McGuffey's Fourth Eclectic Reader, Revised Edition · Lesson LXXIX · Part 8: Truth, wisdom and work

83. Hugh Idle and Mr. Toil, part 1, by Hawthorne

Goal: Your child reads the first half of Hawthorne's story and predicts how it will end.

⏱ About 30 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

Adapted from Hawthorne's "Little Daffydowndilly": lazy Hugh Idle runs away from his stern schoolmaster, Mr. Toil, and walks with a kindly stranger, but everywhere they go, in the hayfield and at the building site, there seems to be another Mr. Toil. A note about Hawthorne 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:

    Sedate, calm.

    Disposition, natural state of mind.

    Resemblance, likeness.

    Visage, the face.

    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 the story is adapted from "Little Daffydowndilly," by Nathaniel Hawthorne. The author was born at Salem, Mass., in 1804, and ranks among the first of American novelists.

  3. Read it aloud

    Your child reads it aloud. It begins:

    Hugh Idle loved to do only what was agreeable, and took no delight in labor of any kind.

  4. Talk about it

    SayWhy did Hugh run away from school?

    SayWho did Hugh meet on the road? What did they have in common?

    SayWhom did Hugh think he saw in the hayfield? Among the carpenters?

    SayWhat do you notice about the names in this story: Hugh Idle and Mr. Toil?

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

  5. Tell it back

    Close the book.

    SayTell me what happened on Hugh's journey so far. Who do you think the stranger is?

  6. Copywork

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

    Now Hugh was a boy of very frank disposition, and had never been known to tell a lie in all his life.

  7. Words to learn

    Learn: agreeable, affirmed, sedate, moderate, disposition, sociably, resemblance, diligent, visage. Spell each aloud, then write it with its meaning.

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