The Beacon Second Reader

The Beacon Second Reader

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Title: The Beacon Second Reader
Author: James H. Fassett
Illustrator: Edna T. Hart
Release Date: April 19, 2005 [EBook #15659]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
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THE BEACON SECOND READER
BY JAMES H. FASSETT
GINN AND COMPANY BOSTON - NEW YORK - CHICAGO -
LONDON ATLANTA - DALLAS - COLUMBUS - SAN
FRANCISCO
COPYRIGHT, 1914, BY JAMES H. FASSETT ALL RIGHTS
RESERVED
PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA 431.1

The Athenæum Press
GINN AND COMPANY - PROPRIETORS - BOSTON - U.S.A.

PREFACE
In the "Beacon Second Reader" the author has chosen for his stories
only those of recognized literary merit; and while it has been necessary
to rearrange and sometimes rewrite them for the purpose of
simplification, yet he has endeavored to retain the spirit which has
served to endear these ancient tales to the children of all ages. The fairy
story appeals particularly to children who are in the second school year.
It has been proved by our ablest psychologists that at about this period
of development, children are especially susceptible to the stimulus of
the old folklore. They are in fact passing through the stage which
corresponds to the dawn of the human race, when demons, dragons,
fairies, and hobgoblins were as firmly believed in as rivers and
mountains.
As a test of this theory the author asked hundreds of second-grade and
third-grade school children to recall the stories which they had read
during the preceding year, and to express their preferences. The choice
of more than ninety per cent proved to be either folklore stories, pure
and simple, or such tales as contained the folklore element. To be sure,
children like other stories, but they respond at once with sparkling eyes
and animated voices when the fairy tale is suggested. How unwise,
therefore, it is to neglect this powerful stimulus which lies ready at our
hands! Even a pupil who is naturally slow will wade painfully and
laboriously through a fairy story, while he would throw down in disgust
an account of the sprouting of the bean or the mining of coal.
It can hardly be questioned, moreover, that the real culture which the
child derives from these literary classics is far greater than that which
he would gain from the "information" stories so common in the average
second and third readers.

CONTENTS
PAGE THE SHIP Old English Rhyme 13 THE WOLF AND THE
SEVEN YOUNG KIDS William and Jacob Grimm 14 THEY DIDN'T
THINK Phoebe Cary 22 TOM THUMB English Fairy Tale 24

SUPPOSE Alice Cary 34 CINDERELLA English Fairy Tale 36
RAINDROPS Ann Hawkshawe 43 THE FOUR FRIENDS William and
Jacob Grimm 44 LITTLE BIRDIE Alfred Tennyson 54 MOTHER
FROST William and Jacob Grimm 55 IF EVER I SEE Lydia Maria
Child 65 WHY THE BEAR'S TAIL IS SHORT German Folk Tale 66
RUMPELSTILTSKIN William and Jacob Grimm 70 BED IN
SUMMER Robert Louis Stevenson 81 THE GOLDEN TOUCH Greek
Myth 82 OVER IN THE MEADOW _Olive A. Wadsworth_ 89 THE
BELL OF ATRI German Folk Tale 92 THE BABY Hugh Miller 96
BRUCE AND THE SPIDER Scottish Tradition 97 THE WISE
LITTLE PIG Anonymous 100 AN INDIAN STORY 102 A GOOD
PLAY Robert Louis Stevenson 112 DICK WHITTINGTON English
Folk Tale 113 THE NEW MOON Eliza Lee Follen 124 BRIAR ROSE
William and Jacob Grimm 126 ALL THINGS BEAUTIFUL _Mrs. C.F.
Alexander_ 135 THE BAKER BOYS AND THE BEES German Folk
Tale 136 FALLING SNOW Anonymous 142 LITTLE GOODY TWO
SHOES Ascribed to Goldsmith 143 ONE STEP AND THEN
ANOTHER Anonymous 157 GOOD NIGHT AND GOOD MORNING
Lord Houghton 158 DAVID AND GOLIATH Adapted from the Bible
160 PHONETIC TABLES 167

[Illustration]

THE SHOEMAKER AND THE ELVES--I
shoemaker beautiful to-morrow leather already bought sew enough
A shoemaker and his wife lived in a little house on the edge of a wood.
They were very, very poor, and each day they grew poorer and poorer.
At last there was nothing left in the house but leather for one pair of
shoes.
"I will cut out this last pair of shoes," the shoemaker said to his wife.
"To-morrow I will sew them and peg them."
So he cut out the leather and left it on his bench.
The next morning he went