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be-gin-ning of what I have to tell you. Why, Cat-erpil-lar, what do you think those lit-tle eggs will turn out to be ?"

"But-ter-flies, to be sure," said the Cat-er-pil-lar.

"Cat-er-pil-lars!" sang the Lark; "and you'll find it out in time;" and the Lark flew a-way, for he did not want to stay and con-test the point with his friend.

"I thought the Lark had been wise and kind,” observed the mild, green Cat-er-pil-lar, once more be-ginning to walk round the eggs, "but I find that he is fool-ish and sau-cy in-stead. Per-haps he went up too high this time. Ah, it's a pit-y when peo-ple who soar so high are sil-ly and rude nev-er-the-less. Dear! I still won-der whom he sees and what he does up yon-der.”

"I would tell you, if you would be-lieve me," sang the Lark, de-scend-ing once more.

"I be-lieve ev-er-y-thing I am told," re-it-er-a-ted the Cat-er-pil-lar, with as grave a face as if it were a fact.

"Then I'll tell you some-thing else," cried the Lark; "for the best of my news re-mains be-hind. You will one day be a but-ter-fly your-self."

"Wretch-ed bird!" ex-claimed the Cat-er-pil-lar, "you jest with my in-fe-ri-or-i-ty-now you are cru-el as well as fool-ish. Go a-way! I will ask your ad-vice no more." "I told you you would not be-lieve me," cried the Lark, net-tled in his turn.

"I be-lieve ev-er-y-thing that I am told," per-sist-ed the Cat-er-pil-lar; "that is"-and she hes-i-ta-ted-" ev-er-ything that it is rea-son-a-ble to be-lieve. But to tell me that but-ter-flies' eggs are cat-er-pil-lars, and that cat-erpil-lars leave off crawl-ing, and get wings and be-come but-ter-flies! Lark, you are too wise to be-lieve such non-sense your-self, for you know it is im-poss-i-ble.”

"I know no such thing," said the Lark, warm-ly. "Wheth-er I hov-er o-ver the corn-fields of earth, or go up in-to the depths of the sky, I see so man-y won-der ful things, I know no rea-son why there should not be more. Oh, Cat-er-pil-lar! it is be-cause you crawl, be-cause you nev-er get be-yond your cab-bage leaf, that, you call any-thing im-poss-i ble."

"Non-sense!" shout-ed the Cat-er-pil-lar; "I know what's poss-i-ble, and what's not poss-i-ble, ac-cord-ing to my ex-pe-ri-ence and ca-pac-i-ty, as well as you do Look at my long green bod-y and these end-less legs, and then talk to me a-bout hav-ing wings and a paint-ed feath-er-y coat! Fool!"

"And fool you! you would be wise, Cat-er-pil-lar!" cried the in-dig-nant Lark. "Fool, to at-tempt to reason a-bout what you can-not un-der-stand! Do you not hear how my song swells with re-joi-cing as I soar upwards to the mys-te-ri-ous won-der world a-bove? Oh, Cat-er-pil-lar! what comes to you from thence re-ceive as I do, up-on trust."

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"Faith," in-ter-rupt-ed the Lark.

"How am I to learn Faith?" asked the Cat-er-pil-lar. At that mo-ment she felt some-thing at her side. She looked round-eight or ten lit-tle green cat-er-pil-lars were mov-ing about, and had al-read-y made a show of a hole in the cab-bage leaf. They had bro-ken from the But-ter-fly's eggs! Shame and a-maze-ment filled our green friend's heart, but joy soon fol-lowed; for as the first won-der was poss-i-ble, the sec-ond might be so too. "Teach me your les-son, Lark!" she would say; and the Lark sang to her of the won-ders of the earth be-low, and of the heav-ens a-bove. And the Cat-er-pil-lar talked

all the rest of her life to her re-la-tions of the time when she should be a but-ter-fly.

She nev-er-the-less

But none of them be-lieved her. had learnt the Lark's les-son of Faith, and when she was go-ing in-to her chrys-a-lis grave, she said, “ I shall be a But-ter-fly some day! But her re-la-tions thought her head was wan-der-ing, and they said, " Poor thing!" And when she was a But-ter-fly and was go-ing to die a-gain, she said, "I have known man-y won-ders—I have faith-I can trust e-ven now for what shall come next!"-Mrs. Alfred Gatty.

LESSON XCVI.-THE OLD EAGLE TREE.

In a re-mote field, in a dis-tant coun-try, stood a large tu-lip tree, ap-pa-rent-ly of a cen-tu-ry's growth, and one of the most gi-gan-tic of that splen-did spe-cies. It looked like the fath-er of the sur-round-ing for-est. A sin-gle tree of huge di-mens-ions stand-ing all a-lone is a sub-lime ob-ject. On the top of this tree an old ea-gle, com-mon-ly called the "Fish-ing Ea-gle," had built her nest ev-er-y year for man-y years, and un-mo-lest-ed raised her young. What is re-mark-a-ble, as she procured her food from the o-cean, this tree stood full ten miles from the sea-shore. It had long been known as the "Old Ea-gle Tree."

On a warm, sun-ny day, some la-bour-ers were sow-ing corn in an ad-join-ing field. At a cer-tain hour of the day the old ea-gle was known to set off for the sea-side, to gath-er food for her young. As she this day re-turned with a large fish in her claws, the men sur-round-ed the tree, and by yell-ing, and hoot-ing, and throw-ing stones, so scared the poor bird, that she dropped her fish, and they car-ried it off in triumph.

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The men soon dis-persed; but a boy, named Jo-seph, who was with them, sat down un-der a bush near by, to watch, and to be-stow un-a-vail-ing pit-y. The bird soon re-turned to her nest with-out food. The ea-glets at once set up a cry for food so shrill, so clear, and so clam-or-ous that the boy was great-ly moved. The par-ent bird seemed to try to soothe them; but their ap-pe-tites were too keen, and it was all in vain. She then perched her-self on a limb of the tree near them, and looked down in-to the nest with a look that seemed to say, "I know not what to do next."

Her in-de-cis-ion was but mo-ment-a-ry; a-gain she poised her-self, ut-tered one or two sharp notes, as if tell-ing them to lie still, bal-anced her bod-y, spread her wings, and was a-way a-gain for the sea! Jo-seph was de-ter-mined to see the re-sult. His eye fol-lowed her till she grew small-small-er-a mere speck in the skyand then dis-ap-peared.

She was gone near-ly two hours, a-bout doub-le her u-su-al time for a voy-age, when she a-gain re-turned on a slow, wea-ry wing, fly-ing un-com-mon-ly low, in or-der to have a heav-i-er at-mo-sphere to sus-tain her, with an-oth-er fish in her tal-ons.

On near-ing the field, she made a cir-cuit round it, to see if her en-e-mies were a-gain there. Find-ing the coast clear, she once more reached the tree, droop-ing, faint, and wea-ry, and ev-i-dent-ly near-ly ex-haust-ed. A-gain the ea-glets set up their cry, which was soon hushed by the dis-tri-bu-tion of a din-ner such as-save the cook-ing-a king might ad-mire.

"Glo-ri-ous bird!" cried the boy in ec-sta-sy, and a-loud. "What a spi-rit! Oth-er birds can fly swift-er; oth-ers can sing more sweet-ly; oth-ers scream more

loud-ly; but what oth-er bird, when per-se-cu-ted and robbed-when wea-ry-when dis-cour-aged-when so far from the sea-would do this!

"Glo-ri-ous bird! I will learn a les-son from thee to-day. I will nev-er for-get, here-af-ter, that when the spi-rit is de-ter-mined, it can do al-most an-y-thing. Oth-ers would have drooped, and hung the head, and mourned o-ver the cru-el-ty of man, and sighed o-ver the wants of the nest-lings; but thou, by at once re-cov-ering the loss, hast for-got-ten all.

"I will learn of thee, no-ble bird! I will re-mem-ber this. I will set my mark high. I will try to do something in the world; I will nev-er yield to dis-cour-agements."-Todd.

LESSON XCVII.-NOT AGAINST THE RULES.

In a cer-tain school such a case as this once oc-curred. A num-ber of lit-tle girls be-gan to a-muse them-selves du-ring play-time, with run-ning a-bout a-mong the desks in pur-suit of one an-oth-er; and they told their teach-er, in ex-cuse for it, that they did not know that it was "a-gainst the rules."

"It is not a-gainst the rules," said the teach-er; “I have nev-er made an-y rule a-gainst run-ning a-bout a-mong the desks."

"Then," asked a boy, "did we do wrong?"

"Do you think it would be a good plan," the teach-er in-quired, "to make it a com-mon a-muse-ment for the girls to hunt each oth-er a-mong the desks?"

"No!" they re-plied si-mul-ta-ne-ous-ly.

'Why not?

There are some rea-sons.

I do not know, how-ev-er, whether you will have the in-ge-nu-i-ty to think of them."

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