Produced by PM Children's Library, Emmy and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images generously made available by The University of Florida, The Internet Archive/Children's Library) [Illustration: COVER NATIONAL SERIES PARKER'S SECOND READER SOLD BY BOOKSELLERS GENERALLY THROUGHOUT THE UNITED STATES.] [Illustration] PARKER'S SECOND READER. NATIONAL SERIES OF SELECTIONS FOR READING; ADAPTED TO THE STANDING OF THE PUPIL. BY RICHARD G. PARKER, A.M. PRINCIPAL OF THE NORTH JOHNSON SCHOOL, BOSTON; AUTHOR OF "AIDS TO ENGLISH COMPOSITION," "OUTLINES OF GENERAL HISTORY," "THE SCHOOL COMPEND OF NATURAL PHILOSOPHY," ETC. PART SECOND. DESIGNED FOR THE YOUNGER CLASSES IN SCHOOLS, ACADEMIES, &c. * * * * * "Understandest thou what thou readest?"--ACTS 6:30. * * * * * NEW YORK: A.S. BARNES & BURR, 51 & 53 JOHN STREET. SOLD BY BOOKSELLERS, GENERALLY, THROUGHOUT THE UNITED STATES. Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year Eighteen Hundred and Fifty-one, BY A.S. BARNES & CO., In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the Southern District of New York. STEREOTYPED BY HOBART & ROBBINS; NEW ENGLAND TYPE AND STEREOTYPE FOUNDRY, BOSTON PREFACE. In the preparation of this volume, I have kept fresh in my recollection the immature state of the minds which I have endeavored to enlighten; and while it has been my aim to present such a succession of reading lessons as are suitable for the younger classes in our common schools and academies, I have not forgotten that the first step to be taken, in making good readers, is to open the understanding wide enough to afford a sufficient entrance for the ideas which are to be communicated by reading. Words are but sounds, by which ideas should be conveyed; and written language is of little use, if it convey but sound alone. Great pains have therefore been taken to exclude from this volume what the young scholar cannot understand, while, at the same time, it has been the aim of the author to avoid a puerile style, by which the early intellect is kept down, and its exertions are repressed. In every step and stage of its progress, the maxim "_Excelsior_" should be the aim of the youthful mind; and the hand of the teacher should be extended, not to _lift it up_, but only to _assist it in its endeavors to raise itself_. All of the labor must not be done by the teacher, nor by books. _They_ are of use only in exciting the mind to act for itself. They may, indeed, act as pioneers, but the pupil must not be _carried_ in their arms; he must perform the march himself. And herein lies the great difficulty of the teacher's task: on the one hand, to avoid the evil of leaving too little to be done by the scholar; and, on the other, to be careful that he be not required to do too much. Real difficulties should be lightened, but some labor should be permitted to remain.