McGuffey's Fourth Eclectic Reader, Revised Edition · Lesson LVIII · Part 6: Honesty, Crusoe and good-will

62. A Chinese Story, by C. P. Cranch

Goal: Your child reads a funny story poem about two near-sighted men and explains the joke at the end.

⏱ About 25 minutes · 7 steps

Open it at the Internet Archive ↗

You'll need

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

What's in the book

A story in rhyming verse: two near-sighted men, Ching and Chang, argue about who sees best and agree to test it by reading a tablet at the temple. Each sneaks there early, and the priest settles it in a surprising way. A note about the author and Definitions are included.

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:

    Near-sighted, seeing at a short distance only.

    Inscription, something written or engraved on a solid substance.

    Mandarin, a Chinese public officer.

    Patent, secured from general use, peculiar to one person.

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

  2. About the author

    The book's note says Christopher Pearse Cranch was born at Alexandria, Va. (then D. C.), in 1813. He wrote some well-known children's stories and many poems, but his greatest literary work is a translation of Virgil's "Æneid" into English blank verse.

  3. Read it aloud

    Read the poem aloud together, you as Ching and your child as Chang, with the storyteller's parts shared. Here is how the argument starts:

    Fell to disputing which could see the best;

    At last, they agreed to put it to the test.

    Then have your child read it a second time, more smoothly: the first reading is for the meaning, the second for the sound and rhythm.

  4. Talk about it

    SayWhy did each man go to the temple early?

    SayWhat words did Chang say he could read on the tablet?

    SayWhat did the priest tell them at the end?

    SayWhat was really wrong with both of them? What makes the ending funny?

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

  5. Tell it back

    Your child tells the story in prose, as a funny tale to tell at dinner.

  6. Copywork

    This is a saying: to take time by the forelock means to act early. Your child copies the line, then explains it.

    Time by the forelock he resolved to take;

  7. Words to learn

    Learn: near-sighted, chop-sticks, tablet, inscription, optics, palm, mandarin, patent. Also learn what A. M. stands for (the book explains it).

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