[Illustration: ON THE BEACH.] Nature Readers. SEA-SIDE AND WAY-SIDE. No. 1. BY JULIA McNAIR WRIGHT. “Then Nature, the old nurse, took The child upon her knee, Saying, ‘Here is a story-book Thy Father hath written for thee.’” LONGFELLOW _to_ AGASSIZ BOSTON, U.S.A., D. C. HEATH & CO., PUBLISHERS. 1896. COPYRIGHT, 1887, BY JULIA MCNAIR WRIGHT. TYPOGRAPHY BY J. S. CUSHING & CO., BOSTON, U.S.A. PRESSWORK BY ROCKWELL & CHURCHILL, BOSTON, U.S.A. PREFACE. This Series of Nature Readers is intended for the use of beginners in reading. The subjects chosen, and their treatment, have been alike subordinated to this object. The Nature Readers are not offered as text-books in natural science, but rather as a contribution to the idea that facts of real and permanent value, may be made known, a noble taste may be cultivated, thought may be developed, and the initiatory steps in an increasingly popular study may be taken, while a child is learning to read a certain number of English words. Should not the first short, strong Saxon sentences be rather used to convey scientific facts, than such trivial information as, “The boy has a new hat,” or, “I had a plate of green corn to eat, on the fourth day of July”? Lessons fresh from the sea-shore and the field, where life is seen, not in an abnormal state, as captivity, but in its own chosen homes and natural development, cannot fail to have an educative power of great value, even to minds of a very early age. The real difficulty to be overcome has been to put these simple lessons concerning the habits, homes, and anatomy of certain animals, into such words as are usually found in the most elementary reading-books. To accomplish this, so that the series shall reach the hands for which it was intended, has been the author’s chief concern. There is happily no uncertainty as to the scientific accuracy of the work. Every substantive statement has been verified by the observation of the author, or of those whose competency for such work is unquestioned. The practical value of this series of Nature Readers must now be tried in the Homes and the Schools. Whether the pages have been discreetly broken into paragraphs to catch restless and unaccustomed eyes, whether the words and subjects have been fitly chosen, whether the individuality and personality given to irrational animals shall succeed in attracting the interest, and fixing the wandering thought of childhood, are all questions rather to be answered by a trial of the book, than argued in a preface. We bring no cat and dog stories, no tales of monkey antics; but we have endeavored to impress upon the little Heir of life, in one of its highest forms, a comprehension of, and a reverence for, life, even in some of its lower manifestations.