McGuffey's Fifth Eclectic Reader, Revised Edition · Lesson XI · Part 2: The good reader and the gentle hand

17. The Fish I Didn't Catch, by Whittier

Goal: Your child retells Whittier's memory of his first fishing trip and explains the proverb it teaches.

⏱ About 35 minutes · 7 steps

Open it at the Internet Archive ↗

You'll need

  • The book, open to this lesson
  • A notebook and pencil

What's in the book

A true story from the poet's boyhood: he hooks his first pickerel and loses it after boasting too soon, and his uncle gives him a proverb. A note about Whittier begins it; definitions end it.

The lesson, step by step

  1. Words and meanings

    Read some definitions:

    Genial, cheerful.

    Considerately, with due regard to others, kindly thoughtful.

    Modified, qualified, lessened.

    Anticipate, to take before the proper time.

    Achievement, performance, deed.

  2. About the author

    The book says John Greenleaf Whittier was born in Haverhill, Massachusetts, grew up on a farm without a classical education, edited newspapers in Boston and Hartford and an anti-slavery paper in Philadelphia, and lived in Amesbury. His parents were Friends (Quakers). "Snow-Bound" is one of his best poems.

  3. Read aloud

    Take turns by paragraph.

    "Try once more," he said; "we fishermen must have patience."

    I had lost my prize.

  4. Talk about it

    SayWhat happened when the boy finally hooked the fish?

    SayThe writer says grown-ups think children's sorrows are trifles, "but we may depend upon it the young folks don't agree with us." Do you agree?

    SayWhat did the uncle say about bragging?

    SayWho in grown-up life "brags of the fish before he catches him"?

  5. Tell it back

    Your child tells the story from the boy's point of view, with how he felt at each moment.

  6. Copywork

    Copy the uncle's advice:

    never brag of catching a fish until he is on dry ground.

    The book then prints the same advice as a proverb in capital letters. Find it on the page and copy it too.

  7. Write (optional)

    Write about a time you counted on something before it happened.

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