will be found in these books a happy combination of traditional literature and selections from the more modern writers like Joel Chandler Harris, Thomas Bailey Aldrich, and Sarah Orne Jewett. School systems that use these books, either as basal readers or for supplementary use, may rest assured therefore that their pupils have the choicest examples of English literature for reading and study. Care was taken by the editors to exclude selections which, although for some purposes worthy of a place in such a compilation, would not be read by the children of these grades with zest and keen enjoyment. Interest in what is read is of paramount importance in these early years when one's taste for reading is being determined. It may well be claimed that in no other collection can so much of the very best literature be found available for use in the grades, at so reasonable a price, as is offered in this book and in similar readers for the sixth, seventh, and eighth grades. SELECTIONS FOR THE SEPTEMBER 1 HELEN HUNT JACKSON THE golden-rod is yellow; The gentian's bluest fringes The sedges flaunt their harvest, From dewy lanes at morning The grapes' sweet odors rise; With yellow butterflies. 1 From Poems, by Helen Hunt Jackson. Copyright, 1892, by Roberts Brothers. By all these lovely tokens But none of all this beauty Which floods the earth and air Is unto me the secret Which makes September fair. 'Tis a thing which I remember; ROBIN REDBREAST WILLIAM ALLINGHAM GOOD-BYE, good-bye to summer! Cool breezes in the sun; Our thrushes now are silent, Our swallows flown away, But Robin's here, in coat of brown, And scarlet breast-knot gay. Robin, Robin Redbreast, O Robin dear! Robin sings so sweetly In the falling of the year. |