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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 PREFACE   THE SHOEMAKER AND THE ELVES English Folk Tale 7 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