The foremost counsel to be given to those commencing Penny Readings is to beware of exciting an expectation that all readings and recitations shall be comic. It is probable that a considerable proportion of the audience will enjoy what is adventurous or pathetic; but if the lads, whose prime object is to make a noise, once get into the habit of expecting that everything shall be the occasion of laughing, they will consider themselves defrauded by anything else, and spoil all chance of listening. Even if they come in a civilised mood, a little excitement will set them off, and make them unmanageable all the rest of the time, and habits will set in which will drive the readers at last into mere buffoonery. Drollery is quite expedient, but it should be only just at the end, as a _bonne bouche_, when the uproariousness which it creates can speedily be worked off out of doors, or else a race of young tyrants will be raised up who will effectually prevent taste from being raised among the audience. _POETRY FOR READING OR RECITATION._ Poetry answers better than prose if WELL recited or read, and a child is generally rapturously listened to if it can do the thing with spirit and not like a lesson. =895. The Lifeboat, and Other Poems.= By GEORGE R. SIMS. (Fuller) 1_s._ The first of these has been known to excite tears where the audience had not been demoralised by overmuch of the comic. =896. The Platelayer.= In MAY PROCTER’S Poems. =897. The Noble Mercer.= By JEAN INGELOW. The story of Winstanley’s lighthouse at the Eddystone. Rather long, but very effective. =898. Brough Bells.= By SOUTHEY. The legend of the bells given by John Brunskill to Brough. =899. The Bear and the Goblin.= By the Rev. F. DAWSON. To be found in ‘Aunt Charlotte’s Evenings at Home.’ (Marcus Ward) Rather long, but very amusing. =900. George Nidiver.= From ‘Society and Solitude.’ (Emerson) An heroic incident. Also to be found in ‘Aunt Charlotte’s Evenings at Home.’ =901. Paul Revere’s Ride.= By LONGFELLOW. A spirited incident of the first American war. =902. Barbara Fritchie.= By WHITTIER. A heroine of the War of the Secession. =903. Sir Humphrey Gilbert.= By LONGFELLOW. =904. King Robert of Sicily.= By LONGFELLOW. =905. Loss of the ‘Birkenhead.’= By Sir F. DOYLE. =906. George the Triller.= By C. M. YONGE. From ‘Book of Golden Deeds.’ The capture and rescue of the two princes of Saxony, ancestors of the Prince Consort. Some of Lockhart’s ‘Spanish Ballads’ would be liked in some places, and to many the ‘Children in the Wood’ and others of the old English ballads would be new. =907. Bells of Botreaux.= By the Rev. R. HAWKER. The bells sunk in the bay just after the captain had pronounced the safe voyage due to his own seamanship. =908. Sir Richard Grenville.= By Lord TENNYSON. =909. Song of the Shirt.= By HOOD. =910. Charge of the Light Brigade.= By Sir F. DOYLE.