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

63. The Way to be Happy

Goal: Your child reads a short essay about friendship and names the "infallible rule" it gives.

⏱ About 25 minutes · 7 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 short essay on happiness and friendship, opening with a verse: we cannot be happy without friends, and the only sure way to have friends is to be friendly and make others happy. Definitions and Exercises follow.

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:

    Sacrifices, things given up to oblige others.

    Generosity, kindness, nobleness of soul.

    Infallible, certain, that can not fail.

    Manifest, to show plainly.

    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 it aloud. It opens with a little verse:

    'Tis not in titles nor in rank,

    'Tis not in wealth like London bank,

    To make us truly blest.

  3. Talk about it

    SayCan we be happy without friends?

    SayHow can we win the love of those about us?

    SayWhose fault is it if we are not loved?

    SayWhat rule will surely gain us love and friendship if we always follow it?

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

  4. The examples

    The essay gives examples: giving up your place by the stove on a cold morning, and giving your turn at bat to someone left out. Ask your child for one example from their own life where they could do the same.

  5. Tell it back

    Your child tells, in their own words, the essay's rule for making friends and one example of it.

  6. Copywork

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

    There is but one way to make friends; and that is, by being friendly to others.

  7. Words to learn

    Learn: cultivating, unpopular, companions, sacrifices, promote, generosity, infallible, manifest. Spell each aloud, then write it with its meaning.

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