Chapter 1

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PARKER'S SECOND READER.

NATIONAL SERIES OF SELECTIONS FOR READING;

ADAPTED TO THE STANDING OF THE PUPIL.

BY RICHARD G. PARKER, A.M.

PRINCIPAL OF THE NORTH JOHNSON SCHOOL, BOSTON; AUTHOR OF "AIDS TO ENGLISH COMPOSITION," "OUTLINES OF GENERAL HISTORY," "THE SCHOOL COMPEND OF NATURAL PHILOSOPHY," ETC.

PART SECOND.

DESIGNED FOR THE YOUNGER CLASSES IN SCHOOLS, ACADEMIES, &c.

* * * * *

"Understandest thou what thou readest?"--ACTS 6:30.

* * * * *

NEW YORK: A.S. BARNES & BURR, 51 & 53 JOHN STREET. SOLD BY BOOKSELLERS, GENERALLY, THROUGHOUT THE UNITED STATES.

Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year Eighteen Hundred and Fifty-one,

BY A.S. BARNES & CO.,

In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the Southern District of New York.

STEREOTYPED BY HOBART & ROBBINS; NEW ENGLAND TYPE AND STEREOTYPE FOUNDRY, BOSTON

PREFACE.

In the preparation of this volume, I have kept fresh in my recollection the immature state of the minds which I have endeavored to enlighten; and while it has been my aim to present such a succession of reading lessons as are suitable for the younger classes in our common schools and academies, I have not forgotten that the first step to be taken, in making good readers, is to open the understanding wide enough to afford a sufficient entrance for the ideas which are to be communicated by reading. Words are but sounds, by which ideas should be conveyed; and written language is of little use, if it convey but sound alone. Great pains have therefore been taken to exclude from this volume what the young scholar cannot understand, while, at the same time, it has been the aim of the author to avoid a puerile style, by which the early intellect is kept down, and its exertions are repressed. In every step and stage of its progress, the maxim "_Excelsior_" should be the aim of the youthful mind; and the hand of the teacher should be extended, not to _lift it up_, but only to _assist it in its endeavors to raise itself_. All of the labor must not be done by the teacher, nor by books. _They_ are of use only in exciting the mind to act for itself. They may, indeed, act as pioneers, but the pupil must not be _carried_ in their arms; he must perform the march himself. And herein lies the great difficulty of the teacher's task: on the one hand, to avoid the evil of leaving too little to be done by the scholar; and, on the other, to be careful that he be not required to do too much. Real difficulties should be lightened, but some labor should be permitted to remain. To make such labor attractive, and easily endured without discouragement, is the task which best shows the tact and skill of the teacher. If this volume be found useful in aiding the teacher, by doing all that should be required _from the book_, the design of the author will be accomplished.

R.G.P.

_Kneeland Place_, } _May, 1851._ }

CONTENTS.

[_The Poetical Extracts are designated by Italic Letters_]

Lesson Page Preface v 1. The Author's Address to the Pupil 9 2. Same subject, continued 13 3. " " " 17 4. The Discontented Pendulum, _Jane Taylor_ 19 5. Address of the Author to the Pupil, continued 23 6. " " " " " " " concluded 26 7. How to find out the Meaning of Words, _Original_ 29 8. Same subject, continued " 31 9. " " concluded " 34 10. Words " 38 11. Definitions " 42 12. Reading and Spelling " 48 13. Importance of Learning to Spell, _Original Version_ 51 14. Demosthenes, _Original_ 53 15. Hard Words, " 57 16. Fire: a Conversation, " 63 17. Same subject, continued " 67 18. " " concluded " 73 19. The Lark and her Young Ones, _Altered from Æsop_ 79 20. Dogs, _Original_ 82 21. Same subject, concluded " 85 22. Frogs and Toads, _Bigland_ 87 23. Maida, the Scotch Greyhound, _Altered from Bigland_ 90 24. Gelert, " 94 25. Knock again _Child's Companion_ 96 26. Same subject, continued, " 98 27. " " concluded, " 100 28. Make Good Use of Time, _Emma C. Embury_ 102 29. Same subject, continued, " 107 30. " " concluded, " 111 31. Verse, or Poetry, _Original_ 116 32. _A Morning Hymn_, _Anonymous_ 121 33. _Evening Hymn_, " 122 34. _The Gardener and the Hog_, _Gay_ 123 35. _The Hare and many Friends_, " 125 36. Maxims, _Selected_ 128 37. How to be Happy, _Child at Home_ 129 38. Obedience and Disobedience, _Child's Companion_ 133 39. Obstinacy, _Lessons without Books_ 139 40. King Edward and his Bible, _L.H. Sigourney_ 144 41. What does it Mean to be Tempted? _Rose-bud_ 147 42. Same subject, continued, " 151 43. " " " " 154 44. " " concluded, " 157 45. _Mary Dow_, _H.F. Gould_ 163 46. _It Snows_, " 165 47. _The Dissatisfied Angler Boy_, " 166 48. _The Violet: a Fable_, _Children's Magazine_ 168 49. Captain John Smith, _Juvenile Miscellany_ 170 50. Same subject, continued, " 173 51 " " " " 176 52. " " concluded, " 179 53. John Ledyard, " 180 54. Same subject, concluded, " 183 55. Learning to Work, _Original_ 185 56. Same subject, continued, _Abbott_ 187 57. " " concluded, " 189 58. The Comma, _Parker's Rhetorical Reader_ 193 59. The Semicolon, " 199 60. The Colon, " 202

PARKER'S SECOND READER.

LESSON I.

_The Author's Address to the Pupil._

1. I present to you, my little friend, a new book, to assist you in learning to read. I do not intend that it shall be a book full of hard words, which you do not understand.

2. I do not think it proper to require children to read what they cannot understand. I shall, therefore, show you how you may understand what is in this book, and how you may be able, with very little assistance from your teacher, to read all the hard words, not only in this book, but also in any book which you may hereafter take up.

3. But first let me repeat to you a saying, which, when I was a little boy, and went to school, my teacher used to repeat to me. He said that any one might lead a horse to the water, but no one could make him drink. The horse must do that himself. He must open his own mouth, and draw in the water, and swallow it, himself.

4. And so it is with anything which I wish to teach you. I can tell you many things which it will be useful for you to know, but I cannot open your ears and make you hear me. I cannot turn your eyes so that they will look at me when I am talking to you, that you may listen to me. That, you must do yourself; and if you do not do it, nothing that I can say to you, or do for you, will do you any good.

5. Many little boys and girls, when their teacher is talking to them, are in the habit of staring about the school-room, or looking at their fellow-pupils, or, perhaps, slyly talking to them or laughing with them, when they ought to be listening to what their teacher is saying.

6. Others, perhaps, may appear to be looking at their teacher, while, at the same time, they are thinking about tops and marbles, or kites and dolls, and other play-things, and have no more idea of what their teacher is saying to them than if he were not in the room.

7. Now, here is a little picture, from which I wish to teach you a very important lesson. The picture represents a nest, with four little birds in it. The mother bird has just been out to get some food for them. The little birds, as soon as their mother returns, begin to open their mouths wide, and the mother drops some food from her bill into the mouth of each one; and in this manner they are all fed, until they are old enough to go abroad and find food for themselves.

8. Now, what would these little birds do, if, when their mother brings them their food, they should keep their mouths all shut, or, perhaps, be feeling of one another with their little bills, or crowding each other out of the nest?

9. You know that they would have to go without their food; for their mother would not open their mouths for them, nor could she swallow their food for them. They must do that for themselves, or they must starve.

10. Now, in the same manner that little birds open their mouths to receive the food which their mother brings to them, little boys and girls should have their ears open to hear what their teachers say to them.

11. The little birds, as you see in the picture, have very large mouths, and they keep them wide open to receive all the food that their mother drops; so that none of their food ever falls into the nest, but all goes into their mouths, and they swallow it, and it nourishes them, and makes them grow.

12. So, also, little boys and girls should try to catch, in their ears, everything that their teacher says to them, and keep it in their minds, and be able to recollect it, by often thinking about it; and thus they will grow wise and learned, and be able to teach other little boys and girls, of their own, when they themselves grow up.

13. Now, my little friend, please to open your eyes and see what I have put into this book for you, and open your ears to hear what your kind teacher has to say to you, that your minds may grow, and that you may become wise and good children.

LESSON II.

_The same subject, continued._

1. I told you, in the last lesson, that I would teach you how to understand what is in this book, and how to read the hard words that you may find in this or in any other book.

2. Now, before you can understand them, you must be able to read them; and in order that you may understand how to read them, you must take the words to pieces; that is, take a few of the letters at a time, and see whether you can read a part of the word first, and then another part, until you have read the whole of it in parts, and then you can put the parts together, and thus read the whole word.

3. Now, in order that you may understand what I mean, I will explain it to you by taking a long word to pieces, and letting you read a part of it at a time, until you have learned how to read the whole word.

4. In the next line, you may read the parts of the word all separated:

Ab ra ca dab ra.

Now you have read the parts of the word ab-ra-ca-dab-ra all separated, you can read them very easily together, so as to make one word, and the word will be Abracadabra.

5. This long and hard word was the name of a false god, that was worshiped many hundreds of years ago, by a people who did not know the true God, whom we worship; and they very foolishly supposed that by wearing this name, written on paper, in a certain manner, it would cure them of many diseases.

6. Here are a few more long and hard words, divided in the same manner, which you may first read by syllables, that is, one syllable at a time:

Val e tu di na´ ri an. In de fat i ga bil´ i ty. Hy po chon dri´ a cal. Me temp sy cho´ sis. Hal lu ci na´ tion. Zo o no´ mi a. Ses qui pe dal´ i ty.

7. You may now read these long words as they are here presented, without a division of the syllables, as follows: valetudinarian, indefatigability, hypochondriacal, metempsychosis, hallucination, zoonomia, sesquipedality.

8. Now, you see that words which look hard, and which you find difficult to read, can be easily read, if you take the pains to divide them into parts or syllables, and not try to read the whole word at once.

9. I now propose to relate to you a little story which I read when I was a little boy, and which I think will make you remember what I have just told you about reading hard words, by first taking them to pieces, and reading a part of them at a time.

10. A father, who was dying, called his seven sons around his bed, and showed them a bundle of small sticks tied together, and asked each one to try to break all the sticks at once, without untying the bundle.

11. Each of the sons took the bundle of sticks, and putting it across his knee, tried with all his strength to break it; but not one of them could break the sticks, or even bend them, while they were tied together.

12. The father then directed his oldest son to untie the bundle, and to break each stick separately. As soon as the bundle was untied, each of the sons took the sticks separately, and found that they could easily break every one of them, and scatter them, in small pieces, all about the floor.

13. "Now," said the father, "I wish you, my dear sons, to learn a lesson from these sticks. So long as you are all united in love and friendship, you need fear little from any enemies; but, if you quarrel among yourselves, and do not keep together, you see by these little sticks how easily your enemies may put you down separately."

14. Now, this was a very wise father, and he taught his sons a very useful lesson with this bundle of sticks. I also wish to teach you, my little friend, whoever you are, that are reading this book, another useful lesson from the same story.

15. Hard words, especially long ones, will be difficult to you to read, unless, like the sons in the story, you untie the bundle; that is, until you take the long words apart, and read one part or syllable at a time. Thus you may learn what is meant by that wise saying, "_Divide and conquer_."

LESSON III.

_The same subject, continued._

1. I have another lesson to teach you from the same story of the old man and the bundle of sticks, which I think will be very useful to you, and will make your lessons very much easier to you.

2. Whenever you have a lesson to learn, do not look at it all at once, and say, I cannot learn this long lesson; but divide it into small parts, and say to yourself, I will try to learn this first little part, and after I have learned that, I will rest two or three minutes, and then I will learn another little part, and then rest again a few minutes, and then I will learn another.

3. I think that in this way you will find study is not so hard a thing as it seemed to you at first, and you will have another explanation of that wise saying, _Divide and conquer_.

4. I will now tell you another story that I read when I was a little boy. It was called a fable. But before I tell you the story, I must tell you what a fable is.

5. A fable is a story which is not true. But, although it is not a true story, it is a very useful one, because it always teaches us a good lesson.

6. In many fables, birds and beasts are represented as speaking. Now, you know that birds and beasts cannot talk, and therefore the story, or fable, which tells us that birds and beasts, and other things, that are not alive, do talk, cannot be true.

7. But I have told you, that although fables are not true stories, they are very useful to us, because they teach us a useful lesson. This lesson that they teach is called the _moral_ of the fable; and that is always the best fable that has the best moral to it, or, in other words, that teaches us the best lesson.

8. The story, or the fable, that I promised to tell you, is in the next lesson, and I wish you, when you read it, to see whether you can find out what the lesson, or moral, is which it teaches; and whether it is at all like the story of the father and the bundle of sticks, that I told you in the last lesson. While you read it, be very careful that you do not pass over any word the meaning of which you do not know.

LESSON IV.

_The Discontented Pendulum._--JANE TAYLOR.

1. An old clock, that had stood for fifty years in a farmer's kitchen, without giving its owner any cause of complaint, early one summer's morning, before the family was stirring, suddenly stopped.

2. Upon this, the dial-plate (if we may credit the fable) changed countenance with alarm; the hands made a vain effort to continue their course; the wheels remained motionless with surprise; the weights hung speechless;--each member felt disposed to lay the blame on the others.

3. At length the dial instituted a formal inquiry as to the cause of the stagnation, when hands, wheels, weights, with one voice, protested their innocence.

4. But now a faint tick was heard below from the pendulum, who thus spoke:--"I confess myself to be the sole cause of the present stoppage; and I am willing, for the general satisfaction, to assign my reasons. The truth is, that I am tired of ticking."

5. Upon hearing this, the old clock became so enraged, that it was on the very point of _striking_. "Lazy wire!" exclaimed the dial-plate, holding up its hands.

6. "Very good!" replied the pendulum; "it is vastly easy for you, Mistress Dial, who have always, as everybody knows, set yourself up above me,--it is vastly easy for you, I say, to accuse other people of laziness! You, who have had nothing to do, all the days of your life, but to stare people in the face, and to amuse yourself with watching all that goes on in the kitchen!

7. "Think, I beseech you, how you would like to be shut up for life in this dark closet, and to wag backwards and forwards, year after year, as I do."

8. "As to that," said the dial, "is there not a window in your house, on purpose for you to look through?"--"For all that," resumed the pendulum, "it is very dark here; and although there is a window, I dare not stop, even for an instant, to look out at it.

9. "Besides, I am really tired of my way of life; and, if you wish, I'll tell you how I took this disgust at my employment. I happened this morning to be calculating how many times I should have to tick in the course of only the next twenty-four hours; perhaps some of you, above there, can give me the exact sum."

10. The minute-hand, being _quick_ at figures, presently replied, "Eighty-six thousand four hundred times."

11. "Exactly so," replied the pendulum; "well, I appeal to you all, if the very thought of this was not enough to fatigue one; and when I began to multiply the strokes of one day by those of months and years, really, it is no wonder if I felt discouraged at the prospect: so, after a great deal of reasoning and hesitation, thinks I to myself, I'll stop."

12. The dial could scarcely keep its countenance during this harangue; but, resuming its gravity, thus replied: "Dear Mr. Pendulum, I am really astonished that such a useful, industrious person as yourself, should have been overcome by this sudden action.

13. "It is true, you have done a great deal of work in your time; so have we all, and are likely to do; which, although it may fatigue us to _think_ of, the question is, whether it will fatigue us to _do_. Would you now do me the favor to give about half a dozen strokes, to illustrate my argument?"

14. The pendulum complied, and ticked six times in its usual pace. "Now," resumed the dial, "may I be allowed to inquire if that exertion was at all fatiguing or disagreeable to you?"

15. "Not in the least," replied the pendulum; "it is not of six strokes that I complain, nor of sixty, but of _millions_."

16. "Very good," replied the dial; "but recollect, that though you may _think_ of a million strokes in an instant, you are required to _execute_ but one; and that, however often you may hereafter have to swing, a moment will always be given you to swing in."

17. "That consideration staggers me, I confess," said the pendulum.--"Then I hope," resumed the dial-plate, "we shall all immediately return to our duty; for the maids will lie in bed, if we stand idling thus."

18. Upon this, the weights, who had never been accused of _light_ conduct, used all their influence in urging him to proceed; when, as with one consent, the wheels began to turn, the hands began to move, the pendulum began to swing, and, to its credit, ticked as loud as ever; while a red beam of the rising sun, that streamed through a hole in the kitchen window, shining full upon the dial-plate, it brightened up, as if nothing had been the matter.

19. When the farmer came down to breakfast that morning, upon looking at the clock, he declared that his watch had gained half an hour in the night.

LESSON V.

_Address of the Author to the Pupil,--continued from Lesson 3d._

1. The fable of the old clock, which has just been read, is intended to teach us a lesson, or moral, and that is, that whenever we have anything to do, whether it be a long lesson or a piece of hard work, we must not think of it all at once, but divide the labor, and thus conquer the difficulty.

2. The pendulum was discouraged when it thought that it had to tick eighty-six thousand four hundred times in twenty-four hours; but when the dial asked it to tick half a dozen times only, the pendulum confessed that it was not fatiguing or disagreeable to do so.

3. It was only by thinking what a large number of times it had to tick in twenty-four hours, that it became fatigued.

4. Now, suppose that a little boy, or a little girl, has a hard lesson to learn, and, instead of sitting down quietly and trying to learn a little of it at a time, and after that a little more, until it is all learned, should begin to cry, and say I cannot learn all of this lesson, it is too long, or too hard, and I never can get it, that little boy, or girl, would act just as the pendulum did when it complained of the hard work it had to do.

5. But the teacher says to the little boy, Come, my dear, read over the first sentence of your lesson to me six times. The little boy reads the first sentence six times, and confesses to his teacher that it was not very hard work to do so.