"With a loud scream, I plunged into the woods toward home. Turning an instant, I saw Mary spring up, totter, and fall. With another sharp report came a twinge of pain in my side. Suddenly I fell, and in the darkness of the woods, they passed on, leaving me stunned and nearly dead.
"I will not tell you now, my dear Robbie, how I was cared for, and who brought home little Mary and laid her to rest under the elm, beside mother—but the bullet that struck me then, I still carry in my side, and shall as long as I live.
"Many years have passed since that terrible day, but I can never forget it. As long as the history of this country lasts, Indian Spring will be remembered, and other boys will listen, with eyes as wide open as yours, to the tale it has to tell."
"Directions for Reading.—Should the second or third paragraph of the lesson be read the faster?
"When do we speak more rapidly—in telling an exciting story, or in common conversation?
"Do our feelings guide us when we speak slowly or rapidly?—when, we speak quietly or forcibly?
"Point out three paragraphs in the lesson that you would read as slowly as Lesson XIII.; three that you would read more rapidly.
"In reading rapidly, be careful not to omit syllables, and not to run words together. (See Directions for Reading, page 42.)[5]