The New McGuffey Fourth Reader | Page 4

Sangster
Jeanette and Jo -- Mary Mapes Dodge Watseka. An Indian Legend
Harry and his Dog -- Mary Russell Milford Little Boy Blue -- Eugene
Field If I were a Boy The Tempest -- James T. Fields The Right Way --
Frank R. Stockton An Adventure with Wolves The Old Oaken Bucket
-- Samuel Woodworth The Farmer and the Fox -- James Anthony
Frowde Hiawatha's Childhood -- H. W. Longfellow At Rugby School --
Thomas Hughes Somebody's Darling -- Marie La Coste The Captive --
John R. Musick The Star-Spangled Banner -- F. S. Key Our National
Banner -- Edward Everett Burning the Fallow -- Susanna Moodie
Piccola -- Celia L. Thaxter The Mountain and the Squirrel -- R. W.
Emerson Srange Stories of Ants: White Ants -- Henry Drummond Red
Ants -- Jules Michelet Dear Country Mine -- R. W. Gilder My Country
The Four MacNicols -- William Black The Blue and the Gray -- Ellen
H. Flagg The Captain's Feather -- Samuel M. Peck The Ride to London
-- Charles Dickens The Planting of the Apple Tree -- W. C. Bryant The
Apple -- John Burroughs The Bugle Song -- Alfred Tennyson The
Story of Captain John Smith -- John Esten Cooke On the Banks of the
Tennessee -- W. D. Gallagher Good Will -- J. T. Trowbridge The Good
Reader A Legend of Bregenz -- Adelaide A. Procter The Golden Touch

-- Nathaniel Hawthorne The Brook -- Alfred Tennyson The Sermon on
the Mount -- Bible The Song of Steam -- G. W. Cutter The Gentle
Hand -- T. S. Arthur Spring -- Henry Timrod Marion's Men -- William
Gilmore Simms The Pied Piper of Hamelin -- Robert Browning

FOURTH READER
YOUNG BENJAMIN FRANKLIN.
BY NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE.
When Benjamin Franklin was a boy he was very fond of fishing; and
many of his leisure hours were spent on the margin of the mill pond
catching flounders, perch, and eels that came up thither with the tide.
The place where Ben and his playmates did most of their fishing was a
marshy spot on the outskirts of Boston. On the edge of the water there
was a deep bed of clay, in which the boys were forced to stand while
they caught their fish.
"This is very uncomfortable," said Ben Franklin one day to his
comrades, while they were standing in the quagmire.
"So it is," said the other boys. "What a pity we have no better place to
stand on!"
On the dry land, not far from the quagmire, there were at that time a
great many large stones that had been brought there to be used in
building the foundation of a new house. Ben mounted upon the highest
of these stones.
"Boys," said he, "I have thought of a plan. You know what a plague it
is to have to stand in the quagmire yonder. See, I am bedaubed to the
knees, and you are all in the same plight.
"Now I propose that we build a wharf. You see these stones? The
workmen mean to use them for building a house here. My plan is to
take these same stones, carry them to the edge of the water, and build a
wharf with them. What say you, lads? Shall we build the wharf?"
"Yes, yes," cried the boys; "let's set about it!"
It was agreed that they should all be on the spot that evening, and begin
their grand public enterprise by moonlight.
Accordingly, at the appointed time, the boys met and eagerly began to
remove the stones. They worked like a colony of ants, sometimes two
or three of them taking hold of one stone; and at last they had carried
them all away, and built their little wharf.

"Now, boys," cried Ben, when the job was done, "let's give three cheers,
and go home to bed. To-morrow we may catch fish at our ease."
"Hurrah! hurrah! hurrah!" shouted his comrades, and all scampered off
home and to bed, to dream of to-morrow's sport.
In the morning the masons came to begin their work. But what was
their surprise to find the stones all gone! The master mason, looking
carefully on the ground, saw the tracks of many little feet, some with
shoes and some barefoot. Following these to the water side, he soon
found what had become of the missing building stones.
"Ah! I see what the mischief is," said he; "those little rascals who were
here yesterday have stolen the stones to build a wharf with. And I must
say that they understand their business well."
He was so angry that he at once went to make a complaint before the
magistrate; and his Honor wrote an order to "take the bodies of
Benjamin Franklin, and other evil-disposed persons," who had stolen