McGuffey's Fifth Eclectic Reader, Revised Edition · Lesson LXXXIV · Part 8: Dickens, Irving and poems of the heart

90. Turtle Soup (C. F. Briggs)

Goal: Your child tells a funny sea story in order and explains the joke at the end.

⏱ About 35 minutes · 6 steps

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You'll need

  • The book, open to this lesson
  • A notebook or lined paper and a pencil

What's in the book

A humorous sea story by Charles Frederick Briggs, told by a sailor working his passage on a ship. The cabin passengers look forward all week to a fine green turtle soup; the narrator, at the wheel, lets the ship lurch just as the steward carries the soup on deck. Definitions and a note follow.

The lesson, step by step

  1. About the author

    The book says Charles Frederick Briggs (b. 1804, d. 1877) was born on the island of Nantucket, lived in New York City, started the "Broadway Journal" with Edgar A. Poe in 1845, and edited "Putnam's Magazine." This story is from "Working a Passage; or, Life on a Liner."

  2. Words and meanings

    The words and meanings are printed at the end of the lesson. Read a few together before the reading, so they don't trip your child up:

    Aft, toward the stern of a vessel.

    Galley, the kitchen of a ship.

    Tureen, a large deep vessel for holding soup.

    Scuppers, channels cut through the side of a ship for carrying off water from the deck.

    The note says "four bells" means two o'clock.

  3. Read aloud

    Your child reads the story aloud. Give the captain a big voice:

    "Hurry with the soup, steward," roared the captain.

    And here is the narrator, at the end:

    I enjoyed the turtle a thousand times more than I should have done if I had eaten the whole of it.

  4. Talk about it

    SayHow did the passengers get ready for the turtle soup? Which detail is funniest?

    SayThe narrator ate dry bread and salt meat while they feasted. How did he feel about them?

    SayWas the spill an accident? What makes you think so, or not?

    SayWhy does the story end with the words "cold ham"?

  5. Tell it back

    Close the book.

    SayTell me the story of the turtle soup, with as much fun as the writer told it.

    Older children can write their narration in a short paragraph instead. Don't correct while they talk; just listen.

  6. Dictation

    Read this aloud while your child writes it:

    "Hurry with the soup, steward," roared the captain.

    Check the quotation marks and the comma inside them.

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