Educe T759.03.510 HARVARD COLLEGE LIBRARY GIFT OF GINN & COMPANY MARCH 17, 1927 COPYRIGHT, 1903, BY LEONARD LEMMON. PREFACE The Readers of this series have at least one important distinction: they are composed almost entirely of selections from our own authors. Of the thirty-seven pieces in this reader, twenty-eight are from American writers. Seven selections have been made from the few books of foreign origin that have come to be regarded as juvenile classics, and two from the Bible. The proportion of foreign and of native literature in American readers has been usually just the reverse of this, giving the great part to foreign writers and a small part to our own writers. And the native selections included have most often been those on which the copyright had expired or that had never been copyrighted. Quite a different plan has been followed here. The first The ground Each selection design has been to present our own authors. of choice has been solely one of fitness. from our native authors has been made on the ground of its representative nature, or of its special application to phases of our own home life. The result is the embodiment of an expensive collection of copyrighted material; but we believe the character of this material justifies the expense and labor incurred. In view of the fact that the selections are from American authors, about American subjects, for American youths, it seemed appropriate to call the series "Our Country's Readers." The selections presented are from the latest authorized readings, and correspond to the author's approved editions. The grading has been made with the utmost care, both from principle and theory and from actual tests with pupils. Lists of words that may need pronunciation or explanation follow the selections. Short biographical sketches of our best known authors precede the readings. Nothing in the way of criticism is attempted, but the simple facts in the authors' lives and in the history of the books may be useful to teachers in inculcating, and to pupils in forming, a taste for literature. Finally, it may be seen that there is not-with the exception of "The Forty Thieves," which has become a world's classic-an anonymous selection in this book. Nor is there an "adaptation." ACKNOWLEDGMENTS THE editor of the book begs to acknowledge his indebtedness to the publishers named below for the use of copyrighted material from their publications. By permission of and arrangement with Messrs. Houghton, Mifflin & Co. we print the following: "Story for a Child," Bayard Taylor. "The Snow-Image," Nathaniel Hawthorne. "Fable," Ralph Waldo Emerson. "The Barefoot Boy," John Greenleaf Whittier. "Old Ironsides," Oliver Wendell Holmes. "Hiawatha's Childhood," Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. "Baby Bell," Thomas Bailey Aldrich. "Nests," John Burroughs. Messrs. D. Appleton & Co., the publishers of the "Complete Works of William Cullen Bryant," permit the use here of "The Planting of the Apple-Tree" and "The White-Footed Deer." Messrs. D. Lothorp & Co., the publishers of the "Poems of Paul Hamilton Hayne," give their consent for the appearance here of "The Three Copecks" and "Bob Bonnyface." It is by the courtesy of Messrs. McClure, Phillips & Co. that we are able to reproduce "Dilly Bal" from Joel Chandler Harris's "Gabriel Tolliver." "The Battle of San Jacinto," from Henry Bruce's "General Houston," is by permission of Messrs. Dodd, Mead & Co. "Kittykin and Her Part in the War," from Thomas Nelson Page's |