The Elson Readers Part 49

"And to tell you the truth, my precious little folks," quoth King Midas, diligently trotting the children all the while, "ever since that morning I have hated the very sight of all other gold save this!"

NOTES AND QUESTIONS

Discussion. 1. How did Midas think he could best show his love for this daughter? 2. What was his chief pleasure? 3. Describe the visitor who appeared to Midas in his treasure-room. 4. What did the stranger ask him? 5. Find the sentence that tells what Midas wished. 6. When did he receive his new power? 7. What use did he make of it? 8. What did Marygold think of the gold roses? 9. Why was not Midas's breakfast a success? 10. When did Midas first doubt whether riches are the most desirable thing in the world? 11. How did he drive this thought away?

12. What make him realize that his little daughter was dearer to him than gold? 13. Find lines that tell what he realized when it was too late. 14. What did the stranger ask when he came again? 15. What was the discovery that Midas mad made since the stranger's first visit?

16. How was Midas cured of the Golden Touch? 17. What was he told to do in order to restore Marygold to life? 18. What was the only gold he cared about after he was saved from the Golden Touch? 19. Find examples of human; of fanciful expressions, Such as "day had hardly peeped over the hills," of descriptions that you like. 20. Close readings: Select pa.s.sages to be read aloud in cla.s.s. 21. Outline for testing silent reading. Tell the story briefly in your own words, using the topic headings given in the story. 22. Find in the Glossary the meaning of: purpose; mortal; inhaling; induce; flexibility; bal.u.s.trade; burnished; afflicted; affright; consideration; perplexity; fatal; agony; infinitely; desperate; earthen; conscious; molten.

23. p.r.o.nounce: Midas; calculate; particularly; obscure; tinge; extraordinary; mediate; composure; blighted; bath; cup; snarl; molten; aghast; admirably; metallic; frothy; pitiable; ravenous; indigestible; victuals; phrase; recognized; purebred; avarice.

Phrases for Study

comparatively a new affair, fairest goldsmith, woven texture, cruel mortification, wisdom of the book, by dint of great quickness, cunningly made, features and tokens.

GREAT AMERICAN AUTHORS

A Backward Look

A wonderful power lies in the Crystal Gla.s.s of Reading--the power to increase your circle of friends and to know intimately people who have lived in distant times and places. Through its power the great heroes of all ages--Joseph, Beowulf, Sigurd, Robin Hood, and our own Was.h.i.+ngton, Lincoln, and Roosevelt--become your companions.

Someone has said that the pen is mightier than the sword, which is another way of saying that great books have had more to do in shaping the lives and fortunes of men than b.l.o.o.d.y battles. The group of authors whose stories and poems you have just been reading is a company of friends whose thoughts about Nature, or about life and its meaning, have been a power in making America what it is today.

Acquaintance with these friends has been made easy for you; you have had placed before you their pictures and interesting facts about their lives, and best of all, you have been able to hear them tell their own thoughts. What authors are in this group? Which of them did you learn to know in Book IV and which were new to you in this book? Close your eyes and see whether your "inward eye" can picture the faces of Franklin, Bryant, Whittier, Irving, Longfellow, Hawthorne. Make one interesting statement concerning each author and his works. Quote lines from poems by Bryant, Whittier, and Longfellow. Make from memory a list of t.i.tle of stories or poems you have read from each of these six American authors.

Benjamin Franklin founded the first public library in America; the picture on page 18 shows you what a library must have been like in the old Greek days, and page 288 pictures a view of the Congressional Library at Was.h.i.+ngton, the home of the complete works of all our American authors. The building is considered one of the most beautiful in the world; report to the cla.s.s some interesting facts about this library that you have learned from someone who has seen it.

In the last paragraph of the Forward Look, you are asked to notice the way in which authors tell what they have to say. When Franklin was a young boy he was not at all satisfied with his way of writing, so he sat himself the task of noticing carefully how a certain English writer, whom he admired very much, expressed himself, and tried to pattern after him. Notice how Franklin made the story "An Ax to Grind"

seem very real by using direct quotations; where else has he used direct quotations with the same result?

Notice the way Hawthorne added interest to his stories: (a) by touches of fancy; (b) by delicate humor; (c) by apt descriptions. Point out examples of each of these qualities in "The Paradise of Children."

Make a similar showing for "The Golden Touch." Compare the two stories in regard to each of These qualities.

Turn to the pictures on pages 282, 297, 302, 321, and 309, and see whether you are able to tell what selection each panel-picture ill.u.s.trates. You have read many stories in this book that show how fine a thing it is to serve, and so it seems fitting to have on the cover at your reader a picture of Hiawatha, who

"Lived and toiled, so I suffered, That the tribes of men might prosper, That he might advance his people!"

Make a list of the stories you have read in this book that tell about service. Read the lines in "The White-man's foot" that describe "the great canoe with pinions," which you see in the picture on the outside cover of this book. Since you began to use this book what progress have you hade in gaining ability to read silently with speed and understanding?