~IN~ ~HARVARD UNIVERSITY~ ~D. C. HEATH & CO., PUBLISHERS~ ~BOSTON NEW YORK CHICAGO~ ~COPYRIGHT, 1918,~ ~BY D. C. HEATH & CO.~ ~PREFACE~ ~If we mistake not, three of the commonest questions anticipated and answered, or at least discussed, in the preface to a book like this are: First, why a new book at all? Second, where, or at what stage of the student’s course, may it be taken up most profitably? And third, how or with what method of instruction should it be used?~ ~As to the first question, we offer no elaborate apology for this compilation, but simply say that we have thought the material worth editing. The title, _Ährenlese_ or _Gleanings_, should not be taken to imply that we had a hard time in gathering what we offer, nor that we think we have left the field bare behind us, but rather that the ears and stalks, though somewhat trimmed by us before being bound together, are indigenous fruits of the good old German soil and not the product of our own cultivation.~ ~The second question it would be presumptuous for us to attempt to answer _ex cathedra_, but we believe that, as far as the mere reading matter is concerned, this collection should prove neither too advanced for high school use nor too elementary for college use. Of this, however, every teacher can judge best for himself.~ ~Even on the third question we go no farther than to say that we believe the frequent, though unforced, repetition of the vocabulary of this book and the thoroughly idiomatic exercises adapt it to ready use with any mode of instruction. Moreover, after many years’ experience in reading both Harvard and “Board” admission examinations, we are by no means inclined to make a shibboleth of any “Method.” We are, however, in hearty accord with the Direct Method, or for that matter with any other, as long as it encourages a thorough understanding of what is read and an intelligent application of linguistic principles to the actual and correct use of the foreign tongue.~ ~These two ends we have aimed to further not only by questions and exercises based on the text, which do not differ essentially from the customary ones, but also by a vocabulary which does differ from most others in its fulness of detail, and which may therefore require a word of explanation.~