FOREWORD This book is the first of a series of eight designed to furnish material for memory work and for supplementary reading in elementary schools. These books have been compiled and arranged according to the tastes and opinions of our leading educational authorities as recorded in the course of study in the chief cities of the United States. All of the pieces required or suggested for first-year memory work in the schools of New York City and of New Orleans will be found in this book. To these have been added enough suitable selections to meet the needs of the schools of Philadelphia and Chicago and many other cities. In the case of Chicago, use has been made of the Report of the Committee on English of the Chicago Principals' Association; in all other cases, the compiler has had before him the courses of study now in force in all of the principal cities of our country. After a careful examination of them, it is believed that the material here furnished will satisfy the needs of first-year classes in more than ninety per cent. of the schools of the United States. It is, of course, impossible to include in a book like this every selection laid down for first-year work in every course of study. That would be to exhaust the supply and leave no material for the other primary books. Teachers who may wish to use other selections will, in almost every case, find them in the other books of the series. Where the series is adopted as a whole, an exchange of books from grade to grade will enable teachers iii 5 Balzen Daylee sang 1942 to meet the demands of nearly or quite every course of study in the land. All educational authorities are agreed as to the importance of memorizing good literature. Heretofore the pieces required for any grade have been scattered through a large number of volumes. Consequently teachers and pupils have been obliged to waste much valuable time in preparing unsatisfactory and inaccurate manuscript copies. In most cases, these are soon lost or destroyed, thus making impossible that frequent review without which the best results cannot be obtained. By the use of this series each pupil may be furnished with a printed copy of all the pieces to be learned. Each book of the series contains many more selections than can be memorized in a single year. The remainder of the pieces may profitably be used for supplementary reading. The compiler has endeavored to give due and proper credit as to authorship and ownership of copyright for every selection contained in this book. Any omissions or errors will be promptly rectified after proper notification. Thanks are due to those authors and publishers who have granted permission to use copyrighted material. April 15, 1905. MELVIN HIX. ROCKABY, BABY, ON THE TREE TOP SING A SONG OF SIXPENCE SING, ROBIN, SING SLEEP, BABY, SLEEP THANK YOU, PRETTY COW THIRTY WHITE HORSES From the German 15 THIS LITTLE PIG WENT TO MARKET Jane Taylor 9 Alfred Tennyson 82 Edmund Clarence Stedman 43 Christina Rossetti 4 Robert Louis Stevenson 37 BATTLE HYMN OF THE REPUBLIC, THE Julia Ward Howe 54 HAIL, COLUMBIA! HOME, SWEET HOME STAR-SPANGLED BANNER, THE Joseph Hopkinson 60 John Howard Payne 55 Francis Scott Key 57 Sayings have been * Instructive Proverbs and Popular inserted on different pages throughout the book. |