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!"