Excerpt from The Heath Readers: Third Reader The poetry for this grade has been selected with care for what is childlike and at the same time of high literary merit. The Great Ones of the past wrote chiefly for the adult mind, with small account of childish taste and capacity. But here and there gleam precious bits, golden bright, which the little ones of all time will eagerly seize and cherish. The Third Reader has endeavored to remember this in its selections. The fairy tales and folk-lore included have the merit of novelty as well as fascination, many of the selections never having appeared before in a reading book. It has been the aim to provide interesting material full of action, and upon subjects children like, and from the child's point of view. There has been no effort to preach or to force a moral, but bright and lovely ideals have been presented in a cheerful and natural way. All material has been graded with unusual care to avoid sudden and extreme leaps from that which is easy to that which is difficult. Acknowledgment is due to those whose helpful aid has made the Third Reader what it is. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.