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LESSON L.-DUTIES TO PLAYMATES.

One of the most important duties which boys and girls ought to perform, in respect to their playmates, is to avoid the company of the vicious.

Use your influence always to encourage doing right, and to discourage doing wrong, among your playmates, by every means in your power. Boys are very often led to do what is wrong, by the influence of other boys looking on and approving what they do.

Endeavour to protect the weak and defenceless, and to help all who are in any difficulty or trouble. We might suppose that no one would degrade himself so much as to be guilty of cruelty and oppression to those who are younger and smaller than he is, and thus unable to defend their rights. Still, there are boys who will do this. Their consciences, however, condemn them while they do it; and the influence of the opinion of others, coming in to the aid of conscience, will sometimes deter them. They know that it is wrong; and if they see that other boys think it is wrong, they sometimes will not do it. By kindly taking part with the oppressed, it is often possible very much to diminish the oppression : and there are many other ways by which a just and conscientious boy or girl may help to protect their playmates from injury.

Promote peace and good-will among your playmates. A boy may do a great deal to promote harmony among his companions, by explaining misunderstandings, representing things that occur in a favourable light, and, in all his conversation and conduct, setting an example of kindness and good-nature. On the other hand, he may do a great deal to foment discord and ill-will, by

endeavouring to set one boy against another, repeating harsh things which have been said, exaggerating difficulties and misunderstandings, and by exhibiting himself, and encouraging others to exhibit, a revengeful and passionate spirit.

Children should be courteous in their manners to one another. Boys ought to be gentlemanly, girls lady-like, in all their conversation and demeanour. There is every reason for this. It is proper in itself. Politeness is only gentleness and kindness expressed in our manners and conversation. Now, gentleness and kindness are agreeable-they promote happiness; while a rude, rough, and ill-natured manner makes everybody uncomfortable. Politeness and kind consideration for others smooths the roughness of play, and overcomes difficulties, and heightens enjoyment. It binds playmates together in strong bonds of affection; and forms in boys and girls such manners and habits, as make them objects of regard and affection while they are young, and give them vast advantages, when they grow up, in their intercourse with the world at large.-J. Abbott.

LESSON LI.-ORANGE HARVEST IN THE AZORES.

Many of the trees are a hundred years old. The thinness of the rind of a St. Michael's orange, and its freedom from pips, depend on the age of the tree. As the vigour of the plant declines, the peel becomes thinner, and the seeds gradually diminish till they disappear altogether. Thus, the oranges most in esteem are the produce of barren trees, and those deemed least palatable come from trees in full vigour. The number of the trees is increased by layers, which, at the end of two

years, are cut away from the parent stem; the process of raising from seed being seldom if ever adopted, on account of the very slow growth of the plants so raised.

In Fayal, the branches, by means of strings, are strained away from the centre into the shape of a cup, or of an open umbrella turned upside down—a plan which conduces much to early ripening, as the sun is thus allowed to penetrate, and the branches to receive a free circulation of air. To shield them from the winds, the gardens are protected by high walls, whilst the trees. themselves are planted among rows of fayas, firs, and camphor-trees. Without these precautions, the windfalls would do away with the profits, none of the "groundfruit," as it is called, being exported to England. Filled with these magnificent shrubs, mixed with the lofty arbutus, many of the gardens present an imposing

scene

"Groves whose rich fruit, burnished with golden rind,
Hung amiable, and of delicious taste."

One was especially charming, which covered the sides of a glen or ravine. On a near approach, scores of boys were seen scattered among the branches, gathering fruit into small baskets, hallooing and laughing, and finally emptying their gatherings into larger baskets underneath. Many large trees, on the steep slopes of the glen, lay uprooted, either from their load of fruit, the high winds, or the weight of the boys. Besides, the fall of a tree might not be unamusing; and in so light a soil, where the roots are superficial, a light strain would give it bias enough. The trees lie where they fall; and some that had evidently come down many years before, were still alive, and bearing good crops. The fruit is

not ripe till March or April, nor do the natives generally eat it before that time. The boys, however, who gather it, are marked exceptions: they are of a yellow tint, as if saturated with orange juice.

The process of packing the oranges is expeditious and simple. In some open plot of ground, you find a group of men and children, seated on a heap of the calyxleaves, or husks, of Indian corn, in which each orange is to be wrapped up. The operation begins. A child hands to a workman, who squats beside him, a prepared husk; it is snatched from the child, wrapped round the orange, and passed to the next, who, with the chest between his legs, places it in the orange box; the parties continuing the work with amazing rapidity, until at length the chest is filled to overflowing. Two men now hand it to the carpenter, who bends over it several thin boards, secured with a willow band, presses it with his naked foot as he saws off the ragged ends of the boards, and despatches it to the ass, that stands ready for lading. Two chests are slung on its back by cords, in the figure of 8; and the driver, taking his goad, and uttering his well-known cry, trudges off to town.—Bullar.

LESSON LII.--THE CUCKOO.

The cuckoo builds no nest, but deposits its eggs singly in the nests of small, and, for the most part, insecteating birds. Notwithstanding the immense disparity between the size of the cuckoo, and that of all these birds, there is very little between their eggs; the egg the cuckoo being of the exact size of that of the skylark. Five or six eggs are deposited by the female cuckoo during the season, extending from the middle of May to

of

the middle of July; but no more than one is ever (unless by an extraordinary exception) dropped into one nest. After fourteen days' incubation, the young cuckoo is hatched; and as the support of so large a bird alone is sufficiently arduous for the foster-parents, it is necessary that their own eggs and young should be destroyed; and this is always effected by the young cuckoo, in the manner thus described by Dr. Jenner:-"I examined the nest of a hedge-sparrow, which contained a cuckoo and three hedge-sparrow's eggs. The next day the bird had hatched; but the nest then contained only a young cuckoo and one hedge-sparrow. The nest was so placed that I could distinctly see what was going forward in it. To my surprise, I saw the cuckoo, though so lately hatched, in the act of turning out the hedge-sparrow. With the assistance of its rump and wings it contrived to get the bird upon its back, and making a lodgment for its burden by elevating its elbows, clambered backwards with it up the side of the nest till it reached the top, when it threw off its load with a jerk, and quite disengaged it from the nest. It remained in this situation for a short time, feeling about with its wings, as if to be convinced that the business was properly executed, and then dropped into the nest again." In climbing up the nest the young cuckoo sometimes drops its burden, but after a little respite the work is resumed and goes on till it is effected. The singularity of its shape is well adapted to these purposes; for, unlike other newly hatched birds, its back is very broad, with a considerable depression in the middle. This depression seems formed by nature to give a more secure lodgment to the eggs or young birds, when the cuckoo is employed in removing them from the nest. When it is about twelve

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