The Ontario Readers.
THIRD READER.
AUTHORIZED FOR USE IN THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS
OF ONTARIO BY THE MINISTER OF
EDUCATION.
TORONTO:
THE W. J. GAGE COMPANY (Limited).
Entered according to Act of the Parliament of Canada in the Office of the Minister of Agriculture by the Minister of Education for Ontario, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and eighty-five.
PREFACE.
The plan of the Third Reader is the same as that of the Second, with the exception that a few historical lessons have been introduced, and two lessons which may serve as an introduction to Physical Science. The botanical lessons supplement those given in the Second Reader. These, and the lessons on Canadian trees, and all lessons relating to things in nature, should be made the subjects of conversation between the teacher and his class, and should form a basis for scientific instruction. The pupils should be led to study nature directly. To this end they should be required to obtain (wherever possible) the natural objects which are described in the lessons, and to examine them, and to form opinions for themselves concerning them.
Similarly, every lesson should form the subject of conversation—before reading, during the progress of the reading, and after reading:—the teacher eliciting from his pupils clear statements of their knowledge of it, correcting any wrong notions they may have of it, throwing them back upon their own experience or reading, and leading them to observe, compare, and judge, and to state in words the results of their observations, comparisons, and judgments. Some of these statements should be written on the blackboard, and then be made the subject of critical conversation; others might be written by the pupils at their desks, and afterwards be reviewed in class. In this incidental teaching, it should be the teacher’s aim to develop the previous imperfect knowledge of the pupils concerning a lesson into a full and complete knowledge. This can best be effected by judicious questioning and conversation.
The illustrations of the lessons, as in the Second Reader, are intended to aid the pupils in obtaining real conceptions of the ideas involved in the lessons. Children vary greatly in capacity for imagination. It is essential, however, to the proper understanding of a lesson, and hence to the proper reading of it, that a child be able to imagine the persons, actions, objects, described in it. The illustrations will aid in developing this power of imagination, and the teacher by his questions and appropriate criticisms, and by a judicious use of his own greater knowledge and experience, will aid still more in developing it.
In the poetry great care has been taken to select not only such pieces as children can easily comprehend, but also such as are in themselves good literature. Many old favorites have been retained, their worth as reading lessons having been proved with generations of school children. In the reading of poetry the teacher must constantly assure himself that the pupils clearly understand what they read. Children have a natural ear for rhythm, and a fondness for rhyme. Hence they easily learn to read verse being insensibly charmed by its melody. But they cannot, with equal facility, comprehend the poetical meanings, the terse expressions, and the inverted constructions, with which verse abounds. Much more time, therefore, should be spent by the teacher, in poetry than in prose, in eliciting from his pupils the meanings of words, phrases, and sentences. He should not rest satisfied until the pupils can substitute for every more important word, phrase, and sentence of a poem, an equivalent of their own finding. He must be certain too that they understand the substitutions which they offer. Conversation and questioning will here, as elsewhere in school work, help him in effecting his purpose.
The exercises which are put at the end of some of the lessons are intended merely as examples of exercises which the teacher can himself prepare for all the lessons. Methods of using these have been described in the Preface to the Second Reader. In the Word Exercises, many of the words have been re-spelled phonetically to indicate their pronunciation. This too is merely an example of what may be done with all words. Pupils should be taught to pick out the silent letters in words, and to indicate the true phonetic equivalents of the “orthographical expedients,” as they are called, by which vowel sounds are often indicated. For example, in neighbour, g, h, and either o or u are silent, and ei does duty for ā; so that the pronunciation of the word may be indicated by nā’bor or nā’bur. It will be a useful exercise for the pupils sometimes to write out in this way, on the blackboard, the phonetic spelling of the irregularly spelled words which occur in their lessons, alongside of their common spelling. Practice will soon give facility in doing this. It is believed that by such practice the orthography of irregularly spelled words will be more easily remembered, and accuracy of pronunciation more readily gained.
To aid in securing accuracy of pronunciation, a short chapter on Orthoëpy has been prefixed to the reading lessons. The statements in it are to form a basis for lessons to be given by the teacher to the pupils in conversation. Orthoëpy is acquired only by constant attention to utterance. Carefulness in enunciation must first become a habit. The correct pronunciation of individual words will then be gained by the imitation of those who speak correctly, or reference to a dictionary. It is true that in the pronunciation of many words, authorities differ widely; hence dogmatism in pronunciation is to be avoided. Notwithstanding this, no one can hope to become a correct speaker without the careful study of a dictionary. The teacher should see that the system of sound-marking adopted by the dictionary in use in his school, is understood by his pupils, so that they may consult it intelligently.
CONTENTS.
(The Titles of the Selections in Poetry are printed in Italics.)
INDEX OF AUTHORS.
| Name. | Page. |
|---|---|
| Addison, Joseph | [200] |
| Alexander, Cecil Frances | [240] |
| Allen, Elizabeth Akers | [192] |
| Andersen, Hans Christian | [36], [136] |
| Audubon, John James | [152] |
| Baker, Sir Samuel White | [173] |
| Blackie, John Stuart | [58] |
| Brown, James | [202], [210] |
| Browning, Robert | [141] |
| Bryant, William Cullen | [227] |
| Campbell, Thomas | [127] |
| Cary, Alice | [162] |
| Cook, Eliza | [44], [68] |
| Cooper, James Fenimore | [165] |
| Cowper, William | [272] |
| Cunningham, Allan | [51] |
| Dickens, Charles | [11], [46], [93], [97] |
| Dodge, Mary Mapes | [78] |
| Emerson, Ralph Waldo | [20] |
| Figuier, Louis | [223] |
| Frankenstein, Gustavus | [229], [235], [257] |
| Franklin, Benjamin | [130] |
| Froude, James Anthony | [71] |
| Gustafson, Zadel Barnes | [149] |
| Hawthorne, Nathaniel | [216], [243], [264] |
| Heber, Reginald | [187] |
| Hemans, Felicia Dorothea | [16] |
| Howitt, Mary | [115] |
| Hunt, Leigh | [45] |
| Keble, John | [81] |
| Kingsley, Charles | [38] |
| Lacoste, Marie | [156] |
| Larcom, Lucy | [101] |
| Longfellow, Henry Wadsworth | [74], [171] |
| Lover, Samuel | [109] |
| Lushington, Henry | [221] |
| Mackay, Charles | [86], [88] |
| Macleod, Norman | [155] |
| Michelet, Jules | [158] |
| Montgomery, James | [177] |
| Moore, Thomas | [73] |
| McGee, Thomas D’Arcy | [122] |
| Norton, Hon. Caroline Elizabeth Sarah | [207] |
| Procter, Bryan Waller (Barry Cornwall) | [94] |
| Sangster, Charles | [110] |
| Southey, Robert | [60], [133] |
| Swain, Charles | [96] |
| Tennyson, Alfred (Lord Tennyson) | [132], [157], [233], [250], [255], [261] |
| Trowbridge, John Townsend | [33] |
| White, Henry Kirke | [129], [148] |
| Whittier, John Greenleaf | [103] |
| Wolfe, Charles | [214] |
| Wordsworth, William | [21], [27], [52] |
ORTHOËPY.
1. Orthoëpy or Correct Pronunciation, is the utterance of words with their right sounds and accents, as sanctioned by the best usage. It depends principally upon Articulation, Syllabication, and Accentuation.
2. Articulation is the distinct utterance of the elementary vowel and consonant sounds of the language, whether separate, or combined into syllables and words. In pronouncing a word its elementary sounds should be correctly articulated.
3. The more common faults in articulation are:—
(1) Omitting a vowel sound, or substituting one vowel sound for another, in an unaccented syllable. Of all faults in pronunciation probably this is the commonest. As a rule it results from carelessness in utterance. Examples of it are:—pronouncing—arithmetic, ’rithmetic; library, līb’ry; literature, lit’rature; geography, j’ography; barrel, barr’l; below, b’low; family, fam’ly; violent, vi’lent; history, hist’ry; memory, mem’ry; regular, reg’lar; usual, ūzh’al; alwāys, alwŭz; afford, ŭfford; abundant, abundŭnt; eatable, eatŭble; America, Ameriky; childrĕn, childrin; modĕst, modŭst; commandment, commandmŭnt; judgment, judgmŭnt; moment, momŭnt; kindness, kindniss; gospĕl, gospil; pockĕt, pockit; ēmotion, immotion; charĭty, charŭty; opposĭte, oppozŭt; potatō, pŭtatĕh; patriŏt, patriŭt; ōbedience, ŭbediĕnce; accūrāte, ak’er-ĭt; particūlar, partikĭlĕr.
(2) Substituting one vowel sound for another in an accented syllable or a one-syllabled word. This fault may result, not from carelessness, but from want of knowledge, for the correct pronunciation of the vowel sounds of words must be learned from some correct speaker, or from a dictionary. Examples of this fault are:—pronouncing—āte, ĕt; cătch, kĕtch; săt, sŏt; găther, gĕther; băde, bāde; was, wŭz; father, făther or fawther; says (sĕz), sāz; get, git; kettle, kĭttle; deaf (dĕf), deef; creek, crick; rinse, rĕnse; bŏnnet, bŭnnet; bosom, bŭzum; frŏm, frum; just, jĕst; shut, shĕt; new (nū), noo; dūty, dooty; redūce, redooce; because, bekŭz; saucy, sāssy; point, pīnt; instead, instĭd; route, (rōōt), rout.
(3) Omitting a consonant sound, or substituting one consonant sound for another; as in pronouncing—yeast, ’east; February, Feb’uary; and, an’; old, ōl’; acts, ac’s; slept, slep’; depths, dep’s; fields, fiel’s; winds, win’s; breadths, bre’ths; twelfth, twel’th or twelf’; asked (askt), as’t; mostly, mōs’ly; swiftly, swif’ly; government, gover’ment; Arctic, Ar’tic; products, produc’s; consists, consis’; commands, comman’s; morning, mornin; strength, strenth; length, lenth; shrink, srink; shrill, srill; height, hīth; Asia (A’she-a), A’zhe-a; chimney, chimbly; covetous (cŭv’ĕt-ŭs), cŭv’e-chŭs; fortūne, forchin.
(4) Introducing in the pronunciation of a word a sound that does not belong to it; as in pronouncing—drown, drownd; drowned, drownded; often (of’n), of´ten; epistle, (e-pis´l), e-pis´tel; elm, el´um; film, fil´um; height, hīt’th; grievous, grēv´i-us; mischievous (mis´chĭv-us), mis-chēv´i-us; column, col´yum; once (wŭns), wŭnst; across, acrost.
(5) Misusing the sound of r; as in pronouncing—Maria, Mariar; idea, idear; widow, widder; meadow, medder; farm, far-r-m; warm, war-r-m; war, wa’; door, do-ah; garden, gä’den; card, cä’d; warm, wä’m; forth, fo’th; hundred, hunderd; children, childern.
(6) Misusing the aspirate (h); as in pronouncing—happy, ’appy; apples, happles; whence, wence; which, wich; what, wot; whirl, wirl.
4. Syllabication (in Orthoëpy) is the correct formation of syllables in pronouncing words. A syllable is a sound, or a combination of sounds, uttered by a single impulse of the voice, and constituting a word or a part of a word. A word has as many syllables as it has separate vowel sounds. When words are uttered so that their vowel sounds are clearly and correctly articulated, they will be properly syllabified.
5. Accentuation is the correct placing of accent in uttering words. Accent is a superior stress or force of voice upon certain syllables of words which distinguishes them from the other syllables. In uttering a word of more than one syllable, one of the syllables receives a greater stress in pronunciation than the others, and is said to be accented, or to have the accent. Some words have more than one syllable accented, as con´fla-gra´´tion, in-com´pre-hen´si-bil´´ity; but one syllable is always more strongly accented than the others, and is said to have the main or primary accent. Accentuation, like the other elements of orthoëpy, is fixed by usage; that is, by the practice of those who are recognized as correct speakers.
6. In the pronunciation of a word care should be taken to give to the vowels their proper sounds, to place the accent upon the right syllable, and to sound the consonants distinctly. The tendency to drop consonant sounds, and to pronounce indistinctly or incorrectly the vowel sounds of unaccented syllables, should be carefully guarded against. The distinction between syllables should be carefully made, and especially, the distinction between separate words. Carelessness in this respect may make the meanings of sentences uncertain. For example:
He saw two beggars steal, may sound as, He sought to beg or steal;
He had two small eggs, may sound as, He had two small legs; and
Can there be an aim more lofty? as, Can there be a name more lofty?
This blending of the sounds of words is prevented, partly by distinctly uttering the sounds of their initial letters, but chiefly by distinctly uttering and slightly dwelling upon the sounds of their final letters.
THIRD READER.
I.—THE WHITE SHIP.
Charles Dickens.
King Henry I. went over to Normandy with his son Prince William and a great retinue, to have the prince acknowledged as his successor, and to contract a marriage between him and the daughter of the Count of Anjou. Both these things were triumphantly done, with great show and rejoicing; and on the 25th of November, in the year 1120, the whole retinue prepared to embark, for the voyage home.
On that day, there came to the king, Fitz-Stephen, a sea-captain, and said, “My liege, my father served your father all his life, upon the sea. He steered the ship with the golden boy upon the prow, in which your father sailed to conquer England. I have a fair vessel in the harbor here, called The White Ship, manned by fifty sailors of renown. I pray you, Sire, to let your servant have the honor of steering you in The White Ship to England.”
“I am sorry, friend,” replied the king, “that my ship is already chosen, and that I cannot, therefore, sail with the son of the man who served my father. But the prince and his company shall go along with you in the fair White Ship, manned by the fifty sailors of renown.” An hour or two afterward, the king set sail in the vessel he had chosen, accompanied by other vessels, and, sailing all night with a fair and gentle wind, arrived upon the coast of England in the morning. While it was yet night, the people in some of these ships heard a faint, wild cry come over the sea, and wondered what it was.
Now, the prince was a dissolute young man of eighteen, who bore no love to the English, and who had declared that when he came to the throne he would yoke them to the plough like oxen. He went aboard The White Ship with one hundred and forty youthful nobles like himself, among whom were eighteen noble ladies of the highest rank. All this gay company, with their servants and the fifty sailors, made three hundred souls aboard the fair White Ship.
“Give three casks of wine, Fitz-Stephen,” said the prince, “to the fifty sailors of renown. My father the king has sailed out of the harbor. What time is there to make merry here, and yet reach England with the rest?”
“Prince,” said Fitz-Stephen, “before morning my fifty and The White Ship shall overtake the swiftest vessel in attendance on your father the king if we sail at midnight.” Then the prince commanded to make merry; and the sailors drank out the three casks of wine, and the prince and all the noble company danced in the moonlight on the deck of The White Ship.
When, at last, she shot out of the harbor, there was not a sober seaman on board. But the sails were all set and the oars all going merrily. Fitz-Stephen had the helm. The gay young nobles and the beautiful ladies, wrapped in mantles of various bright colors to protect them from the cold, talked, laughed, and sang. The prince encouraged the fifty sailors to row yet harder, for the honor of The White Ship.
Crash! A terrific cry broke from three hundred hearts. It was the cry the people in the distant vessels of the king heard faintly on the water. The White Ship had struck upon a rock,—was filling,—going down! Fitz-Stephen hurried the prince into a boat with some few nobles. “Push off,” he whispered, “and row to the land. It is not far, and the sea is smooth. The rest of us must die.” But as they rowed fast away from the sinking ship, the prince heard the voice of his sister calling for help. He never in his life had been so good as he was then. He cried in agony, “Row back at any risk! I cannot bear to leave her!”
They rowed back. As the prince held out his arm to catch his sister, such numbers leaped into the boat that it was overset. And in the same instant The White Ship went down. Only two men floated. They both clung to the mainyard of the ship, which had broken from the mast and now supported them. One asked the other who he was. He replied, “I am a nobleman,—Godfrey by name, son of Gilbert. And you?”—“I am a poor butcher of Rouen,” was the answer. Then they said together, “Lord be merciful to us both!” and tried to encourage each other as they drifted in the cold, benumbing sea on that unfortunate November night.
By and by another man came swimming toward them, whom they knew, when he pushed aside his long wet hair, to be Fitz-Stephen. “Where is the prince?” said he. “Gone, gone!” the two cried together. “Neither he, nor his brother, nor his sister, nor the king’s niece, nor her brother, nor any one of all the brave three hundred, noble or commoner, except us three, has risen above the water!” Fitz-Stephen, with a ghastly face, cried, “Woe! woe to me!” and sank to the bottom.
The other two clung to the yard for some hours. At length the young noble said faintly, “I am exhausted, and chilled with the cold, and can hold no longer. Farewell, good friend! God preserve you!” So he dropped and sank; and, of all the brilliant crowd, the poor butcher of Rouen alone was saved. In the morning some fishermen saw him floating in his sheep-skin coat, and got him into their boat,—the sole relator of the dismal tale.
For three days no one dared to carry the intelligence to the king. At length they sent into his presence a little boy, who, weeping bitterly and falling at his feet, told him that The White Ship was lost with all on board. The king fell to the ground like a dead man, and never, never afterward was seen to smile.