McGuffey's & KISS KISS Grammar Main Course Page

The KISS Presentation and Analysis of
McGuffey's Fifth Eclectic Reader

The text and graphics of this reader were scanned for this site 
by John Bradshaw in Sydney, Australia.

Links from the Lesson Column lead to the texts.*
The "#" column indicates the lesson number in the original.
"Page" indicates the beginning page in the original.
The "Stats" column links to a statistical analysis of the text.
"L" columns link to KISS levels of analyzed text.
# Lesson Page Stats L1 L1A L2 L3 L4 L5
1. The Good Reader 39
2. The Bluebell 43
3. The Gentle Hand (T. S. Arthur) 44
4. The Grandfather (C. G. Eastman) 49
5. A Boy on a Farm (C. D. Warner) 50
6. The Singing Lesson (Jean Ingelow) 52
7. Do not Meddle 54
8. Work (Eliza Cook) 59
9. The Maniac 60
10. Robin Redbreast (W. Allingham) 62
11. The Fish I Did n't Catch (Whittier) 63
12. It Snows (Mrs. S. J. Hale) 67
13. Respect for the Sabbath Rewarded 69
14. The Sands o' Dee
(Charles Kingsley)
71
15. Select Paragraphs (Bible) 72
16. The Corn Song (Whittier) 74
17. The Venomous Worm
(John Russell)
77
18. The Festal Board 78
19. How to Tell Bad News 81
20. The Battle of Blenheim (Southey) 82
21. I Pity Them 86
22. An Elegy on Madam Blaize (Goldsmith) 87
23. King Charles II. and William Penn (Mason L. Weems) 88
24. What I Live For 91
25. The Righteous Never Forsaken 92
26. Abou Ben Adhem (Leigh Hunt) 95
27. Lucy Forrester (John Wilson) 96
28. The Reaper and the Flowers. (Longfellow) 101
29. The Town Pump (Hawthorne) 103
30. Good Night (Peter Parley) 108
31. An Old fashioned Girl 
(Louisa M. Alcott)
110
32. My Mother's Hands 113
33. The Discontented Pendulum
(Jane Taylor)
114
34. The Death of the Flowers (Bryant) 117
35. The Thunderstorm (Irving) 119
36. April Day (Mrs. C. A. Southey) 121
37. The Tea Rose 123
38. The Cataract of Lodore (Southey) 128
39. The Bobolink (Irving) 132
40. Robert of Lincoln (Bryant) 135
41. Rebellion in Massachusetts State Prison  (J. T. Buckingham) 138
42. Faithless Nelly Gray Hood 143
43. The Generous Russian Peasant (Nikolai Karamzin) 146
44. Forty Years Ago 148
45. Mrs. Caudle's Lecture 
(Douglas Jerrold)
151
46. The Village Blacksmith (Longfellow) 154
47. The Relief of Lucknow 
(London Times)
156
48. The Snowstorm (Thomson) 159
49. Behind Time 161
50. The Old Sampler 
(Mrs. M. E. Sangster)
163
51. The Goodness of God (Bible) 167
52. My Mother 170
53. The Hour of Prayer
(Mrs. F. A Hemans)
171
54. The Will 172
55. The Nose and the Eyes (Cowper) 176
56. An Iceberg (L. L. Noble) 177
57. About Quail (W. P. Hawes) 180
58. The Blue and the Gray 
(F. M. Finch)
183
59. The Machinist's Return 
(Washington 11 Capital)
185
60. Make Way for Liberty 
(James Montgomery)
189
61. The English Skylark (Elihu Burritt) 193
62. How Sleep the Brave 
(William Collins)
195
63. The Rainbow (John Keble) 195
64. Supposed Speech of John Adams (Daniel Webster) 196
65. The Rising (T. B. Read) 200
66. Control your Temper 
(Dr. John Todd)
204
67. William Tell (Sheridan Knowles) 207
68. William Tell (Sheridan Knowles) 216
69. The Crazy Engineer 221
70. The Heritage (Lowell) 228
71. No Excellence without Labor (William Wirt) 230
72. The Old House Clock 232
73. The Examination (D. P. Thompson) 234
74. The Isle of Long Ago 
(B. F. Taylor)
239
75. The Boston Massacre (Bancroft) 241
76. Death of the Beautiful.
(Mrs. E. L. Follen)
245
77. Snow Falling (J. J. Platt) 246
78. Squeers's Method (Dickens) 247
79. The Gift of Empty Hands 
(Mrs. S. M. B. Piatt)
252
80. Capturing the Wild Horse (Irving) 253
81. Sowing and Reaping 
(Adelaide Anne Procter)
258
82. Taking Comfort (Whittier) 259
83. Calling the Roll (Shepherd) 262
84. Turtle Soup (C. F. Briggs) 263
85. The Best Kind of Revenge 266
86. The Soldier of the Rhine
(Mrs. C. L. S. Norton)
269
87. The Winged Worshipers 
(Charles Sprague)
271
88. The Peevish Wife 
(Maria Edgeworth)
273
89. The Rainy Day (Longfellow) 276
90. Break, Break, Break (Tennyson) 277
91. Transportation and Planting of Seeds (H. D. Thoreau) 278
92. Spring Again (Mrs. Celia Thaxter) 282
93. Religion the only Basis of Society (William E. Channing) 284
94. Rock Me to Sleep 
(Mrs. E. A. Allen)
286
95. Man and the Inferior Animals 
(Jane Taylor)
288
96. The Blind Men and the Elephant 
(J. G. Saxe)
290
97. A Home Scene (D. G. Mitchell) 292
98.  The Light of Other Days (Moore) 295
# Lesson Page Stats L1 L1A L2 L3 L4 L5
99. A Chase in the English Channel (Cooper) 296
100 Burial of Sir John Moore 
(Charles Wolfe)
301
101 Little Victories (Harriet Martineau) 302
102 The Character of a Happy Life 
(Sir Henry Wotton)
308
103 The Art of Discouragement (Arthur Helps) 309
104 The Mariner's Dream
(William Dimond)
312
105 The Passenger Pigeon (Audubon) 315
106 The Country Life
(R. H. Stoddard)
319
107 The Virginians (Thackeray) 321
108 Minot's Ledge 
(Fitz James O'Brien)
326
109 Hamlet (Shakespeare) 328
110 Dissertation on Roast Pig 
(Charles Lamb)
333
111 A Pen Picture (William Black) 338
112 The Great Voices (C. T. Brooks) 342
113 A Picture of Human Life
(Samuel Johnson)
343
114 A Summer Longing 
(George Arnold)
348
115 Fate  (Bret Harte) 349
116 The Bible the Best of Classics 
(T. S. Grimké)
350
117 My Mother's Bible (G. P. Morris) 351
*  Because these are intended as instructinal material for young students, minor changes in punctuation have been made in some of the text to reflect current practice.