heardseemedtruckhan´-dletalk´-ingsur-prise´meanmin´-uteshar´-vestrail´-wayflourtreatsup´-perheav´-ylis´-tentea
1. Every day the ears grew larger and harder, and then they began to look yellow.
2. The children, too, heard their father and mother talking about their golden grain, and saying it was ripe.
3. At last, one very hot day, they found that the time had come to cut thewheat. A kind friend came to help, and Harry and Dora and the new dog jumped about and ran in and out, and thought that they helped too.
4. The children talked much about their harvest, and mother made them a harvest-supper. What a day it was!
5. It seemed so odd to have a bin full of grain just like the grain they had sown in the spring.
6. And now there was a great surprise for them. A railway-man came with a heavy box on a truck, and when the box was opened, what do you think there was inside?
A mill—a fine new wheat-mill!
7. 'We do not need now to go to the miller!' said mother, looking very glad. 'We are going to have a miller in our own house—no, two millers, I ought to say!'
8. 'Two millers!' cried Harry.
'Do you mean Harry and me?' asked Dora.
'Yes, my dear children, I mean you. You are going to be my dusty millers!
9. 'I will show you how much youare to grind, just a little every day. You must put it into this big red pan, and cover it up, and when I want to bake I shall always have plenty of flour ready.
10. 'And listen! You shall have a penny each every week for doing the work.'
At this Dora and Harry jumped for joy, clapped their hands, and ran to their mother to hug her.
11. Then she put some of the wheat into the mill, took hold of the handle, and made the wheel go round. Harry next took his turn, and Dora hers, and in a few minutes they found in the box below a heap of nice soft flour.
12. 'Now,' said mother, 'let us give father a treat when he comes home! We will make some nice cakes with this flour, and have them for tea! Grind a little more, dear millers, while I make up the fire.'
rid´-dlewon´-dersup-pose´smoothex-act´-lyboughtfin´-gersre-mem´-berguessedSat´-ur-daymet´-alpiece
1. 'What is the oldest thing in this room?' asked the mother one day.
'Is this a riddle?'
'No, not exactly.'
2. Dora guessed one thing, and Harry another, and at last they gave up guessing. 'Unless,' said Harry, 'it is the fender, or the poker.'
3. 'It is very likely that the thing you were drawing on just now is older than any of those.'
4. 'That slate? Why, mother!' cried the children, opening their eyes wide with wonder, 'you bought it only last Saturday!'
'So I did. But it was not made last Saturday.'
5. 'No, I suppose the man cut it, and made the frame, and fixed it on before that.'
'Perhaps on Friday,' said Dora.
6. 'But the slate itself,' the mother went on, 'where did that come from? Did the man make it?'
Harry and Dora looked well at it, turned it over, rubbed their fingers on it, and said they did not know.
7. 'Well, would you say it is like wood, or like stone, or is it metal like the poker? Is it a kind of wood, do you think? Did it ever grow?'
'I think it must be a sort of rock, or stone,' said Harry, 'only very smooth and thin.'
8. 'The man who worked at it beforeit came to the shop made it smooth and cut it thin. It was not smooth and thin at first. But you are quite right; it is a sort of stone.'
A Slate QuarryA Slate Quarry
A Slate QuarryA Slate Quarry
9. 'It is as cold as a stone,' said Dora, putting it against her face. 'Do you remember, Harry, how cold our handswere in winter when we did sums? Yes, and it is very hard. I am sure it is a piece of rock.'
shouldlaugh´-ingset´-tledweightedlaughedpur´-posehap´-penedthroughhigh´-erprop´-er-lydealheavedthoughtpleasedeadbrok´-en
1. 'I should like to see a rock all made of slate! Have you ever seen one, mother?'
'Yes, many, dear. But there are none near.' Then she laughed a little. 'But if you like to go just outside the door you will see rows and rows of slates.'
2. Out they ran, looked all over the ground, then at the garden-wall, then back at their mother, who had come to the door.
'Look at the house,' she said, 'look higher!'
3. 'Oh, we never thought of the roof,' they cried, and ran in again laughing. 'But those slates are not so nice and smooth as our slates.'
'Your slates are made smooth on purpose. Besides, they are made of better slate—older slate. The older the slate is the better it is.'
4. 'How old?'
'No one knows. It is a long story, and no one can tell it properly. Shall I tell you as much as I know?'
'Yes, do, please, mother!' and the two settled themselves at her feet.
5. 'Well,' she began, 'once upon a time there was a great stir at the bottom of the sea. The heat and gas under the ground broke through and pushed out everything that was in the way.
6. 'Stones, ashes, and dust came flying up through the water, and then fell back into the water again. When all was quiet, they settled down at the bottom of the sea, and became mud.
7. 'All this happened many times, till there was a great deal of mud. Then, little by little, the mud was covered up by other things.'
8. 'What sort of things?'
'Dead fish, perhaps, and shells, and sand and mud that had been brought byrivers into the sea. These things lay on the top of the mud and weighed it down.
9. 'The heat under the bottom of the sea still kept up, and made the mud very hot, and baked it through. At last it gave a great push, and heaved the mud up above the water, so that it became dry land.
10. 'In other ways it was made harder and harder, until it was turned into rock. And now we call it slate. Here is a bit of your old broken slate. See if you can turn it into mud again!'
a-cross´piecewheatearthmorn´-ingteach´-ercol´-oursbrownchalk´-ingblack´-boardfetchmoistpickedspread´-inglaughedthrough
1. A few days after this, Dora and Harry were going across the fields. They saw a horse and cart standing, and a man taking white stones out of the cart and putting them over the ground.
2. 'Why, it is Joe!' they cried, asthey came nearer. 'Good-morning, Joe. What are you doing?'
'Chalking this bit of land, you see. You know what chalk is, do you?'
3. Harry and Dora picked up a piece or two.
'Teacher writes on the blackboard with chalk,' they said.
'Yes, you are right. It is used for many things,' and he went on spreading it over the field.
4. 'But what is it wanted here for, Joe?'
'No chalk, no wheat!' said Joe.
'Father put no chalk on our field, and we had such a heap of wheat!'
5. 'Yours is good land. This up here has never been used for farming. It had little old trees on it, you know, and they were cut down and their roots dug out of the ground; and now, look at it! It is poor soil.'
6. 'How do you know it is poor?'
'Look at the field below, what a nice brown it is! That will grow anything, but this is all colours—black, red, yellow, and green.
7. 'I have been a long way to fetch this chalk: I started off with old Dobbin this morning before it was light, and got it out of the chalk-pit.'
8. 'When we were fast asleep!' said Dora.
'Then you don't buy chalk at a shop?' said Harry.
Joe laughed.
'No; it comes out of the ground.'
'This is like the slate story,' said Dora.
Harry nodded.
9. 'But, Joe, I want to know how the chalk makes the ground good.'
'I don't know how, but it does. If it lies here for a year or more, the earth will turn brown, and we can grow wheat in it. Besides, chalk holds water, and so it will keep the ground moist up here.'
10. 'How?'
'Well, when it rains, the water will not run away through the earth, but will stay in the lumps of chalk. Are you going? Good-bye, then.'
'Fizz and bubble, bubble and fizz.''Fizz and bubble, bubble and fizz.'
'Fizz and bubble, bubble and fizz.''Fizz and bubble, bubble and fizz.'
eve´-ningairhun´-dredscatchbroughtstirredsmileddiedvin´-e-garpouredcrowdsdroppedbub´-blegrainsthreadsmixed
1. The children had much to say that evening about Joe and the field. They had brought home a lump of chalk.
2. 'I will show you something,' said father, and he got a cup of vinegar, crushed a little of the chalk, and dropped it into the cup.
Fizz and bubble, bubble and fizz!
3. What was going on?
When the stir came to an end, the chalk was not there!
'Part of it has gone off in gas,' their father said. 'The rest is lime, and it is mixed with the vinegar.'
4. 'We did not see any gas,' said Harry.
'You can't see gas. It is like air. All those bubbles were made by the gas. It went out of the cup into the air.
'Now, get a cup of water. Come along! Where is your chalk?'
5. Father rubbed some of it into the water, and stirred it up. The water now looked like milk.
Father poured it into the sink, and showed Harry and Dora, at the bottom of the cup, a great many tiny grains.
6. 'Those little round things,' he said, 'are shells.'
'Shells!' said Dora, trying to see them better.
'Were live things ever in them?' asked Harry, and put a finger into the cup to fish some out.
7. 'Yes, long, long ago. That bit of chalk had hundreds and hundreds of shells in it. Now, mother, it is your turn! I have had mine. What do you know about chalk?'
8. Mother smiled and began: 'There was once a very deep sea, full of live things, little and big. And on the top of the water were crowds of tiny things in shells, that put out long arms like threads to catch their food.
9. 'When they died they all dropped to the bottom of the sea, and lay there. The shells were so very little that they made a sort of mud when they were mixed with the water.
'And now the mud is dry, and we call it chalk!'
an´-i-malhar´-vesttailsqueaknoisestalknib´-blehoursmouseshouldyoungleavescheesefourbeastscatch
1. Harry came running in one day to say that he had seen a little animal in the field.
2. 'It ran so fast, I could hardly see it. I looked a long time for it, and so did Dora, but we could not find it. Now, what do you think it could be, mother?'
3. Then in came Dora, 'It had a long tail, and was very little, and made no noise at all.'
4. 'It may have been a mouse,' said their mother; 'very likely it was.'
'But mice live indoors, do they not, and eat cheese, and run about in the walls, and make holes?'
5. 'How do you know all this?'
'I have heard them at grandmother's,' said Harry. 'Do they ever live out of doors?'
6. 'A good many do. There is a pretty little thing called a harvest-mouse. It makes a nest like a bird's, and hangs it up on a stalk of wheat.'
The Harvest Mouse and Nest.The Harvest Mouse and Nest.
The Harvest Mouse and Nest.The Harvest Mouse and Nest.
7. 'I wish there had been one in our wheat!' said Dora. 'I should like to see the little nest and the baby-mice peeping out. They must be very, very small.'
8. 'Yes, the harvest-mouse is the very smallest four-footed animal we have. Then there is a field-mouse with a long tail, and a field-mouse with a short tail. Mr Short-tail likes to nibble at young trees.'
'Ah, that is not our mouse! He had a long tail.'
9. 'And then there is a wood-mouse.'
'Has he a short tail or long tail?' asked Harry.
'Long. I must tell you about a man who used to go out in the night in wildplaces to see what birds and beasts were doing when most of us were in bed.
10. 'One of the things he found out was that field-mice could sing!'
'Don't they squeak?'
'Yes; and he often heard them go on for hours making a kind of singing.
11. 'Sometimes they were close by him as he lay on the ground, and he would put out his hand to catch one. But when he opened it again it was full of grass or moss or leaves; and there was no mouse.'
'Did he never catch one?'
'Never.'
tum´-blesscarce´-lyfarm´-erreared´ber´-ryweath´-erstacksun-der-neath´brownnib´-blingtreas´-ureshad´-owmer´-ryfruitspleas´-uremead´-ow
1. Where the acorn tumbles down,Where the ash-tree sheds its berry,With your fur so soft and brown,With your eyes so soft and merry,Scarcely moving the long grass,Field-mouse, I can see you pass.2. Little thing, in what dark den,Lie you all the winter sleeping,Till warm weather comes again?Then once more I see you peepingRound about the tall tree roots,Nibbling at their fallen fruits.3. Field-mouse, field-mouse, do not go,Where the farmer stacks his treasure;Find the nut that falls below,Eat the acorn at your pleasure;But you must not eat the grain,He has reared with so much pain.4. Make your hole where mosses spring,Underneath the tall oak's shadow,Pretty, quiet, harmless thing,Play about the sunny meadow;Keep away from corn and house,None will harm you, little mouse.
1. Where the acorn tumbles down,Where the ash-tree sheds its berry,With your fur so soft and brown,With your eyes so soft and merry,Scarcely moving the long grass,Field-mouse, I can see you pass.
2. Little thing, in what dark den,Lie you all the winter sleeping,Till warm weather comes again?Then once more I see you peepingRound about the tall tree roots,Nibbling at their fallen fruits.
3. Field-mouse, field-mouse, do not go,Where the farmer stacks his treasure;Find the nut that falls below,Eat the acorn at your pleasure;But you must not eat the grain,He has reared with so much pain.
4. Make your hole where mosses spring,Underneath the tall oak's shadow,Pretty, quiet, harmless thing,Play about the sunny meadow;Keep away from corn and house,None will harm you, little mouse.
'Oh, look at that one going into a hole.''Oh, look at that one going into a hole.'
'Oh, look at that one going into a hole.''Oh, look at that one going into a hole.'
moth´-erfriendsmorn´-ingfightrab´-bitsSat´-ur-daybeat´-ingmeantdare´-sayan´-i-malsknockdan´-ger
1. Harry and Dora were coming home with their mother from a long walk, when they saw some rabbits playing about on the grass.
2. They wished to stay and watch them, and the three sat down on a log a little way off.
'Oh, look at that one going into ahole!' said Dora. 'See his funny tail. Why is he going into a hole?'
3. 'That is his house,' said their mother. 'I daresay he is sleepy and wants to go to bed.'
'He goes early, then, like the birds?'
'Yes, about sunset. He gets up a little before sunrise.
4. 'There goes another! They will soon all be gone.'
'Then we can look at their houses?'
'Only at their front doors. If you were to sit quite still over there in the day-time, you would see the rabbits popping in and out.
5. 'After a time they would find out that you were their friends, and then you would be able to watch their doings.'
6. Then mother told them more about the man who often stayed out all night to see what animals did. 'One morning, before it was quite light, he heard a tap-tap near him, and saw a rabbit beating on the ground with his hind-feet close to another rabbit's hole.
7. 'He saw him go to another hole and tap there, and then to another.Some holes he passed and did not knock at all.
'At last he had just begun tap-tapping in front of a hole, when out rushed a big rabbit. They began to fight, and they both rolled down to the bottom of the hill.
8. 'The man often saw rabbits tapping like this. Sometimes two or three would come out to speak to the one that tapped, and they seemed to have a friendly chat.
9. 'There was another sound they could make with their hind-feet. If one of them made it, the others would run into their holes as fast as they could. It meant danger.'
'What was it like?' asked Dora.
'Tap-pat.'
win´-terbe-tween´straightthreadvasepur´-poseveinsten´-derchangedum-brel´-laflow´-ermouthspraysmid´-dlethick´-eruse´-ful
1. Some sprigs of ivy had been standing all the winter in a vase. The waterhad often been changed, and the leaves washed.
2. When spring came each spray began to put out buds. The buds were not all at the ends of the sprays, but came out also close to the old leaves.
3. At last there was a very small bud between every old leaf and the stem. When the first bud opened into a leaf, Dora and Harry clapped their hands, and called every one to look.
4. 'How clean and sweet it is!' cried Dora. 'And do you see something like wool or hair on it?'
'How curly it is!' said Harry. 'It is not quite open yet. Why, it is like a hand! All the leaves look rather like hands, don't they? See; one, two, three, four, five!'
5. 'Look at this old leaf against the light,' said the mother; 'now you can see the five long fingers. But people call them ribs, not fingers! They are for the purpose of keeping the leaf spread out.'
6. 'Like the ribs of an umbrella,' said Harry. 'They seem very strong;the middle one, which goes up straight from the stem, is the strongest of all.'
Spray of Ivy.Spray of Ivy.
Spray of Ivy.Spray of Ivy.
7. Dora was holding up one spray after another to the light. 'What are all these pretty marks on the leaves, mother, lines crossing about all ways?'
'Those are veins, dear. They carry the sap that feeds the leaves.'
8. 'What is sap?'
'The blood of plants and trees.'
'Oh,' said Dora, 'then that is the wet that comes out when I pick a flower or cut a leaf!
9. 'But look at this!' and she held up one of the sprays.
At the end of it was a little bunch of white, curly roots. Each root was not much thicker than a thread.
10. 'Don't touch them,' said the mother; 'roots are very tender things.'
'What is the good of them?' asked Dora.
'What is your mouth useful for?' asked her mother.
11. 'Oh, do you mean that the ivy eats and drinks?'
'Yes, that is what I mean. These roots take out of the water, or out of the earth, all sorts of things good for the food of the plant. They then send them up into the stem and on into the leaves.'
12. 'Mother,' said Harry, 'let us go and plant all this ivy. I am sure it wants to try the taste of the earth!'
rab´-bitsspreadbirchcaughtshootsroughbeechoakta´-bleheardbranch´-esfound
1. 'Let us go over to that log where we sat when we saw the rabbits,' said Dora to Harry.
2. 'All right! We can play at ship, and the grass shall be the sea.'
'Or we can have see-saw, if we can find some wood to lay across the log.'
3. They were soon at the log, and on it they sat down, and looked about them.
The log was the trunk of an old oak, and a little way off stood the stump, with many new shoots and leaves coming out all round it.
4. Dora went and stood on it, and called out that she was on a hill. She jumped off and on a few times, and then said it would make a good table, and they might have tea on it.
5. Harry found that the stump had roots that spread out all round for a long way.
'How thick and hard they are!' he said; 'come and feel this one!'
It is all marked in rings.It is all marked in rings.
It is all marked in rings.It is all marked in rings.
'It is not like the roots we saw on the ivy,' she said. 'Now look at the top of the stump. It is all marked in rings.'
6. 'In the very middle there is a little light spot, and then come dark rings, and then more rings outside. Father once told me these rings showed how old the trees were. And do you see lines coming away from the middle?'
7. 'They look like the rays of the sun, which I draw on my slate,' said Dora. 'What a rough coat this tree had! Come and feel the outside of the log.'
'That is the bark! I have heard father talk about bark.'
8. 'Well, I shall call it the coat. It is the tree's overcoat to keep him warm and dry. But trees do not all seem to have rough coats. Look at that one!' and she ran over to a little birch, and pulled off some of its thin bark.
9. 'I have found a fine tree!' cried Harry; and Dora came running to look at it.
Leaves of the Beech and the Oak.Leaves of the Beech and the Oak.
Leaves of the Beech and the Oak.Leaves of the Beech and the Oak.
10. It was a beech, with a great round smooth trunk and long strong branches. Harry jumped up and caught at a leafor two, and then went to pick an oak-leaf. He laid them side by side on his hand and looked at them, and found they were not at all alike.
stoppedtrow´-elteach´-erbreaksemp´-tystruckre´-al-lymouldsmor´-tarpickedclaynice´-lysoundsizewin´-terov´-en
1. Two men were making a wall by the road-side, and Harry and Dora stopped to look at them.
2. Another man was going away with a horse and cart. The cart was empty, but it had been full of red bricks. The men were putting these bricks on the wall and making them fast with mortar.
3. Dora liked the sound which the trowel made when it struck against the wall. Harry picked up one of the bricks and looked at it, and then Dora must look at one too.
4. They found that the bricks were light and easy to lift. They also sawthat they were all of the same size and shape, as if they had been made, and not dug out of the ground.
5. They did not like to ask the men about them, and so they put the bricks down, and set off on their way home.
6. As they went they met their teacher, who stopped and spoke to them, so Harry asked her to tell them what bricks really were.
7. 'I wish there were a brick-field near,' she said, 'and then we would goand see it! But I can tell you a little about it.
8. 'Bricks are made of clay, and clay is dug out of the ground. Men dig it before winter comes, and let it lie out all the winter, and the frost breaks it up nicely for them.
9. 'The next thing is to mix it well into a paste, and then it is put into moulds.'
'What are moulds?' Harry asked.
'Well, these moulds are like boxes with no bottom or top.'
'Only sides, then?' said Dora.
10. 'Yes, they have two long sides, and two short ones, and they hold the soft, wet clay.
'You may call them clay-puddings before they are put into the hot oven. When they are taken out, what do you think they are? They are bricks!'
bot´-tomfruitap-plefeastlanethis´-tlescar´-rotwin´-dowdon´-keyhedgetouchshag´-gyloadroughmor´-rowtuft
1. At the bottom of the lane lived a donkey. Harry and Dora knew him well. They often met him going to town with a load of fruit, and they saw him in the lane every day cropping the grass and thistles by the hedge-side.
2. He knew them, too, for they would stop to pat his rough sides, or give him an apple or a carrot.
3. They wondered how he could eat such prickly things as thistles. A horse would never touch them.
4. One day his master took him into the garden while he was working. He let Neddy go up and down the paths and crop the grass, which had grown long on the little grass-plot.
5. The donkey did not once try to get at the pears and apples; he did not even look at them.
6. His master was pleased, and said to his wife: 'It is quite safe to leave the gate open, and let Neddy come into the garden when he likes. I shall be away to-morrow, but you need not look after him. He will be all right.'
7. Next day, Neddy walked into the garden, found that no one was there, and began to eat the fruit. He had a good feast before his mistress saw him from the window.
8. Then he was driven out, and the gate was shut. After that he always had to find his dinner in the lane.
9. The children saw him one day feeding with a white horse that had comedown from the farm, and they stopped to talk to them.
10. Then Dora said to Harry:
'They are like each other, and yet not like! Neddy has a shaggy coat.'
'And his mane is short, and stands up.'
'His ears are very long.'
'His tail is not like Snowflake's tail; and, see, it has a little tuft at the end of it!'
'And Snowflake is much taller.'
chalkhedgechew´-ingfor-got´-tenwheth´-ertear´-ingthoughbroughtearthswal´-lowre-mem´-bermouth
1. The next time that Dora and Harry were out, they ran up to the place where they had met Joe. They wished to see how the chalk was getting on, and whether the earth was brown yet.
2. After that they went over a stile into a field where many sheep were feeding. The sheep began to move away when they saw the boy and girl coming.
3. Then said Harry: 'Let us try mother's plan of keeping quite still and letting them see that we don't want to hurt them.'
4. So they sat down under a hedge and looked at the sheep for a long time, and soon one and another began to come near, eating away at the grass.
5. 'I like that sound of tearing off the grass, don't you?' said Dora.
'Do you see they swallow it all atonce?' said Harry. 'What would mother say to us if we ate without chewing?'
6. 'There is some chewing going on, though. Look over there!' and she showed him some sheep that were lying down in the grass.
7. 'Oh, now I know! Don't you remember, Dora, father told us once what the cow does. It was that day we had tea at the farm.'
8. 'No, I don't remember. We saw the cows milked, and I had some new milk in a glass. I don't think father told me!'
9. 'Yes, he did. You must have forgotten. He said that the cow sent her food down into a big bag inside, and then it went into a smaller bag, where it was rolled up into little balls. And when the cow lay down to rest, she brought them up into her mouth and chewed them well.'
10. 'I should think the sheep must be doing the same thing. Look at this fat one close by! She is just sitting down. Now watch!'
'Yes, I can see her chewing! Howfunny it is! They all look as if they liked it, don't they?'
la´-zyclothesscant´-ymer´-rypleas´-antchil´-lycom´-monwool´-lydai´-siesdew´-ybrowncoat
1. 'Lazy sheep, pray tell me whyIn the pleasant fields you lie,Eating grass and daisies white,From the morning till the night?Everything can something do;Oh what kind of use are you?'2. 'Nay, my little fellow, nay,Do not serve me so, I pray:Don't you see the wool that growsOn my back to make you clothes?Cold and very cold you'd be,If you had not wool from me.3. 'True, it seems a pleasant thing,To nip the daisies in the spring;But many chilly nights I pass,On the cold and dewy grass,Or pick a scanty dinner whereAll the common's brown and bare.4. 'Then the farmer comes at last,When the merry spring is past,And cuts my woolly coat away,To warm you in the winter's day.Little Master, this is whyIn the pleasant fields I lie.'
1. 'Lazy sheep, pray tell me whyIn the pleasant fields you lie,Eating grass and daisies white,From the morning till the night?Everything can something do;Oh what kind of use are you?'
2. 'Nay, my little fellow, nay,Do not serve me so, I pray:Don't you see the wool that growsOn my back to make you clothes?Cold and very cold you'd be,If you had not wool from me.
3. 'True, it seems a pleasant thing,To nip the daisies in the spring;But many chilly nights I pass,On the cold and dewy grass,Or pick a scanty dinner whereAll the common's brown and bare.
4. 'Then the farmer comes at last,When the merry spring is past,And cuts my woolly coat away,To warm you in the winter's day.Little Master, this is whyIn the pleasant fields I lie.'