Thursday, December 15, 2011

Search My Google Books Library with Key Words

I've got 4000+ books in my favorites at my Google bookshelf. All are geared toward education and learning, so if you browse with key terms, you'll get a nice long list of books to search. Only a small portion of these books have been listed here on this blog. You'll find one difference, I put all links here on my blog in HTML so that individual pages or illustrations can be printed.

You can do this yourself if you use the link for my Google bookshelf. Just choose the plain text version of the book(right hand corner of any page in the book), then change the link to HTML by deleting "text" and adding "html". Then you can right click on the images of the pages and save them to your computer.

Click here my Google bookshelf .

This link is also on my sidebar.

Virtual Homeschool Library

Many books categorized by subject and historical time periods. Click here. I'll add this to my sidebar.

HT to Sarah

Google Books Limiting Downloads

It seems Google Books is now limiting access to book downloads on some of their free books, some of which are listed here on this blog. If you have trouble finding a download here, let me know, and I will try to find one elsewhere.

Although Google Books has a greater variety of free public domain educational books, Project Gutenberg is much more liberal with their downloads(and less complicated). I may begin posting more books from Project Gutenberg, and steering away from Google Books, when possible.

Tuesday, October 25, 2011

The Eclectic School Geometry/Google Books

Title The Eclectic School Geometry
Authors Evan Wilhelm Evans, James Jesse Burns
Publisher Amer. Book Co., 1884
Length 149 pages
Click here.

Saturday, October 22, 2011

A Kipling Primer/Google Books

This little book has been written in the hope that it may minister to an intelligent appreciation of Mr. Kipling's prose and poetry. The world has never before witnessed the spectacle of a collected edition of an author's works issued within a dozen years of the date on his earliest title-page. A body of criticism is bound to grow up around the writings of a genius so commanding and brilliant. If the Primer serve as an unpretentious forerunner of this literature, it asks nothing more...
Appended to the abstracts of stories and ballads, in Chapter Three, will be found, in many cases, brief criticisms from well-known authorities. These are included for their suggestiveness rather than for any value as final estimates. Indeed, the editor has been at no pains to add them to all or even to most of the outlines, nor has he in any case endeavored to harmonize them with one another. While in the main they are astute, and doubtless trustworthy, in many instances they will be found chiefly to illustrate the fact that opinions even of high authorities are merely personal estimates and frequently prove to be very wide of the mark.

Title A Kipling Primer
Author Frederic Lawrence Knowles
Publisher Brown and company, 1899
Length 219 pages
Click here.

Friday, October 21, 2011

Live Language Lessons, Book 3/Google Books

Title Live language Lessons, Book 3
Volume 3 of Live Language Lessons, Howard Driggs
Author Howard Driggs
Publisher The University Publishing Company, 1914
Click here.

Thursday, October 20, 2011

McGuffey's New First Eclectic Reader(1857 version)/Google Books


Title McGuffey's New First Eclectic Reader
Author William Holmes McGuffey
Publisher Sargent, Wilson, Hinkle & Co., 1857
Length 60 pages
Click here

Friday, October 14, 2011

Cookery for Little Girls/Project Gutenberg

COOKERY FOR
LITTLE GIRLS
BY
OLIVE HYDE FOSTER
NEW YORK
DUFFIELD & COMPANY
MCMX
Copyright, 1910,
By Duffield & Co.


Preface

This book has been prepared with the special purpose of assisting mothers throughout the country to train their small daughters in the art of cookery. Scarcely any child can be trusted to take a recipe and work alone, as the clearest directions need the watchful supervision of an experienced woman, who can detect the coming mistake and explain the reason for doing things in a certain way.

All children like to experiment in the kitchen, and instead of allowing them to become an annoyance, they should be so directed that their efforts will result in immediate help to the mother and prove invaluable life lessons to the little ones themselves. Nothing is really more pitiable than the helpless woman who, when occasion demands, finds herself unable to do ordinary cooking. And that young wife is blessed indeed who has been prepared for her duties in the home by a conscientious mother. Therefore let no woman think it too much trouble to teach her child the preparation of various kinds of food, impressing on her at the same time the dignity and importance of the work.

The following articles, though considerably lengthened and rearranged, were written at the request of the Editor, and ran for a year in Pictorial Review; and the encouraging letters they elicited from women and children everywhere, prompted this publication in book form. The intention has been not to make a complete manual of cookery, but instead to create interest in enough branches to enable an otherwise inexperienced person to successfully put together any good recipe. Thanks are also due for the use of material appearing in The Circle and Harper's Bazaar.
Olive Hyde Foster.


Click here.

Thursday, October 13, 2011

Short Stories of the New America for High School(post WWI)/Project Gutenberg

SHORT STORIES OF THE
NEW AMERICA
INTERPRETING THE AMERICA OF THIS AGE TO
HIGH SCHOOL BOYS AND GIRLS

SELECTED AND EDITED BY
MARY A. LASELLE
OF THE NEWTON, MASSACHUSETTS, HIGH SCHOOLS
NEW YORK
HENRY HOLT AND COMPANY
1919

PREFACE

The purpose of this book of short stories of modern American life is twofold.

First, these narratives give an interpretation of certain great forces and movements in the life of this age. All the authors represented are especially qualified to describe with force and feeling some phase of contemporary life.

Thinking people everywhere realize that it is not enough to place before the pupils in the schools the bare facts in regard to community and national life. The heart must be warmed, the feelings must be stirred, before the will can be aroused to noble action in any great movement.

President Wilson has urged school officers to increase materially the time and attention devoted to instruction bearing directly upon the problems of community and national life. This was not a plea for the temporary enlargement of the school programme, appropriate merely to the period of the war, but a plea for the realization in public education of the new emphasis which the war has given to the ideals of democracy.

The first aim of this book, then, is to help to place clearly before young people the ideals of America through the medium of literature that will grip the attention and quicken the will to action.

Second, librarians have stated that there are very few compilations of modern short stories of interest and significance with which to meet the needs of young people who turn to the libraries for help in reading.

It is hoped that this book may be of real value in the schools, by clothing the dry bones of civics with significant and interesting material, and that it may also supply a need of the libraries and the homes for a book of live and valuable short stories.


Click here

Tuesday, October 11, 2011

A History of Art for Beginners and Students/Google Books

Title A History of Art for Beginners and Students: Painting, Sculpture, Architecture
Author Clara Erskine Clement Waters
Publisher F.A. Stokes, 1887
Click here.

Saturday, October 8, 2011

Stories of Old Kentucky/Project Gutenberg

Click here.

PREFACE

To be easily assimilated, our mental food, like our physical food, should be carefully chosen and attractively served.

The history of the "Dark and Bloody Ground" teems with adventure and patriotism. Its pages are filled with the great achievements, the heroic deeds, and the inspiring examples of the explorers, the settlers, and the founders of our state. In the belief that a knowledge of their struggles and conquests is food that is both instructive and inspiring, and with a knowledge that a text on history does not always attract, the author sets before the youth of Kentucky these stories of some of her great men.

This book is intended as both a supplementary reader and a text, for, though in story form, the chapters are arranged chronologically, and every fact recorded has been verified.

MARTHA GRASSHAM PURCELL.

Sunday, October 2, 2011

Science for Beginners: An Introduction to the Method and Matter of Science New-world Science Series/Google Books

Title Science for Beginners: An Introduction to the Method and Matter of Science
New-world Science Series
Author Delos Fall
Publisher World Book Co., 1918
Length 388 pages
Click here.

From the Introduction:

The teacher is asked to keep in mind that the chief purpose of this book is not to give the pupils a large amount of information, but rather to introduce them to a method through the use of which they will acquire the habit of gaining information for themselves. The scientific method, by which is meant that methodical procedure which is more and more coming to be used in all lines of human activity, is most easily applied in the field of the natural sciences, and the pupil can best learn the method of the scientist by using the material with which the scientist works.

The author makes no apology for the constant use of the direct address. The book is a direct message to the user of it, and it is to be hoped that the teacher will encourage the idea that here is the boy's and the girl's own book.


Saturday, October 1, 2011

The Boy's Book of Heroes/Project Gutenberg

The Boy's Book of Heroes by Helena Peake

Contents:

HEREWARD—LAST OF THE SAXONS 1

THE CID 17

LOUIS IX., KING OF FRANCE 49

GUSTAVUS VASA, KING OF SWEDEN 82

BERTRAND DU GUESCLIN 110

CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS 144

THE CHEVALIER DE BAYARD 192

SIR MARTIN FROBISHER 225

SIR WALTER RALEIGH 242

SIR PHILIP SIDNEY 257


Click here.

Saturday, September 24, 2011

The Natural Speller: Higher Grades(Early Middle School)/Google Books

There is no mention of grade, but it looks to be a speller for grades fifth through six, possibly through seventh grade.

Title The Natural Speller: Higher Grades
Authors Augustus Hill Kelley, Herbert Leonard Morse
Publisher C. Scribner's Sons, 1912
Length 153 pages

Click here.

Monday, September 19, 2011

Sunday, September 11, 2011

The Children's First Reader(more like third grade)/Google Books


This is an advanced first reader. It would probably suit a second grade level reader.
Title The Children's First
Author Ellen M. Cyr
Publisher Ginn & co., 1892
Click here

Saturday, September 10, 2011

The Sciences: A Reading Book for Children : Astronomy, Physics--Heat, Light, Sound, Electricity, Magnetism-Chemistry, Physiography, Meteorology

Title The Sciences: A Reading Book for Children : Astronomy, Physics--Heat, Light, Sound, Electricity, Magnetism-Chemistry, Physiography, Meteorology
Author Edward Singleton Holden
Publisher Ginn, 1902
Length 224 pages
Click here.

Monday, September 5, 2011

Bird Stories/Google Books

Title Bird stories
Author Edith Marion Patch
Publisher The Atlantic Monthly Press, 1921
Length 211 pages
Overview

That is the prize that has been offered for a nesting pair of Passenger Pigeons. No one has claimed the money yet, and it would be a great adventure, don't you think, to seek that nest? If you find it, you must not disturb it, you know, or take the eggs or the young, or frighten the father- or mother-bird; for the people who offered all that money did not want dead birds to stuff for a museum, but hoped that someone might tell them where there were live wild ones nesting.

You see the news had got about that the dove that is called Passenger Pigeon was lost. No one could believe this at first, because there had been go very many — more than a thousand, more than a million, more than a billion. How could more than a billion doves be lost?

They were such big birds, too — a foot and a half long from tip of beak to tip of tail, and sometimes even longer. Why, that is longer than the tame pigeons that walk about our city streets. How could doves as large as that be lost, so that no one could find a pair, not even for one thousand dollars to pay him for the time it took to hunt?

Their colors were so pretty — head and back a soft, soft blue; neck glistening with violet, red, and gold; underneath, a wonderful purple red fading into violet shades, and then into bluish white. Who would not like to seek, for the love of seeing so beautiful a bird, even though no one paid a reward in money?

Friday, September 2, 2011

Little Folks of North America/Project Gutenburg

Little Folks of North America, by Mary Hazelton Wade, 1909

CONTENTS:
I. Little Folks of Iceland 13
II. Little Folks of Greenland 26
III. Little Folks of Alaska 55
IV. Little Folks of Canada 80
V. Little Folks of Labrador 116
VI. Little Folks of Newfoundland 120
VII. Little Folks of the United States 128
VIII. Little Folks of Mexico 179
IX. Little Folks of Central America 206
X. Little Folks of the West Indies 214

Click here

Monday, August 29, 2011

The Squirrel's Pilgrim's Progress/Google Books

Title The Squirrel's Pilgrim's Progress: A Book for Boys and Girls
Author J. D. Williams
Illustrated by H. Wood
Publisher Laird & Lee, inc., 1915
Length 174 pages
Click here.

Excerpt:

Not far from the city of ants, Tiny halted to refresh himself with an acorn. "This country is delightful," he said to himself.

"A squirrel does not often see such a beautiful scene. He has little knowledge of the great world. I was discontented not long ago, but now I am happy. I am glad that I saw the ants and their city. They are very industrious creatures. All have much work to do, yet they do it willingly. They don't seem to wish to be idle. Ants never before were interesting to me, but now I admire them very much. You have taught me a lesson, friend ant." He sat still for a few moments gazing around him. Suddenly he saw a spider busy at work upon her country home. She wore a snuff-brown jacket dashed with purple, and her legs were striped like those of a tiger.

Wednesday, August 24, 2011

Indians and Pioneers: An Historical Reader for the Young/Google Books

The aim in writing for young readers these stories of "Indians and Pioneers," or "Earliest Days in America," has been to treat the history of America simply and briefly, yet with the regard for accuracy and the care in selection of material which are necessary in order to set forth the truth.

Two features in these stories are introduced, in the confident hope that they will be found both interesting and practical; one is the study of the glacial and rough stone periods, which is, of late, made more attractive and intelligible to young readers, because taught through "simplified mineralogy" and clay-modeling; the other feature is the large use of quotations [from the sources, giving the original wording and quaint spelling of the narratives of the European pioneers to America.


Title Indians and Pioneers: An Historical Reader for the Young
Authors Blanche Evans Hazard, Samuel Train Dutton
Length 266 pages

Click here.

Sunday, August 21, 2011

Carpenter's geographical reader: Europe

Title Carpenter's geographical reader: Europe
Author Frank George Carpenter
Publisher American Book Co., 1912
Length 456 pages
Click here.
This book aims to give the children a plain and simple description of the countries of Europe as they are to-day. The method is by taking the little ones on a personally conducted tour over the continent. It is the children themselves who cross the Atlantic Ocean, steam over the Baltic and the Mediterranean seas and down the historic Rhine and the Danube. It is they who climb the Alps and stand on the North Cape watching the sun shine at midnight. It is they who go from city to city, from farm to farm, and factory to factory, seeing how the various peoples live and what they are doing in the work of the world. It is they who are admitted to the palaces, parliaments, and public offices where they learn how each nation is governed and something as to its civilization, commerce, and trade.

It is not intended that these travels should take the place of the school geographies, but that they should be used with such books as supplementary reading. As in the volumes describing similar tours in North America, South America, and Asia, the text-books on geography may be regarded as the skeleton and this reader as the flesh and blood which will clothe the dry bones and make the countries a living whole in the minds of the pupils.

A glance at the table of contents will give some idea of the scope and character of the work. The children, having crossed the Atlantic on one of the big ocean greyhounds, begin their tour in the United Kingdom. landing at Queenstown, they explore Ireland, visiting Cork, Killarney, Limerick, and Galway. They cross the bog lands and plains to Dublin, and thence go to the Giant's Causeway and Belfast, where they learn how linen is made. From Belfast, they sail to Glasgow, and after spending a while in the Lowlands or Industrial Scotland go to Edinburgh by the Trossachs. They make a hunting trip to the Highlands, and visit the homes of Robert Burns and Walter Scott before crossing the border to England...

Tuesday, August 9, 2011

Real Things in Nature: A Reading Book of Science for American Boys and Girls/Google Books


Title Real Things in Nature: A Reading Book of Science for American Boys and Girls
Author Edward Singleton Holden
Publisher The Macmillan co., 1910
Length 443 pages

Click here

Saturday, August 6, 2011

A Syllabus(Outline) of United States History, 1492-1920

An outline originally intended for the first year college student.
Title A Syllabus of United States History, 1492-1920
Authors Homer Carey Hockett, Arthur Meier Schlesinger
Published 1921
Length 93 pages

Click here.

Thursday, August 4, 2011

An Introduction to Science

Title An Introduction to Science
Author Bertha May Clark
Publisher American Book Co., 1915
Original from Harvard University
Digitized Mar 9, 2007
Length 494 pages

Click here.


Laboratory Manual

Monday, August 1, 2011

Shore and Sea; or, Stories of Great Vikings and Sea Captains/Google Books


Title Shore and Sea; or, Stories of Great Vikings and Sea Captains
Author William Henry Davenport Adams
Publisher Hodder and Stoughton, 1883
Click here

Thursday, July 28, 2011

Landmarks of History/Google Books

Title Landmarks of History. Modern history: from the Reformation to the fall of Napoleon.
Author Charlotte Mary Yonge
Publisher Walter Smith, 1882
Click here


Title Landmarks of Recent History, 1770-1883
Author Charlotte Mary Yonge
Publisher Walter Smith, 1883
Click here


Title Questions on history, ancient, middle ages, and modern, to be answered from the Landmarks of History
Authors Mary Marsh HARRIS, Charlotte Mary Yonge
Published 1861
Click here

Saturday, July 23, 2011

Astronomy with an Opera-glass /Project Gutenburg


Astronomy with an Opera-glass
A Popular Introduction to the Study of the Starry Heavens with the Simplest of Optical Instruments
by Garrett Putman Services, 1890

"Being convinced that whoever will survey the heavens with a good opera-glass will feel repaid many fold for his time and labor, I have undertaken to point out some of the objects most worthy of attention, and some of the means of making acquaintance with the stars.

First, a word about the instrument to be used. Galileo made his famous discoveries with what was, in principle of construction, simply an opera-glass. This form of telescope was afterward abandoned because very high magnifying powers could not be employed with it, and the field of view was restricted. But, on account of its brilliant illumination of objects looked at, and its convenience of form, the opera-glass is still a valuable and, in some respects, unrivaled instrument of observation."

Click here.

Tuesday, July 19, 2011

Saint Nicholas Children's Magazine: Short Stories for July/Project Gutenberg


St. Nicholas v. 13 No. 9 July 1886 by Various
Contains historical and summer interest stories which are simple to copy and paste(HTML version) for printing.
Click here.

More issues here.

Monday, July 18, 2011

The Keepers of the Trail: A Story of the Great Woods/Google Books

Title The Keepers of the Trail: A Story of the Great Woods
Author Joseph Alexander Altsheler
Publisher Appleton, 1916
Length 323 pages

Click here.

Part of The Young Trailers Series

* The Young Trailers, a story of early Kentucky (1907)
* The Forest Runners, a story of the great war trail in early Kentucky (1908)
* The Keepers of the Trail, a story of the great woods (1916)
* The Eyes of the Woods, a story of the ancient wilderness (1917)
* The Free Rangers, a story of the early days along the Mississippi (1909)
* The Riflemen of the Ohio, a story of early days along "the beautiful river" (1910)
* The Scouts of the Valley, a story of Wyoming and the Chemung (1911)
* The Border Watch, a story of the great chief’s last stand (1912)

Historical children's fiction about frontier life in Kentucky.

I'll fill in links to the other books soon.

Sunday, July 17, 2011

Gunpowder Treason And Other Stories for Boys/Project Gutenberg


Gunpowder Treason and Plot by Harold Avery, R. B. Townshend, and Fred Whishaw, 1901, Thomas Nelson & Sons.

Late elementary-middle school, exciting and adventurous short stories for boys. Click here.

Friday, July 15, 2011

Library of the World's Best Literature, Ancient and Modern/Project Gutenberg

Library of the World's Best Literature, Ancient and Modern by Hamilton Wright Mabie, 1846-1916.

"The plan of this Work is simple, and yet it is novel. In its distinctive features it differs from any compilation that has yet been made. Its main purpose is to present to American households a mass of good reading. But it goes much beyond this. For in selecting this reading it draws upon all literatures of all time and of every race, and thus becomes a conspectus of the thought and intellectual evolution of man from the beginning. Another and scarcely less important purpose is the interpretation of this literature in essays by scholars and authors competent to speak with authority."

Click here.

Remaining volumes here.

Friday, July 8, 2011

The Basket of Flowers/Google Books

Title The Basket of Flowers; or, Piety and Truth Triumphant
Authors Johann Christoph von Schmid, Mary Martha Sherwood
Editor Gregory Townsend Bedell
Published 1882
Click here.

Synopsis from Lamplighter Press(CBD):
"James, the king's gardener, teaches his 15-year-old daughter Mary all the principles of godliness through his flowers. She is falsely accused of stealing, banished from the village, and left homeless. Mary remembers her father's lessons and continues to trust her life to God's care. A remarkable tale of recompense and redemption."

Thursday, July 7, 2011


WORLD WAR STORIES BY
JOHN GILBERT THOMPSON
PRINCIPAL OF THE STATE NORMAL SCHOOL
FITCHBURG, MASS.AND INEZ BIGWOOD
INSTRUCTOR IN CHILDREN'S LITERATURE
STATE NORMAL SCHOOL FITCHBURG, MASS.
1918, by SILVER, BURDETT AND COMPANY


Preface:

"This volume of stories of the World War is prepared to meet this important need, and to set before the pupils the war's unparalleled deeds of heroism, with the aims and ideals which have inspired them, and which have led American youth to look upon the sacrifice of life as none too high a price to pay for the liberation of mankind.

It may be used as a reading book or as an historical reader for the upper grammar grades. While great care has been employed to secure accuracy of fact and to select material of permanent value, the stories are written in a manner that will appeal to children."

Click here.

Four American Naval Heroes Paul Jones, Admiral Farragut, Oliver H. Perry, Admiral Dewey/Project Gutenberg


Title: Four American Naval Heroes
Paul Jones, Admiral Farragut, Oliver H. Perry, Admiral Dewey

Author: Mabel Beebe

Commentator: James Baldwin

Click here.

Advice to Sunday School Children/Project Gutenberg

Click here.

Covers twelve topics:

1. Be early and constant in your attendance at School.
2. Be very attentive to instruction.
3. Be silent in your Class.
4. Be thankful to your Teachers.
5. Honour and obey your parents.
6. Love your Brothers and Sisters.
7. Reverence the Lord's day.
8. Read daily in the Bible.
9. Pray to God constantly.
10. Take a cheerful part in the praises of God.
11. Abhor Swearing.
12. Avoid bad company

The British Museum for Young People(Ancient History)/Other

Click here
Chapter 1 - Prehistoric Times pg 5-30
Chapter 2 - Britain--A Roman Province pg 31-44
Chapter 3 - Greece and the Greeks (pt 1) pg 45-57
Chapter 4 - Greece and the Greeks (pt 2) pg 58-74
Chapter 5 - Greece and the Greeks (pt 3) pg 75-92
Chapter 6 - Egypt (pt 1) pg 93-109
Chapter 7 - Egypt (pt 2) pg 110-125
Chapter 8 - Egypt (pt 3) pg 126-142
Chapter 9 - Babylonia and Assyria (pt 1) pg 143-157
Chapter 10 - Babylonia and Assyria (pt 2) pg 158-176
Chapter 11 - Babylonia and Assyria (pt 3) pg 177-188
Chapter 12 - How Britain Became England pg 189-212

Tuesday, June 28, 2011

John Muir's Our National Parks/Google Books


Title Our National Parks
Author John Muir
Publisher Houghton, Mifflin and company, 1901
Length 370 pages

Click here.

Pictured: President Theodore Roosevelt and Muir

Saturday, June 25, 2011

Golden Numbers: A Book of Verse for Youth/Google Books


Title Golden Numbers: A Book of Verse for Youth
Author Nora Archibald Smith
Compiled by Kate Douglas Smith Wiggin
Publisher Doubleday, Page & Co., 1902
Length 686 pages
See here.

Friday, June 17, 2011

American History: for Use in Secondary Schools/Google Books

Title American History: for Use in Secondary Schools
Author Roscoe Lewis Ashley
Publisher Macmillan, 1907
Length 557 pages
Click here.

Wednesday, June 8, 2011

Picture Readings/Google Books

Title Picture Readings: A Study of Paintings by the Great Masters
Author Edgar Packard
Publisher Public school publishing company, 1918
Length 135 pages

Click here.

Tuesday, June 7, 2011

Science for Beginners/Google Books


Title Science for Beginners: An Introduction to the Method and Matter of Science
New-world Science Series
Author Delos Fall
Publisher World Book Co., 1918
Length 388 pages
Click here.

Thursday, June 2, 2011

Nature Year Book [Short Daily Poetry]/Google Books

Title Nature Year Book
Editor Esther Matson
Publisher T.Y. Crowell, 1906
Length 155 pages
Click here.

For adults and young people.

Saturday, May 28, 2011

Plants and Their Children/Google Books


Title Plants and Their Children
Author Frances Theodora Parsons
Publisher American Book Company, 1896
Length 272 pages
Click here

Thursday, May 19, 2011

The Little Gleaner(Christian Character Education)/Goolge Books

This was a British children's magazine with a heavy emphasis on Christian character education . Strongly Protestant in flavor and many lovely engravings.

Excerpt from The Seasons:
The four seasons of the year in their turn change the face of nature, affording varied work for the husbandman, and giving the manufacturer and tradesman diversified opportunities of buying and selling goods; and every shrewd merchant and tradesman watches for and embraces the season most favourable for business, just as the mariner does the wind and tides.

No doubt many of you are so favoured and indulged that the varying seasons bring to you suitable recreation and employment; to boys, hoops, peg-tops, and marbles; and girls, hoops, shuttlecock, and skipping-rope, with out-door and in-door employment of a far more intellectual and useful character; so that each change in the year has for you its charm.

But the dream of riper age flits before your eyes at times with such radiance, causing you to think some childish trials very hard to bear. But, remember, dear young ones, you will never have less cares than now. You imagine increased years will give you advanced pleasures, not considering that these things will bring their share of trouble. Ah! far more than you now have, when, with choking sobs and brimful eyes, you hang over a difficult sum, or sigh over a broken toy. Don't forget that behind the blushing rose you may find a pricking thorn, and a bitter sediment may be at the bottom of a sweet cup.

But we would not needlessly cloud your cheerful brows with the hardships of future years. Do your best to improve your home and schooldays, that they may bring you a good return, for we get but the theory of learning at school—the practice of it is acquired later on. This is now the springtime of your life, when the seed is sown that will afterwards spring up of whatever kind it may be. But some of you may be passing the primrose of your days: your character is being fully developed; you may long have been beneath a parent's roof, and have hung on to props and dependencies, just as the ivy clings to and climbs around the oak ; now you are left to your own resources, you may no longer have a father's counsel or a mother's care, but are thrown into the wide world among companions vain and vile. You have to shoulder your way amidst designing men and deceitful women. Oh, may the God of Jacob bless you and keep you, so that, as you ripen into the summer season of your life, it may/be with the prospect of securing a harvest of spiritual as well as of temporal profit! And that you may prosper, abhor an and beware of sloth; both will do you harm, although you may shake off me latter and increase the former. In all things look to the Lord for help; He /can cause you to steer clear where others strike upon the rock and suffer shipwreck. In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will direct your pathway. Many flowery and mossy paths may open invitingly to you, like the various rows Bunyan speaks of in Vanity Fair, where honours, profits, pleasures, and pastimes may be presented to your view in their best garb, to attract your mind and ensnare your feet—offered too at so cheap a rate that you may say, "Why should I deny myself this which costs me so little?" But oh, remember the reckoning day is to come; "for the end of all these things is death" (Rom.vi. 21).



Title The Little Gleaner
Publisher Houlston, 1879, London
Click here.