McGuffey's Fourth Eclectic Reader, Revised Edition · Lesson LXXXVI · Part 9: History, seasons and home

90. Brandywine Ford, part 2, by Bayard Taylor

Goal: Your child finishes the story and explains how Roger saved Gilbert.

⏱ 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

The conclusion: cold and stiff on the timbers, Gilbert is found by two horsemen, pulled through the water with a bridle, and carried to a farm-house. It was Roger, neighing at a farmer's door, who brought help. Definitions follow.

The lesson, step by step

  1. Warm up

    Have your child tell where we left Gilbert, and where Roger was last seen.

  2. 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:

    Interminable, endless.

    Turbid, muddy.

    Seething, boiling, bubbling.

    Inundation, a flood.

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

  3. Read it aloud

    Your child reads it aloud. Here is the new danger Gilbert faced:

    Yet a new danger now assailed him, from the increasing cold.

  4. Talk about it

    SayWhy couldn't Gilbert shout for help?

    SayHow did the rescuers reach him, since he could not swim?

    SayWho woke the farmer and his wife? How did the farmer know something was wrong?

    SayHow did Gilbert thank Roger?

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

  5. Tell it back

    Close the book. Your child tells the whole Brandywine Ford story, both parts, as Gilbert might tell it.

  6. Copywork

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

    "Here's your savior!" said one of the men, patting Roger's shoulder.

  7. Words to learn

    Learn: interminable, depressed, turbid, discerned, seething, impeding, inundation, onset, immerged, lapse. Spell each aloud, then write it with its meaning.

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