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all the stalks will be pulled up and car-ried away to a place where they will be soaked in wa-ter first, and then they will be beat-en to make them in-to such flax as I spin." "Well," said Ma-ry, "I should not have thought these stalks could ever be made into flax for spin-ning."

"Af-ter the stalks are made into thread, it is ta-ken to the weav-er's, and is there woy-en into lin-en, and when the lin-en comes home, it is spread out on the grass and sprink-led with wa-ter as it lies in the sun. This is called bleach-ing it. And do you know, Ma-ry," said Mrs. Thomp-son, "what your frock is made of?" "I think, moth-er," said Ma-ry, "you once told me it was made of cot-ton. Does cot-ton grow like flax in the fields?"

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Cot-ton," said Mrs. Thomp-son, "grows in those parts of the world where the cli-mate is warm, and when it is growing and read-y to be picked it looks something like wool. It is some-times called cot-ton wool. Large quan-ti-ties of it are raised in the south-ern parts of the U-ni-ted States."

"Is cot-ton spun into thread, the same as flax is, moth-er?" said Ma-ry.

"Yes, my dear," said her moth-er," and it is woy-en in the same way as flax, and made into cal-i-co, such as your frock."

LESSON LV.-FAITH.

A child of mine, says Mr. Ce-cil, was play-ing one day with a few beads, which seemed to de-light her won-derful-ly. Her whole soul was ab-sorbed in her beads. I said

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My dear, you have some pret-ty beads there." "Yes, pa-pa."

"And you seem to be vast-ly pleased with them."

"Yes, pa-pa."

"Well, now, throw them be-hind the fire."

The tears start-ed into her eyes. She looked earnest-ly at me, as though she ought to have a rea-son for such a cru-el sac-ri-fice.

"Well, my dear, do as you please; but you know I nev-er told you to do any-thing which I did not think would be good for you."

She looked at me a few mo-ments long-er, and then, sum-mon-ing up all her for-ti-tude, her breast heav-ing with the ef-fort, she dashed them into the fire.

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Well," said I, "there let them lie; you shall hear more a-bout them an-oth-er time; but say no more a-bout them now."

Some days after, I bought her a box full of lar-ger beads, and toys of the same kind. When I re-turned home, I opened the treas-ure, and set it before her; she burst into tears of ec-sta-sy. "Those, my child," said I,

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are yours, because you be-lieved me, when I told you it would be bet-ter for you to throw those beads be-hind the fire. Now, that has brought you this treas-ure. But now, my dear, re-mem-ber, as long as you live, what FAITH is. You threw your beads away when I bade you, be-cause you Ihad faith in me, that I never ad-vised you but for your good. Put the same con-fi-dence in God. Be-lieve every thing He says in His Word. Wheth-er you un-der-stand it or not, have faith in Him that He means your good."

LESSON LVI.-KNOWLEDGE.

"What an ex-cel-lent thing is know-ledge!" said a sharp-look-ing, bust-ling lit-tle man, to one who was much old-er than him-self. "Know-ledge is an ex-cel

lent thing," re-peat-ed he; "my boys know more at six and seven years old than I did at twelve. They have heard about all sorts of things, and can talk on all sorts of sub-jects. The world is a great deal wi-ser than it used to be. Ev-er-y bod-y knows some-thing of ev-er-y thing now. Do you not think, Sir, that know-ledge is an ex-cel-lent thing?"

"Why, Sir," re-plied the old man, look-ing grave-ly, "that de-pends en-tire-ly on the use to which it is ap-plied. It may be a bless-ing or a curse. Know-ledge is only an in-crease of power, and power may be a bad as well as a good thing."

“That is what I can-not un-der-stand," said the bustling little man. "How can power be a bad thing?”

"I will tell you," meek-ly re-plied the old man, and thus went on :-"When the power of a horse is un-der re-straint, the an-i-mal is use-ful in bear-ing bur-dens, draw-ing loads, and car-ry-ing his mas-ter; but when the re-straint is taken away, the horse breaks his bri-dle, dash-es the car-riage to pie-ces, or throws his ri-der."

"I see! I see!" said the lit-tle man.

"When the wa-ter of a large pond is prop-er-ly conduct-ed by trench-es, it makes the fields a-round fer-tile; but when it bursts through its banks, it sweeps ev-er-y thing be-fore it, and de-stroys the prod-uce of the field." "I see! I see!" said the lit-tle man, "I see !?

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"When a ship is steered a-right, the sail that she hoists up en-a-bles her the soon-er to get into port; but if steered wrong, the more sail she car-ries, the far-ther will she go out of her course."

"I see! I see!" said the lit-tle man, "I see clear-ly!" "Well, then," con-tin-ued the old man, "if you see

these things so clear-ly, I hope you can see, too, that know-ledge, to be a good thing, must be right-ly applied. God's grace in the heart will ren-der the know-ledge of the head a bles-sing; but, with-out this, it may prove to us no bet-ter than a curse."

"I see! I see! I see!" said the little man, “I see!"

LESSON LVII. THE SHEPHERD'S DOG,

Here are three dogs. How very dif-fer-ent they are from each oth-er. One is very large, an-oth-er is very ug-ly, and the oth-er is very small and pret-ty. Yet the ug-ly dog is by far the clev-er-est and the best. I am sure you will love him most when I tell you some more about him. The ug-ly dog is called a shep-herd's dog. He came from Scot-land, where there are large flocks of sheep fed among the hills, and he is very use-ful to the shep-herds. The large dog is called a wolf-dog; he comes from Ire-land; he is near-ly as large as a po-ny. Wolf-dogs have killed al-most all the wolves in Ire-land. The pretty little dog came from Mal-ta. It is a lap-dog. It is called a Mal-tese dog. Lap-dogs are gen-e-ral-ly fed too much, and they be-come la-zy, and i-dle, and un-hap-py. The shep-herd's dog is a far hap-pi-er creature, for he knows he is use-ful to his mas-ter. tell you a short story about a Scotch shep-herd's dog. One day a shep-herd took his lit-tle boy with him, as well as his dog. The child was on-ly three years old. The fath-er left him a-lone, while he looked after some sheep, when sud-den-ly a thick fog came on. The poor man could not find his child. He hoped he had gone home; but when he in-quired, he found his wife had not seen him. Both fath-er and moth-er searched

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a-round, but no child was to be seen. Next morn-ing they gave their dog a piece of bread for break-fast as u-su-al. As soon as the dog re-ceived it he ran off with it very quick-ly. The next day the dog did so a-gain. On the third day the shep-herd thought, "I will go and see what the dog does with his bread." He fol-lowed him down many a steep path, till at last he came to a wa-ter-fall. The shep-herd, step-ping from crag to crag, crossed the roar-ing stream. On the oth-er side, in a little hole of the rock, sat his little boy, eat-ing a piece of bread, while the dog lay be-side him, watch-ing his young mas-ter with love and plea-sure in his looks. O, how glad the shep-herd was to find his child! The poor dog had gone with-out his break-fast for two days. The lit-tle boy had been a-fraid of cros-sing the stream, and had not known how to get home. He would have been starved, if it had not been for the faith-ful dog.

Do you not love the shep-herd's dog, though his hair is coarse, and though his tail is short, and his ears stick up? You love him bet-ter than you do the lap-dog."Near Home."

LESSON LVIII.-THE SEASONS.

Win-ter is a drear-y time,

Then we hear the howl-ing blast,
Then the trees are bare as hop-poles,

Rain and hail are fall-ing fast:
Win-ter is a so-cial sea-son,

Then we gath-er round the fire;
Books and mu-sic then de-light us,

Fun and frol-ic mirth in-spire.

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