STORY HOUR READINGS
SEVENTH YEAR
BY
E. C. HARTWELL, M.A., M.Pd.
SUPERINTENDENT OF SCHOOLSBUFFALO, NEW YORK
Illustrations by
George Varian, F. Murch, Wilfred Jones
M. M. Jamieson, and others
AMERICAN BOOK COMPANY
NEW YORK CINCINNATI CHICAGO
BOSTON ATLANTA
AMERICAN BOOK COMPANY
All rights reserved
W. P. II
MADE IN U. S. A.
PREFACE
This reader undertakes to provide desirable material for work in silent reading without losing sight of the other elements essential in a good reader for pupils in the seventh grade or in the first year of the junior high school.
One task before the teacher of Reading in this year is to foster, by stimulating material, a taste for good reading which it is to be hoped has at least been partially formed in the preceding grades. The selections in this volume are made with the purpose of giving the seventh-grade pupils such virile and enjoyable literature as will make them desire more of the same kind. The character and fitness of the material, not the date of its production, have governed the choice of the editor.
Arrangement by Groups. There is an obvious advantage in grouping kindred reading materials in sections under such captions as "Adventure," "From Great Books," "Our Country," etc. Besides affording some elements of continuity, the plan offers opportunity for comparison and contrast of the treatment of similar themes. It also insures a massing of the effect of the idea for which the section stands. Secondarily, the section divisions break up the solid text, and because of this the pupils feel at frequent intervals that they have completed something definite.
The groupings make no pretense to being mutually exclusive. On occasion a selection may well be transferred to another section. For example, the Washington and Lincoln stories should be used in the proper season in the "Our Country" section although it is obvious that they belong in "Special Days." Teachers should have no hesitation in breaking across from one section to another when the occasion or the children's interest seems to warrant.
Mechanical Features. Editor and publisher have spared no pains or expense to make this book attractive to children. The volume is not cumbersome or unwieldy in size. The length of line is that of the normal book with which they regularly will come into contact. The type is clean-cut and legible. Finally, enough white space has been left in the pages to give the book an "open," attractive appearance. No single item has so much to do with children's future attitude toward books as the appearance of their school Readers.
Socialized Work. Opportunity for dramatization, committee work, and other team activity is presented repeatedly throughout this volume. Wherever the teacher can profitably get the pupils to work in groups she should take advantage of the cooperative spirit and do so.
Citizenship. This means more than the passing phase of so-called Americanization. It means a genuine love of country, a reverence for our pioneer fathers, a respect for law, order, and truth. This Reader is rich in patriotic content. It is hoped that the ethical element in the selections will be found to be forceful as well as pleasing. The book emphasizes throughout the importance of the individual and social virtues. If it can help teachers to make clean, upright, and loyal citizens of our great Republic it will not have been made in vain.
Mastery of the printed page is not the sole end and aim of Reading. It is hoped that the devices employed in this Reader, as well as the direction and suggestions in study materials contained in the volume, may assist in developing a genuine love of good books.
Manual. Valuable assistance in dealing with the material in this book is supplied by the Teachers' Manual, Story Hour Readings, Seventh and Eighth Years. This Manual consists of three parts:
I. An introductory article on the Teaching of Reading, which discusses Silent Reading (with detailed directions for speed tests), Oral Reading, Dramatization, Appreciative Reading, Memorizing, Word Study and Use of the Dictionary, Reading Outside of School, Use of Illustrative Material, and Correlation.
II. Detailed lesson plans for each selection in Story Hour Readings Seventh Year.
III. Detailed lesson plans for each selection in Story Hour Readings Eighth Year.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
In addition to acknowledgments made in connection with material incorporated in this volume, thanks are due as follows for permissions to reprint:
To D. Appleton & Company, Publishers, for permission to use "A Battle with a Whale" from Frank T. Bullen's The Cruise of the Cachalot; to Thomas B. Harned, Literary Executor of Walt Whitman, for permission to reprint "O Captain! My Captain."
"The Stagecoach," from Mark Twain's Roughing It, is used by express permission of the Estate of Samuel L. Clemens, the Mark Twain Company, and Harper & Brothers, Publishers.
Selections by Emerson, Hawthorne, Holmes, Longfellow, Amy Lowell, James Russell Lowell, Sill, Thoreau, and Whittier are used by permission of and special arrangement with Houghton Mifflin Company, the authorized publishers of these authors.
Acknowledgment is made to the American Book Company for the use of selections by James Baldwin, John Esten Cooke, Edward Eggleston, Hélène Guerber, Joel Chandler Harris, William Dean Howells, James Johonnot, Orison Swett Marden, W. F. Markwick and W. A. Smith, Frank R. Stockton, and Maurice Thompson.
CONTENTS
PIONEER DAYS The Story of Molly Pitcher Frank R. Stockton 57 King Philip to the White Settlers Edward Everett 60 Pioneer Life in Ohio William Dean Howells 62 Witchcraft Nathaniel Hawthorne 70 Tea Parties in Old New York Washington Irving 70 A School of Long Ago Edward Eggleston 73 French Life in the Northwest James Baldwin 77 A Bear Story Maurice Thompson 82 A Patriot of Georgia Joel Chandler Harris 85 Song of the Pioneers W. D. Gallagher 87
SPECIAL DAYS Columbus and the Eclipse James Johonnot 91 First Thanksgiving Day Proclamation George Washington 93 Thanksgiving Day Proclamation, 1905 Theodore Roosevelt 93 Harvest Song James Montgomery 95 The Cratchits' Christmas Charles Dickens 96 The Holiday Spirit Émile Souvestre 101 Christmas in the Pines Meredith Nicholson 106 The New Year's Dinner Party Charles Lamb 108 Autobiography of Abraham Lincoln 111 O Captain! My Captain Walt Whitman
ADVENTURE A Grandstand Seat in the Sky Howard Mingos 129 Prayer for the Pilot Cecil Roberts 137 A Battle with a Whale Frank T. Bullen 138 The Glove and the Lions Leigh Hunt 145 How Buck Won the Bet Jack London 147 The Loss of the Drake Charlotte M. Yonge 151 The Walrus Hunt Robert M. Ballantyne 155 The Rescue 158 Descending the Grand Cañon 162 Night Fishing in the South Seas Frederick O'Brien 164 A Ballad of East and West Rudyard Kipling 168
UNDER THE OPEN SKY A Night among the Pines Robert Louis Stevenson 177 Autumn on the Farm John Greenleaf Whittier 183 Goldenrod Elaine Goodale Eastman 186 The Palisades John Masefield 188 On the Grasshopper and Cricket John Keats 189 To a Waterfowl William Cullen Bryant 190 A Night in the Tropics Richard Henry Dana, Jr. 192 A Winter Ride Amy Lowell 193 The Snowstorm Ralph Waldo Emerson 194 Snow-Bound John Greenleaf Whittier 195 Tom Pinch's Ride Charles Dickens
STORIES THAT TEACH An Adventure in Brotherhood 215 The Prayer Perfect James Whitcomb Riley 217 Get Out or Get in Line Elbert Hubbard 218 John Marshall of Virginia John Esten Cooke 224 Opportunity Edward Rowland Sill 227 Boy Wanted Dr. Frank Crane 228 John Littlejohn Charles Mackay 230 The Discontented Pendulum 232 Two Sides to Every Question 235 If I were a Boy Washington Gladden 237 The Lesson of the Water Mill Sarah Doudney 239 A Motto of Oxford 241 Sailing and Failing Hamilton W. Mabie 242 Use and Abuse of Time Archer Brown 243 Hidden Treasure Charles Reade 245 The Solitary Reaper William Wordsworth 249
IN GOOD HUMOR The Stagecoach Mark Twain 253 The Chameleon James Merrick 261 The Pickwick Club on Ice Charles Dickens 263 Darius Green and his Flying Machine John Townsend Trowbridge
IN TIME OF WAR Great Little Rivers Frazier Hunt 299 The Burial of Sir John Moore Charles Wolfe 302 Lexington and Concord William Emerson 304 Hervé Riel Robert Browning 307 The Song of the Camp Bayard Taylor 313 Cabin Boy and Admiral 315 Little Giffen Francis O. Ticknor 320 Marco Bozzaris Fitz-Greene Halleck 322 San Juan Hill General John J. Pershing 325 Burial of a Soldier in France Gerald M. Dwyer 329
OUR COUNTRY America for Me Henry van Dyke 333 Warren's Address at the Battle of Bunker Hill John Pierpont 335 What is an American? Hector Saint Jean de Crèvecœur 336 The Rising of '76 Thomas Buchanan Read 338 Our Own Country James Montgomery 342 Patrick Henry's Speech 343 Abraham Lincoln to Mrs. Bixby 347 The Flower of Liberty Oliver Wendell Holmes 348 True Patriotism Benjamin Harrison 350 America the Beautiful Katharine
FROM GREAT BOOKS The Lists at Ashby Sir Walter Scott 363 The Twenty-Third Psalm The Bible 376 Doubting Castle John Bunyan 377 Christmas Eve at Fezziwig's Charles Dickens 384 Jean Valjean Meets the Bishop Victor Hugo 387 A Voyage to Lilliput Jonathan Swift 394 The Struggle in the Arena Henryk Sienkiewicz 405 Polonius's Advice to his Son William Shakespeare 413 Mercy William Shakespeare 414