Graded Literature Readers: Fourth Book. Various

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СКАЧАТЬ way together. Soon, however, they came to a little brook, and, as there was no bridge, they did not know how they were to get over.

      At last the straw said: "I will lay myself across, and then you can walk over on me as on a bridge."

      7. The straw, therefore, stretched herself from one bank to the other, and the coal, who was of an impetuous nature, tripped forward quite boldly on the newly built bridge. But when she reached the middle and heard the water rushing beneath her, she was, after all, frightened, and stood still.

      8. The straw then began to burn, broke in two pieces, and fell into the stream. The coal slipped after her, hissed when she sank into the water, and breathed her last.

      The bean, who had prudently stayed behind on the shore, could not help laughing at these events, and laughed so heartily that she burst.

      9. It would have been all over with her also, if, by good fortune, a tailor who was traveling in search of work had not sat down to rest by the brook. Pitying the poor bean, he pulled out his needle and thread and sewed her together. She thanked him prettily, but, as the tailor used black thread, beans since then have a black seam.

      Ŏb s̝ẽrv´ĭng: seeing; noticing. Brĕth´rĕn: brothers. Mĭs chȧnçe´: misfortune; ill luck. Ĭm pĕt´ū̍ oŭs: hasty.

      September

By Helen Hunt Jackson

      Helen Fiske Hunt Jackson (1831-1885): An American poet and prose author of much merit, whose writings appeared under the pen name of "H. H." Among her books are "Bits of Travel," "A Century of Dishonor," and "Ramona."

      1. The golden-rod is yellow;

      The corn is turning brown;

      The trees in apple orchards

      With fruit are bending down.

      2. The gentian's bluest fringes

      Are curling in the sun;

      In dusky pods the milkweed

      Its hidden silk has spun.

      3. The sedges flaunt their harvest

      In every meadow-nook;

      And asters by the brookside

      Make asters in the brook.

      4. From dewy lanes at morning

      The grapes' sweet odors rise;

      At noon the roads all flutter

      With yellow butterflies.

      5. By all these lovely tokens

      September days are here,

      With summer's best of weather,

      And autumn's best of cheer.

       Sĕdġ´ĕs̝: coarse grasses which grow in marshy places. Fläunt: wave; spread out. No͝ok: corner. Tō´kens̝: signs.

      Which of the flowers named in this poem have you seen?

      At your home do these flowers bloom in September, or earlier, or later?

      Can you name any other tokens of the coming of September?

      Robert Louis Stevenson

      1. The famous Scotch author, Robert Louis Stevenson, was born in Edinburgh, November 13, 1850. He was a delicate child with a sweet temper and a happy, unselfish disposition, who bore the burden of ill health bravely in childhood as in later life. In "The Land of Counterpane," a poem which you may remember, he tells some of the ways in which he amused himself during the idle days in bed.

      2. When he was well enough to be up, he invented games for himself and took keen delight in the world of outdoor life.

      3. His education was carried on in a somewhat irregular fashion. He attended schools in Edinburgh, and studied with private tutors at places to which his parents had gone for the benefit of his health or of their own. He thus became an excellent linguist, and gained wide knowledge of foreign life and manners. He early showed a taste for literature, beginning as a boy the careful choice of language which made him a master of English prose.

      4. Stevenson's father had planned to have him follow the family profession of engineering. With this in view he was sent to Edinburgh University in the autumn of 1868. Later he gave up engineering and attended law classes; but law, like engineering, was put aside to enable him to fulfil his strong desire for a literary life.

      5. His first stories and essays, published in various magazines, met with favorable notice. In 1878 he published his first book, "An Inland Voyage," the account of a canoe trip with a friend.

      6. The mists and east winds of his native Scotland proved too harsh for his delicate lungs, and year after year he found it necessary to spend more and more time away from his Edinburgh home. On one of these journeys in quest of health, he came to America, and in "Across the Plains" he describes his journey in an emigrant train from New York to San Francisco. It was on this visit to California that he met Mrs. Osbourne, who became his wife in 1880.

      7. "Treasure Island," a stirring tale of adventure, was published in 1883. It was followed by two other boys' stories, "The Black Arrow" and "Kidnapped."

      8. In 1887 Stevenson and his wife again visited America. They hired a yacht and spent two years sailing among the islands of the South Seas, finally visiting Apia in Samoa. Samoa pleased Stevenson, and as the climate suited him, he decided to make his home there. At Vailima, his Samoan home, he spent four happy years with his wife and his mother. Then his health failed, and he died suddenly, December 3, 1894. He was buried, as he had desired, on the summit of a mountain near his home.

      9. Besides many novels and volumes of essays, Stevenson was the author of four volumes of poetry. The best known of these is "A Child's Garden of Verses," a book of delightful child poems from which the poem "Travel" is taken.

      Lĭṉ´guĭst: a person skilled in languages. Fŏr´eĭgn: belonging to other countries. Prō̍ fes´sion: employment; the business which one follows. Cȧ no̤e´: a small, light boat. Ĕm´ĭ grants: emigrants are people who have left one country to settle in another. Quĕst: search. Yạcht: a light sea-going vessel used for parties of pleasure, racing, etc. Ä´pï ä. Sä mō´ä. Vaī lï´ma.

      Travel

By Robert Louis Stevenson

      I should like to rise and go

      Where the golden apples grow; —

      Where below another sky

      Parrot islands anchored lie,

      And, watched by cockatoos and goats,

      Lonely Crusoes building boats; —

      Where in sunshine reaching out

      Eastern cities, miles about,

      Are with mosque and minaret

      Among sandy gardens set,

      And the rich goods from near and far

      Hang for sale in the bazaar; —

      Where the Great Wall round China goes,

      And on one side the desert blows,

      And with bell and voice and drum,

      Cities СКАЧАТЬ