mother consoled him for the loss of a leg by telling him of the lives of
men who became celebrated under even greater adversities; "The Wonderful
Instrument," which turned out to be the eye; "Metaphysics," a ludicrous
description of a colonial salt-box in affected terms of exactness
designed to ridicule some forms of reasoning. Those who used this
edition of the third reader will surely remember some of these
selections.

[The Bible]

In the Fourth Reader printed in 1844 there were thirty new
selections--less than one-third of the book; but some of these were
such as will be remembered by those who read them in school. There was
"Respect for the Sabbath Rewarded," in which a barber of Bath had become
so poor because he would not shave his customers on Sunday, that he
borrowed a half-penny to buy a candle Saturday night to give light for
a late customer, and was thus discovered to be the long-lost William
Reed of Taunton, heir to many thousand pounds; "The Just Judge," who
disguised himself as a miller and, obtaining a place on the jury,
received only five guineas as a bribe when the others got ten, and who
revealed himself as Lord Chief Justice Hale and tried the case over in
his miller's clothing; Hawthorne's "The Town Pump;" Mrs. Southey's
"April Day."

"All day the low-hung clouds have dropped
Their garnered fullness down.
All day a soft gray mist hath wrapped
Hill, valley, grove and town."