Produced by David Edwards, Josephine Paolucci and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net. (This file was produced from images generously made available by The Internet Archive.) [Illustration] [Illustration: KITE-TIME] BOY LIFE STORIES AND READINGS SELECTED FROM THE WORKS OF WILLIAM DEAN HOWELLS AND ARRANGED FOR SUPPLEMENTARY READING IN ELEMENTARY SCHOOLS BY PERCIVAL CHUBB DIRECTOR OF ENGLISH IN THE ETHICAL CULTURE SCHOOL, NEW YORK ILLUSTRATED [Illustration] HARPER & BROTHERS PUBLISHERS NEW YORK AND LONDON MCMIX HARPER'S MODERN SERIES OF SUPPLEMENTARY READERS FOR THE ELEMENTARY SCHOOLS _Each, Illustrated, 16mo, 50 Cents School._ BOY LIFE Stories and Readings Selected from the Works of WILLIAM DEAN HOWELLS, and Arranged by PERCIVAL CHUBB, Director of English in the Ethical Culture School, New York. "The literary culture which we are trying to give our boys and girls is not sufficiently contemporaneous, and it is not sufficiently national and American.... "Among the living writers there is no one whose work has a more distinctively American savor than that of William Dean Howells.... The juvenile books of Mr. Howells' contain some of the very best pages ever written for the enjoyment of young people."--PERCIVAL CHUBB. (_Others in Preparation._) HARPER & BROTHERS, PUBLISHERS, NEW YORK Copyright, 1909, by HARPER & BROTHERS. _All rights reserved._ Published September, 1909. CONTENTS PAGE INTRODUCTION ix I. ADVENTURES IN A BOY'S TOWN HOW PONY BAKER CAME PRETTY NEAR RUNNING OFF WITH A CIRCUS 3 THE CIRCUS MAGICIAN 13 JIM LEONARD'S HAIR-BREADTH ESCAPE 23 II. LIFE IN A BOY'S TOWN THE TOWN 41 EARLIEST MEMORIES 45 HOME LIFE 47 THE RIVER 51 SWIMMING 55 SKATING 61 MANNERS AND CUSTOMS 64 GIRLS 68 MOTHERS 69 A BROTHER 73 A FRIEND 79 III. GAMES AND PASTIMES MARBLES 89 RACES 91 A MEAN TRICK 93