In the preparation of this series of readers, valuable counsel and assistance have been given me by many friendly educators and those in authority. I am especially grateful to the Rt. Rev. John Lancaster Spalding of Peoria for helpful advice and encouragement in the planning and inception of the work; also, to the Rt. Rev. James McGolrick of Duluth, Minnesota, to the Rt. Rev. A. F. Schinner of Superior, Wisconsin, and to other prelates and clergy who have graciously given me assistance in various ways. Many thanks, too, for kindly suggestions and criticisms are hereby proffered to numerous friends among those patient and inspiring educators—the Sisters.

MARY E. DOYLE.


ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

The selections from Whittier, Longfellow. Lowell, Miriam Coles Harris, and John Burroughs are used by special permission of, and arrangement with, Houghton Mifflin Company, the publishers of the works of these authors. The selections from Helen Hunt Jackson are used by special arrangement with Little, Brown, & Company. Acknowledgments for the use of copyright material are also made: to Small, Maynard & Company for the poems by Father Tabb; to the editor and publisher of The Ave Maria for “Lucy’s Rosary,” by J. R. Marre, and other poems from that magazine; to Mary F. Nixon-Roulet for the selections of which she is the author; to Longmans, Green, & Company, for “The Reindeer,” by Andrew Lang; to Henry Coyle for the poems of which he is the author; and to the Congregation of the Mission of St Vincent de Paul, Springfield, Mass., for the extract from Mother Mary Loyola’s “Jesus of Nazareth,” of which book they are the publishers.


CONTENTS

PAGE
[Little Wolff and his Wooden Shoe]François Coppée[7]
[The Eagle and the Swan]J. J. Audubon[14]
[Lucy’s Rosary]J. R. Marre[16]
[The Taxgatherer]Rev. John B. Tabb[17]
[The Wisdom of Alexander]Horace Binney Wallace[18]
[Thanksgiving]Henry Coyle[23]
[The Enchanted Bark]Cervantes[24]
[A Legend of St. Nicholas]Author Unknown[30]
[Raphael of Urbino][36]
[Lead, Kindly Light]Cardinal Newman[43]
[Parable of the Good Samaritan]The Bible[44]
[Connor Mac-Nessa—An Irish Legend]M. F. Nixon-Roulet[46]
[The Martyrdom of Blessed John Fisher]Rev. T. E. Bridgett[50]
[The Nightingale and the Glowworm]William Cowper[56]
[If thou couldst be a Bird]Rev. F. W. Faber[58]
[The First Crusade][60]
[How the Robin Came]John G. Whittier[75]
[How St. Francis preached to the Birds]From “Little Flowers of St. Francis”[78]
[The Petrified Fern]Mary L. Bolles Branch[82]
[Bird Enemies]John Burroughs[84]
[St. Joseph’s Month]H. W.[95]
[A Song of Spring]Aubrey de Vere[96]
[Robert Bruce]Sir Walter Scott[97]
[“When Evening Shades are Falling”]Thomas Moore[106]
[The Reindeer]A. Lang[107]
[A Story of Ancient Ireland]Lady Gregory[114]
[San Gabriel]Helen Hunt Jackson[118]
[Imitation of Mary]St. Ambrose[120]
[Scene from “William Tell”]Sheridan Knowles[121]
[The Schoolmaster of Sleepy Hollow]Washington Irving[132]
[The Bluebird]Rev. John B. Tabb[151]
[The Brook]Alfred Tennyson[152]
[The Story of a Happy Child][154]
[May Carol]Sister Mary Antonia[158]
[The Precious Blood of Jesus]Henry Coyle[160]
[The Spanish Cook]Miriam Coles Harris[161]
[The Planting of the Apple Tree]William Cullen Bryant[166]
[The Conversion of King Ratbodo]Conrad von Bolanden[170]
[The Blessed Virgin Mary]H. W. Longfellow[174]
[Come to Jesus]Rev. F. W. Faber[175]
[Father Marquette]John G. Shea[178]
[The Shepherd of King Admetus]J. R. Lowell[186]
[The Sermon on the Mount]Mother Mary Loyola[188]
[The Star-spangled Banner]Francis Scott Key[196]
[How America was Discovered][198]
[The Power of God]Thomas Moore[213]
[Our Country and our Home]James Montgomery[214]
[Notes][215]