during which Mr. Squeers looked very profound, as if he had a perfect apprehension of what was inside all the books, and could say every word of their contents by heart if he only chose to take the trouble, that gentleman called up the first class. 7. Obedient to this summons, there ranged themselves in front of the schoolmaster's desk half-a-dozen scarecrows, out at knees and elbows, one of whom placed a torn and filthy book beneath his learned eye. 8. "This is the first class in English spelling and philosophy, Nickleby," said Squeers, beckoning Nicholas to stand beside him. "We'll get up a Latin one, and hand that over to you. Now, then, where's the first boy?" "Please, Sir, he's cleaning the back parlor window," said the temporary head of the philosophical class. 9. "So he is, to be sure," rejoined Squeers. "We go upon the practical mode of teaching, Nickleby; the regular education system. C-l-e-a-n, clean, verb active, to make bright, to scour. W-i-n, win, d-e-r, der, winder, a casement. When the boy knows this out of book, he goes and does it. It's just the same principle as the use of the globes. Where's the second boy?" 10. "Please, Sir, he's weeding the garden," replied a small voice. "To be sure," said Squeers, by no means disconcerted. "So he is. B-o-t, bot, t-i-n, tin, bottin, n-e-y, ney, bottinney, noun substantive, a knowledge of plants. When he has learned that bottinney means a knowledge of plants, he goes and knows 'em. That's our system, Nickleby: what do you think of it?' 11. "It's a very useful one, at any rate," answered Nicholas, significantly. "I believe you," rejoined Squeers, not remarking the emphasis of his usher. horse?" "Third boy, what's a 12. "A beast, Sir," replied the boy. "So it is," said Squeers. "Ain't it, Nickleby?" "I believe there is no doubt of that, Sir," answered Nicholas. 13. "Of course there isn't," said Squeers. "A horse is a quadruped, and quadruped's Latin for beast, as everybody that's gone through the grammar knows, or else where's the use of having grammars at all?" 14. " Where, indeed!" said Nicholas, abstractedly. "As you're perfect in that," resumed Squeers, turning to the boy, "go and look after mine, and rub him down well, or I'll rub you down. The rest of the class go and draw water up, till somebody tells you to leave off, for it's washing-day to-morrow, and they want the coppers filled." 15. So saying, he dismissed the first class to their experiments in practical philosophy, and eyed Nicholas with a look, half cunning and half doubtful, as if he were not altogether certain what he might think of him by this time. "That's the way we teach school here, Nickleby," he said, after a pause. CHAS. DICKENS. NOTE. In the above lesson, and in all succeeding lessons where provincialisms, colloquialisms, or dialect, occur, the teacher should call the attention of the class to all errors in grammar, spelling and pronunciation, and have them corrected. This course will obviate all danger of false impressions on those subjects, and render the exercises of real value to the student. While literature of this kind should not be too fully represented in a School Reader, we are inclined to think that the insipid primness affected by some authors is founded in a mistaken idea. LISTEN, shover, ISTEN, my children, and you shall hear On the eighteenth of April, in Seventy-Five: Who remembers that famous day and year. 2. He said to his friend-"If the British march 3. Meanwhile, his friend, through alley and street, Till in the silence around him he hears The muster of men at the barrack-door, 4. Meanwhile, impatient to mount and ride, Now gazed on the landscape far and near, 5. But mostly he watched with eager search 6. A hurry of hoofs in a village street,` A shape in the moonlight, a bulk in the dark, 7. It was twelve by the village clock, When he crossed the bridge into Medford town. When he rode into Lexington. He saw the gilded weathercock Swim in the moonlight as he passed, And the meeting-house windows, blank and bare, As if they already stood aghast At the bloody work they would look upon. 8. You know the rest. In the books you have read 9. So through the night rode Paul Revere; A cry of defiance, and not of fear, A voice in the darkness, a knock at the door, In the hour of darkness, and peril, and need, |