PREFACE.

In the preparation of The Progressive Course in Reading, the compilers have kept steadily in view certain results which, in their judgment, should be aimed at by every teacher of reading, viz.: command of the art of reading, both silent and oral, a love for the best reading material, and the establishment of the reading habit.

To secure the first of these results is the all-important problem of the earliest school years, and it is believed that the first three books of this series will be found well adapted to the end desired.

After the close of the third or fourth school year, the intelligent teacher, while still endeavoring to perfect the practice of his pupils in the art of reading, will increasingly regard the reading exercises as means to such other desirable ends as the acquisition of information, an acquaintance with the treasures of printed English, and the uplift which results from such acquaintance.

The compilers of these readers recognize fully the importance of silent reading, and, in their choice of selections, have directed the attention of pupils to many books which should be read silently. Believing, however, that the practice, now so general, of supplying schools with supplementary material provides quite adequately for silent reading, they have endeavored to bring together a body of selections specially fitted to produce good oral readers.

It is assumed that pupils who use this Fifth Book have access to the dictionary and have been trained to its use. In the judgment of the compilers there is need that teachers should pay increased attention to the fine art of reading aloud. They recommend that simple, wellchosen drills, physical and vocal, be made a part of each reading exercise.

The pupil who reads well aloud reads, not to himself, but to other persons, whom he tries to impress with the thoughts and feelings already suggested to himself by the printed page. The task set for the teachers of oral reading is to render habitual in the reader certain practices mental, physical, and vocal.

Such habits can be secured only by persistent drill under the guidance of competent teachers. As in the preceding books, the selections in this volume have been grouped so as to secure desirable continuity of thought, while the groups are sufficiently varied to stimulate and satisfy, in some measure, the pupil's craving for information, his interest in adventure, and his desire for guidance.

The selections from Charles Dudley Warner, Bayard Taylor, Nathaniel Hawthorne, and James T. Fields are used by arrangement with and permission of Houghton, Mifflin & Co., the authorized publishers of the writings of these authors.

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