or a time the story, and reads
rapidly along, merely running his eye over the pages, watching intently
for the word _James_, or the word _carrier_. When either of the words
appears he stops to read carefully. He may have to go back a few words,
perhaps to the beginning of a paragraph, all the time with his attention
fixed exclusively upon what is said about James. When he has read it on
the first page, he skims along to the next one and stops again. This is
reading intelligently for a purpose, and is really one of the most
valuable kinds of reading, the kind he will use most frequently when he
is a man, the one that will save time for him when in later years he
most needs it. It is the style of reading, too, that is much neglected
in the schools.

To analyze the character of the hero of a story is as practical a lesson
in life as any child can gain. In trying to discern the springs of
action, in seeing how words and acts show character, and how dress and
appearance indicate what a person really is, he is learning to
understand his acquaintances and to judge whether they merit his trust
and confidence, or are to be regarded with suspicion and disdain. This
is the practical wisdom without which many a man has found himself the
victim of misplaced confidence, or allowed himself to be led into
temptations he could not resist by those who professed friendship for
him.

Again, when studying the scenes, a child is learning to picture vividly
and exactly, and is training his mind to close discrimination. He is
training himself to avoid the mistakes that the careless reader makes.
Many a man has found himself paying for careless reading, because he did
not see a thing exactly as it was described to him.

At the risk of repetition we have argued again for the reading of
stories in the different ways and for the different purposes suggested,
for we know that the parent who will follow these plans will interest
his children, will see them improve, and will find them growing nearer
to him, while he will be more of a companion, less of a ruler. In so
doing he may forget some of the cares of the day and find himself
growing younger, more contented and happier as his family reaches the
age when it can take care of itself. Then, later, when the long years of
old age have come, it may be that the parents will discover that while
they read and worked with their children they taught themselves to find
in reading a solace for their lonel