The Young and Field Literary Readers, Book 2

"No, I will wait a little. The men are asleep and will not catch me. Perhaps when the sun comes up the ice will melt."

So he waited, and the water froze harder and harder.

At last the sun came up.

The fox could see men coming down to the pond. He pulled and pulled, but now his tail was frozen so fast that he could not pull it out.

Just then a wolf came by.

"Help me, friend," cried the fox, "or I shall be lost."

The wolf helped him, and set him free very quickly. He bit off the tail of the fox.

So the fox lost all of his fine great tail because he would not give up a little hair from it.

POEMS BY FRANK D. SHERMAN

CLOUDS

The sky is full of clouds to-day,And idly, to and fro,Like sheep across the pasture, theyAcross the heavens go.I hear the wind with merry noiseAround the housetops sweep,And dream it is the shepherd boys —They're driving home their sheep.The clouds move faster now, and see!The west is red and gold;Each sheep seems hastening to beThe first within the fold.I watch them hurry on untilThe blue is clear and deep,And dream that far beyond the hillThe shepherds fold their sheep.Then in the sky the trembling starsLike little flowers shine out,While Night puts up the shadow bars,And darkness falls about.I hear the shepherd wind's good night,"Good night, and happy sleep!"And dream that in the east, all white,Slumber the clouds, the sheep.

GHOST FAIRIES

When the open fire is lit,In the evening after tea,Then I like to come and sitWhere the fire can talk to me.Fairy stories it can tell,Tales of a forgotten race —Of the fairy ghosts that dwellIn the ancient chimney place.They are quite the strangest folkAnybody ever knew,Shapes of shadow and of smokeLiving in the chimney flue."Once," the fire said, "long ago,With the wind they used to rove,Gypsy fairies, to and fro,Camping in the field and grove."Hither with the trees they cameHidden in the logs; and here,Hovering above the flame,Often some of them appear."So I watch, and sure enough,I can see the fairies! ThenSuddenly there comes a puff —Whish! – and they are gone again!

DAISIES

At evening when I go to bedI see the stars shine overhead;They are the little daisies whiteThat dot the meadow of the night.And often while I'm dreaming so,Across the sky the moon will go;It is a lady, sweet and fair,Who comes to gather daisies there.For when at morning I arise,There's not a star left in the skies;She's picked them all and dropped them downInto the meadows of the town.

OLD GREEK STORIES

THE SUN, THE MOON, AND THE STAR GIANT

A great many years ago the Greeks told beautiful stories about what they saw in the earth and in the sky and in the sea.

They said the Sun drove each day across the sky in a car of fire, and gave light and heat to men.

He always had a bow and arrows with him, and his arrows were the sunbeams.

When he shot them very hard and struck men with them, the men were said to be sun-struck, but when he let the arrows fall gently on the earth, they did only good.

The Sun was called Apollo.

He was said to be a beautiful young man with golden hair, and he made wonderful music on a kind of harp called a lyre.

Men loved him, but they were a little afraid of him, too; he was so bright and strong.

His sister was the Moon. Her name was Artemis, or Diana. She rode through the sky at night in a silver car, and she, too, had a bow and arrows.

Her bow was a silver bow, and her arrows were the moonbeams.

She loved hunting, and often at night she would come down to earth and roam through the woods with her bow in her hand and her arrows at her side or on her back.

In pictures she is always seen with a little new moon in her hair.

Artemis was so beautiful that men were afraid to look at her. It was said that if any man should look full at her he would lose his mind.

So when she came to those whom she did not wish to hurt, she covered herself with clouds.

For a time the good giant Orion helped Artemis in her hunting, for he too was a great hunter. Artemis loved him as well as she loved any one, but she was very cold and did not care much for anybody.

After a time Orion left her. He wanted to marry the daughter of a king in one of the islands of the sea. The king said that he might if he would drive all the wild beasts out of the island. Orion did this, but the king did not keep his word.

Instead of that, he put out the eyes of Orion, but Orion went to Apollo, and was made to see again.

Then Orion went back to help Artemis with her hunting, but Apollo did not like that and wished to get rid of him.

He did not wish, himself, to hurt Orion, so he made Artemis do it.

"Sister," he said to her one day, "some men say that you can shoot as well as I can, but we all know that is not so."

"I should like to know why it is not so!" said Artemis.

"Well, let us try," said Apollo. "Do you see that little black speck away out there in the sea?"

"Yes, I see it," said Artemis.

"Can you hit it?" asked Apollo.

"Indeed I can," said Artemis; and with that she let an arrow fly from her bow. It went straight through the black speck.

The black speck was the head of Orion. He was swimming back to Artemis from the country of the bad king.

The speck at once went under the water and was seen no more.

When Artemis found what she had done, she was very sad indeed. She could not bring Orion back to earth, but she took him up into the sky and put him among the stars, and there he is standing to this day.

If you will look up into the sky on any clear winter night, you can see him. Just before him is his dog. We call it the Dog Star.

THE WIND AND THE CLOUDS

The Sun and the Moon had a brother, the Summer Wind. His name was Hermes, but sometimes he was called Mercury.

He had shoes with wings on them, which always took him very quickly wherever he wished to go, and he had a magic cap which kept him from being seen.

He ran on errands for his father and his older brothers. He went everywhere, and he often picked up things that lay in his way, and that didn't belong to him.

One day, when he was a small child, he crept down to the seaside and there found the shell of a tortoise. He stretched some strings tightly across it, and blew upon the strings, and made wonderful music.

He called this thing a lyre.

On the same day, toward evening, he looked across the meadows and saw some beautiful white cows. His brother Apollo was looking after them.

"What fun it would be to drive those cows away!" he said.

So he crept up behind the cows while Apollo was not looking, and he drove them away. He drove them far, and at last shut them up in a cave, where he thought Apollo could not find them.

Apollo saw that the cows were gone, and went to look for them, but he had a hard time.

He thought that Hermes might have had something to do with them. So he went to Hermes.

Hermes was playing upon the lyre which he had made, and was singing gently to himself.

The music was so beautiful that Apollo forgot all about his cows.

"Where did you find that wonderful thing?" asked Apollo.

"O, I made it," said Hermes.

"Let me see it!" cried Apollo. "Show me how to play upon it."

Hermes showed him, and Apollo sat down and played until it grew dark.

"O, give me this thing! I must have it," said Apollo.

So Hermes gave it to him, and Apollo played upon it, gently at first, and then louder. He made such wild, sweet music as had never before been heard.

To pay for the lyre, Apollo gave Hermes a magic stick which would bring sleep to men and would stop all quarreling.

One day Hermes saw two snakes fighting. He touched them with the magic stick, and they stopped at once and wound themselves around it, and stayed there ever after.

In the pictures of Hermes you will see this magic stick with the snakes around it. You will see, too, the cap and the shoes, with the wings upon them.

When Hermes and Apollo had made these gifts to each other, Apollo said:

"Hermes, my dear boy, you like my white cows so well that I am going to let you take care of them. I shall not have much time to take care of cows now, for you know I am learning to play upon the lyre."

Hermes took care of the white cows after that, and on summer days he used to drive them across the blue meadows of the sky.

When the Greeks saw the white clouds running before the wind, they would say:

"It is Hermes driving his cows to pasture."

THE RAINBOW BRIDGE

Hermes was so useful that Juno, the queen of the heavens, thought she must have a messenger, too. So she took Iris, a little sky fairy.

Iris lived up among the clouds, and played with the stars, and romped with the little winds.

At night she used to sleep in the silver cradle of the Moon.

Sometimes Apollo, the Sun, took her in his golden car. Sometimes she slipped down to earth with the rain. Sometimes she went to visit her grandfather, the gray old Sea.

Her grandfather was always glad to see her, and when she came down, he would hitch up his white sea horses and drive her over the tops of the waves. What fun that was!

Old grandfather Sea loved Iris very much, and Apollo loved her, and Juno loved her.

No one who saw her could help loving her; she was so bright and beautiful and good.

When Juno sent her down to the earth on errands, the old Sea always wanted her to stay.

But Apollo, the Sun, wanted her, too, and Juno wanted her.

At last the Sun and the Sea and the Air and the Rain all said they would make a bridge for Iris, so that she might go back and forth more quickly between the earth and the sky, on the errands of Juno.

The Earth brought the colors of all her beautiful flowers – rose, and blue, and violet, and yellow, and orange, and the green of the grass.

The Sea gave silver mist.

The Clouds gave gray and gold.

The Sun himself spun the bridge out of all these colors.

Then he fastened one end of it to the sky and hung a pot of gold on the other end, to keep it from blowing away; and it is said that the pot of gold is still there in the earth at the end of the rainbow bridge.

But no one has ever found it.

POEMS OLD AND NEW

THANK YOU, PRETTY COW

Thank you, pretty cow, that madePleasant milk to soak my bread,Every day and every night,Warm, and fresh, and sweet, and white.Do not chew the hemlock rank,Growing on the weedy bank;But the yellow cowslip eat,That will make it very sweet.Where the purple violet grows,Where the bubbling water flows,Where the grass is fresh and fine,Pretty cow, go there and dine.Jane Taylor

PLAYGROUNDS

In summer I am very gladWe children are so small,For we can see a thousand thingsThat men can't see at all.They don't know much about the mossAnd all the stones they pass;They never lie and play amongThe forests in the grass;But when the snow is on the ground,And all the puddles freeze,I wish that I were very tall,High up above the trees.Laurence Alma-Tadema

SLEEP, BABY, SLEEP

Sleep, baby, sleep!Thy father watches his sheep;Thy mother is shaking the dreamland tree,And down comes a little dream on thee.Sleep, baby, sleep!Sleep, baby, sleep!The great stars are the sheep;The little stars are the lambs, I guess,And the gentle moon is the shepherdess.Sleep, baby, sleep!From the German

A CHILD'S PRAYER

When it gets dark, the birds and flowersShut up their eyes and say good night;And God, who loves them, counts the hoursAnd keeps them safe till it gets light.Dear Father! Count the hours to-night,When I'm asleep and cannot see;And in the morning may the lightShine for the birds and flowers and me!William Hawley Smith

PHONETIC TABLES

Note to the Teacher. The vocabulary of this book is here rearranged for class drill. This should be given daily until the pupils are able to pronounce at least thirty words per minute either by following the columns or the lines.

In this grade children may be expected to give the reasons for the several vowel sounds herein taught, but should not be required to commit and apply phonetic rules. As the words in a column are generally in the same phonetic group, column drills tend to fix the principle there presented. But in the line drills and in the review tables children must rely upon their own knowledge of the phonetic elements.

Table I consists of monosyllabic words of not more than four letters in which a single consonant precedes a short vowel or in which a short vowel begins the word. There is a column for each vowel.

Table II contains words with two consonants final or initial or both.

Table III introduces vowels made long by final silent e.

Table IV is a mixed review with some additional words.

Table V contains long vowel digraphs and y equivalent to long i, and has a review column of forms ending in s.

Tables VI, VII, and VIII contain lists of words illustrating the remaining vowel sounds in frequent use throughout the book.

Table IX presents groups of words taught by analogy. It also illustrates c, g, and dg, followed by silent e.

Table X is a review of monosyllables with some additional words.

Table XI teaches words of two syllables with the endings ing, short y, and er; also the elision of e. Column five is largely a review.

Table XII presents three columns of words of two syllables illustrating the phonetic principles previously set forth. Column four illustrates the long vowel ending an accented syllable; column five gives final ed pronounced as d or t.

Table XIII, column one, gives a and be as prefixes and ful as a suffix; column two, silent letters; column three, contractions and possessives; column four and column five, unclassified phonetic words.

Table XIV contains unphonetic words or words but partly phonetic.

WORD LIST

This list does not include words used in Book One. The numeral before each group refers to the page on which the words first appear.

11. Childe Rowland princess name Ellen ball

12. elves dark tower far

13. youngest

14. sword things

15. country head speaks

16. drop thirsty forget eyes knew

18. around each

20. dim light seemed himself hall gold silver diamonds shone sad

21. turned stone golden

22. floor free noise outside fee-fi-fo-fum blood Englishman fought

23. enough bottle

24. hand sister left

25. Tom Tit Tot hard daughter those meant soft

26. herself

27. spinning mumbling to-day heard spun skeins

28. fine eleven months every year

29. anyway everything

30. room wheel flax before goes

31. twirled window guess pay work

32. try

33. brought

34. together hunting queer hole nimmy I'm

35. table because

36. never

37. lambkins grassy banks pranks woolly feet watch bleat

38. ferry across boatman you've purse I'll step boat

39. coral sailor ashore white dig nor pluck feeble insects stormy

40. swallow sun-loving summer

41. wrens hedge building perching pecking fluttering everywhere

42. sail rivers ships clouds sky prettier than these bridges pretty bow heaven overtops road earth

43. paw woke

44. saved life

45. honest ax woodcutter stood

46. kind sir

47. Mercury met

49. crane throat bill

51. town visit mice

52. rich barking music

53. safe

54. quarrel cloak care

55. warm

56. ant dove leaf blew shore

58. lark nest field owner

59. neighbors uncles

60. yet ourselves

61. shadow piece meat

63. grapes sweet hanging still high don't sour fit

64. birds north south wider view spread wings

65. bark basket kippy peek maybe funny learning secret speckled

66. Jeremy covered growled sly Limberkin dreadful scream dream

67. snowflakes feathers filling air they're shaking swift love we'll kiss true

68. hollyhock bend need dolly's tea acorn plate feast state

69. pine valley beautiful needles green

70. leaves happened passing shining

71. carried glass

72. perhaps

74. happy

75. faithful beasts seek fortune along teasing monkey hurt pain

76. tied

77. spent box fastened lid

78. floated round rolled magic wherever

79. castle gardens merchants built

80. showed

81. ribbon

82. whiskers rubbed drove

83. swim

84. mind frogs

85. brown sand flows either

86. foam mine past hundred miles

87. seaside wooden spade sandy empty cup rain umbrellas

88. autumn vale bonfires smoke trail pleasant flowers blazes gray seasons bright

89. toss kites ladies' skirts grass loud

90. different hid felt push strong cold blower child

91. timid afraid coconut shot

92. running

93. answered elephants tigers

94. buffaloes deer jackals

95. first show

97. husk fruit

98. top place both wrong root string side

99. owl among stand

100. does

102. camel sugar cane crabs waded

103. haven't

104. dinner

105. deep feel

106. bumblebee tulip mistake lake

107. Bobby barn Bossy lackaday who'll shoo drive moo mammy's

108. Jippy Jimmy logs wet thin crept dry ki-hi

109. shivering roam won't until pip pop flippety flop ready clear gather chimney row hop

110. kernels sharp yellow small burst shake steadily backward forward you'll low

111. ugly spring

112. indeed pitcher gift jewel scolded sorry

113. roses pearls

114. send Fanny myself

115. grumbled lady

116. polite snake toad spoke

117. prince

118. surprised married

119. sitting evening same

120. week Thursday

121. bell ring

122. bent

123. coat trouble witch

123. marry yards

124. lent horse

125. switch

126. rode comb

128. boo-oo-oo roared tired

130. sale

132. to-morrow grease

134. rage

135. greeny bay tacking island beneath ought aboard drowned ocean billows

136. fare passenger voyage sheet

137. wound living tune naughty cross rude tangled spoil

138. scar quiet wigwam Indian moose maiden marks snow sled ice

139. brave hunter wonderful choose

140. sunset end angry ashes

141. shell beads dress

142. skin

145. broken birch fresh clean brushed

146. hair

147. rainbow faded stars

148. forgot neck elk wampum used spirit shoulders obeyed

149. belongs ashamed

150. rocks cave twelve otters camp foot

151. climb hollow middle struck

152. dug

153. mist storm thunder voices

155. peace given grown tall near baby taught

156. lily ago stories halfway shape

157. became lonely plain prairie

158. wild toward

159. blossomed lilies

160. beggar ragged begging

161. friend dust lose stream

163. bee linen fair shop buy shouldn't

164. web everybody swept finer neither

165. worm farmer son

166. hours nobody grow

167. winter froze

168. melt frozen coming

169. idly fro pasture merry housetops sweep shepherd driving hastening within fold hurry beyond

170. shine trembling bars darkness slumber

171. ghost fairies lit tales dwell forgotten ancient

172. quite strangest folk anybody flue rove gypsy camping grove hither hidden flame hovering appear sure suddenly puff whish

173. daisies overhead dot often arise there's skies she's dropped

174. giant Greeks car heat arrows sunbeams sun-struck gently

175. Apollo harp lyre Artemis Diana

176. pictures moonbeams new Orion

177. word instead rid

178. hit speck swimming

180. Hermes cap errands

181. stretched tightly fun

184. quarreling fighting touched themselves

186. useful messenger Juno Iris romped cradle slipped grandfather

187. hitch waves

188. forth colors violet orange

189. soak chew hemlock rank growing weedy cowslip purple bubbling dine

190. playgrounds thousand moss lie forests puddles freeze above

191. thy dreamland thee lambs gentle shepherdess

192. prayer God counts to-night

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Copyright, 1890, by Little, Brown, and Company.