"The Lays of Ancient Rome," the "Ballads," and the "Tales from English History" belong to the heroic series. Though far separated in time and place, they breathe the same spirit of personal energy, self-sacrifice, and love of country. They reveal manly resistance to cruelty and tyranny. We may begin this series with a term's work upon Macaulay's "Lays" and a few other choice stories in prose and verse. Thereafter we may insert other ballads, where needed, in connection with history, and in amplification of longer stories or masterpieces like Scott's "Tales of a Grandfather," and "Marmion." In the fifth grade, children are of an age when these stories of heroism in olden days strike a responsive chord. They delight in such tales, memorize them, and enter into the full energy of their spirited reproduction. The main purpose at first is to appreciate their thought as an expression of history, tradition, and national life. A complete and absorbing study of a single series of these ballads, as of Macaulay's, supplies also an excellent standard of comparison for other more or less similar episodes in the history of Switzerland, Greece, England, and America. These historical legends merge almost imperceptibly into the historical tales of early English, Roman, and French or German history. The patriarchal stories of the Old Testament furnish the finest of early history stories and should be included in these materials. "The Old Stories of the East," and "Old Testament Stories in Scripture Language" are among the best. 3. Stories of Chivalry. Tales of chivalry, beginning with "Arthur and his Round Table Knights," "Roland and Oliver," and other mediæval tales, have a great attraction for poets and children. Such books are included in our lists as "The Court of King Arthur," the "Story of Roland," "Tales of Chivalry," "The Boys' King Arthur," the "Age of Chivalry," and "The Coming of Arthur" and "Passing of Arthur." There are also many shorter poems touching this spirit of chivalry in the Ballad literature. The character and spirit of King Arthur as revealed in the matchless music of Tennyson should find its way to the hearts of children before they leave the school. Like Sir Galahad, he could say, "My strength is as the strength of ten Because my heart is pure." 4. Historical Stories and Poems. In the fifth and sixth grades children should begin to read some of the best biographical and historical stories of America and of European countries. Of these we have excellent materials from many lands and periods of time, such as Higginson's "American Explorers," Morris's "Historical Tales" (both American and English), "Stories of American Life and Adventure," "Stories of Our Country," "Pioneer History Stories," "Ten Boys on the Road from Long Ago," "The Story of the English," "Stories from Herodotus," "Pilgrims and Puritans," Hawthorne's "Biographical Stories," "Stories from American Life," and others.