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"Yes, Sir;" "Yes, Sir." "No, Sir;" "No, Sir," answered the boys, con-fu-sed-ly.

"Well," said the mas-ter, "there are two sen-ses in which a hat may be said to be-long to any per-son. It may be-long to him be-cause he bought it and paid for it; or it may be-long to him be-cause it fits him and he wears it. In oth-er words, a per-son may have a hat as his prop-er-ty, or he may have it only as a part of his dress. Now, you see that, ac-cord-ing to the first of these sen-ses, all the hats in this school be-long to your fath-ers. There is not, in fact, a sin-gle boy in this school who has a hat of his own.

"Your fath-ers bought your hats. They worked for them, and paid for them. You are only the wear-ers, and con-se-quent-ly ev-er-y gen-e-rous boy will be care-ful of the prop-er-ty which is in-trust-ed to him; but which, strict-ly speak-ing, is not his own.”—J. Abbott.

LESSON LXXV.--THE THREE TROUTS.

There were once three lit-tle sil-ver trouts who lived in a stream of clear wa-ter, which ran be-tween two high green banks. The banks pro-tect-ed it from the winds and storms, so that the wa-ter was al-ways smooth; and as the sun shone there, it was a very de-light-ful place. Be-sides, these lit-tle fish-es had plen-ty to eat and drink, and no-thing to trou-ble them; so that you would have ex-pect-ed them to be per-fect-ly hap-py. But, a-las! it was not so; these lit-tle trouts were so fool-ish as to be dis-con-tent-ed and un-hap-py; and God heard their com-plain-ing. So He told the lit-tle fish-es that each of them might wish for what-ev-er he pleased, and it should be granted. So the first lit-tle trout said, “I'

am tired of mo-ping up here in the wa-ter, and of hav-ing to stay all the time in one place; I should like to have wings to fly in the air as the birds do, and go where I pleased."

The next said, "I am a poor ig-no-rant lit-tle fish, and I do not know how to pro-tect my-self from dan-ger; I should like to have a great deal of know-ledge, and un-der-stand all a-bout hooks and nets, so that I may al-ways keep out of dan-ger."

The other lit-tle trout said, "I too am a poor ignorant lit-tle fish, and for that rea-son I do not know what is best for me; my wish is, that God would take care of me, and give me just what He sees best for me; I do not want a-ny-thing that He does not choose to give me."

So God gave wings to the first, and he was very hap-py, and soared a-way in-to the air, and felt very proud, and de-spised his com-pan-ions whom he had left in the riv-er. He liked so much to fly, that he flew a-way off, till he came to a great des-ert where there was no wa-ter-no-thing but sand as far as he could see. By this time he was tired of fly-ing, and was faint and thirs-ty, but he could see no wa-ter. He tried to fly far-ther, but could not; his wings failed, and he fell down pant-ing on the hot sand, where he died mis-era-bly.

And God gave the second lit-tle fish know-ledge, as he had de-sired, and he un-der-stood all kinds of dan-ger, but in-stead of be-ing hap-pi-er, he was all the time in ter-ror. He was a-fraid to go in-to the deep wa-ter, lest the great fish-es there should swal-low him up; and he was a-fraid to go in-to the shal-low wa-ter, lest it should dry up and leave him. If he saw a fly, or any thing

that he would like to eat, he did not ven-ture to touch it, lest there should be a hook con-cealed un-der it. So he pined a-way and died.

But God loved the oth-er lit-tle trout, and took care of him, and kept him from all dan-gers, so that he was the hap-pi-est lit-tle trout that ev-er lived.-Henry Brooke.

LESSON LXXVI.-THE RIVER AMAZON.

This riv-er flows through Bra-zil. It is the lar-gest in the world. It is the long-est, the wi-dest, and the deep-est; it may well, there-fore, be called the lar-gest riv-er. It is near-ly two thou-sand miles long; it is one hun-dred and eight-y miles wide at the mouth; in some pla-ces it is more than one hun-dred and twenty feet deep.

This large riv-er is al-so beau-ti-ful, for its banks are clothed by beau-ti-ful trees. Monk-eys sport a-mong the branch-es and par-rots scream.

Both monk-eys and par-rots are oft-en caught to be sold as pets, but they are oft-en-er killed to be served up for sup-per. There is no an-i-mal con-sid-ered such good eat-ing as a monk-ey. The most splen-did of the par-rot tribe are the ma-caws. They are val-ued for their feath-ers of red, blue, and yel-low. The In-di-ans make splen-did feath-er dress-es. Small feath-ers glued on a cot-ton cap turn it in-to a splen-did crown. Long feath-ers make a scep-tre. A feath-er man-tle completes the splen-dour of the In-di-an kings.

There are vast plan-ta-tions of ca-ca-o trees close by the Am-a-zon. These are the trees whence choc-o-late and co-co-a are made; they are low and stump-y, and they are quite dif-fer-ent from co-co-a nut trees. There

are rich Port-u-guese gen-tle-men who own these planta-tions, and who live in el-e-gant vil-las by the riv-er side. They lead ver-y i-dle lives, for they need on-ly ex-ert them-selves once a year, when the fruit is ripe. Then the fruit is gath-ered, cut o-pen, the pips ta-ken out, dried in the sun, packed up, and put on board the ships go-ing up the Am-a-zon.

The trees which yield In-di-a rub-ber grow on the banks of the Am-a-zon. They are called Ser-in-ga trees. The In-di-a rub-ber is the sap. There are poor In-di-ans who live by col-lect-ing this sap. They in-hab-it wretch-ed huts close to the wa-ter, and un-der the deep shad-ow of the tall trees.

See that poor man go-ing out to col-lect sap. He goes up to a tree, and wounds it with a knife, then fast-ens a cup un-der the place to catch the milk-y stuff that slow-ly ooz-es forth. In one day he has wound-ed one hun-dred and twen-ty trees. He has walked man-y miles, for the trees do not stand close to-geth-er; they are scat-tered a-mong the oth-er trees of the for-est.

Next day, the poor man goes out a-gain to col-lect the In-dia-rub-ber milk. He finds a lit-tle in each cup. Al-to-geth-er he brings home two gal-lons in a ba-sin. His daugh-ter can make this milk in-to shoes. She takes it in-to a lit-tle thatched hut, where there is a small fur-nace in a jar. She dips a last (which she holds by a han-dle) in-to the milk; then dries it by hold-ing it in the smoke of the fur-nace for a min-ute; then dips it a-gain, and dries it, and so goes on till the In-di-a rub-ber is thick-ly spread up-on the last. She then lays it in the sun till next day. With those two gal-lons of milk she makes ten pair of shoes in a-bout two hours. Next day the girl comes and cuts off the shoes from

their lasts. Now they are rea-dy to go up the riv-er in the ships." Far Off."

LESSON LXXVII.-AFRICAN HOSPITALITY.

Mung-o Park, the cel-e-bra-ted Af-ri-can trav-el-ler, gives the fol-low-ing live-ly and in-ter-est-ing ac-count of the hos-pi-ta-ble treat-ment which he re-ceived from a ne-gro wom-an: Be-ing ar-rived at Se-go, the cap-i-tal of the king-dom of Bam-bar-ra, sit-u-a-ted on the banks of the Ni-ger, I wished to pass o-ver to that part of the town in which the king re-sides; but, from the num-ber of per-sons ea-ger to ob-tain a pas-sage, I was un-der the ne-ces-si-ty of wait-ing two hours. Du-ring this time, the peo-ple who had crossed the riv-er, car-ried in-forma-tion to Man-song, the king, that a white man was wait-ing for a pas-sage, and was com-ing to see him. He im-me-di-ate-ly sent o-ver one of his chief men, who in-formed me that the king could not pos-si-bly see me un-til he knew what had brought me in-to his coun-try; and that I must not pre-sume to cross the riv-er with-out the king's per-mis-sion. He there-fore ad-vised me to lodge, for that night, at a dis-tant vil-lage to which he point-ed; and said that, in the morn-ing, he would give me fur-ther in-struc-tions how to con-duct my-self. This was ver-y dis-cour-a-ging. How-ev-er, as there was no rem-e-dy, I set off for the vil-lage; where I found, to my great mor-ti-fi-ca-tion, that no per-son would ad-mit me in-to his house. From pre-ju-di-ces in-fused in-to their minds, I was re-gard-ed with as-ton-ish-ment and fear; and was o-bliged to sit the whole day with-out vic-tuals, in the shade of a tree.

"The night threat-ened to be very un-com-fort

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