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How to Gain the Full Benefit from Your Reading

No doubt you enjoyed reading the story, "The Buffalo," and you probably gained many new ideas of life on the western plains in the days before railroads crossed the continent. But if you are to get the full benefit from the story, or in fact from any selection in this book, you will need to pause long enough to notice certain facts. These will help you to enjoy more keenly and to understand more clearly what you read and to train yourself in good habits of reading.

Introductions and Reviews. First, you should read and discuss in class "The Three Joys of Reading" (pp. 11-16) and examine the Table of Contents, to gain a general understanding of the aim and purpose of the book as a whole. As you study the Contents, you will notice that each story and poem is a part of a special group that centers about some one big idea, such as Nature, Adventure, etc. Each selection will have a fuller meaning for you and will leave a more lasting impression if you understand how it, united with others in teamwork, helps to bring out the central thought of the unit. Before reading the selections in any group you are asked to read and discuss in class the "Introduction" that precedes it, in order that you may know in a general way what to expect. As a preparation for a full appreciation of "The Buffalo," read the Introduction to the Nature selections (pp. 19-20). And after you have read all the selections in a group, you will enjoy a pleasant class period discussing the Review found at the close of each unit-taking stock, as it were, of the joy and benefit gained from your reading.

In addition to the Introductions and the Reviews, this book furnishes other aids to your reading, in the form of helpful "Notes and Questions" that contain some or all of the following features:

Biography. It is always desirable to know something about the author. When you learn, for example, on page 32, that Francis Parkman made a long journey in order to gain first-hand knowledge of life in the West, you are prepared to accept his statements as coming from experience and having authority.

Discussion. After you have read the story through in preparation for the class period, you will find, under the topic "Discussion," questions and notes that will clear up points in the story so that you may gain the full meaning. For example, see 1, page 33. Other

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questions, such as 8, will call your attention to the beauty or effectiveness of the author's language. Others will bring out the connection between the thought of the selection and the central idea of the unit, as question 10. Still others, as question 9, will suggest to you topics for informal class discussions, in which you can compare situations in the story with corresponding present-day conditions.

Glossary. One of the benefits that you should gain from reading is the learning of new words and the ability to use them. At the end of the "Discussion" on page 33 you will find a list of words the meaning of which you are to look up in the Glossary (page 481) and a second list that you should find out how to pronounce by using the Glossary. Many of these words you may think you know how to pronounce correctly; but perhaps you have been mispronouncing some of them. Look in the Glossary for the words listed under question 15, and you may find that you have been mispronouncing robust or leisurely. When you are looking up words in the pronunciation lists, be sure that you also understand their meaning. In addition to the words in these lists the Glossary includes many other words. Whenever a selection contains a word that you are not sure you understand, form the habit of looking it up in the Glossary.

Besides the individual words you do not understand, you will sometimes find a phrase, or a group of words, used in some special sense. The most striking of these are listed under the topic "Phrases for Study." Look them up in the Glossary, for you will often find the hardest passage of the reading lesson made easy by the explanation of a single phrase.

NOTES AND QUESTIONS

Biographical and Historical Note. Francis Parkman (1823-1893), an American historian, was born in Boston, Massachusetts. At the age of eight years he went to live with his grandfather on a wild tract of land not far from Boston, and there he developed the fondness for outdoor life shown in all his writings. By the time he had finished college he had resolved to write the history of the French in America. For this he needed an intimate knowledge of Indian life. To gain this knowledge he made the journey described in The Oregon Trail, from which "The Buffalo" is taken. Parkman left Boston in April, 1846, accompanied by Quincy Adams Shaw, a relative, and went first to St. Louis. This trip,

made by railroad, steamboat, and stage, took two weeks. There they engaged guides and bought an outfit, including presents for the Indians. After eight days on a river steamboat they reached Independence, Missouri, where the land journey began. The entire trip took five months.

At this time there were no states west of the Missouri River, nor were there any white settlers. From Canada to what is now Oklahoma tribes of savage Indians roamed, hunting the buffalo, and warring among themselves. Two great overland routes led across this immense wild stretch from the Missouri River to the Pacific Ocean. The southern, known as the Santa Fé trail, carried a large trade between the East and Mexico and southern California; the northern, or Oregon trail, was commonly used by emigrants on their way to the northwest coast.

Discussion. 1. Locate on a map the Platte River and the region mentioned in the story. 2. What picture do you see as you read the fourth paragraph? 3. Briefly relate the incident of the first afternoon's hunting trip. 4. What do you learn of prairie animals from this story? 5. Read the description of the prairie dog found on page 29; why is this description a good one? 6. How does this description prove that Parkman was a close observer of Nature? 7. What insects that differ from those found farther east does the author mention? 8. Point out lines that show Parkman to be excellent in description. 9. Compare travel at the time the author made this trip with travel at the present time. 10. You read in the Introduction, page 15, that Nature brings adventures to those who love her; mention some adventures that Parkman had on his journey up the Platte. 11. Notice that Parkman adds interest by means of fanciful expressions, such as "skirting the brink" (page 25, line 2); explain this phrase, and find other similar fancies. 12. In what simple way did Henry determine the direction of the wind? 13. You will enjoy reading "The Bison, or American Buffalo," Roosevelt (in The Wilderness Hunter); In Texas with David Crockett and In Kentucky with Daniel Boone, McIntyre; The Boy Immigrants, Brooks. 14. Find in the Glossary the meaning of: melancholy; ravine; contemplating; languid; apprehension; declivity; furlong; canter; impetuosity; aspect; squalid; fastidious; futility; picketing. 15. Pronounce: butte; alternately; minute; bourgeois; robust; circuit; leisurely; intricacies; vehemently.

Phrases for Study

(Numbers in heavy type refer to pages; numbers in light type to lines.}

exaggerated appreciation, 21, 6 attentively scrutinized, 22, 12

overcame his scruples, 23, 34 hopelessly involved, 26, 2

drew our saddle-girths, 26, 32
easier undulations, 29, 1
supplicating attitude, 29, 29
teemed with life, 29, 35

HUNTING THE GRIZZLY BEAR*

THEODORE ROOSEVELT

1 spent much of the fall of 1889 hunting on the head-waters of the Salmon and Snake in Idaho, and along the Montana boundary line from the Big Hole Basin and the head of the Wisdom River to the neighborhood of Red Rock Pass and to the north 5 and west of Henry's Lake. During the last fortnight my companion was the old mountain man named Griffeth or Griffin-I cannot tell which, as he was always called either "Hank" or "Griff." He was a crabbedly honest old fellow, and a very skillful hunter; but he was worn-out with age and rheumatism, and 10 his temper had failed even faster than his bodily strength. He showed me a greater variety of game than I had ever seen before in so short a time; nor did I ever before or after make so successful a hunt. But he was an exceedingly disagreeable companion on account of his surly, moody ways. I generally had to get up 15 first, to kindle the fire and make ready breakfast, and he was very quarrelsome. Finally, during my absence from camp one day, while not very far from Red Rock Pass, he found my whisky-flask, which I kept purely for emergencies, and drank all the contents. When I came back he was quite drunk. This was 20 unbearable, and after some high words I left him, and struck off

homeward through the woods on my own account. We had with us four pack and saddle horses; and of these I took a very intelligent and gentle little bronco mare, which possessed the invaluable trait of always staying near camp, even when not hobbled. I 25 was not hampered with much of an outfit, having only my buffalo sleeping-bag, a fur coat, and my washing-kit, with a couple of spare pairs of socks and some handkerchiefs. A frying-pan, some salt, flour, baking-powder, a small chunk of salt pork, and a hatchet made up a light pack, which, with the bedding, I fast30 ened across the stock saddle by means of a rope and a spare

*See Silent and Oral Reading, page 40.

packing cinch. My cartridges and knife were in my belt; my compass and matches, as always, in my pocket. I walked, while the little mare followed almost like a dog, often without my having to hold the lariat which served as halter.

5 The country was for the most part fairly open, as I kept near the foot-hills, where glades and little prairies broke the pine forest. The trees were of small size. There was no regular trail, but the course was easy to keep, and I had no trouble of any kind save on the second day. That afternoon I was following a stream 10 which at last "canyoned up”—that is, sank to the bottom of a canyon-like ravine impassable for a horse. I started up a side valley, intending to cross from its head coulies to those of another valley which would lead in below the canyon.

However, I got enmeshed in the tangle of winding valleys at 15 the foot of the steep mountains, and as dusk was coming on I halted and camped in a little open spot by the side of a small, noisy brook, with crystal water. The place was carpeted with soft, wet, green moss, dotted red with the kinnikinnick berries, and at its edge, under the trees where the ground was dry, I 20 threw down the buffalo bed on the mat of sweet-smelling pine needles. Making camp took but a moment. I opened the pack, tossed the bedding on a smooth spot, knee-haltered the little mare, dragged up a few dry logs, and then strolled off, rifle on shoulder, to see if I could pick up a grouse for supper.

25 For half a mile I walked quickly and silently over the pine needles, across a succession of slight ridges separated by narrow, shallow valleys. The forest here was composed of lodgepole pines, which on the ridges grew close together, with tall slender trunks, while in the valleys the growth was more open. Though 80 the sun was behind the mountains there was yet plenty of light by which to shoot, but it was fading rapidly.

At last, as I was thinking of turning toward camp, I stole up to the crest of one of the ridges, and looked over into the valley some sixty yards off. Immediately I caught the loom of some 35 large, dark object; and another glance showed me a big grizzly

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