GENERAL INTRODUCTION Books are as essentially a part of the home where boys and girls are growing into manhood and womanhood as any other part of the furnishings. Parents have no more right to starve a child’s mind than they have his body. If a child is to take his place among the men and women of his time he needs to know the past out of which the present grew, and he needs to know what is going on in the world in which he lives. He needs... more...

NURSERY JINGLES Little Miss MuffetSat on a tuffet,  Eating of curds and whey;Along came a spiderAnd sat down beside her,  Which frightened Miss Muffet away. * * * * * Diddle, diddle, dumpling, my son JohnWent to bed with his stockings on;One shoe off, the other shoe on,Diddle, diddle, dumpling, my son John. * * * * * "Let's go to bed,"Says Sleepy-head;  "Let's stay awhile," says Slow;"Put on the pot,"Says... more...

A QUEER PLACE TO LIVE The village near one end of Pleasant Valley where Farmer Green often went to sell butter and eggs was not the only village to be seen from Blue Mountain. There was another which Farmer Green seldom visited, because it lay beyond the mountain and was a long distance from his house. Though he owned the land where it stood, those that lived there thought they had every right to stay there as long as they pleased, without being... more...

The day is dull and dreary,And chilly winds and eerieAre sweeping through the tall oak trees that fringe the orchard lane.They send the dead leaves flying,And with a mournful cryingThey dash the western window-panes with slanting lines of rain.My little ’Trude and Teddy,Come quickly and make ready,Take down from off the highest shelf the book you think so grand.We’ll travel off together,To lands of golden weather,For well we know the... more...

MAY MORNING AND NEW YEAR'S EVE. It is the evening before the first of May, and the boys are looking forward to a May-day festival with the children in the neighborhood. Mrs. Chilton read aloud these beautiful lines of Milton:— Now the bright morning star, Day's harbinger,Comes dancing from the east, and loads with herThe flowery May, who from her green lap throwsThe yellow cowslip, and the pale primrose.     Hail... more...

CHAPTER I Perhaps the things which happened could only have happened to me. I do not know. I never heard of things like them happening to any one else. But I am not sorry they did happen. I am in secret deeply and strangely glad. I have heard other people say things—and they were not always sad people, either—which made me feel that if they knew what I know it would seem to them as though some awesome, heavy load they had always... more...

I. SHOWS HOW THE ROYAL FAMILY SATE DOWN TO BREAKFAST This is Valoroso XXIV., King of Paflagonia, seated with his Queen and only child at their royal breakfast-table, and receiving the letter which announces to His Majesty a proposed visit from Prince Bulbo, heir of Padella, reigning King of Crim Tartary. Remark the delight upon the monarch's royal features. He is so absorbed in the perusal of the King of Crim Tartary's letter, that he allows his... more...

Little Cyclone is a grizzly cub from Alaska, who earned his name by the vigor of his resistance to ill treatment. When his mother was fired at, on a timbered hillside facing Chilkat River, he and his brother ran away as fast as their stumpy little legs could carry them. When they crept where they had last seen her, they thought her asleep; and cuddling up close against her yet warm body they slept peacefully until morning. Before the early... more...

During the time when Pericles was at the head of the state at Athens he spared no pains and no money to make the city beautiful. He himself was a lover and patron of the arts, and he was determined that Athens should become the very centre of art and refinement, and that she should have splendid public buildings and splendid sculptures and paintings. So he gathered round him all the great sculptors and painters, and set them to work to carry out... more...

Consciously or unconsciously we are influenced by the characters we admire. A book that exerts a deep as well as a wide influence must produce changes in the reader's way of thinking, and excite him to activity; the world for him can never be quite the same that it was before. Such books have an important part in moulding the character of a people. It is because the books represented in this volume have been doing just that for many years that... more...