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LESSON XXII.-THE HORSE.

Do you not like to look at a horse? He is such a no-ble an-i-mal, with his sleek, shi-ning hair, his long neck, and his glos-sy mane. He has four strong legs, with which he can trot and gal-lop very fast. His feet have hoofs, but the hoofs are not clo-ven like those of the cow, they are all in one piece. He wears iron shoes on his feet, that he may not be hurt by the stones in the road. What should we do, if there were no hors-es? Hors-es draw the plough and the wag-gon. We ride on their backs, and are drawn by them in car-ria-ges and carts. Hors-es are ta-ken great care of, be-cause they are so use-ful. They are kept in warm sta-bles, and are fed with corn and hay, and wa-ter. Young hors-es are called colts.

Did you ever hear of the A-rabs of the des-ert? They are peo-ple who wan-der from place to place with their flocks, and live not in hous-es, but in tents, that can be ea-si-ly car-ried about with them. They have the fi-nest hors-es in the world, and they are very kind to them. The horse al-ways lives in the same room with the fam-i-ly. He is the play-mate of the chil-dren, and the friend of his mas-ter, who mounts on his back and gal-lops with-out whip or spur o-ver the wide sands. The horse is never beat-en or illused by the A-rabs, nor will the poor-est of them part with his horse, e-ven for a large sum of money. The hors-es, on their part, re-turn the love of their masters, fol-low them about like dogs, and show every mark of fond-ness.

LESSON XXIII.-THE POOR CHILD'S HYMN.

We are poor and low-ly born;
With the poor we bide;
La-bour is our her-i-tage,

Care and want be-side.
What of this? our bles-séd Lord
Was of low-ly birth,

And poor, toil-ing fish-er-men
Were His friends on earth.

We are ig-no-rant and young;
Sim-ple chil-dren all;

Gift-ed with but hum-ble powers,
And of learn-ing small.

What of this? our bles-séd Lord

Lov-éd such as we;

How He blessed the lit-tle ones,

Sit-ting on His knee.-Mrs. Howitt.

LESSON XXIV.-PRECIOUS STONES.

Teacher. There are some kinds of stone which are ex-treme-ly beau-ti-ful when pol-ished, that is, rubbed bright; these are called pre-cious stones.

Child. What does pre-cious mean? ́

Teacher. It means that it is of great val-ue, or costs a great deal of mon-ey be-cause it is scarce. La-dies wear these pre-cious stones in ear-rings and neck-la-ces. They are of va-ri-ous col-ours: one is called the em-e-rald, which is green; the to-paz is yel-low, the am-e-thyst is pur-ple, the gar-net is red, the sap-phire is blue, and the o-pal is white.

Child. And were all these beau-ti-ful things like com-mon stones before they were pol-ished?

Teacher. No; for I have told you they were very un-com-mon—that is, scarce; but still they are stones. Pre-cious stones are al-so called jew-els.

Child. You for-got to men-tion the di-a-mond, which is the most beau-ti-ful of all.

Teacher. I did not for-get it; but though it is com-mon-ly called a pre-cious stone, prop-er-ly speaking it is not a stone. This was found out by a clev-er man, who, hav-ing no-ticed that it was like a combus-ti-ble bod-y in an-oth-er way, which I can-not now ex-plain to you, thought it very like-ly that it would burn. It turned out that he was right; and afterwards it was found out that this beau-ti-ful di-a-mond was made of noth-ing but char-coal, put to-geth-er in a par-tic-u-lar way, just as coarse sand and ash-es make beau-ti-ful glass.—Mrs. Marcet.

LESSON XXV.-THE CREATION-FOURTH DAY.

The world looked very beau-ti-ful when it was cov-ered with grass and trees. But on-ly God and the an-gels saw its beau-ty.

Af-ter-wards God placed the sun in the sky, and bade it shine all day, and go from one end of the world to the oth-er. God made the moon to shine at night, and He covered the sky with stars.

It

You nev-er saw any-thing so bright as the sun. is very large in-deed, only it looks small, be-cause it is a great way off. It can not fall, for God holds it up. God makes it move a-cross the sky. Did you ever hear this pret-ty verse a-bout the sun?

"My God, who makes the sun to know

His prop-er hour to rise;

And to give light to all be-low,

Doth send him round the skies."

The moon does not shine so bright-ly as the sun, for God lets it be dark all night, that we may. rest, and sleep sound-ly.

Who could count the stars? No one but God. He knows their names and their num-bers too. When we look at the moon and stars, let us think "how great God is! Yet He cares for the lit-tle birds, and loves lit-tle chil-dren."-" Peep of Day."

LESSON XXVI.-THE HEAT OF THE SUN.

Come, let us go home, it is eve-ning. See, mam-ma! how tall my shad-ow is. It is like a great black gi-ant stalk-ing after me.

Your shad-ow is tall be-cause the sun is low in the sky; it is near sun-set. Look at your shad-ow tomor-row at noon, and you will find it a great deal short-er.

In some coun-tries the sun is di-rect-ly o-ver folks' heads at noon, and then they have no shad-ow at all.

If the sun were just over your head, it would be hot-ter than you could bear.

Why is that? is not the sun near-er to us when it sinks down to-wards the fields, than when it is a great way up in the sky?

No; the sun does not re-al-ly touch the fields, but he seems to do so, be-cause you can see noth-ing be-tween them.

But we are got home. Come in. Now put your eye lev-el with the ta-ble. Look at the globe that hangs at the oth-er end of the room: Does it not ap-pear to touch the ta-ble? Yes, it does. But if it was held above the ta-ble it would not appear to touch. No. So it is with the sun.

But why is it

hot-ter when the sun is o-ver our heads?

Be-cause

his rays come di-rect-ly down up-on you. Come and stand just a-gainst the mid-dle of this fire. Now stand at the same dis-tance side-ways. Did not you feel it hot-ter when you stood quite op-po-site? Yes; it scorched my face. Well, at noon the sun sends down his scorch-ing rays, like a num-ber of burn-ing ar-rows, di-rect-ly down upon you; but in the eve-ning and the morn-ing they come more slant-ing, and few-er of them reach you. That is the rea-son why it is hot-ter at noon: though the sun is at the same dis-tance, more thou-sands of miles off than you can count.

Mrs. Barbauld.

LESSON XXVII.-THE SPIDER'S WEB.

Do you see the spi-der's web up in the cor-ner? Some boys are a-fraid of a spi-der's web. Are you a-fraid of a spi-der's web? How can a spi-der's web hurt any-bod-y? Spi-ders do not hurt any-bod-y ei-ther. I know a boy who went out one day to swing in the barn. But he looked up in a cor-ner, and he saw a great many spi-ders' webs. So he said, "I will not go into that cob-web-by place."

Do you know how the spi-ders go to work to make their webs? The spi-der be-gins at the mid-dle, and he spins the lit-tle fine threads all out, every way, un-til he has made a great broad web. What do you think the spider's web is for? The spider catch-es flies in his web. The spiders eat flies. When the flies come upon the spider's web they are caught. Their feet stick fast in the web, and then they are caught. The flies can-not walk upon the web. What do you suppose is the rea-son that spiders can walk upon their

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