A DONKEY.
| bot´-tom | fruit | ap-ple | feast |
| lane | this´-tles | car´-rot | win´-dow |
| don´-key | hedge | touch | shag´-gy |
| load | rough | mor´-row | tuft |
1. At the bottom of the lane lived a donkey. Harry and Dora knew him well. They often met him going to town with a load of fruit, and they saw him in the lane every day cropping the grass and thistles by the hedge-side.
2. He knew them, too, for they would stop to pat his rough sides, or give him an apple or a carrot.
3. They wondered how he could eat such prickly things as thistles. A horse would never touch them.
4. One day his master took him into the garden while he was working. He let Neddy go up and down the paths and crop the grass, which had grown long on the little grass-plot.
5. The donkey did not once try to get at the pears and apples; he did not even look at them.
6. His master was pleased, and said to his wife: 'It is quite safe to leave the gate open, and let Neddy come into the garden when he likes. I shall be away to-morrow, but you need not look after him. He will be all right.'
7. Next day, Neddy walked into the garden, found that no one was there, and began to eat the fruit. He had a good feast before his mistress saw him from the window.
8. Then he was driven out, and the gate was shut. After that he always had to find his dinner in the lane.
9. The children saw him one day feeding with a white horse that had come down from the farm, and they stopped to talk to them.
10. Then Dora said to Harry:
'They are like each other, and yet not like! Neddy has a shaggy coat.'
'And his mane is short, and stands up.'
'His ears are very long.'
'His tail is not like Snowflake's tail; and, see, it has a little tuft at the end of it!'
'And Snowflake is much taller.'
SHEEP.
| chalk | hedge | chew´-ing | for-got´-ten |
| wheth´-er | tear´-ing | though | brought |
| earth | swal´-low | re-mem´-ber | mouth |
1. The next time that Dora and Harry were out, they ran up to the place where they had met Joe. They wished to see how the chalk was getting on, and whether the earth was brown yet.
2. After that they went over a stile into a field where many sheep were feeding. The sheep began to move away when they saw the boy and girl coming.
3. Then said Harry: 'Let us try mother's plan of keeping quite still and letting them see that we don't want to hurt them.'
4. So they sat down under a hedge and looked at the sheep for a long time, and soon one and another began to come near, eating away at the grass.
5. 'I like that sound of tearing off the grass, don't you?' said Dora.
'Do you see they swallow it all at once?' said Harry. 'What would mother say to us if we ate without chewing?'
6. 'There is some chewing going on, though. Look over there!' and she showed him some sheep that were lying down in the grass.
7. 'Oh, now I know! Don't you remember, Dora, father told us once what the cow does. It was that day we had tea at the farm.'
8. 'No, I don't remember. We saw the cows milked, and I had some new milk in a glass. I don't think father told me!'
9. 'Yes, he did. You must have forgotten. He said that the cow sent her food down into a big bag inside, and then it went into a smaller bag, where it was rolled up into little balls. And when the cow lay down to rest, she brought them up into her mouth and chewed them well.'
10. 'I should think the sheep must be doing the same thing. Look at this fat one close by! She is just sitting down. Now watch!'
'Yes, I can see her chewing! How funny it is! They all look as if they liked it, don't they?'
THE SHEEP.
| la´-zy | clothes | scant´-y | mer´-ry |
| pleas´-ant | chil´-ly | com´-mon | wool´-ly |
| dai´-sies | dew´-y | brown | coat |
1. 'Lazy sheep, pray tell me why
In the pleasant fields you lie,
Eating grass and daisies white,
From the morning till the night?
Everything can something do;
Oh what kind of use are you?'
2. 'Nay, my little fellow, nay,
Do not serve me so, I pray:
Don't you see the wool that grows
On my back to make you clothes?
Cold and very cold you'd be,
If you had not wool from me.
3. 'True, it seems a pleasant thing,
To nip the daisies in the spring;
But many chilly nights I pass,
On the cold and dewy grass,
Or pick a scanty dinner where
All the common's brown and bare.
4. 'Then the farmer comes at last,
When the merry spring is past,
And cuts my woolly coat away,
To warm you in the winter's day.
Little Master, this is why
In the pleasant fields I lie.'
TURNIPS.
| white | win´-ter | sor´-ry | pressed |
| ly´-ing | din´-ner | heard | meal |
| tur´-nip | read´-y | peo´-ple | mean |
| picked | but´-ter | bread | jok´-ing |
1. 'What are those sheep eating over there, at the far end of the field? There is something white all over the grass. What can it be?'
'Chalk?' Dora asked.
'No, they never would be so silly! Let us go and see.'
2. Up they got, and away they went. They found that the white things lying about on the grass were bits of turnip.
Harry picked one up and looked at it. It was only a round rind: all the inside had been eaten out.
3. He took it home with him to show to his mother, and she said:
'I saw some bits like this that were shooting out green leaves when spring came. They had been lying out on the ground in the winter, yet there was so much life in them that they could grow again. But, come, wash your hands: dinner is ready, and I have something to tell you. We are going to have turnips for dinner!'
He took it home with him to show to his mother.
4. When Harry had his helping of turnips he said:
'Now I am a sheep!'
'No,' said Dora, 'the sheep don't boil their turnips, or mash them with nice butter.'
5. 'But raw turnip is very nice,' said her father. 'I have often eaten one out in the fields. I am not at all sorry for the sheep.'
6. 'I have heard,' said mother, 'that, when corn was very dear, people had to use turnips in making bread. They say the bread looked good, and kept well. The water was first pressed out of the turnips, and then they were mixed with wheat-meal.'
7. 'I wish you would make some, mother,' said Dora, 'just for fun, to see what it is like.'
'I will—some day.'
8. 'What did you mean, mother,' Harry asked, 'about water in turnips?'
'There is a great deal of water in turnips,' said mother.
9. 'Turnips are nearly all water,' said father.
'Now, father, you must be joking,' cried Harry.
'No, I am not. Am I, mother?'
Mother smiled, and said 'No.'
GREEN PEAS.
PART 1.
| peas | watched | half | with´-er |
| flow´-ers | thought | count´-ed | stayed |
| ten´-drils | pur´-pose | true | shin´-y |
| un-rolled´ | but´-ter-flies | flow´-er | touched |
1. Dora was alone in the garden. She had played about till she was tired, when she found herself close to the bed of peas. She had seen her father sow the peas, and now there were tall plants with leaves and flowers and green tendrils.
2. Dora unrolled one or two of these tendrils, and then watched them roll up again. She thought:
'How funny it is of the plant to put these out on purpose to take hold of the sticks! And how pretty the flowers are! They look like little white butterflies. I will pull one open.'
3. She picked a flower, and sat down with it on the grass. Inside of it she found something long and green. This she opened, and saw a row of tiny green balls.
Pea-flower.
4. Not one of them was half as big as a pin's head. They were all in a row, and Dora counted seven of them.
She picked out each one and laid them on her hand to look at.
5. Then it came into her mind that these little mites of things must be baby-peas. And she felt sorry to think what she had done, for she could not put them back into their nest, and now they would never grow up to be big.
6. She told Harry about it next day, and he said, yes, it was very true. But he must pull open just one flower himself and see the peas inside; and so he did. There were six peas in his flower.
7. Every day after this, Dora and Harry came to look at the plants.
For a long time the flowers were very pretty. Then they began to wither. One by one they dropped off; but the inside part of each stayed on, looking green and shiny.
8. The children called these shiny green things bags, till they heard some one say that they were pods.
Sometimes they touched them. They soon began to feel the peas inside. The pods grew larger and fatter every day.
GREEN PEAS.
PART 2.
| bas´-ket | won´-der-ful | weath´-er | su´-gar |
| shell´-ing | break´-ing | earth | starch |
| bas´-in | fair´-y | moist | earth |
| taught | hap´-pens | pea | sun´-light |
Pea-pods.
1. At last, one sunny morning, mother came out with a basket and began to pick the pods. Harry and Dora wished to help her, and all three were soon at work.
2. Next, the shelling began. Mother had a basin in her lap, and the two children sat close to her and shelled their peas into it.
3. They told her how they had shelled the baby-peas. She taught them how each plant was a living thing, and had a tiny plant inside of it, all ready to come out at the right time. This was very wonderful.
4. 'Did that big plant come out of one little pea?' cried Dora.
'I can't see a little plant inside,' said
Harry, breaking one of the peas open.
5. 'Yet it is there, a fairy-plant, with a root, a stem, and two leaves. These leaves take up nearly all the room in the green ball. How would you like to have two or three of these peas to plant? There! I can spare you three each from to-day's dinner.'
6. The children were glad to have them. 'I wish we could see them grow,' said Dora. 'What happens, mother, when they are in the earth?'
7. 'Do you mean, How do they begin to grow? Well, the weather must be rather warm, and the earth moist, and the pea swells itself out till it bursts open its thin coat. The little root goes down to fasten it firmly in the ground, and to look for food. Then the little stem and the two leaves come up to get air and sunshine. That is how it begins.'
8. 'What food is there in the ground? What food do the roots find?'
'Lime and iron'——
'Iron!' cried Harry.
9. 'Yes, there is iron in green peas! There are sugar, too, and starch, and fat, and water, and other things. Some come out of the earth, some come out of the air and the sunlight, and some the plant makes for itself. Oh, it is a very clever plant! But all plants are clever, I think.'
IRON AND METAL.
| pock´-ets | heav´-y | cop´-per | sup-pose´ |
| mar´-bles | weight | thought | wheat |
| wrapped | light´-er | zinc | i´-ron |
| size | though | met´-als | ket´-tle |
1. 'What have you in your pockets, father?' asked Harry, pulling at them. 'Nuts? stones? marbles?'
'Put your hand in, and find out. Here, Dora, you can try the other pocket.'
2. In went two hands, and out came little hard lumps, each wrapped in paper. The children laid them on the table in a row, and wanted to know what they were.
'What have you in your pockets, father?'
3. They were not nuts, nor marbles, and not quite like stones. They were all about the same size, but one was very heavy. Harry and Dora held it in their hands to feel how heavy it was.
4. 'That is a bit of lead,' said their father. 'Which do you think is the next in weight?'
'This red one. It is a good deal lighter, though!'
'That is called copper. Now, what comes next?'
5. They were not sure, but thought that iron came next, and then tin, and then zinc. Their father told them these names as they went on. He told them also that all these things were metals, and had been dug out of the earth.
6. 'Suppose we make a box to keep them in?'
'Oh yes!' cried both.
'And if we find any more things like these, we will put them in.
7. 'Would you put in a buttercup?'
'No, no!'
'Or a grain of wheat?'
'No, it is not at all like these.'
'Or a bit of slate?'
'I think so,' said Harry.
Dora was not quite sure.
8. 'Yes, we will put the slate into the box. It is not a metal, but it came out of the ground. Now, what do you say to this?' And he pulled out a lump that looked like earth and stone.
9. What could this be? It was iron, just as it had come out of the ground, with clay and earth about it.
10. 'Once upon a time,' said father, 'the kettle, and the poker, and the fender, all looked like this!'
THE FAIRY RING.
| danc´-ing | sea´-sons | sphere | au´-tumn |
| fair´-y | year | sum´-mer | tress´-es |
| queen | cir´-cle | glide | cheeks |
1. Let us dance and let us sing,
Dancing in a merry ring;
We'll be fairies on the green,
Sporting round the fairy queen.
2. Like the seasons of the year
Round we circle in a sphere;
I'll be Summer, you'll be Spring,
Dancing in a fairy ring.
3. Spring and Summer glide away,
Autumn comes with tresses gay;
Winter, hand-in-hand with Spring,
Dancing in a fairy ring.
4. Faster, faster round we go,
While our cheeks with roses glow,
Free as birds upon the wing,
Dancing in a fairy ring.
NEEDLES.
PART 1.
| treat | coils | stretched | mid´-dle |
| hol´-i-days | steel | straight | chop´-ping |
| aunt | wire | ma-chine´ | dropped |
| nee´-dles | wrapped | un´-cle | e-nough´ |
1. Harry and Dora once had a great treat.
They went in the holidays to stay with an uncle and aunt who lived at a town where needles were made. We may call it Needle-town.
2. While they were there, they were taken to the mills to see the needles made.
3. The first room into which they went was very warm. It was called the wire-room. A workman who was there told them that it was filled with hot air night and day, so that no damp should come in and spoil the steel.
4. All round the room coils of steel-wire were hanging. They were wrapped up in paper, but the man took some of them down and let them look in. They saw that one coil was of very thick wire, while another was of wire as fine as a hair.
5. 'One of these coils would be more than a mile long if it were stretched out straight,' the man told Harry. 'Would you like to take hold of this one?'
But Harry found it too heavy, and it was hung up again on the wall.
6. Then they went into another room, where a machine was cutting a coil of wire into bits.
'They are much too long for needles,' said Dora, softly, to her uncle; but one of the workmen heard her, and said:
7. 'So they are! Each bit is going to be two needles. The two ends are to be the points, and the heads lie in the middle of the wire.'
8. But no heads were to be seen yet. And the wire was not even straight, for it had long been rolled up in a coil. As the machine went on chopping, and the wire-strips dropped, a man picked them up and put them on a shelf in a sort of oven.
9. There they were kept till they were red-hot, and then they were soft enough to be made straight.
'Now you see the points of the needles.'
NEEDLES.
PART 2.
| points | un´-cle | ham´-mer | watched |
| heads | block | al-lowed´ | piece |
| eyes | heav´-y | laugh´-ing | sharp |
1. The next thing that the children saw was a grindstone turning round very, very fast.
2. A man put the bits of wire into a thing which was fixed just over the grindstone, and both ends were quickly rubbed sharp.
3. 'Now you see the points of the needles,' said the man, as the wire came out again.
'But there are no heads yet!' said Harry.
'And no eyes!' said Dora.
'Well, come along to the stamping-room,' said their uncle.
4. In this room they found a block of stone that had iron on the top of it. Over it hung a heavy hammer. A man who stood there took one of the wires, put it on the block, and made the hammer come down upon it.
5. The moment the hammer went up again the wire fell into a pan, and the children were allowed to look at it.
6. Still there were no eyes or heads! All that could be seen were two little dents, one on each side of the middle of the wire.
7. 'But, look again!' said uncle. 'Don't you see a tiny dot in each dent? That is where the eye is going to be.'
8. In the next room they found a great number of boys at work.
'Oh, uncle,' said Harry, 'do you think I could come here and help to make needles?'
'You would soon be tired of it,' said his uncle, laughing.
9. They went up to one of the boys, and watched him for some time. He took some wires that had come from the stamping-room, and laid them on a piece of iron, but held the two ends in his hands.
10. Then a heavy thing with two hard, sharp, steel points under it came down on the middle part of the wires, and made two holes just where the dots had been.
'Now we see the eyes, at last!' cried Dora.
NEEDLES.
PART 3.
| thread´-ing | rough | ov´-en | break´-ing |
| to-geth´-er | edg´-es | sec´-ond | bench |
| tooth´-comb | nee´-dle | steam´-ing | ham´-mer |
| smooth | thought | e-nough´ | straight |
1. They went on into another room. Here there were boys again! And what were the boys doing? They were threading the wires together.
2. When they were all strung together, they looked like a long tooth-comb. The heads were in the middle, and the points lay on either side.
3. The boys took them to some of the workmen, and these men made the middle part quite smooth. Rough edges had been left along the tiny dents, and had to be rubbed down.
4. When this was done, a man made a line along the middle of the 'comb,' and then gently bent it backwards and forwards till it broke right in the middle.
5. Harry and Dora were glad to see this. Each bit of wire looked like a needle now. It had a head of its own, and an eye, and a point.
6. The next thing was to make the needles hard. Dora and Harry thought they looked quite hard already, but they did not know.
7. How were they hardened? They were first laid on iron plates and put into a kind of oven.
'This is the second baking they have had,' said Harry.
They were kept in till they were white-hot.
8. When the needles came out, they were put into cold water! What a hissing and steaming they made! But they had to lie there till they were quite cool.
9. Then they were taken out and dried. The man said they were hard enough now, but something else must be done to them to make them able to bend well without breaking.
10. They were put on an iron plate over a fire, and gently moved about. Some of them curled up, and had to be taken off.
11. They were given to a woman, who was sitting on a bench with a little hammer in her hand and a small steel block in front of her. She laid a curly needle on the block, and hammered it till it was straight, and then another, and another.
NEEDLES.
PART 4.
| clean´-ing | oil | man´-gle | Fri´-day |
| piece | em´-er-y | a-fraid´ | points |
| can´-vas | pow´-der | brok´-en | hun´-gry |
| soap | bun´-dle | sec´-ond | laugh´-ing |
1. The cleaning of the needles came next.
2. A great many were laid side by side on a piece of canvas, and covered with paste.
'What is the paste made of?' Harry wanted to know.
'Soft soap, my lad,' said the workman, 'and oil, and emery-powder.'
3. He rolled them all up in the canvas, tied string round the bundle, and put it between the rollers of a thing that looked like a mangle.
4. Dora and Harry opened their eyes wide. 'Think of needles being mangled! This will be something to tell mother!'
5. When the bundle was unrolled, they were afraid that the needles would be broken. But they were all right, and they were taken out and washed in warm soap-suds.
6. 'Now they must be clean!' said Dora.
'Not yet,' said the man; 'they have to be rolled up again with more paste, and put between those rollers again, and again, and again. It takes eight days to clean the best needles.
7. 'And it takes six days to clean the second-best,' said the man.
'Then even the second-best won't be done till Friday!' said Harry.
8. 'But we can go and see some needles that have been cleaned,' said his uncle. 'Let us go up-stairs again.'
9. And they went up into a room where many girls were sitting at a long table with heaps of bright needles before them. They were putting them in order, side by side, heads all one way, points another.
Dora was sure that she could not pick them out so quickly.
10. They were going on into another room to see the eyes of the needles made smooth, when Dora said, 'Oh, uncle, I am so tired!'
'So am I,' said Harry, 'and hungry, too.'
11. 'Come along, then,' said uncle, laughing. 'We all want our dinners, I think.' He took Dora's hand in his, and away they went.
THE KNIFE.
| ro´-ley | morn´-ing | blade | edg´-es |
| po´-ley | knife | han´-dle | rath´-er |
| thought | least | aunt´-ie | clock |
1. There was not much talking at dinner, till after the second helping of roley-poley.
2. Then Dora and Harry felt happy again, and began to tell their aunt all about the needle-making. She had seen it once, but it was a long time ago, and she thought she should like to see it again.
3. 'But if I had gone this morning,' she said, 'you would not have had your pudding.'
'That would have been sad,' said Dora.
4. 'What a lot of steel we have seen,' said Harry. 'I never knew there was so much in the world.'
5. 'You can see some on this table now.'
'Where?'
'What have I cut the pudding with?'
'Oh, the knife! Yes, I see; that must be steel; at least, that part of it. What do you call that part?'
'The blade.'
6. 'And what about the handle?'
'I don't know. It is yellow, and smooth, and hard.'
'It is bone,' said his uncle, 'part of an ox-bone. But some handles are made of wood.'
7. 'May I look at that knife near you, auntie? I mean the clean one. Thank you!'
8. Then Dora wanted one to look at too; and they felt the edges softly and found them very sharp. They looked at the blunt backs of the blades, and then tried to read the maker's name.
9. 'There is no room to put the maker's name on a needle,' said Harry. 'But how do they get it on here?'
'It is stamped on when the blade is red-hot and rather soft.'
10. They could not make out how the handle was put on, so their aunt went to the knife-box and got out an old knife that had lost its handle. They saw that the blade had a long thin piece of iron at the end of it.
11. 'A long hole is made inside the handle, and this iron thing is put into it, and made fast.'
So their uncle said, and then looked at the clock and saw that it was time for him to go.
Setting out for the Farm.