whitewin´-tersor´-rypressedly´-ingdin´-nerheardmealtur´-nipread´-ypeo´-plemeanpickedbut´-terbreadjok´-ing
1. 'What are those sheep eating over there, at the far end of the field? There is something white all over the grass. What can it be?'
'Chalk?' Dora asked.
'No, they never would be so silly! Let us go and see.'
2. Up they got, and away they went. They found that the white things lying about on the grass were bits of turnip.
Harry picked one up and looked at it. It was only a round rind: all the inside had been eaten out.
3. He took it home with him to show to his mother, and she said:
'I saw some bits like this that were shooting out green leaves when spring came. They had been lying out on the ground in the winter, yet there was so much life in them that they could grow again. But, come, wash your hands: dinner is ready, and I have something to tell you. We are going to have turnips for dinner!'
He took it home with him to show to his mother.He took it home with him to show to his mother.
He took it home with him to show to his mother.He took it home with him to show to his mother.
4. When Harry had his helping of turnips he said:
'Now I am a sheep!'
'No,' said Dora, 'the sheep don't boil their turnips, or mash them with nice butter.'
5. 'But raw turnip is very nice,' said her father. 'I have often eaten one out in the fields. I am not at all sorry for the sheep.'
6. 'I have heard,' said mother, 'that, when corn was very dear, people had to use turnips in making bread. They say the bread looked good, and kept well. The water was first pressed out of the turnips, and then they were mixed with wheat-meal.'
7. 'I wish you would make some, mother,' said Dora, 'just for fun, to see what it is like.'
'I will—some day.'
8. 'What did you mean, mother,' Harry asked, 'about water in turnips?'
'There is a great deal of water in turnips,' said mother.
9. 'Turnips are nearly all water,' said father.
'Now, father, you must be joking,' cried Harry.
'No, I am not. Am I, mother?'
Mother smiled, and said 'No.'
peaswatchedhalfwith´-erflow´-ersthoughtcount´-edstayedten´-drilspur´-posetrueshin´-yun-rolled´but´-ter-fliesflow´-ertouched
1. Dora was alone in the garden. She had played about till she was tired, when she found herself close to the bed of peas. She had seen her father sow the peas, and now there were tall plants with leaves and flowers and green tendrils.
2. Dora unrolled one or two of these tendrils, and then watched them roll up again. She thought:
'How funny it is of the plant to put these out on purpose to take hold of the sticks! And how pretty the flowers are! They look like little white butterflies. I will pull one open.'
3. She picked a flower, and sat downwith it on the grass. Inside of it she found something long and green. This she opened, and saw a row of tiny green balls.
Pea-flower.Pea-flower.
Pea-flower.Pea-flower.
4. Not one of them was half as big as a pin's head. They were all in a row, and Dora counted seven of them.
She picked out each one and laid them on her hand to look at.
5. Then it came into her mind that these little mites of things must be baby-peas. And she felt sorry to think what she had done, for she could not putthem back into their nest, and now they would never grow up to be big.
6. She told Harry about it next day, and he said, yes, it was very true. But he must pull open just one flower himself and see the peas inside; and so he did. There were six peas in his flower.
7. Every day after this, Dora and Harry came to look at the plants.
For a long time the flowers were very pretty. Then they began to wither. One by one they dropped off; but the inside part of each stayed on, looking green and shiny.
8. The children called these shiny green things bags, till they heard some one say that they were pods.
Sometimes they touched them. They soon began to feel the peas inside. The pods grew larger and fatter every day.
bas´-ketwon´-der-fulweath´-ersu´-garshell´-ingbreak´-ingearthstarchbas´-infair´-ymoistearthtaughthap´-penspeasun´-light
Pea-pods.Pea-pods.
Pea-pods.Pea-pods.
1. At last, one sunny morning, mother came out with a basket and began to pick the pods. Harry and Dora wished to help her, and all three were soon at work.
2. Next, the shelling began. Mother had a basin in her lap, and the two children sat close to her and shelled their peas into it.
3. They told her how they had shelled the baby-peas. She taught them how each plant was a living thing, and had a tiny plant inside of it, all ready tocome out at the right time. This was very wonderful.
4. 'Did that big plant come out of one little pea?' cried Dora.
'I can't see a little plant inside,' said
Harry, breaking one of the peas open.
5. 'Yet it is there, a fairy-plant, with a root, a stem, and two leaves. These leaves take up nearly all the room in the green ball. How would you like to have two or three of these peas to plant? There! I can spare you three each from to-day's dinner.'
6. The children were glad to have them. 'I wish we could see them grow,' said Dora. 'What happens, mother, when they are in the earth?'
7. 'Do you mean, How do they begin to grow? Well, the weather must be rather warm, and the earth moist, and the pea swells itself out till it bursts open its thin coat. The little root goes down to fasten it firmly in the ground, and to look for food. Then the little stem and the two leaves come up to get air and sunshine. That is how it begins.'
8. 'What food is there in the ground? What food do the roots find?'
'Lime and iron'——
'Iron!' cried Harry.
9. 'Yes, there is iron in green peas! There are sugar, too, and starch, and fat, and water, and other things. Some come out of the earth, some come out of the air and the sunlight, and some the plant makes for itself. Oh, it is a very clever plant! But all plants are clever, I think.'
pock´-etsheav´-ycop´-persup-pose´mar´-blesweightthoughtwheatwrappedlight´-erzinci´-ronsizethoughmet´-alsket´-tle
1. 'What have you in your pockets, father?' asked Harry, pulling at them. 'Nuts? stones? marbles?'
'Put your hand in, and find out. Here, Dora, you can try the other pocket.'
2. In went two hands, and out came little hard lumps, each wrapped in paper. The children laid them on the table ina row, and wanted to know what they were.
'What have you in your pockets, father?''What have you in your pockets, father?'
'What have you in your pockets, father?''What have you in your pockets, father?'
3. They were not nuts, nor marbles, and not quite like stones. They were all about the same size, but one was very heavy. Harry and Dora held it in their hands to feel how heavy it was.
4. 'That is a bit of lead,' said their father. 'Which do you think is the next in weight?'
'This red one. It is a good deal lighter, though!'
'That is called copper. Now, what comes next?'
5. They were not sure, but thought that iron came next, and then tin, and then zinc. Their father told them these names as they went on. He told them also that all these things were metals, and had been dug out of the earth.
6. 'Suppose we make a box to keep them in?'
'Oh yes!' cried both.
'And if we find any more things like these, we will put them in.
7. 'Would you put in a buttercup?'
'No, no!'
'Or a grain of wheat?'
'No, it is not at all like these.'
'Or a bit of slate?'
'I think so,' said Harry.
Dora was not quite sure.
8. 'Yes, we will put the slate into the box. It is not a metal, but it came out of the ground. Now, what do you say to this?' And he pulled out a lump that looked like earth and stone.
9. What could this be? It was iron,just as it had come out of the ground, with clay and earth about it.
10. 'Once upon a time,' said father, 'the kettle, and the poker, and the fender, all looked like this!'
danc´-ingsea´-sonssphereau´-tumnfair´-yyearsum´-mertress´-esqueencir´-cleglidecheeks
1. Let us dance and let us sing,Dancing in a merry ring;We'll be fairies on the green,Sporting round the fairy queen.2. Like the seasons of the yearRound we circle in a sphere;I'll be Summer, you'll be Spring,Dancing in a fairy ring.3. Spring and Summer glide away,Autumn comes with tresses gay;Winter, hand-in-hand with Spring,Dancing in a fairy ring.4. Faster, faster round we go,While our cheeks with roses glow,Free as birds upon the wing,Dancing in a fairy ring.
1. Let us dance and let us sing,Dancing in a merry ring;We'll be fairies on the green,Sporting round the fairy queen.
2. Like the seasons of the yearRound we circle in a sphere;I'll be Summer, you'll be Spring,Dancing in a fairy ring.
3. Spring and Summer glide away,Autumn comes with tresses gay;Winter, hand-in-hand with Spring,Dancing in a fairy ring.
4. Faster, faster round we go,While our cheeks with roses glow,Free as birds upon the wing,Dancing in a fairy ring.
treatcoilsstretchedmid´-dlehol´-i-dayssteelstraightchop´-pingauntwirema-chine´droppednee´-dleswrappedun´-clee-nough´
1. Harry and Dora once had a great treat.
They went in the holidays to stay with an uncle and aunt who lived at a town where needles were made. We may call it Needle-town.
2. While they were there, they were taken to the mills to see the needles made.
3. The first room into which they went was very warm. It was called the wire-room. A workman who was there told them that it was filled with hot air night and day, so that no damp should come in and spoil the steel.
4. All round the room coils of steel-wire were hanging. They were wrapped up in paper, but the man took some of them down and let them look in. They saw that one coil was of very thick wire, while another was of wire as fine as a hair.
5. 'One of these coils would be more than a mile long if it were stretched out straight,' the man told Harry. 'Would you like to take hold of this one?'
But Harry found it too heavy, and it was hung up again on the wall.
6. Then they went into another room, where a machine was cutting a coil of wire into bits.
'They are much too long for needles,' said Dora, softly, to her uncle; but one of the workmen heard her, and said:
7. 'So they are! Each bit is going to be two needles. The two ends are to be the points, and the heads lie in the middle of the wire.'
8. But no heads were to be seen yet. And the wire was not even straight, for it had long been rolled up in a coil. As the machine went on chopping, and the wire-strips dropped, a man picked them up and put them on a shelf in a sort of oven.
9. There they were kept till they were red-hot, and then they were soft enough to be made straight.
'Now you see the points of the needles.''Now you see the points of the needles.'
'Now you see the points of the needles.''Now you see the points of the needles.'
pointsun´-cleham´-merwatchedheadsblockal-lowed´pieceeyesheav´-ylaugh´-ingsharp
1. The next thing that the children saw was a grindstone turning round very, very fast.
2. A man put the bits of wire into a thing which was fixed just over the grindstone, and both ends were quickly rubbed sharp.
3. 'Now you see the points of the needles,' said the man, as the wire came out again.
'But there are no heads yet!' said Harry.
'And no eyes!' said Dora.
'Well, come along to the stamping-room,' said their uncle.
4. In this room they found a block of stone that had iron on the top of it. Over it hung a heavy hammer. A man who stood there took one of the wires, put it on the block, and made the hammer come down upon it.
5. The moment the hammer went up again the wire fell into a pan, and the children were allowed to look at it.
6. Still there were no eyes or heads! All that could be seen were two little dents, one on each side of the middle of the wire.
7. 'But, look again!' said uncle. 'Don't you see a tiny dot in each dent? That is where the eye is going to be.'
8. In the next room they found a great number of boys at work.
'Oh, uncle,' said Harry, 'do you thinkI could come here and help to make needles?'
'You would soon be tired of it,' said his uncle, laughing.
9. They went up to one of the boys, and watched him for some time. He took some wires that had come from the stamping-room, and laid them on a piece of iron, but held the two ends in his hands.
10. Then a heavy thing with two hard, sharp, steel points under it came down on the middle part of the wires, and made two holes just where the dots had been.
'Now we see the eyes, at last!' cried Dora.
thread´-ingroughov´-enbreak´-ingto-geth´-eredg´-essec´-ondbenchtooth´-combnee´-dlesteam´-ingham´-mersmooththoughte-nough´straight
1. They went on into another room. Here there were boys again! And whatwere the boys doing? They were threading the wires together.
2. When they were all strung together, they looked like a long tooth-comb. The heads were in the middle, and the points lay on either side.
3. The boys took them to some of the workmen, and these men made the middle part quite smooth. Rough edges had been left along the tiny dents, and had to be rubbed down.
4. When this was done, a man made a line along the middle of the 'comb,' and then gently bent it backwards and forwards till it broke right in the middle.
5. Harry and Dora were glad to see this. Each bit of wire looked like a needle now. It had a head of its own, and an eye, and a point.
6. The next thing was to make the needles hard. Dora and Harry thought they looked quite hard already, but they did not know.
7. How were they hardened? Theywere first laid on iron plates and put into a kind of oven.
'This is the second baking they have had,' said Harry.
They were kept in till they were white-hot.
8. When the needles came out, they were put into cold water! What a hissing and steaming they made! But they had to lie there till they were quite cool.
9. Then they were taken out and dried. The man said they were hard enough now, but something else must be done to them to make them able to bend well without breaking.
10. They were put on an iron plate over a fire, and gently moved about. Some of them curled up, and had to be taken off.
11. They were given to a woman, who was sitting on a bench with a little hammer in her hand and a small steel block in front of her. She laid a curly needle on the block, and hammered it till it was straight, and then another, and another.
clean´-ingoilman´-gleFri´-daypieceem´-er-ya-fraid´pointscan´-vaspow´-derbrok´-enhun´-grysoapbun´-dlesec´-ondlaugh´-ing
1. The cleaning of the needles came next.
2. A great many were laid side by side on a piece of canvas, and covered with paste.
'What is the paste made of?' Harry wanted to know.
'Soft soap, my lad,' said the workman, 'and oil, and emery-powder.'
3. He rolled them all up in the canvas, tied string round the bundle, and put it between the rollers of a thing that looked like a mangle.
4. Dora and Harry opened their eyes wide. 'Think of needles being mangled! This will be something to tell mother!'
5. When the bundle was unrolled, they were afraid that the needles would be broken. But they were all right, andthey were taken out and washed in warm soap-suds.
6. 'Now they must be clean!' said Dora.
'Not yet,' said the man; 'they have to be rolled up again with more paste, and put between those rollers again, and again, and again. It takes eight days to clean the best needles.
7. 'And it takes six days to clean the second-best,' said the man.
'Then even the second-best won't be done till Friday!' said Harry.
8. 'But we can go and see some needles that have been cleaned,' said his uncle. 'Let us go up-stairs again.'
9. And they went up into a room where many girls were sitting at a long table with heaps of bright needles before them. They were putting them in order, side by side, heads all one way, points another.
Dora was sure that she could not pick them out so quickly.
10. They were going on into another room to see the eyes of the needles made smooth, when Dora said, 'Oh, uncle, I am so tired!'
'So am I,' said Harry, 'and hungry, too.'
11. 'Come along, then,' said uncle, laughing. 'We all want our dinners, I think.' He took Dora's hand in his, and away they went.
ro´-leymorn´-ingbladeedg´-espo´-leyknifehan´-dlerath´-erthoughtleastaunt´-ieclock
1. There was not much talking at dinner, till after the second helping of roley-poley.
2. Then Dora and Harry felt happy again, and began to tell their aunt all about the needle-making. She had seen it once, but it was a long time ago, and she thought she should like to see it again.
3. 'But if I had gone this morning,' she said, 'you would not have had your pudding.'
'That would have been sad,' said Dora.
4. 'What a lot of steel we have seen,' said Harry. 'I never knew there was so much in the world.'
5. 'You can see some on this table now.'
'Where?'
'What have I cut the pudding with?'
'Oh, the knife! Yes, I see; that must be steel; at least, that part of it. What do you call that part?'
'The blade.'
6. 'And what about the handle?'
'I don't know. It is yellow, and smooth, and hard.'
'It is bone,' said his uncle, 'part of an ox-bone. But some handles are made of wood.'
7. 'May I look at that knife near you, auntie? I mean the clean one. Thank you!'
8. Then Dora wanted one to look at too; and they felt the edges softly and found them very sharp. They looked at the blunt backs of the blades, and then tried to read the maker's name.
9. 'There is no room to put the maker's name on a needle,' said Harry. 'But how do they get it on here?'
'It is stamped on when the blade is red-hot and rather soft.'
10. They could not make out how the handle was put on, so their aunt went to the knife-box and got out an old knife that had lost its handle. They saw that the blade had a long thin piece of iron at the end of it.
11. 'A long hole is made inside the handle, and this iron thing is put into it, and made fast.'
So their uncle said, and then looked at the clock and saw that it was time for him to go.
Setting out for the Farm.Setting out for the Farm.
Setting out for the Farm.Setting out for the Farm.
bas´-ketwatchban´-tamsgreed´-yfetchthoughtknowgrayfriendschargeproudswal´-lowedfowlspairpeck´-inglaughed
1. The day after Dora and Harry came home, their mother gave them a basketand sent them up to the farm to fetch eggs.
2. Rover went with them, and all three were glad to go, for they had many friends at the farm.
3. There was the great dog, Watch, and there were the cart-horses and the pony, the ducks and the fowls. And there were five girls and boys—Mary, Tom, Johnny, Annie, and Kate.
4. When these five, and Watch, saw Harry, Dora, and Rover coming, they ran down the lane to meet them. They were soon all in the farm-yard, talking as fast as they could talk.
5. Two had to tell about their visit to Needle-town, and five about the doings at the farm, so it was some time before the eggs were thought of.
6. Mary had charge of the eggs, and went every morning to look for new ones.
'Since you went away,' she said, 'I have had a pair of bantams given me, for my very own. Here they are!'
'What little things! and how very pretty!' cried Dora. 'Do they know you, Mary?'
7. 'Yes; I feed them every day. Here comes the big black hen. She has been laying an egg. See how proud she is! She calls out in that way to let the rest know what she has done.'
8. 'Now she is pecking about for food,' said Harry.
Tom said that fowls were always eating.
'They are greedy things,' said Kate.
9. 'Oh, look at this gray hen!' said Harry, 'she picked up a bit of stone just now and ate it! Does she know no better?'
10. 'It is not for food,' Mary told him; 'she takes it to grind up the hard seeds she has swallowed. They all go into a strong little bag, and the stones rub and press on the seeds.'
11. 'I never heard of such a thing! She keeps a mill inside to grind her food!'
12. The others laughed, and then Mary went in to get some eggs. After the basket was filled, the two children said good-bye to their friends, and went home.
shootsthou´-sandbeakscleanspar´-rowsba´-biesap´-plethirst´-ystealbuildblos´-somwheatfruitspoilfruitthrow
1. 'Mother,' cried Harry, running in one day, 'Jack Denny says he shoots sparrows!'
'I am very sorry to hear it. Why does he shoot them?'
'"They steal fruit and corn," he says. He wanted me to throw stones at them!'
2. 'Well, you can tell him about some silly men who killed the sparrows and other birds, and the next year their fruit and corn were eaten up by grubs. Even the leaves on the trees were eaten.'
3. 'Is this true?'
'Quite true. They had to send for little birds from other places to live in their fields and gardens. Do you know that a sparrow kills four thousand grubs in one day when her babies are in the nest?
4. 'One wise man who grows fruit saysthat his best friends are the sparrows, and he makes holes in the garden-walls for them to build in. Their sharp eyes see the tiny things that would spoil the fruit, and their sharp beaks nip them up at once.
5. 'He loves to see sparrows in an apple-tree in blossom-time; he knows they are saving the apples for him.'
'But Jack says he has seen them pecking at fruit.'
6. 'Yes, they like fruit, just as you and I do. But there would be no fruit at all, if the birds did not eat the grubs.
7. 'The man I was telling you about puts nets over his trees when the fruit begins to ripen. And I heard only the other day that it is a good plan to put pans of clean fresh water close to the trees and bushes. Then the birds will not go so often to the fruit. They are thirsty and hot, poor things!
8. 'And there would be no corn, if the birds did not kill the wheat-fly's grubs.'
9. When Harry heard all this, he made up his mind not to throw stones at the sparrows, as Jack wanted him to do.
but´-ter-fliesflow´-erspleas´-antbrook´-letmer´-ryo-bliged´cheesecrys´-talgath´-eredroamedhedgethrushbroth´-erscouredeasemus´-ic
1. Where the bees and butterfliesSkim the grassy down,Four merry little childrenGathered from the town;2. Ragged little Johnnie,And his brother Ben,With wild-flowers are laden,These merry little men.Kate and Mat have posiesOf colours bright and gay,For Tim, their tiny brother,At home obliged to stay.3. They have roamed the meadow,They have scoured the wood,Seeking nuts and blackberries,For their pleasant food.With their nuts and blackberriesAnd bits of bread and cheese,On a mossy hedge-bank,Now they take their ease.4. Drinking from the brooklet'Neath the hawthorn tree,Clear it runs as crystal,Fresh and bright and free.And the thrush sings loudlyOn the hawthorn spray,And the brooklet everMakes music on its way.
1. Where the bees and butterfliesSkim the grassy down,Four merry little childrenGathered from the town;
2. Ragged little Johnnie,And his brother Ben,With wild-flowers are laden,These merry little men.Kate and Mat have posiesOf colours bright and gay,For Tim, their tiny brother,At home obliged to stay.
3. They have roamed the meadow,They have scoured the wood,Seeking nuts and blackberries,For their pleasant food.With their nuts and blackberriesAnd bits of bread and cheese,On a mossy hedge-bank,Now they take their ease.
4. Drinking from the brooklet'Neath the hawthorn tree,Clear it runs as crystal,Fresh and bright and free.And the thrush sings loudlyOn the hawthorn spray,And the brooklet everMakes music on its way.
streamteapow´-derpars´-leythroughlett´-ucesprin´-kledthymegrav´-eltongueflan´-nelherbsmar´-ketmus´-tardcar´-riedsage
1. A little stream ran through one of the farmer's fields. The water was so clear that you could see the sand and gravel at the bottom, and in it there grew plenty of water-cress.
Water-cress.Water-cress.
Water-cress.Water-cress.
2. Harry went one afternoon to help Johnny and Tom to pick it for market, and brought a big bunch home for tea.
3. His mother had picked a lettuce from the garden, and some mustard and cress, and they were all put on one plate.
'They bite my tongue,' said Dora, 'all but the lettuce. I like it best.'
4. 'And I like the biting,' said Harry. 'Why is this called mustard, mother?'
'Because the yellow mustard comes from it. The seeds are ground to powder.'
'And we eat the leaves. It is a useful plant.'
Lettuce.Lettuce.
Lettuce.Lettuce.
5. After tea, mother took some cress-seed and mustard-seed out of two little packets. Then she cut up one or two corks, put them into a deep plate, filled it with water, and sprinkled seed on the cork.
6. 'This is for you, Harry,' she said. 'You will soon have a little crop of mustard and cress. And here is one for Dora!'
In Dora's plate she laid a bit of flannel, poured water on it, and sowed seed. The children carried off their plates to a safe place, and thought it would be fine fun to see roots and leaves come out of the tiny seeds.
7. Then mother called them into thegarden to see her parsley. She told them that hares and rabbits would come a long way to feed on a parsley-bed if they could get at it.
8. Close by grew mint, sage, and thyme. 'All these are herbs,' she said. 'They are not like trees, are they?'
'No; they have no bark, no hard wood, and they are so small.'
Leaves of Mint, Parsley, Thyme, and Sage.Leaves of Mint, Parsley, Thyme, and Sage.
Leaves of Mint, Parsley, Thyme, and Sage.Leaves of Mint, Parsley, Thyme, and Sage.
9. Dora picked a mint-leaf, a parsley-leaf, a thyme-leaf, and a sage-leaf, and laid them side by side. She wanted to see if they were like each other. But when she looked at them she found that they were not alike.
cof´-feewin´-dowrat´-tledblos´-sombeansbus´-ycoun´-trycov´-eredkneel´-ingstock´-ingscher´-ryclothschairket´-tleto-geth´-erber´-ries
1. 'What is coffee, mother dear? Does it grow?'
2. It was Dora who asked this. She and Harry were putting away some things that had come from the shop, and she was now filling a tin with coffee-beans.
3. She was kneeling on a chair by the table in the window. Her mother was busy mending stockings, and the cat and the dog were both asleep. The kettle was singing, and all was cosy.
4. The coffee-beans rattled into the tin, and Dora picked one out and looked at it.
When Harry heard Dora asking about it, he also put his hand in and took a coffee-bean. It smelt very nice, he thought. So did Dora.
5. They found that it had a flat side and a round side.
'It humps up,' said Dora.
'See, I can put the flat side of mine against the flat side of yours,' said Harry.
'They grew like that,' said mother.
'Oh, then, they did grow? They were alive once?'