McGuffeys Third Eclectic Reader | Page 4

very much to go out and see them,--they look so pretty. Father. Well, are you sorry when you see the horses, cows, or sheep drinking at the brook to quench their thirst? Rose. Why, father, you must think I am a cruel girl, to wish that the poor horses that work so hard, the beautiful cows that
THIRD READER. 19 give so much nice milk, and the pretty lambs should always be thirsty. Father. Do you not think they would die, if they had no water to drink? Rose. Yes, sir, I am sure they would. How shocking to think of such a thing! Father. I thought little Rose was sorry it rained. Do you think the trees and flowers would grow, if they never had any water on them? Rose. No, indeed, father, they would be dried up by the sun. Then we should not have any pretty flowers to look at, and to make wreaths of for mother. Father. I thought you were sorry it rained. Rose, what is our bread made of? Rose. It is made of flour, and the flour is made from wheat, which is ground in the mill. Father. Yes, Rose, and it was rain that helped to make the wheat grow, and it was water that turned the mill to grind the wheat. I thought little Rose was sorry it rained. Rose. I did not think of all these things, father. I am truly very glad to see the rain falling.
20 ECLECTIC SERIES.
LESSON IV.
CASTLE-BUILDING.
1. "O pussy!" cried Herbert, in a voice of anger and dismay, as the blockhouse he was building fell in sudden ruin. The playful cat had rubbed against his mimic castle,
THIRD READER. 21 and tower and wall went rattling down upon the floor. 2. Herbert took up one of the blocks and threw it fiercely at pussy. Happily, it passed over her and did no harm. His hand was reaching for another block, when his little sister Hetty sprang toward the cat, and caught her up. 3. "No, no, no!" said she, "you sha'n't hurt pussy! She did n't mean to do it!" 4. Herbert's passion was over quickly, and, sitting down upon the floor, he covered his face with his hands, and began to cry. 5. "What a baby!" said Joe, his elder brother, who was reading on the sofa. "Crying over spilled milk does no good. Build it up again." 6. "No, I won't," said Herbert, and he went on crying. 7. "What's all the trouble here?" exclaimed papa, as he opened the door and came in. 8. "Pussy just rubbed against Herbert's castle, and it fell down," answered Hetty. "But she did n't mean to do it; she did n't know it would fall, did she, papa?" 9. "Why, no! And is that all the trouble?"
22 ECLECTIC SERIES. 10. "Herbert!" his papa called, and held out his hands. "Come." The little boy got up from the floor, and came slowly, his eyes full of tears, and stood by his father. 11. "There is a better way than this, my boy," said papa. "If you had taken that way, your heart would have been light already. I should have heard you singing over your blocks instead of crying. Shall I show you that way?" 12. Herbert nodded his head, and papa sat down on the floor by the pile of blocks, with his little son by his side, and began to lay the foundation for a new castle.
LESSON V.

CASTLE-BUILDING. (CONCLUDED)
1. Soon, Herbert was as much interested in castle-building as he had been a little while before. He began to sing over his work. All his trouble was gone.
THIRD READER. 23 2. "This is a great deal better than crying, is n't it?" said papa. 3. "Crying for what?" asked Herbert, forgetting his grief of a few minutes before. 4. "Because pussy knocked your castle over." 5. "Oh!" A shadow flitted across his face, but was gone in a moment, and he went on building as eagerly as ever. 6. "I told him not to cry over spilled milk," said Joe, looking down from his place on the sofa. 7. "I wonder if you did n't cry when your kite string broke," retorted Herbert. 8. "Losing a kite is quite another thing," answered Joe, a little dashed. "The kite was gone forever; but your blocks were as good as before, and you had only to build again." 9. "I do n't see," said papa, "that crying was of any more use in your case then in Herbert's. Sticks and paper are easily found, and you had only to go to work and make another kite." Joe looked down at his book, and went on reading. By this time the castle was finished. 10. "It is ever so much nicer than