William Wirt's "Description of the Blind Preacher;" Phillip's "Character
of Napoleon Bonaparte;" Bacon's "Essay on Studies;" Nott's "Speech on
the Death of Alexander Hamilton;" Addison's "Westminster Abbey;"
Irving's "Alhambra;" Rogers's "Genevra;" Willis's "Parrhasius;"
Montgomery's "Make Way for Liberty;" two extracts from Milton and two
from Shakespeare, and no less than fourteen selections from the writings
of the men and women who lectured before the College of Teachers in
Cincinnati. The story of the widow of the Pine Cottage sharing her last
smoked herring with a strange traveler who revealed himself as her
long-lost son, returning rich from the Indies, was anonymous, but it
will be remembered by those who read it.

These selections were the most noteworthy ones in the first editions of
these readers.

The First and Second Readers of the McGuffey Series were substantially
made new at each revision. A comparison of the original Third Reader
with an edition copyrighted in 1847, shows that the latter book was
increased about one-third in size. Of the sixty-six selections in the
early edition only forty-seven were retained, while thirty new ones were
inserted. Among the latter were "Harry and his Dog Frisk" that brought
to him, punished by being sent to bed, a Windsor pear; "Perseverance," a
tale of kite-flying followed by the poem, "Try, try again;" the "Little
Philosopher," named Peter Hurdle, who caught Mr. Lenox's runaway horse
and on examination seemed to lack nothing but an Eclectic spelling book,
a reader and a Testament--which were promised him; "The Colonists," in
which men of various callings offered their services, and while even the
dancing master was accepted as of some possible use, the gentleman was
scornfully rejected; "Things by Their Right Names," in which a battle
was described as wholesale murder; "Little Victories," in which Hugh's