McGuffey's Fourth Eclectic Reader, Revised Edition · Lesson XXX · Part 4: Riches, eagles and good neighbors

34. The Old Eagle Tree, by Dr. John Todd

Goal: Your child reads a story aloud and explains the lesson Joseph learned from the mother eagle.

⏱ About 30 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 story: an eagle nests in an old tulip-tree. Workmen frighten her into dropping the fish she brings home. Joseph watches as she flies off again, tired, and comes back with another. Definitions and Exercises follow. The contents name Dr. John Todd as the author.

The lesson, step by step

  1. Words and meanings

    The new words are at the end of the lesson, under Definitions. The small number in front of each word is the paragraph or verse where it is used. Read them together before the lesson. A few of them:

    Sublime, grand, noble.

    Unavailing, useless.

    Clamorous, loud, noisy.

    Indecision, want of fixed purpose.

    Ask your child to find two of these words in the lesson and read the sentence each one is in.

  2. Read it aloud

    Your child reads the story aloud. It begins:

    A single tree of huge dimensions, standing all alone, is a sublime object.

  3. Talk about it

    SayWhere was the eagle's nest? What happened to the fish she brought?

    SayWhat did the eagle do after she was robbed?

    SayRelate the story of the "Old Eagle-Tree."

    SayWhat lesson was taught the boy who watched the eagle's actions?

    Let your child look back at the page to find answers.

  4. Tell it back

    Close the book. Your child tells the story as Joseph might have told it at supper that night.

  5. Copywork

    Your child copies this from the book, slowly and neatly, minding every capital letter and mark of punctuation:

    Glorious bird! I will learn a lesson from thee to-day.

  6. Words to learn

    Learn: century, dimension, sublime, dispersed, unavailing, eaglets, exhausted, nestlings. Spell each aloud, then write it with its meaning.

Afterwards

Compare this lesson with Lesson I, Perseverance. How are the eagle and the kite story alike?

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