looking up it saw, to its great surprise, a spider just over its head, coolly weaving its web and looking about for flies.

up?"

"How ever did you manage to get up there?" asked the eagle; "you don't mean to say you crawled up "No," said the spider, "that was not my means of raising myself on high."

"Well, then, how on earth did you get here?"

"Why, I just fastened myself on to you, and you brought me with you, snugly perched on your tail feathers. But now I know how to maintain my position here without your help, so I beg you won't assume such grand airs in my presence; for I should like you to know that I" But just then a gust of wind came flying by, and in a moment the spider was whirled away, and no one ever heard anything more of it.

DICTATION.-The vain spider boasting of getting up to the top of the mountain, when it had got up by being snugly perched on the eagle's feathers, was like a good many people who think they do what others have helped them to do. It should have stayed weaving its web down below, and not have taken such grand airs. Its fall gives no one

surprise.

QUESTIONS.-Where was the eagle in this fable when it spoke? What words did it hear, and from whom did they come? How had the spider got up? What happened while the spider was boasting?

RIDDLE. In spring I am very pretty. I wear more clothes in summer than in spring. In winter I'm naked.

THE DARK BLUE MEADOW.-Dr. Vogel.

Father. I know a dark blue meadow.

Harold. Father, that is a joke-there are no blue meadows: meadows are green, not blue.

F. Yet my meadow is blue, and, besides that, it is larger than all the meadows in the world.

Laura. Have I seen it, father?

F. You have all seen it, and see it every day. Over my meadow there wander, year in, year out, one day as another day, more great and little sheep than you can count, and that though nothing grows on it.

Antony. But, father, what do they do if they have nothing to eat? Sheep can't do without food?

F. My sheep and lambs never eat and are never hungry.

H. There's some riddle in this. They cannot be living sheep, else they would need to eat, and must get hungry.

F. The sheep are living;—they have been living, already, over a thousand years, and they are always the same as they were at first, although they never either hunger or thirst.

H. Your sheep are over a thousand years old, father? I cannot think what you mean. Our teacher tells us that sheep seldom live over fourteen years, at the very longest.

F. Yet it is just as I have said, dear child. And my sheep are lovely, so lovely, and shining, and golden that the sheep in-in-in-what do they call that country where the sheep are best?

H. In Spain, in Spain; see, father, I know it.

F. That the sheep in Spain cannot be compared to them, for the whole flock have golden fleeces.

The children looked at each other in wonder, but broke out into loud laughing before long, and cried, There are no sheep with golden fleeces! How could the weak creatures bear such a heavy burden? Father, you are only trying if we will believe it.

F. I am in earnest, children. Their fleeces do shine, really, like gold, as bright and shining, and you have often rejoiced to look at them.

H. Are they all day in the meadow. Can one hear them bleating?

F. Yes, they are all day in the meadow, but they are not seen by day. As to their bleating, no one ever

heard them.

Ethel. But when the wicked wolf comes, then they will and run away?

cry,

F. The wolf cannot get into my meadow, and, besides, my sheep have a shepherd over them who watches them.

A. One shepherd? How can one shepherd take care of so many sheep? What kind of a shepherd îs he?

F. He wears a bright, beautiful white robe, that shines like silver, and is never soiled. And though he

has watched the flock for more than a thousand years, yet he has never once slept, and has never changed his robe, and yet he is always watchful and bright, and his robe is always spotless.

H. Well, I cannot make it out. He must be a strange kind of man.

E. He must not be like old Thomas, down in the village, who is only eighty years old-for he can neither stand, nor walk, and he is blind.

F. My shepherd never stands still, but is always going through his sheep, and he is not blind, but has the clearest eyesight.

L. Father, he surely sleeps, and you are only speaking as you do to keep us from sleeping as long as we do. He may sleep without doing any harm, for his dogs can watch till he wakes.

F. His dogs? He has no dogs, and does not need

any.

L. But he has a pipe, has he not, and plays on it? F. No. He has no pipe, but he has a beautiful horn, but he cannot blow on it, for it gives no sound.

A. Now, that is still more beyond me. A shepherd with his sheep, who is over a thousand years old, who has a horn and cannot blow on it-who never sleeps, and is never heavy-I cannot make it out.

H. Father, in what country, then, is this meadow, where these wonderful sheep are?

F. It is in no country at all, but it reaches over every country there is.

E. It is in the air then; is it in the air?

F. Yes-it is there.

E. But how can sheep get up to it? They cannot fly.

F. O yes, my sheep can roam about in the air, and fly round, and yet not fall down.

A. How I would like to see them flying.

F. You can see them flying any day. When it is evening they come out so that you see them, and feed all night long.

H. Ah, now I know what the golden sheep are-but the shepherd?

F. He is with the sheep, and if you would like to see him, throw up the window-for yonder he comes.

All the Children. The moon! the moon! Oh, now we know it. The stars are the sheep, and the blue meadow is the heavens. But you have made it too hard for us, Father. But tell it again--just once again. F. To-morrow, children.

DICTATION.-The dark blue meadow with the goldenfleeced sheep, and the silver-robed shepherd, reaches away farther than you can think. The sheep in Spain give us the fine wool from which merino cloth is woven. The moon is

the shepherd, and the stars which shine so like gold, and roam about in the air, are the sheep. No wonder they don't fall down, or that the shepherd does not sleep or grow heavy. QUESTIONS.-What is the blue meadow? What are the sheep? Who is the shepherd? Where does the finest wool come from? How long does a sheep live? How long have the father's sheep been living? Do you see his sheep, and when? What kind of fleeces have they? of a robe has the shepherd? Does he sleep? he? Can you see him?

What kind How old is