COPYRIGHT, 1910, BY HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY ALL RIGHTS RESERVED The text of this volume is used by permission of, and by PREFATORY NOTE OWING largely to the specifications of the College Entrance Requirements, the Sketch-Book alone, of all Irving's work, is read in the majority of secondary schools. Though a perfectly natural, this is an unfortunate condition of things. Undoubtedly the Sketch-Book is the most widely known, the most literary "classic," of Irving's books; but for pupils of high-school age the Tales of a Traveller, The Alhambra, and portions of Bracebridge Hall are just as instructive, much less difficult to understand, and vastly more interesting. The editor has repeatedly used these selections from Bracebridge Hall in the two lower classes of the high school with pleasure and, he believes, with profit. Without doubt they could be read in the upper grammar grades. They furnish an admirable preparation for the study later of longer and more difficult essays. Moreover, they are excellent material to use in the teaching of composition, especially the construction of unified, coherent paragraphs. They ought, as well, to interest every normal boy and girl. At the end of the book will be found explanatory notes; also a few questions and lists of words for dictionary study. Each individual teacher must of course decide whether it is profitable to use these notes or to neglect them entirely. They are intended only as suggestions. SAMUEL THURBER, JR. 215506 |