EIGHTH READER

BY

WALTER L. HERVEY, PH.D.

MEMBER OF THE BOARD OF EXAMINERS, DEPARTMENT OF
EDUCATION, NEW YORK CITY, FORMERLY PRESIDENT

OF TEACHERS COLLEGE

AND

MELVIN HIX, B.S.

PRINCIPAL OF PUBLIC SCHOOL NO. 80, LONG ISLAND CITY,

NEW YORK CITY

FOREWORD

TO THE BOYS AND GIRLS WHO READ THIS BOOK:

Is there anything more worth while than stories of supreme achievement, stories of brave and resourceful men and women, fighting fire, cold, ice, pain, fatigue, poverty, false friends, fighting against odds of any kind, and winning out? We are inclined to think not unless it be even more worth while, sometimes, to read the records of another kind of supreme achievement, namely, that of the great masters in literature the humorists, the story tellers, the biographers and historians, and perhaps highest of all, the poets. For it is truly a supreme achievement to write that which lives in the hearts of mankind.

It has been the aim of the editors of these Readers to choose both kinds of material: on the one hand, records of deeds that deserve to live, and on the other hand works of the imagination, works of genius, that are so full of power, of beauty, of spirit, that they can never die.

And so there are pieces in these books that were written, no one knows how many hundreds of years ago, and that are still unsurpassed in interest and in value. There are selections that have been the proud possession of the English tongue for three hundred years and more and are to-day as precious as ever.

One of the main reasons for reading literature is the pure pleasure it gives; but we may read for profit, too. Learning how to read in the right way has a distinct money value. One of the most precious and highly paid of all our powers is the imagination. The imagination is the picture-making, the creative, power of the mind. Now, to read in the right way is to use, and hence to train, the imagination; for in reading one must see the pictures that lie back of the words.

Attention is invited to the "How to Study a Reading Lesson," "The Notes," and the "Word Studies," all of which appear at the back of the book.

The editors and publishers desire to make grateful acknowledgment to the following authors and publishers for their kind permission to use copyrighted material:

To the Youth's Companion and to Mr. C. H. Claudy, for the story entitled "The Impossible;" to the Youth's Companion also, for "How the Ice Boat was Wrecked;" to H. Irving Hancock for "The Story of Two Boys;" to Mr. Edwin Markham, for the poem entitled "Lincoln, the Great Commoner;" to Messrs. Longmans, Green and Co. for "Rocky Mountain Jack," from "Jock of the Bushveld," by Sir Percy Fitzpatrick; to Little, Brown and Co. for "The Football Game," from "The Varmint," by Owen Johnson; and to Charles E. Boyd who kindly obtained from the author (who desires not to reveal his identity) permission to use "How Will Power Helped Me," one of the most remarkable and helpful of "human documents."

The selections from Hawthorne, Lowell, Longfellow, Whittier, and Holmes, are used by permission of and special arrangamont