# Lazy Ned

- Source: McGuffey's Fourth Reader (fourth-reader.gutenberg.org), Public domain, William Holmes McGuffey, 1879, via Project Gutenberg
- Reading level: Grade 5
- Subjects: Poems, Animals
- Topics: lazy, coast, dunce, prize, silly, time
- Length: 146 words, about 1 min
- Original: <https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/14880>
- Page: <https://sprout.rootsofreason.org/r/mcguffey-fourth/fourth-07-lazy-ned>
- Open in Sprouts: <https://sprout.rootsofreason.org/?read=mcguffey-fourth/fourth-07-lazy-ned>

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1\. "'T is royal fun," cried lazy Ned,  
"To coast, upon my fine, new sled,  
And beat the other boys;  
But then, I can not bear to climb  
The tiresome hill, for every time  
It more and more annoys."

2\. So, while his schoolmates glided by,  
And gladly tugged uphill, to try  
Another merry race,  
Too indolent to share their plays,  
Ned was compelled to stand and gaze,  
While shivering in his place.

3\. Thus, he would never take the pains  
To seek the prize that labor gains,  
Until the time had passed;  
For, all his life, he dreaded still  
The silly bugbear of uphill,  
And died a dunce at last.

DEFINITIONS.-l. Roy'al, excellent, noble. Coast, to slide. An—noys', troubles. 2. In'do-lent, lazy. 3. Prize, a reward. Bug-bear, something frightful. Dunce, a silly fellow.

EXERCISES.—What did Ned like? What did he not like?

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