THE

STANDARD FOURTH READER.

PART II.

EXERCISES IN READING.

Small figures after words in the following Exercises refer to Paragraphs in Part I., numbered with corresponding figures.

The letters EI after words indicate that all such should be looked ove in the Explanatory Index, at the end of the volume, for their meaning or pronunciation.

Where parts of a word are Italicized, the reader is referred to the corresponding letter or letters in the list of "Faults in Articulation,” commencing page 53.

I. THE THREE READERS.

1. It is read of Frederick the Great, King of Prussia, that as he once sat in his private apartment, a written petition was brought to him, with the request that it should be immediately read. The king had just returned from hunting, and the glare of the sun, or some other cause, had so affected his eyesight, that he found it difficult to make out a single word of the manuscript."I

2. His private secretary happened to be absent; and the soldier who brought the petition could not tell the first letter of the alphabet from the last. There was a page, or favored boyservant, in attendance in the corridor; E and upon him the king called. The page was a son of one of the noblemen of the court, but proved to be a very poor reader.

3. In the first place, he did not articulate distinctly. He huddled his words together in the utterance, as if they were syllables of one long word, which he must get through with as speed

ily as possible. His pronunciation was bad, and he did not modulate his voice so as to bring out the meaning of what he delivered. Every sentence was read with a dismal monotony,I as if it did not differ in any respect from that which preceded it.

4. "Stop!" said the king, impatiently; "is it an auctioneer's catalogue, or what is it, that you are hurrying over? Send your companion to me." Another page, who stood at the door, now entered, and to him the king gave the petition. This second page began by hemming and clearing his throat in such an affected manner, that the king jocosely asked him if he had n't slept in the public garden, with the gate open, the night before.

5. The second page had a good share of self-conceit, however, and he was not disconcerted by the jest. He determined that he would avoid the rock on which his companion had been wrecked. So he commenced reading the petition with great formality and deliberation, emphasizing every word, and prolonging the articulation of every syllable. But his manner was so tedious that the king cried out: "Stop! Are you reciting a lesson in the elementary sounds? Out of the room! - Stay! Send to me that

little girl who is sitting there by the fountain."

6. The girl thus pointed out by the king was a daughter of one of the laborers employed by the royal gardener; and she had come to help her father weed the flower-beds. It chanced that, like many of the poor people in Prussia, even in that day, she had received a good education. She was somewhat alarmed when she found herself in the king's presence, but was reässured" when the king told her that he only wanted her to read for him, as his eyes were weak.

7. Now, Er'nestine (for that was her name) was so fond of reading aloud, that frequently many of the poor people in the neighborhood would assemble at her father's house to hear her; and those who could not themselves read would bring to her letters to decipher from distant friends or children. She thus acquired the habit of reading various sorts of handwriting promptly and well.

8. The king gave her the petition, and she rapidly glanced through the opening lines to get some idea of what it was about.

As she read, her eyes began to glisten, and her breast to heave. "What is the matter?" asked the king; "don't you know how to read?" "O! yes, sire," she replied, addressing him with the title usually applied to him; "I will now read it, if you please."

9. The two pages were about to leave the room. "Remain!" said the king. The little girl began to read the petition. It was from a poor widow, whose only son had been drafted to serve in the army, although his health was delicate, and his pursūits had been of a character to unfit him for military life. His father had been killed in battle, and the son was ambitious of being a portrait-painter.

10. The writer told her story in a simple, concise manner that carried to the heart a conviction of its truth; and Ernestine read it with so much grace and feeling, and with an articulation so just, in tones so pure and distinct, that when she had finished, the king, into whose eyes the water had started, exclaimed: "O! now I understand what it is all about; but I might never have known (certainly never have felt) 185 its meaning, had I trusted to these young gentlemen, whom I now dismiss from my service for one year, recommending them to occupy it in learning to read.

11. "As for you, my young lady," continued the king, “I know you will ask no better reward for your trouble than to be the instrument of carrying to this poor widow my order for her son's immediate discharge. Let me see if you can write as well as you can read. Take this pen, and follow my dictation."E He then dictated an order, which Ernestine wrote and he signed. Calling one of his guards, he både him accompany the girl, and see that the order was executed.

12. How much happiness was Ernestine the means of bestowing through her good elocution, united to the happy circumstance that brought it to the knowledge of the king! First, there were her poor neighbors, to whom she could give instruction and entertainment. Then there was the widow who sent the petition, and who not only regained her son, but received through Ernestine an order for him to paint the king's likeness, so that the

poor boy soon rose to great distinction, and had more orders than he could attend to. Words could not speak his gratitude, and that of his mother, to the little girl.

13. And Ernestine had, moreover, the satisfaction of aiding her father to rise in the world, so that he became the king's chief gardener. The great king did not forget her, but had her well educated at his own expense. As for the two pages, she was indirectly the means of benefiting them also; for, ashamed of their bad reading, they commenced studying in earnest, till they overcame the faults that had offended the king. Bōth finally rose to distinction, one as a lawyer and the other as a statesman; and they owed their advancement in life to their good elocution. Madame Vinet.*

II. ON LIVING WELL AND LONG.

1. ARE there any among you who desire to use all proper means to preserve health and cheerfulness through life, and at length to reach a serene old age? If so, listen to what I am about to tell you.

2. A considerable time ago, I read in one of the newspapers of the day, that a man had died near London at the advanced age of one hundred and ten years; that he had never been ill; and that he had maintained through life a cheerful, happy temperament.

3. I wrote immediately to London, begging to know if in the old man's treatment of himself there had been any peculiarity which had rendered his life so lengthened and so happy; and the answer I received was as follows:

4. "He was moral and devout, and uniformly kind and obliging. He ate and drank merely that he might not suffer from hunger or thirst, and never beyond what necessity required.

*In Italicizing names of authors appended to pieces in this volume, it is intended to indicate that all such pieces have been abridged, translated or altered, for this work. Where the authors' names are in small capitals, the pieces have been subjected to no change.

From his earliest youth he was industrious, and took a good portion of exercise in the open air."

ΕΙ

5. I made a note of this in a little book where I generally write all that I am anxious to remember, and very soon afterwards I learned from another paper that a woman had died near Stockholm, who was a hundred and fifteen years old, and who had always been of a contented, happy disposition. I immediately wrote to Stockholm, to learn what means this old woman had used for preserving her health; and now read the answer:

person

6. "She was always a great lover of cleanliness, and in the daily habit of washing her face, feet and hands, in cold water; and, as often as opportunity offered, she bathed her whole in the same. She rarely partook of sweetmeats; seldom of coffee or tea; and never of wine. She was upright in her dealings, loved God and her neighbor, and never allowed herself to cherish a spiteful or vindictive feeling."

my

little book; and many

read in the newspaper It was a mention of and who had enjoyed

7. Of this likewise I took a note in months had not gone by before I again a paragraph which excited my curiosity. a man who had died near St. Petersburgh, good health up to his hundred and twentieth year. Again I took my pen. I addressed a letter to St. Petersburgh, and here is

the answer to it:

EI

8. "He was an early riser, and rarely slept beyond seven hours at a time. He was temperate in all things. He always had sufficient occupation for both his thoughts and his hands. He worked and employed himself chiefly in the open air, and particularly in his garden. Whether he walked or sat in his chair, it was always in an erect posture. He drank pure water, and avoided all but the most wholesome articles of food. He tried to discharge his duties faithfully to God and man, and kept a pure conscience."

66

9. After having written all this in my little book, and read it over, I said to myself: You will be a foolish man indeed not to profit by the example and experience of these old people." I then wrote out upon a large card a number of rules12 gathered from their experiene, and obliged myself to conform to them.