Excerpt from The Hill Readers, Vol. 4 The editors have striven to make this series of books worthy of their responsibility. The authors represented belong almost entirely to two classes: first, those Who have won applause as writers for children; second, those who are members of the world's elect circle of writers. As far as is possible in readers, each selection is given in the very words of the author and in its literary entirety. To take advantage of the fact that the fourth-reader child is perhaps in his most expansive imaginative period, an unusually large number of new as well as classic myths and wonder stories have been incorporated in this book. As a large proportion of the school children of America live in the country, especial care has been taken to include a large and varied number of selections relating to rural life. These, it is hoped, will help to foster a love for nature and for the country home, open the eyes of children to the marvelous beauties around them, and bring them nearer the life that they are to lead. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.