occur. It is a most valuable accomplishment to be able to stand up unabashed and speak with perfect freedom the thoughts of one's mind-whether in the drawing-room, on the street, or upon the public platform. The self-contained presence, |