Chapter 1 of A Little Girl in Old Philadelphia is here in full — 264 sentences across 53 reading sections, with audio for every sentence and word.
A keeper or guardian of historical records and memories.
Chapter I
Chapter 1 of A Little Girl in Old Philadelphia is here in full — 264 sentences across 53 reading sections, with audio for every sentence and word.
TO MR. AND MRS. HENRY HORTON LAWRENCE. The early youth of an old town has a certain simplicity like the youth of human life. Its struggles, its romance, its unfolding come down through the earnest hands that have labored for its welfare and left imperishable monuments.
Chapter 1 of A Little Girl in Old Philadelphia is here in full — 264 sentences across 53 reading sections, with audio for every sentence and word.
Reading 1/52 · 5 reading units · Lines 1–5
These definitions explain words found in the current reading and keep every example grounded in its original sentence.
Oxford-style entry order: headword, part of speech, US IPA, concise definition, contextual example, and audio.
lacking natural ease
From this reading “Its struggles, its romance, its unfolding come down through the earnest hands that have labored for its welfare and left imperishable monuments.”
Roman martyr; supposedly Lawrence was ordered by the police to give up the church's treasure and when he responded by presenting the poor people of Rome he was roasted to death on a gridiron (died in 258)
From this reading “HENRY HORTON LAWRENCE.”
plural of “monument” — a structure erected to commemorate persons or events
From this reading “Its struggles, its romance, its unfolding come down through the earnest hands that have labored for its welfare and left imperishable monuments.”
a relationship between two lovers
From this reading “Its struggles, its romance, its unfolding come down through the earnest hands that have labored for its welfare and left imperishable monuments.”
the quality of being simple or uncompounded
From this reading “The early youth of an old town has a certain simplicity like the youth of human life.”
plural of “struggle” — an energetic attempt to achieve something
From this reading “Its struggles, its romance, its unfolding come down through the earnest hands that have labored for its welfare and left imperishable monuments.”
a developmental process
From this reading “Its struggles, its romance, its unfolding come down through the earnest hands that have labored for its welfare and left imperishable monuments.”
governmental provision of economic assistance to persons in need
From this reading “Its struggles, its romance, its unfolding come down through the earnest hands that have labored for its welfare and left imperishable monuments.”
Every word in these five lines is listed here, and every one of them can be played on its own.
Dictionary details are shown only when verified; these are not licensed Oxford entries.
used before a singular noun to mean one of a group, when it is not a particular one
From this reading The early youth of an old town has a certain simplicity like the youth of human life.
the form of “a” used before a word that begins with a vowel sound
From this reading The early youth of an old town has a certain simplicity like the youth of human life.
used to join words or parts of a sentence that go together
From this reading AND MRS.
definite but not specified or identified
From this reading The early youth of an old town has a certain simplicity like the youth of human life.
move toward, travel toward something or somebody or approach something or somebody
From this reading Its struggles, its romance, its unfolding come down through the earnest hands that have labored for its welfare and left imperishable monuments.
being or moving lower in position or less in some value
From this reading Its struggles, its romance, its unfolding come down through the earnest hands that have labored for its welfare and left imperishable monuments.
at or near the beginning of a period of time or course of events or before the usual or expected time
From this reading The early youth of an old town has a certain simplicity like the youth of human life.
characterized by a firm and humorless belief in the validity of your opinions
From this reading Its struggles, its romance, its unfolding come down through the earnest hands that have labored for its welfare and left imperishable monuments.
intended to be given to, or used by, somebody
From this reading Its struggles, its romance, its unfolding come down through the earnest hands that have labored for its welfare and left imperishable monuments.
(with “in”) guardianship over; in divorce cases it is the right to house and care for and discipline a child
From this reading Its struggles, its romance, its unfolding come down through the earnest hands that have labored for its welfare and left imperishable monuments.
the form of “have” used with he, she, it, or a singular noun
From this reading The early youth of an old town has a certain simplicity like the youth of human life.
used with a past participle to form the perfect tenses
From this reading Its struggles, its romance, its unfolding come down through the earnest hands that have labored for its welfare and left imperishable monuments.
a unit of inductance in which an induced electromotive force of one volt is produced when the current is varied at the rate of one ampere per second
From this reading HENRY HORTON LAWRENCE.
Dictionary entry pending editorial verification. Tap Listen to hear the word.
From this reading HENRY HORTON LAWRENCE.
characteristic of humanity
From this reading The early youth of an old town has a certain simplicity like the youth of human life.
not perishable
From this reading Its struggles, its romance, its unfolding come down through the earnest hands that have labored for its welfare and left imperishable monuments.
belonging to the thing or animal already mentioned
From this reading Its struggles, its romance, its unfolding come down through the earnest hands that have labored for its welfare and left imperishable monuments.
lacking natural ease
From this reading Its struggles, its romance, its unfolding come down through the earnest hands that have labored for its welfare and left imperishable monuments.
Roman martyr; supposedly Lawrence was ordered by the police to give up the church's treasure and when he responded by presenting the poor people of Rome he was roasted to death on a gridiron (died in 258)
From this reading HENRY HORTON LAWRENCE.
location near or direction toward the left side; i.e. the side to the north when a person or object faces east
From this reading Its struggles, its romance, its unfolding come down through the earnest hands that have labored for its welfare and left imperishable monuments.
a characteristic state or mode of living
From this reading The early youth of an old town has a certain simplicity like the youth of human life.
prefer or wish to do something
From this reading The early youth of an old town has a certain simplicity like the youth of human life.
plural of “monument” — a structure erected to commemorate persons or events
From this reading Its struggles, its romance, its unfolding come down through the earnest hands that have labored for its welfare and left imperishable monuments.
a form of address for a man
From this reading TO MR.
a form of address for a married woman
From this reading AND MRS.
belonging to, or connected with, somebody or something
From this reading The early youth of an old town has a certain simplicity like the youth of human life.
(used especially of persons) having lived for a relatively long time or attained a specific age
From this reading The early youth of an old town has a certain simplicity like the youth of human life.
a relationship between two lovers
From this reading Its struggles, its romance, its unfolding come down through the earnest hands that have labored for its welfare and left imperishable monuments.
the quality of being simple or uncompounded
From this reading The early youth of an old town has a certain simplicity like the youth of human life.
plural of “struggle” — an energetic attempt to achieve something
From this reading Its struggles, its romance, its unfolding come down through the earnest hands that have labored for its welfare and left imperishable monuments.
used to introduce what somebody said, thought, or felt
From this reading Its struggles, its romance, its unfolding come down through the earnest hands that have labored for its welfare and left imperishable monuments.
used before a noun that is already known, already mentioned, or the only one of its kind
From this reading The early youth of an old town has a certain simplicity like the youth of human life.
from one end or side of something to the other
From this reading Its struggles, its romance, its unfolding come down through the earnest hands that have labored for its welfare and left imperishable monuments.
used before the base form of a verb to make the infinitive
From this reading TO MR.
an urban area with a fixed boundary that is smaller than a city
From this reading The early youth of an old town has a certain simplicity like the youth of human life.
a developmental process
From this reading Its struggles, its romance, its unfolding come down through the earnest hands that have labored for its welfare and left imperishable monuments.
governmental provision of economic assistance to persons in need
From this reading Its struggles, its romance, its unfolding come down through the earnest hands that have labored for its welfare and left imperishable monuments.
a young person (especially a young man or boy)
From this reading The early youth of an old town has a certain simplicity like the youth of human life.
Chapter 1 of A Little Girl in Old Philadelphia by Amanda M. Douglas holds 264 sentences, grouped into 53 reading sections of at most 5 sentences. The text is the source edition, unabridged, and the chapter records which sentences cover which part of the work so that nothing is dropped. Every word can be tapped for its pronunciation and dictionary entry.
Chapter 1 holds 264 sentences of A Little Girl in Old Philadelphia, unabridged, divided into 53 reading sections.
This page carries chapter 1 of A Little Girl in Old Philadelphia by Amanda M. Douglas exactly as it stands in the source edition, without abridgement. It runs to 264 sentences, grouped into 53 sections of at most 5 sentences so that a reader can take the chapter in steady, finishable pieces. The chapter also stores a coverage record mapping every one of its sentences to a part of the work, which is how the edition demonstrates that no line was dropped.
Work through the 53 sections in order, replaying any sentence and tapping unfamiliar words for their entries.
Each of the 53 sections in this chapter is short enough to read once, hear once, and then re-read with the vocabulary in view. Tapping a word plays it alone and opens its dictionary entry with IPA, part of speech and meaning, so the reader is never forced to guess a pronunciation from spelling. Working section by section keeps a long chapter from becoming an undifferentiated wall of text, which is the usual reason a reader abandons a work of this period.
Yes — every sentence and every individual word in chapter 1 can be played aloud in United States English.
Audio covers the whole chapter: any sentence can be played, and any single word within it can be played on its own. The voice uses United States English. For a work of this period that matters, because spelling is an unreliable guide to pronunciation for vocabulary that has fallen out of daily use, and a learner who guesses wrong tends to keep the error. Hearing the word in its own sentence, and then alone, settles it.
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Yes. All 7233 sentences of Project Gutenberg eBook #28648 are kept, with a record of which sentences cover which part.
Project Gutenberg eBook #28648, unabridged. The Project Gutenberg header, footer and licence are removed.
About 600 minutes of reading across 1447 sections of 5 sentences each, at an unhurried pace.
How to work through A Little Girl in Old Philadelphia section by section, using the audio and the tap-to-define vocabulary.
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Play the section aloud, then tap any unfamiliar word for its entry.
Words and structures a reader meets early in A Little Girl in Old Philadelphia, each tappable for pronunciation and meaning.
