Parker's Second Reader eBook


11.  The little birds, as you see in the picture, have very large mouths, and they keep them wide open to receive all the food that their mother drops; so that none of their food ever falls into the nest, but all goes into their mouths, and they swallow it, and it nourishes them, and makes them grow.

12.  So, also, little boys and girls should try to catch, in their ears, everything that their teacher says to them, and keep it in their minds, and be able to recollect it, by often thinking about it; and thus they will grow wise and learned, and be able to teach other little boys and girls, of their own, when they themselves grow up.

13.  Now, my little friend, please to open your eyes and see what I have put into this book for you, and open your ears to hear what your kind teacher has to say to you, that your minds may grow, and that you may become wise and good children.


The same subject, continued.

1.  I told you, in the last lesson, that I would teach you how to understand what is in this book, and how to read the hard words that you may find in this or in any other book.

2.  Now, before you can understand them, you must be able to read them; and in order that you may understand how to read them, you must take the words to pieces; that is, take a few of the letters at a time, and see whether you can read a part of the word first, and then another part, until you have read the whole of it in parts, and then you can put the parts together, and thus read the whole word.

3.  Now, in order that you may understand what I mean, I will explain it to you by taking a long word to pieces, and letting you read a part of it at a time, until you have learned how to read the whole word.

4.  In the next line, you may read the parts of the word all separated: 

    Ab ra ca dab ra.

Now you have read the parts of the word ab-ra-ca-dab-ra all separated, you can read them very easily together, so as to make one word, and the word will be Abracadabra.

5.  This long and hard word was the name of a false god, that was worshiped many hundreds of years ago, by a people who did not know the true God, whom we worship; and they very foolishly supposed that by wearing this name, written on paper, in a certain manner, it would cure them of many diseases.

6.  Here are a few more long and hard words, divided in the same manner, which you may first read by syllables, that is, one syllable at a time: 

Val e tu di na’ ri an. 
In de fat i ga bil’ i ty. 
Hy po chon dri’ a cal. 
Me temp sy cho’ sis. 
Hal lu ci na’ tion. 
Zo o no’ mi a. 
Ses qui pe dal’ i ty.

7.  You may now read these long words as they are here presented, without a division of the syllables, as follows:  valetudinarian, indefatigability, hypochondriacal, metempsychosis, hallucination, zoonomia, sesquipedality.

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Parker's Second Reader from Project Gutenberg. Public domain.
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