Chapter 8 of Prairie Folks is here in full — 325 sentences across 65 reading sections, with audio for every sentence and word.
A keeper or guardian of historical records and memories.
Chapter VIII
Chapter 8 of Prairie Folks is here in full — 325 sentences across 65 reading sections, with audio for every sentence and word.
OLD DADDY DEERING: THE COUNTRY FIDDLER. Like Scotland's harper, Or Irish piper, with his droning lays, Before the spread of modern life and light The country fiddler slowly disappears. DADDY DEERING. I. They were threshing on Farmer Jennings' place when Daddy made his very characteristic appearance.
Chapter 8 of Prairie Folks is here in full — 325 sentences across 65 reading sections, with audio for every sentence and word.
Reading 1/65 · 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.
an informal term for a father; probably derived from baby talk
From this reading “OLD DADDY DEERING: THE COUNTRY FIDDLER.”
third-person singular of “disappear” — get lost, as without warning or explanation
From this reading “Like Scotland's harper, Or Irish piper, with his droning lays, Before the spread of modern life and light The country fiddler slowly disappears.”
an unchanging intonation
From this reading “Like Scotland's harper, Or Irish piper, with his droning lays, Before the spread of modern life and light The country fiddler slowly disappears.”
a musician who plays the violin
From this reading “OLD DADDY DEERING: THE COUNTRY FIDDLER.”
someone who plays the harp
From this reading “Like Scotland's harper, Or Irish piper, with his droning lays, Before the spread of modern life and light The country fiddler slowly disappears.”
plural of “lay” — a narrative song with a recurrent refrain
From this reading “Like Scotland's harper, Or Irish piper, with his droning lays, Before the spread of modern life and light The country fiddler slowly disappears.”
someone who plays the bagpipe
From this reading “Like Scotland's harper, Or Irish piper, with his droning lays, Before the spread of modern life and light The country fiddler slowly disappears.”
possessive form of “scotland” — one of the four countries that make up the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland; located on the northern part of the island of Great Britain; famous for bagpipes and plaids and kilts
From this reading “Like Scotland's harper, Or Irish piper, with his droning lays, Before the spread of modern life and light The country fiddler slowly disappears.”
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 to join words or parts of a sentence that go together
From this reading Like Scotland's harper, Or Irish piper, with his droning lays, Before the spread of modern life and light The country fiddler slowly disappears.
outward or visible aspect of a person or thing
From this reading They were threshing on Farmer Jennings' place when Daddy made his very characteristic appearance.
earlier than; in front of
From this reading Like Scotland's harper, Or Irish piper, with his droning lays, Before the spread of modern life and light The country fiddler slowly disappears.
a prominent attribute or aspect of something
From this reading They were threshing on Farmer Jennings' place when Daddy made his very characteristic appearance.
a politically organized body of people under a single government
From this reading OLD DADDY DEERING: THE COUNTRY FIDDLER.
an informal term for a father; probably derived from baby talk
From this reading OLD DADDY DEERING: THE COUNTRY FIDDLER.
Dictionary entry pending editorial verification. Tap Listen to hear the word.
From this reading OLD DADDY DEERING: THE COUNTRY FIDDLER.
third-person singular of “disappear” — get lost, as without warning or explanation
From this reading Like Scotland's harper, Or Irish piper, with his droning lays, Before the spread of modern life and light The country fiddler slowly disappears.
an unchanging intonation
From this reading Like Scotland's harper, Or Irish piper, with his droning lays, Before the spread of modern life and light The country fiddler slowly disappears.
a person who operates a farm
From this reading They were threshing on Farmer Jennings' place when Daddy made his very characteristic appearance.
a musician who plays the violin
From this reading OLD DADDY DEERING: THE COUNTRY FIDDLER.
someone who plays the harp
From this reading Like Scotland's harper, Or Irish piper, with his droning lays, Before the spread of modern life and light The country fiddler slowly disappears.
belonging to a man, boy, or male animal already mentioned
From this reading Like Scotland's harper, Or Irish piper, with his droning lays, Before the spread of modern life and light The country fiddler slowly disappears.
the person speaking or writing, as the subject of the verb
From this reading I.
people of Ireland or of Irish extraction
From this reading Like Scotland's harper, Or Irish piper, with his droning lays, Before the spread of modern life and light The country fiddler slowly disappears.
Dictionary entry pending editorial verification. Tap Listen to hear the word.
From this reading They were threshing on Farmer Jennings' place when Daddy made his very characteristic appearance.
plural of “lay” — a narrative song with a recurrent refrain
From this reading Like Scotland's harper, Or Irish piper, with his droning lays, Before the spread of modern life and light The country fiddler slowly disappears.
a characteristic state or mode of living
From this reading Like Scotland's harper, Or Irish piper, with his droning lays, Before the spread of modern life and light The country fiddler slowly disappears.
of comparatively little physical weight or density
From this reading Like Scotland's harper, Or Irish piper, with his droning lays, Before the spread of modern life and light The country fiddler slowly disappears.
prefer or wish to do something
From this reading Like Scotland's harper, Or Irish piper, with his droning lays, Before the spread of modern life and light The country fiddler slowly disappears.
produced by a manufacturing process
From this reading They were threshing on Farmer Jennings' place when Daddy made his very characteristic appearance.
belonging to the modern era; since the Middle Ages
From this reading Like Scotland's harper, Or Irish piper, with his droning lays, Before the spread of modern life and light The country fiddler slowly disappears.
belonging to, or connected with, somebody or something
From this reading Like Scotland's harper, Or Irish piper, with his droning lays, Before the spread of modern life and light The country fiddler slowly disappears.
(used especially of persons) having lived for a relatively long time or attained a specific age
From this reading OLD DADDY DEERING: THE COUNTRY FIDDLER.
touching and supported by a surface
From this reading They were threshing on Farmer Jennings' place when Daddy made his very characteristic appearance.
used to join alternatives or possibilities
From this reading Like Scotland's harper, Or Irish piper, with his droning lays, Before the spread of modern life and light The country fiddler slowly disappears.
someone who plays the bagpipe
From this reading Like Scotland's harper, Or Irish piper, with his droning lays, Before the spread of modern life and light The country fiddler slowly disappears.
a point located with respect to surface features of some region
From this reading They were threshing on Farmer Jennings' place when Daddy made his very characteristic appearance.
possessive form of “scotland” — one of the four countries that make up the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland; located on the northern part of the island of Great Britain; famous for bagpipes and plaids and kilts
From this reading Like Scotland's harper, Or Irish piper, with his droning lays, Before the spread of modern life and light The country fiddler slowly disappears.
without speed (“slow” is sometimes used informally for “slowly”)
From this reading Like Scotland's harper, Or Irish piper, with his droning lays, Before the spread of modern life and light The country fiddler slowly disappears.
distribute or disperse widely
From this reading Like Scotland's harper, Or Irish piper, with his droning lays, Before the spread of modern life and light The country fiddler slowly disappears.
used before a noun that is already known, already mentioned, or the only one of its kind
From this reading OLD DADDY DEERING: THE COUNTRY FIDDLER.
the people, animals, or things already mentioned, as the subject
From this reading They were threshing on Farmer Jennings' place when Daddy made his very characteristic appearance.
the separation of grain or seeds from the husks and straw
From this reading They were threshing on Farmer Jennings' place when Daddy made his very characteristic appearance.
precisely as stated
From this reading They were threshing on Farmer Jennings' place when Daddy made his very characteristic appearance.
the past form of “be” used with you, we, they, or a plural noun
From this reading They were threshing on Farmer Jennings' place when Daddy made his very characteristic appearance.
at the time that
From this reading They were threshing on Farmer Jennings' place when Daddy made his very characteristic appearance.
in the company of; together with
From this reading Like Scotland's harper, Or Irish piper, with his droning lays, Before the spread of modern life and light The country fiddler slowly disappears.
Chapter 8 of Prairie Folks by Hamlin Garland holds 325 sentences, grouped into 65 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 8 holds 325 sentences of Prairie Folks, unabridged, divided into 65 reading sections.
This page carries chapter 8 of Prairie Folks by Hamlin Garland exactly as it stands in the source edition, without abridgement. It runs to 325 sentences, grouped into 65 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 65 sections in order, replaying any sentence and tapping unfamiliar words for their entries.
Each of the 65 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 8 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.
Common questions about reading Prairie Folks by Hamlin Garland on this page, its source edition and its audio.
Yes. All 3413 sentences of Project Gutenberg eBook #20697 are kept, with a record of which sentences cover which part.
Project Gutenberg eBook #20697, unabridged. The Project Gutenberg header, footer and licence are removed.
About 284 minutes of reading across 683 sections of 5 sentences each, at an unhurried pace.
How to work through Prairie Folks section by section, using the audio and the tap-to-define vocabulary.
Choose one of the 9 chapters of Prairie Folks to begin.
Each section holds 5 sentences; read it once through.
Play the section aloud, then tap any unfamiliar word for its entry.
Words and structures a reader meets early in Prairie Folks, each tappable for pronunciation and meaning.
