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neighbor was two miles away. There were no roads, no bridges, no inns.

Abraham had little schooling. Indeed, there was scarcely a school within his reach; and if all the days of his school-time were added together, they would scarcely make up one year. His father was poor, and Abraham was needed on the farm. There was timber to fell, there were fences to build, fields to plough, sowing and reaping to be done. Abraham led a busy life, and knew well, while yet a boy, what hard work meant. Like all boys who come to anything great, he had a devouring thirst for knowledge. He borrowed all the books in his neighborhood, and read them by the blaze of the logs which his own axe split. He entered a small store as clerk, then became a lawyer, next a member of the Legislature of Illinois, and, finally, in 1861, he became President of the United States.

2. Alfred the Great.

[Adapted from Dickens's Child's History of England.]

Misfortune

This noble king possessed all the Saxon virtues. could not subdue him, and prosperity could not spoil him. He was hopeful in defeat, and generous in success. He loved justice, freedom, truth, and knowledge. In his care to instruct his people, he did a great deal to preserve the old Saxon tongue. He made just laws for his people. He founded schools and appointed upright judges. He left England better, wiser, happier in all ways, than he found it.

Under his reign the best points of the English-Saxon character were developed. It has been the greatest character among the nations of the earth. Wherever the descendants of the Anglo-Saxons have gone or sailed, they have been patient and persevering. In Europe, Asia, Africa, America, the whole world over; in the desert, in the forest, on the sea, scorched by a burning sun, or frozen by ice that never melts, the Saxon blood remains unchanged. Wherever the race goes, there law, industry, and safety for life and property are certain to arise.

METHODS OF TEACHING.

Write a short account of any one of the following persons whose biography you have read:

1. Benjamin Franklin.
2. Andrew Jackson.

3. James Watt.

4. Horace Greeley.

5. Sir Walter Scott.

6. Napoleon Bonaparte.

7. David Livingstone.

8. Alexander the Great.

9. Mary Somerville.
10. Mary Queen of Scots.
11. Florence Nightingale.
12. Empress Josephine.
13. Joan of Arc.

14. Charles Dickens.

XII. HISTORICAL SKETCHES.

In the two following sketches, adapted from Dickens's Child's History of England, take notice of the short, plain, pure English words that he uses. Reproduce from memory and criticise by comparing with the original.

1. Reign of Queen Elizabeth.

It is made

The reign of Queen Elizabeth was a glorious one. memorable by the distinguished men that flourished in it. Apart from the great voyagers, statesmen, and scholars whom it produced, the names of Bacon, Spenser, and Shakespeare will always be remembered with pride and veneration by the civilized world. It was a great reign for discovery, for commerce, and for English enterprise and spirit in general. The queen was very popular, and, in her progresses or journeys about her dominions, was everywhere received with the liveliest joy. I think the truth is she was not half so good as she has been made out, and not half so bad as she has been made out. She had many fine qualities; but she was coarse, vain, capricious, and treacherous.

2. The Great Plague of London.

In 1665 the Great Plague broke out in London. The disease soon spread so fast that it was necessary to shut up the houses in which

sick people were, and to cut them off from communication with the living. Every one of these houses was marked on the outside of the door with a red cross, and the words "Lord, have mercy on us!" The streets were all deserted, grass grew in the public ways, and there was a dreadful silence in the air. When night came on, disstreets, and these were the

mal rumblings used to be heard in the wheels of the death-carts, attended by men with veiled faces, who rang doleful bells, and cried, in a loud and solemn voice, "Bring out your dead!" The corpses put into these carts were buried by torchlight in great pits, without burial service. In the general fear, children ran away from their parents, and parents from their children. In four months more than one hundred thousand people had died in the close and unwholesome city.

Write a short sketch of any one of the following events, selecting the one that you like best:

1. Battle of Bunker Hill. 2. Battle of New Orleans. 3. Paul Jones's Sea Fight.

4. Settlement of Plymouth.
5. Settlement of Pennsylvania.

6. Settlement of your Native State.

XIII. NATURAL HISTORY SKETCHES.

1. The Mosquito.-This bloodthirsty insect is common to all parts of the globe. Its noisy buzz and sharp, stinging bite are familiar to all. It lays its eggs, several hundred in number, on the surface of stagnant water. They are glued together so that they float on the surface. In a few days the eggs hatch, and the larvæ come out into the water in the shape of wrigglers. These, after a life of two or three weeks, change to the pupa form, and float on the surface. In a week more the skin of the pupa bursts open, and a full-grown mosquito flies away into the air, hungry for blood.

2. The Frog. What boy has not thrown a stone at a frog, and yet how few know anything about the wonderful transformations which this amphibious animal undergoes!

The frog begins life as a tadpole, or polliwig, hatched from an egg floating in the water. In this state it breathes, like fishes, through its gills. After several weeks it begins to undergo a metamorphosis;

METHODS OF TEACHING.

that is, a change of form. Two hind-legs begin to grow out, like buds on a tree; then the fore-legs burst through the skin, and the tail dwindles away. The gills are slowly changed into lungs like those of air-breathing animals. The tadpole has become a land-animal, living on insects and worms.

EXERCISES.

Write what you know about the following insects. Exchange and correct; then read aloud in the class:

1. The Butterfly.
2. The Silk-worm.
3. The Bumblebee.
4. The Honey-bee.

5. The Wasp.

6. The Hornet.
7. The House Fly.
8. The Grasshopper.
9. The Ant.

10. The Cricket.

CHAPTER VI.

WORKING MODELS IN SENTENCE-MAKING.

Note for Teachers. Many of the exercises given in this chapter do not differ materially from those found in most modern text-books on language-lessons and grammar. But, whatever text-book is used, the teacher needs. to supplement it with additional exercises and illustrations. Particular attention is called to the oral exercises under the head of "The Complex Sentence."

SECTION 1.-THE SIMPLE SENTENCE.

1. A simple sentence consists of one subject combined with one predicate, making one statement.

2. The subject of a sentence consists of a noun, or one or more words filling the place of a noun, about which a statement is made.

3. The predicate expresses a statement about the subject, and consists of a verb, or of a verb united with one or more words added to complete the statement.

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