The selection of suitable masterpieces for reading and study in the first year must be made with particular care, since the pupils’ attitude toward the reading and study of literature is often influenced for some time by their first impressions. As the purpose of the reading is not only to have the pupils understand what they read by teaching them to read carefully and accurately, but also to interest them in reading good literature, it is desirable to begin on material that does not present too many difficulties. The length of the selection is also an important element. The piece of literature must not be so long that interest in it flags or that the pupil can not grasp it in its entirety and study it as a unit. Short stories, tales, and narrative and descriptive sketches combine more of the desired elements than other forms of literature. Prose narratives of this type also make possible the close and effective correlation of the reading and composition, the importance of which has already been emphasized. Among the short stories and sketches that have been used successfully in the first year and that may be taken as typical are Hawthorne’s “Twice Told Tales”, Irving’s “Rip Van Winkle” and “Legend of Sleepy Hollow”, Holmes’ “My Hunt After the Captain”, Warner’s “A-Hunting of the Deer”, Dickens’ “A Christmas Carol”. Mythology and folk tales have also been tried with considerable success in the first semester of the first year; the available selections include Hawthorne’s “Wonder Book”, Church’s “The Story of the Iliad” and “The Story of the Odyssey”, Peabody’s “Old Greek Folk Stories”, Bryant’s translations of the “Iliad” and the “Odyssey” and Palmer’s translation of the “Odyssey”.