THE HILL READERS BY DANIEL HARVEY HILL AND FRANK LINCOLN STEVENS OF THE NORTH CAROLINA COLLEGE OF AGRICULTURE AND MECHANIC ARTS PREFACE To help young readers in their first approach to the literature that is life, the editors of this book have sought to cull from the masters of thought and of expression, both in our own and in other tongues, such selections as illustrate the power and the methods of these writers, and also such as may by their intelligibility and attractiveness incite young minds to first-hand study. As a further introduction to such study the biographical sketches of the authors represented have been made unusually full. In this book, as well as in the other books of the series, the fact that a large proportion of American children live in the country, and that all children are interested in country life, has been kept in mind. Many selections bearing on the various forms of rural life have been included. These it is hoped will help to foster a love for nature, for rural pursuits, and for the country home. The editors render thanks to publishers, authors, and private copyright holders, for permission to use material, as follows: to D. Appleton & Co. for the selection from Bryant; to Dodd, Mead & Co. for the selections from Ian Maclaren and from Maeterlinck; to E. J. Hale & Son, through Major E. J. Hale, for the selection from Timrod; to Lothrop, Lee & Shepard for the selection from Eva March Tappan's In the Days of William the Conqueror; |