McGuffey's Third Eclectic Reader Part 11

the story of Tom Smith, and said to you, 'Beware of the first drink!' The man who does this will never be a drunkard."

114 ECLECTIC SERIES.

LESSON XLIII.

SPEAK GENTLY.

1. Speak gently; it is better far To rule by love than fear: Speak gently; let no harsh words mar The good we might do here.

2. Speak gently to the little child; Its love be sure to gain; Teach it in accents soft and mild; It may not long remain.

3. Speak gently to the aged one; Grieve not the careworn heart: The sands of life are nearly run; Let such in peace depart.

4. Speak gently, kindly, to the poor; Let no harsh tone be heard; They have enough they must endure, Without an unkind word.

5. Speak gently to the erring; know They must have toiled in vain; Perhaps unkindness made them so; Oh, win them back again.

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6. Speak gently: 'tis a little thing Dropped in the heart's deep well; The good, the joy, which it may bring, Eternity shall tell.

George Was.h.i.+ngton Langford.

LESSON XLIV.

THE SEVEN STICKS.

1. A man had seven sons, who were always quarreling.

They left their studies and work, to quarrel among themselves. Some bad men were looking forward to the death of their father, to cheat them out of their property by making them quarrel about it.

2. The good old man, one day, called his sons around him.

He laid before them seven sticks, which were bound together. He said, "I will pay a hundred dollars to the one who can break this bundle."

3. Each one strained every nerve to break the bundle.

After a long but vain trial, they all said that it could not be done.

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4. "And yet, my boys," said the father, "nothing is easier to do." He then untied the bundle, and broke the sticks, one by one, with perfect ease.

5. "Ah!" said his sons, "it is easy enough to do it so; anybody could do it in that way."

6. Their father replied, "As it is with these sticks, so is it with you, my sons. So

THIRD READER. 117 long as you hold fast together and aid each other, you will prosper, and none can injure you.

7. "But if the bond of union be broken, it will happen to you just as it has to these sticks, which lie here broken on the ground."

Home, city, country, all are prosperous found, When by the powerful link of union bound.

LESSON XLV.

THE MOUNTAIN SISTER.

1. The home of little Jeannette is far away, high up among the mountains. Let us call her our mountain sister.

2. There are many things you would like to hear about her, but I can only tell you now how she goes with her father and brother, in the autumn, to help gather nuts for the long winter.

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3. A little way down the mountain side is a chestnut wood.

Did you ever see a chestnut tree? In the spring its branches are covered with bunches of creamy flowers, like long ta.s.sels. All the hot summer these are turning into sweet nuts, wrapped safely in large, p.r.i.c.kly, green b.a.l.l.s.

4. But when the frost of autumn comes, these p.r.i.c.kly b.a.l.l.s turn brown, and crack open. Then you may see inside one, two, three, and even four, sweet, brown nuts.

5. When her father says, one night at supper time, "I think there will be a frost tonight," Jeannette knows very well what to do. She dances away early in the evening to her little bed, made in a box built up against the wall.

6. Soon she falls asleep to dream about

THIRD READER. 119 the chestnut wood, and the little brook that springs from rock to rock down under the tall, dark trees. She wakes with the first daylight, and is out of bed in a minute, when she hears her father's cheerful call, "Come, children; it is time to be off."

7. Their dinner is ready in a large basket. The donkey stands before the door with great bags for the nuts hanging at each side. They go merrily over the crisp, white frost to the chestnut trees. How the frost has opened the burs! It has done half their work for them already.

8. How they laugh and sing, and shout to each other as they fill their baskets! The sun looks down through the yellow leaves; the rocks give them mossy seats; the birds and squirrels wonder what these strange people are doing in their woods.

9. Jeannette really helps, though she is only a little girl; and her father says at night, that his Jane is a dear, good child. This makes her very happy. She thinks about it at night, when she says her prayers. Then she goes to sleep to dream of the merry autumn days.

10. Such is our little mountain sister, and

120 ECLECTIC SERIES.

here is a picture of her far-away home. The mountain life is ever a fresh and happy one.

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LESSON XLVI.

HARRY AND THE GUIDEPOST.

1. The night was dark, the sun was hid Beneath the mountain gray, And not a single star appeared To shoot a silver ray.

2. Across the heath the owlet flew, And screamed along the blast; And onward, with a quickened step, Benighted Harry pa.s.sed.

3. Now, in thickest darkness plunged, He groped his way to find; And now, he thought he saw beyond, A form of horrid kind.

4. In deadly white it upward rose, Of cloak and mantle bare, And held its naked arms across, To catch him by the hair.

5. Poor Harry felt his blood run cold, At what before him stood; But then, thought he, no harm, I'm sure, Can happen to the good.

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6. So, calling all his courage up, He to the monster went; And eager through the dismal gloom His piercing eyes he bent.

7. And when he came well nigh the ghost That gave him such affright, He clapped his hands upon his side, And loudly laughed outright.