THE PREPARATION OF THE LESSON. Three things are involved in the preparation of a Reading Lesson, viz.: I. The pronunciation of the words: II. All unfamiliar and difficult words should be carefully syllabicated, accented, spelled and pronounced. The meaning of the words: New words should be used in oral sentences that their generic meanings may be acquired. The substitution of words of kindred meaning is an excellent means of language culture. All biographical, historical, geographical and other allusions should be looked up in books of reference. III. The scope of the selection: The authorship, literary form, its relation to time and place, and the purpose for which the selection was written, should receive as much attention as the time and opportunity of pupil and teacher will allow. The grouping of the words and the analysis of the thought need careful consideration. The purpose of instruction in reading is to acquire power to get knowledge from books. Columbian Fourth Reader. I. GIANTS OF THE FOREST. 1. A tree standing alone is a sublime object. But huge trees, surrounded by smaller ones, overawe the mind and fill the soul with reverLONGFELLOW says ence. This is the forest primeval, wherein the murmuring pines and hemlocks, Bearded with moss and in garments green, indistinct in the twilight, Stand like Druids of eld, with voices sad Stand like harpers hoar, with beards that 2. In Germany in early times there were trees so large that from the trunk of one of them a boat large enough to carry thirty men was made. Columbus found mahogany trees in the West Indies from whose trunks canoes eight feet wide and ninety feet long were constructed. Formerly there grew on the banks of the Bosphorus and the Black Sea plane-trees of such luxuriant growth as to be noted from the times of antiquity. 3. In early times there was in Lycia a stout thriving plane-tree in the trunk of which was a grotto eighty-one feet in circumference, the walls of which were tapestried with a hanging of green and velvety moss. Charmed with the delicious coolness of this rural hall, the governor of the province gave a banquet in it to eighteen Chapel Oak of Normandy. - MARQUIS. guests, and, after the festivity, comfortably passed the night there. There still exists near Constantinople a lime-tree one hundred and fifty feet in circumference, in which there is a cavity eighty feet in circuit. 4. Not long ago in Germany there was an oak of such colossal size that it was transformed into a citadel. The Chapel Oak at Allouville, |
