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PREFACE

In selecting the literary matter that goes to make up this reader, constant and earnest care has been taken to glean the brightest and best from writers who have won recognition through the merit of their work. The lessons have been arranged so as to cover the subjects suggested by the best educational authorities. These selections may be classified as follows:

Classic Myth
Legends

The Bible

Nature Study 'Folk-lore

Fables and Fairy Tales
History and Biography
Story and Adventure
Miscellaneous Poems

Poems about the Seasons

This reader is based upon the vocabulary of the FIRST READER of the same series, and is carefully graded to follow that book. New words are uniformly placed in word lists at the head of the lesson, so that the pupil who is well drilled on these lists will never meet a word in reading that he does not know and cannot call at sight.

In preparing the color work the same rule has been followed as in the FIRST READER. Colored pictures have not been introduced merely for the sake of having colored illustrations in the book. On the contrary, every colored picture teaches a lesson in which color plays an essential part. In this respect they differ from those in all other series of readers.

The reader is the best basis for practical language work, and at intervals throughout this book systematic suggestions for language exercises are given. The same suggestions are applicable to numerous lessons, and should not be limited to the single place in which they are found. While no attempt is made, or should be made, to formulate rules, yet the simplest principles of capitalization and punctuation are developed by practice in writing.

To-day thoughtful educators very generally hold that it is undesirable to sacrifice space to questions that analyze lessons.

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