Parker's Second Reader Part 6

14. Now, whenever you have a hard lesson to read, or to study, think of Demos'thenes, and recollect how he overcame all his difficulties, and I think you will find that you have few things to do so hard as these things which he did.

15. When your teacher requests you to put out your voice and speak loud, remember what Demos'thenes used to do to strengthen his voice, and you will find very little trouble in speaking loudly enough to be heard, if you will only try.

LESSON XV.

_Hard Words._

1. In one of the former lessons, you were taught how to read long and hard words, by taking them to pieces, and reading a part of a word at a time.

2. I promised you also that this book should not be filled with hard words; but I did not promise that there should be no hard words in it.

3. Having taught you how to read hard words, I propose, in this lesson, to give you a few long words to read,--not for the purpose of understanding what they mean, but only to make you able to read such words, when you find them in any other book.

4. The best way of getting rid of all difficulties, is to learn how to overcome them, and master them; for they cease to be difficulties, when you have overcome them.

5. Demos'thenes, as I told you in the last lesson, had a very hard task to perform, before he became a great orator. You, also, can become a good scholar, if you will take pains to study your lessons, and learn them well.

6. Before you read any lesson to your teacher from this book, it is expected that you will study it over, and find out all the most difficult words, so that you may read them right off to him, without stopping to find them out, while he is waiting to hear you read them.

7. Now, here I shall place a few hard words for you to study over, to read to your teacher when you read this lesson to him; and he will probably require every one in your cla.s.s to read them all aloud to him.

8. I wish you not to go up to your teacher to ask him to a.s.sist you, until you have tried yourself to read them, and find that you cannot.

9. There are some words that are not p.r.o.nounced as they are spelt, as I have taught you in a former lesson.

10. Such a word as _phthisic_, which is p.r.o.nounced as if it were spelled _tis'ic_, I dare say would puzzle you, if you had never seen it before; but before you go up to your teacher, to ask him any questions, you should read over the whole of your lesson, and perhaps you will find, in the lesson itself, something that will explain what puzzled you; and thus you could find it out from your book, without troubling your teacher.

11. Here are some of the long words I wish you to read.

12. Organization, Theoretical, Metaphysical, Metempsychosis, Mult.i.tudinous, Arithmetician, Metaphysician, Hyperbolical.

13. Apotheosis, Indefeasible, Feasibility, Supersaturated, Prolongation, Meridional, Ferruginous, Fastidiousness.

14. Haberdashery, Fuliginous, Exhalation, Prematurely, Depreciation, Appreciability, Resuscitate, Surrept.i.tious, Interlocutory.

15. Sometimes the letters _a e_, and _o e_, are printed together, like one letter, as in the words Caesar, Coelebs, and then the syllable is p.r.o.nounced as if it were spelled with _e_ alone, as in the following words:

16. Diaeresis, Aphaeresis, OEc.u.menical, aethiop, Subpoena, Encyclopaedia, Phoenix, Phoebus, aeolus.

17. When there are two little dots over one of the letters, they are both to be sounded, as in the word Aerial, which is p.r.o.nounced a-e-ri-al.

18. The letter _c_ is one which puzzles many young persons who are learning to read, because it is sometimes p.r.o.nounced like _k_, as in the word _can_, and sometimes like _s_, as in the word _cent_; and they do not know when to p.r.o.nounce it like _k_, and when to sound it like _s_.

19. But if you will recollect that _c_ is sounded like _k_ when it stands before the letters _a_, _o_, or _u_, and that it is sounded like _s_ before the letters _e_, _i_, and _y_, you will have very little trouble in reading words that have the letter _c_ in them.

20. So also the letter _g_ has two sounds, called the hard sound, and the soft sound. The hard sound is the sound given to it in the word _gone_; the soft sound is that which is heard in the word _gentle_.

21. The same rule which you have just learnt with regard to the letter _c_ applies to the letter _g_. It has its hard sound before _a_, _o_, and _u_, and its soft sound before _e_, _i_, and _y_.

22. There are, it is true, some words where this rule is not applied; but these words are very few, so that you may safely follow this rule in most words.

23. The letters _ph_ are sounded like _f_. The letters _ch_ are sounded sometimes like _k_, as in the words _loch_ and _monarch_, and sometimes like _sh_, as in the words _chaise_ and _charade_; and they have sometimes a sound which cannot be represented by any other letters, as in the words _charm_ and _chance_.

24. I suppose that you have probably learned most of these things which I have now told you in your spelling-book; but I have repeated them in this book, because I have so often found that little boys and girls are very apt to forget what they have learned.

25. If you recollect them all, it will do you no harm to read them again, but it will impress them more deeply on your memory. But if you have forgotten them, this little book will recall them to your mind, so that you will never forget them.

26. I recollect, when I was a little boy, that the letter _y_ used to trouble me very much when it began a word, and was not followed by one of the letters which are called vowels, namely, _a_, _e_, _i_, _o_, _u_.

I knew how to p.r.o.nounce _ya_, _ye_, _yi_, _yo_, _yu_; but one day, when I was studying a lesson in geography, I saw a word which was spelt _Y, p, r, e, s_, which puzzled me very much.

27. I knew that the letters _p, r, e, s_, would spell _pres_, but I did not know what to call the _y_. After studying it a long time, I found that the letter _y_, in that word and some others, was to be p.r.o.nounced like the long _e_, and that the word was p.r.o.nounced _Epres_, though it was spelled _Y, p, r, e, s_.

28. Perhaps you will be able, when you grow up, to write a book; and to tell little boys and girls who go to school, when you have grown up, how to read hard words, better than I have told you.

29. If you wish to do so, you must try to recollect what puzzles you most now, and then you will be able to inform them how to get over their difficulties and troubles at school; and when they grow up, I have no doubt that they will feel very grateful to you for the a.s.sistance you have given them.

LESSON XVI.

_Fire,[A]--a Conversation between a Mother and her little Daughter._

[Ill.u.s.tration]

_Daughter._ Mother dear, you told me, the other day, that n.o.body knows what _light_ is, except the Great Creator. Now, can you tell me _what fire is_?

_Mother._ I fear, my child, that you have asked another question which I cannot directly answer. What fire is, is known only by its effects.

_Daughter._ And what are its effects, mother?

_Mother._ Some of its effects are as well known to you, my dear, as they are to me; and I shall, in the first place, call to your recollection what you yourself know about _fire_, before I attempt to give you any further information in relation to it.

_Daughter._ Why, mother, I am sure I do not know what fire is.

_Mother._ No, Caroline, I know that you do not know what fire is; neither do I, nor does any one, except the Great Creator himself. This is one of his secrets, which, in his wisdom, he reserves for himself.

But you certainly know some of the effects of fire. For instance, you know that when you have been out into the cold, you wish, on your return, to go to the fire. Now, can you tell me what you go to the fire for?

_Daughter._ Why, certainly, mother; I go to the fire to warm myself.

_Mother._ And how does the fire warm you, my dear?

_Daughter._ Why, it sends out its heat, mother; and I hold out my hands to it, and feel the heat.