PAPER.

Coffee branch with Berries.Coffee branch with Berries.

6. 'Yes; they were seeds of a plant that grows in a warm country, far away from here. They once lived inside a berry.

'The berry was red like a cherry, andthe seeds inside were held together in a little bag.'

7. 'There must have been a flower before the berry came,' said Harry, thinking of the pea-flower and its pod.

Coffee-flower.Coffee-flower.

Berry.Berry.Seeds in Berry.Seeds in Berry.

Berry.Berry.

Seeds in Berry.Seeds in Berry.

'A very pretty white flower,' said his mother. 'They say that a coffee-garden looks lovely in blossom-time, just as if it were all covered with snow.

8. 'In two or three days the snow-like blossoms are gone, and the fruit is left. When it is ripe, men put cloths under the trees, and shake it down.'

9. 'I wish I could go and help!' said Harry. 'What comes next?'

'They pick up the berries, dry them in the sun, and get the beans out. Then they send the beans over the sea in a ship. And here they are!'

Dora and Harry tearing up the old papers.Dora and Harry tearing up the old papers.

un-hap´-pyper-haps´hearthtearshouldcleanlaughboilteaschooljok´-ingthroughheelsclean´-ingin-deed´clev´-er

1. 'It is such a wet day, I don't know what to do!' said Harry, looking very unhappy.

2. 'Are you tired of your drawing and painting?' asked his mother.

'Oh yes! And we have played at houses, and had the bricks out on thefloor, and now there is nothing to do, and it is not nearly tea-time yet. Will you read to us, mother?'

3. 'Not just now. But if you would help me a little I should get on faster, and then we might have a nice time before tea.'

'Jolly!' cried Harry; and he ran to the foot of the stairs and called Dora.

4. Down came Dora very fast, with her doll in her arms, and the dog at her heels.

5. 'What I want you to do,' said mother, 'is to tear up these old papers and put them into this sack. The man is coming soon to take it to the paper-mill.'

6. 'Why is it taken to the paper-mill?' asked Harry.

'To be made over again into paper. Perhaps it will come back to us some day, all clean.

7. 'Or it may be made into a newspaper, and father may bring it home in his pocket.'

'Or we may get it in copy-books at school.'

'Yes; or it may come from the shop with rice in it.'

8. 'It may never come at all,' said Dora. 'Perhaps it will go to some other house.'

'That is quite likely,' said mother, who was now cleaning the hearth.

9. They went on putting the paper into the sack for a long time, and then Harry asked:

'How was paper made before there was old paper to make it of?'

10. 'Oh, it is not made of paper only. It is made of old rags, old ropes'——

Harry and Dora began to laugh.

'And straw, and wood, and a kind of grass'——

'Now, are you joking, mother?'

11. 'No, indeed! They cut the wood and straw into tiny bits, and they cut and tear the rags and boil them.'

'And what do they do with the grass?'

'They cut it up, boil it, and mix clay with it. Then it is put through a very clever machine, which makes it into paper.'

spiltthirst´-yceil´-ingwon´-der-fulwon´-dermouthei´-therstraighte-nough´su´-garwin´-dowcount´-edfel´-lowteethpanefriend

1. 'Just look here, Harry!' Dora called out.

A little milk had been spilt on the table, and two flies had found it out.

'We won't wipe it up! Let us wait and see if they can take it all. See, it is getting less! I wonder how they do it.'

2. 'There! one fly has gone. He has had enough. But this old fellow is very thirsty. He does not look as if he were drinking, and yet the milk goes. That long thing must be his mouth. Is it, mother?'

Enlarged view of Head of Fly showing Trunk.Enlarged view of Head of Fly showing Trunk.

3. 'It is called his trunk. The mouth is at the end of it. He is very clever with it. Do you know that he never eats? He only drinks.'

4. 'But I have seen him eating sugar.'

'No; I don't think you have. He has no teeth and no jaws. He can't bite anything. What he does is to wet the sugar with his mouth and melt it, and then suck it up.'

5. 'Well, that is clever! I wonder how he found out how to do it. And I know something else that he is clever at.'

6. 'What is it, Harry?' asked Dora.

'Something you can't do! He can walk on the ceiling.'

'You can't do it either,' said Dora.

'How does he hold on, mother? We can see one up there now! He walks about as if he were on the table.'

Enlarged view of Fly's Foot.Enlarged view of Fly's Foot.

7. 'He has something like gum inside his feet, and, when he wants to stand or walk upside down, he presses this out, and it helps him to stick on. Here is another fly walking up the window-pane.'

'I have often seen flies on the window-pane.'

8. 'How wonderful it is! The glass, you see, is smooth and hard, and it stands straight up. We could not go up a hill like that, could we?'

9. They watched him go up and down, counted his six legs, and saw that his wings were very pretty. Their mother told them a very strange thing, that his eyes could see all ways at once!

10. Then they had to say good-bye to him, for out he went into the garden. When they turned to the table, they found that their other friend had gone too—and so had the milk.

wasppass´-agepow´-derpil´-larsbus´-yloosespreadcellwin´-terper-haps´brownhatchedgroundfencecombcrawl´-ing

1. There was a great stir at dinner one day. A wasp came in, begging for sugar and plum-tart. Harry and Dora ran this way and that.

2. At last their father got the wasp out into the garden, and, when all was quiet again, he asked if they would like to hear its story.

'Oh yes, father!' said Dora.

3. Harry was busy with his plums, but he nodded, as much as to say, 'I shall be glad to hear it too!'

4. So the father began:

'All last winter the wasp was asleep, but when spring came she waked up and set out to look for a home. I am not quite sure where she found it, but it was in the ground, I think.

5. 'She began to dig in the soft earth, and she dug on till she had made a long passage. She had to carry outall the loose earth herself. Then she made a little room at the end of the passage.

6. 'Next she looked about for some old wood, and found it in a tree, perhaps, or post, or bit of fence. She rubbed away at it with her jaws till she got some of it off in powder.

7. 'She made this powder into a paste with a sort of gum which came out of her mouth, and off she went with it to her room.'

8. 'What did she do with it?'

'She spread it out in sheets of thin brown paper, and with these she made a comb like a bee's.'

Wasp's Nest.Wasp's Nest.

'She made paper of it.'

'Only a bee's is made of wax. I know that!' said Harry.

9. 'She put many layers of paper on the top to keep the rain out, and pillars under it to hold it up. Then she laid an egg in each cell. When the eggs were hatched'——

'Little wasps came flying out,' said Dora.

'No; little grubs came crawling out!

10. 'The wasp was now more busy than ever. She fed each baby in turn, and as they all grew bigger she had to get more and more food for them.'

bluesun´-flow-erstar´-ingcush´-ionbuzz´-ingcoursespar-rowmid´-dleset´-tledwarmthstoppedgar´-denwatchedin-stead´crowdknow

1. It was very hot, the sky was blue, and the air was full of the humming and buzzing of bees and flies. A white butterfly flitted by, but soon went away over the garden-wall.

2. Bee after bee, and fly after fly, settled on the sunflowers and hunted for honey. Dora and Harry watched for a long time.

3. 'The sunflower is like a little sun,' said Dora.

'And it loves the sun,' said her mother, who was snipping off dead roses close by; 'it always turns to look at it. See, its face is towards the sun now. And if you look again before sunset you will find the flower turned to it still.'

4. 'How strange!' said Dora.

Sunflower.Sunflower.

'And it has such a strong stalk,' said Harry. 'You would not think that it could turn round. It must be alive!'

'Of course it is alive!'

'But, I mean, it must feel, or whyshould it turn and turn to get the light and warmth?'

5. 'How ragged all the stalks and leaves are!' said Dora. 'I wish they would make themselves tidy instead of always staring at the sun. Why are there so many holes in the leaves?'

6. 'Grubs have been eating them. Our friend Mr Sparrow must have been away lately!'

7. Here mother stopped snipping at her rose-trees, and came up to one of the sunflowers.

8. 'There is something I want you to see,' she said. 'You think this is one big flower, but it is really a crowd of little flowers. Look! Can you think of another flower that is something like it?'

9. Harry and Dora shook their heads.

'It is very small,' mother went on, 'with a cushion in the middle like this, and rays standing out all round like these.'

10. 'Does it grow on a tree?'

'No.'

'In this garden?'

'No.'

'In the fields?'

'Yes.'

'Oh, I know!' cried Harry. 'It is the daisy.'

wheelsbrook´-letslis´-tenhum´-mingbus´-yripp´-linghon´-eye-nough´i´-dlesky´-larkmer´-ri-lywea´-ry

1. Tell me what the mill-wheels say,Always turning night and day;When we sleep and when we wake,What a busy sound they make!Never idle, never still,What a worker is the mill!2. What is it that the brooklets say,Rippling onward day by day?Sweet as skylark on the wing,Ripple, ripple—thus they sing.Never idle, never still,Always working with a will!3. Listen to the honey-bee,Flying now so merrilyHere and there with busy hum—Humming, drumming, drumming, drum.Never idle, never still,Humming, drumming—hum it will!4. Like the mill, the brook, the bee,May it now be said of meThat I'm always busy too,For there's work enough to do.If I work, then, with a will,It will be but playing still;Ever merry, never weary,It will be but playing still.

1. Tell me what the mill-wheels say,Always turning night and day;When we sleep and when we wake,What a busy sound they make!Never idle, never still,What a worker is the mill!

2. What is it that the brooklets say,Rippling onward day by day?Sweet as skylark on the wing,Ripple, ripple—thus they sing.Never idle, never still,Always working with a will!

3. Listen to the honey-bee,Flying now so merrilyHere and there with busy hum—Humming, drumming, drumming, drum.Never idle, never still,Humming, drumming—hum it will!

4. Like the mill, the brook, the bee,May it now be said of meThat I'm always busy too,For there's work enough to do.If I work, then, with a will,It will be but playing still;Ever merry, never weary,It will be but playing still.

bas´-ketsweet´-lystoopedyel´-lowwo´-mancab´-bagesmilea-greed´vil´-lagebe-cause´thornswin´-ter

1. Mother went back to her roses, and soon called for a little basket, saying that Dora and Harry should take a few to an old woman who lived in the village.

2. 'Poor granny,' she said, 'is so fond of roses, and she can never get out now to see them. Which shall we pick for her?'

3. 'Some of these white ones,' said Dora.

'I think she would like these red ones,' said Harry, 'they smell so sweetly.'

4. Mother cut one or two of each, andthen a moss-rose, which looked as if it had moss growing round it, and then a pink cabbage-rose.

5. 'What has it to do with cabbage?' asked Harry.

'It is only called cabbage because it is so big and round.'

6. 'I like it the best of all,' said Dora, and stooped to smell it, putting her nose far down into the sweet, deep cup: 'it is such a nice rose!'

Wild Rose.Wild Rose.Garden Rose.Garden Rose.

Wild Rose.Wild Rose.

Garden Rose.Garden Rose.

7. 'Yes, I am very fond of it, and of all roses,' said mother, looking at her bushes with a smile, 'but I almost think I likethe wild ones best. Do you know that the wild rose is the mother of all these? Once upon a time all roses were wild.'

8. Harry and Dora did not think that wild roses were very like garden roses. 'But they both have thorns,' they said.

9. 'Look at them as you go along. There are some bushes not far from the bottom of the lane, after you turn round to go to the village. I don't think you will find many roses left, but you will see their fruit. They are the birds' fruit-trees.'

10. 'What can mother mean?' they asked as they went along.

But they soon found out. The bushes were covered with hips; some green, others yellow, one or two quite red.

11. They agreed to leave them for the birds. Dora said 'They would be sure to want them in the winter.'

Making the Doll's House.Making the Doll's House.

min´-er-algummedtoolsbeechcop´-perclimbeddeadbirchzinckneesthoughtwil´-lowchalkeve´-ningsoakbuild´-ing

1. The little mineral box was made, and Harry and Dora put in the lumps of lead, iron, copper, tin, zinc, chalk, and slate. Father wrote the names on tiny slips of paper and gummed them on.

2. Then he said that he was going to make Dora a doll's house. On hearingthis, Dora first jumped about for joy, and then climbed up on her father's knees to kiss and hug him.

3. The doll's house was not made all at once. It had to be done bit by bit in the evenings after father had come home from work and had his tea.

4. Dora and Harry always helped him, or stood by and talked, played with bits of wood, and turned over the tools in the box.

5. They said that saw-dust should be called wood-dust; and they found out that wood was called tree when it was alive, and tree was called wood when it was dead. They thought this very funny.

6. They also learned that there were as many kinds of wood as there were trees.

'Some wood is hard,' said their father, 'some is half-hard, and some is soft.'

'Soft wood!' cried Dora.

7. 'Well, not soft like butter! But softer than oak, beech, birch, and elm'——

'The trunk of an oak-tree is lying where the rabbits live,' said Harry, in a great hurry. 'We often play on it.I know that it is hard. What sort of wood are you making the doll's house of?'

8. 'Soft wood. It is a bit of pine. So is the box that holds the minerals. I should find it hard work to cut oak.

'Now, there is one kind of wood so soft that you can bend it. It is called willow, and baskets are made of it.

'But oak was once used in building the great strong ships.'

win´-dowcoalwon´-der-ingstretch´-ingshov´-eltum´-bledearthen´-ginespadecon-tent´cagedoz´-en

1. 'Here comes the coal,' said Harry, looking out of the window. 'Mother, may we help Jim to get it in? I can have the big shovel, and Dora the little one. I should like to see the cart upset! What fun it will be!'

2. Crash came the coal on the ground. Then the coal-man drew his horse and cart away, and set to work with a spade to fill the little coal-place.

3. The dog jumped, and got in every one's way. He wanted to help, too, but did not know how. Dora tumbled over the heap and bumped her head, so she thought she would be content with watching Jim and Harry. But Harry was soon tired, and Jim was left to go on alone.

4. 'Where does coal come from, Jim?' he asked.

'Out of the ground, my lad.'

'Does it? Do you dig for it?'

'I don't. But I know somebody who does.'

5. 'If I were to dig for it, should I find any, Jim?'

'Not you! Why, you have to go down ever such a long way before you can even begin to dig.'

6. 'How do you get down?'

'You go down in a thing they call a cage. You can't walk down, you know. It is like going down a deep pit. They call it a mine.'

7. 'Oh, I have heard of coal-mines!'

Dora was taking up one little lump of coal after another, and wondering whyit was so shiny if it had really come out of the earth.

8. Harry went on. 'How do they let the cage down? Have you ever been down?'

Coal-miners going down to work.Coal-miners going down to work.

'I have been down once,' said Jim, stopping in his work and stretching himself. 'This is the way. There is an engine at the top of the shaft'——

'What is the shaft?'

9. 'The pit I told you about. Theengine is fixed there and it lets down the cage and pulls it up again. Half-a-dozen men or so can go in it at a time.'

'It must be very strong.'

10. 'Yes, it is, and it has strong chains to hold it. It goes up and down all day long, bringing up the coal.'

re´-al-lyknifepic´-turesthou´-sandseas´-i-lybe-tween´an´-i-malpiec´-esslic´-esmet´-alwholeto-geth´-erstraightfetchedfor´-estspuz´-zles

1. Next day the children asked their mother to tell them what coal really was. Harry did not think it was a stone, because he had broken two or three lumps with a hammer. He found that it broke much more easily than stone.

2. Besides, it did not fly all into sharp bits, but came off in slices; and he saw that it had straight lines along it. When he poked his knife in betweenthese lines, he could take off a slice of coal at once!

3. Dora did not think it was a metal, because she had learnt that iron would melt in a fire and flow like water. 'Coal does not melt,' she said, 'every one knows that!'

4. She took a small lump out of the coal-box, and Harry did the same. Mother then fetched some pictures, and one or two other things, and the talk began.

5. 'It is no wonder that you can't guess what coal is! It does not look at all like what it was at first. It was not always in the ground; it used to live on the top and get the air and sunshine.'

6. 'It must have been alive,' said Harry. 'Was it an animal?'

'No.'

'Then it was a plant!' cried Dora.

7. 'Well, it is all that is left of many plants and trees, whole forests of plants and trees, that grew long, long ago.'

'Before you were born, mother?'

8. 'Yes, long before that! It was hundreds and thousands of years ago.It was so far back that the trees were not like the trees we have now. Many of them were big ferns. Think of a fern grown up to be a tree! And many were great horse-tails. You know what a horse-tail is?'

9. 'Oh yes,' said Dora, 'we find them in the ditch down the lane. It is such fun pulling them to pieces and putting them together again—like puzzles!'

Horse-tail.Horse-tail.

10. 'Those trees must have been very strange,' said Harry. 'They would not be nice to climb. But there were no boys in those days, so it did not matter.'

min´-er-alwalk´-ingLon´-donblazecoallaugh´-ingsmokebeastfen´-dergrateal-read´-ycageprop´-ercru´-elflamepic´-tures

1. 'Don't you think,' said Harry, 'that a bit of coal would be a good thing for our mineral box?'

2. 'I do,' said his father. 'Get a little lump, and put it in. And, by the way, we want more coal on the fire. I must get some.'

3. 'How nice a fire is on a cold day!' said Dora, sitting down on the fender, to be as near to it as she could.

'Very nice,' said her mother, 'in its proper place—in the grate.'

4. 'Ah, we should not like it to come walking about the room!' said Harry, laughing. 'There would soon be no room'——

'And no house!' said Dora, shaking her head. 'And then what should we do?'

5. Father came back with the coal, and put some into the grate, saying:

'Fire is a good servant but a bad master. If it gets its own way it is a cruel thing. It would burn a town down. It once burned big London.'

6. Harry was looking at one of the lumps that had been put on the fire. Smoke was coming out of it already. A flame burst out in front, and soon the whole lump was in a blaze.

7. 'It seems such a pity that it should all be burned up,' said Harry, 'when it took so long to make.'

'That is the way of fire,' said father, 'it eats up everything, and when it has nothing more to feed on it comes to an end—it goes out, we say.'

8. 'We don't want it to go out, and so we keep on feeding it,' said mother. 'It is like a wild beast in a cage.'

'Now look at the coal!' said father.

9. By this time the lumps were red and very hot. The children went down on their knees to look for pictures in the fire. They soon saw what looked like men and dogs, rocks, hills, and trees, and at last a great cat with red-hot eyes and a very curly tail.

[Page 7.

1. The cat lives in and about our homes; so we call it a domestic animal.

2. It belongs to the same tribe of animals as the lion and tiger. They are savage—puss is tame. Like them, it is a beast of prey—that is, it catches and eats other animals. They cannot hear it coming with its soft, padded feet.

3. The cat leaps upon its prey. It sticks its strong, sharp claws into a mouse, and soon kills it with its sharp teeth.

4. Puss is covered with fur; she has five claws on each fore-paw, and four on each hind one. She draws them into little sheaths when not angry.

5. With its rough tongue the cat can lap up milk, and also clean its fur. It likes to be clean. It opens its eyes wider in the dark, and can see to run about at night. On each side of its head are long whiskers, with which it feels its way.

Write and learn:

Cats have—Cats like—Cats are—Padded feet.Milk.Domestic.Sharp claws and teeth.Meat.Tame.Rough tongues.Mice and rats.Useful.Good sight at night.Birds and fish.Cleanly.

[Page 12.

1. The dog is larger and more active than the cat. It is also of more use to man, for it guards the house, minds the sheep, and will not allow any one to harm its master.

2. There are many kinds of dogs. All are of some use—from the large Newfoundland dog to the little fox-terrier.

3. Dogs are like cats in some things. They have padded feet and strong claws. But their claws are blunt. They cannot draw them into sheaths as puss does; so they make more noise in walking.

4. The dog is also a beast of prey. But it is not so fierce as the wolf or the fox, which belong to the same tribe of animals. It likes meat and bones, but will also eat bread and vegetables. Its teeth are very strong and sharp.

5. Most dogs have keen scent, pointed noses, and quick sight.

Write and learn:

Dogs have—Dogs—Dogs are—Blunt claws.Bark.Useful.Sharp, strong teeth.Watch.Faithful.Keen scent.Jump.Friendly.Quick sight.Hunt.Wise.

[Page 15.

1. Buttercups grow wild. They are of a golden yellow colour. Each flower has five yellow leaves growing out from the middle of five smaller green ones.

2. The flowers are something like a cup in shape, with a little tuft of grass-like threads standing in each one. In the green ball in the middle there are tiny seeds from which other buttercups will grow if they fall into the ground.

3. Buttercups come in spring. They grow on taller stems than daisies. They have no nice scent such as violets or roses have.

Write and learn:

Buttercups—Buttercups have—Buttercups are—Grow wild.Five yellow leaves.Pretty and shiny.Come in spring.Five green ones.Eaten by cattle.

[Page 20.

1. Wheat is a plant of thegrasskind, but grows higher than common grass. It is grown from seed, which is grains of wheat kept until hard and dry.

2. Ruts are made in the soil by a plough, and into these the seed is cast. Then the soil is covered over them by a harrow, drawn by a horse.

3. Rain and warm sunshine help the grains to grow. They grow into tall, jointed stems, and soon the ears of wheat appear. They are green at first, but the sun ripens them and turns them yellow.

4. Then the wheat is cut, and the new grains are threshed out from the husks which are called chaff. The tall stems make straw. The grains are ground into flour by the miller. We use flour for making bread, cakes, and puddings.

Write and learn:

Wheat is—Wheat has—Wheat makes—A grass plant.A tall stem.Flour.Grown from seed.Graceful leaves.Foods.Green at first.An ear.Chaff.Yellow when ripe.Grains.Straw.

[Page 26.

1. Slate is a kind of stone. Rocks, and even mountains, are sometimes made of slate. The great hole made in the rocks by getting it out, is called a quarry. It is got out in very large blocks. Sometimes gunpowder is used to crack the rocks before the blocks can be got out.

2. Slate is very hard and brittle. It is used for many purposes. Houses are roofed with slates. Sometimes it is used for pavements. It can be made so smooth that we use it for writing upon. Slate-pencil is made from soft slate-stone.

Write and learn:

Slate is—Slate is found in—Slate is useful for—A kind of stone.Cumberland.Roofing houses.Very hard.Wales.Making pavements.Brittle.Cornwall and Devon.Writing upon.

[Page 31.

1. Like slate, chalk comes out of the hills. It is white and soft. It is used for many purposes. The farmer puts it on the fields sometimes, to make the soil better. It holds water and keeps the soil moist.

2. We get lime and whiting from chalk. We use it in these forms for making our ceilings and walls clean. It is used, too, for writing on the blackboard. Chalk is found in many parts of England. Kent and Hampshire have most. Chalk-pits are often seen in the hills.

3. Chalk is formed of thousands of tiny shells.

Write and learn:

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