ON THE BEACH.
Nature Readers.
SEA-SIDE AND WAY-SIDE.
No. 1.
BY
JULIA McNAIR WRIGHT.
BOSTON, U.S.A.,
D. C. HEATH & CO., PUBLISHERS.
1896.
Copyright, 1887,
By Julia McNair Wright.
Typography by J. S. Cushing & Co., Boston, U.S.A.
Presswork by Rockwell & Churchill, Boston, U.S.A.
PREFACE.
This Series of Nature Readers is intended for the use ofbeginners in reading. The subjects chosen, and their treatment,have been alike subordinated to this object. The Nature Readersare not offered as text-books in natural science, but rather as acontribution to the idea that facts of real and permanent value,may be made known, a noble taste may be cultivated, thoughtmay be developed, and the initiatory steps in an increasinglypopular study may be taken, while a child is learning to read acertain number of English words.
Should not the first short, strong Saxon sentences be ratherused to convey scientific facts, than such trivial information as,“The boy has a new hat,” or, “I had a plate of green corn toeat, on the fourth day of July”?
Lessons fresh from the sea-shore and the field, where life isseen, not in an abnormal state, as captivity, but in its own chosenhomes and natural development, cannot fail to have an educativepower of great value, even to minds of a very early age.
The real difficulty to be overcome has been to put these simplelessons concerning the habits, homes, and anatomy of certainanimals, into such words as are usually found in the most elementaryreading-books. To accomplish this, so that the series shallreach the hands for which it was intended, has been the author’schief concern. There is happily no uncertainty as to the scientificaccuracy of the work. Every substantive statement has been[Pg iv]verified by the observation of the author, or of those whose competencyfor such work is unquestioned. The practical value ofthis series of Nature Readers must now be tried in the Homes andthe Schools.
Whether the pages have been discreetly broken into paragraphsto catch restless and unaccustomed eyes, whether the words andsubjects have been fitly chosen, whether the individuality andpersonality given to irrational animals shall succeed in attractingthe interest, and fixing the wandering thought of childhood, are allquestions rather to be answered by a trial of the book, than arguedin a preface.
We bring no cat and dog stories, no tales of monkey antics;but we have endeavored to impress upon the little Heir of life,in one of its highest forms, a compr