Richard G. Parker - Parker\'s Second Reader
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Richard G. Parker >> Parker\'s Second Reader
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9 [Illustration:
COVER
NATIONAL SERIES
PARKER'S SECOND READER
SOLD BY BOOKSELLERS GENERALLY THROUGHOUT THE UNITED STATES.]
[Illustration]
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 AEsop_ 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.
[Illustration]
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.
[Illustration]
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.
[Illustration]
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.
6. The teacher then asks him to read it over six times more; and the
little boy finds that, before he has read it to his teacher so often as
the six times more, he can say it without his book before him.
7. In this way, that little boy will find, that it is not, after all,
so hard work to get what he calls a hard lesson; because all that he has
to do, is to read a small portion of the lesson at a time, and to repeat
the reading of that small portion until he can repeat it without the
book.
8. When he has done this, he can take another small portion of the
lesson, and do the same with that, until, by degrees, he has learnt the
whole lesson; and then he will feel happy, because he knows that his
teacher, and his parents, will be pleased with him.
9. But some pupils say to themselves, when they have a lesson to learn,
I do not want to study this lesson now; I will study it by and by, or
to-morrow morning.
10. But, by and by, and when to-morrow comes, they feel no more disposed
to study their lesson than they did when the lesson was first given to
them.
11. Now, my little friend, if you wish your time at school to pass
pleasantly, do not say to yourself, I will get my lesson by and by, or
to-morrow, but set yourself about it immediately, learn it as quickly as
you can, and I will assure you will not only make your teachers and your
parents happier, but you will be much happier yourself.
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