I.
1. I'm a pretty little thing,
Always coming with the spring;
In the meadows green I'm found,
Peeping just above the ground.
And my stalk is covered flat
With a white and yellow hat.
2. Little maiden, when you pass
Lightly o'er the tender grass,
Step aside and do not tread
On my meek and lowly head;
For I always seem to say,
'Chilly winter's gone away.'
II.
1. I'm a cunning little thing,
Coming also with the spring.
Near the daisy I am found,
Standing straight above the ground;
And my head is covered flat
With a glossy, yellow hat.
2. Little children, when you pass
Through the tall and waving grass,
Do not pluck, but gently tread
Near my low and mossy bed;
For I always seem to say,
'Milk and butter fresh to-day.'
WHEAT.
PART 1.
| field | bas´-ket | grains | joints |
| fa´-ther | watched | east | be-lieve´ |
| wheat | threw | morn´-ing | for´-est |
| plough | har´-row | earth | stalks |
1. There was a very little field at the bottom of the garden, and father made up his mind to grow wheat in it.
2. A friend kindly lent him a horse and plough, and the soil was quickly turned over. A few days afterwards the seed was sown.
3. The children helped to do this.
They got up very early one morning and went out with their father. Harry had a bag full of wheat, and Dora had a little basket.
4. They watched what their father did, then dipped their hands into the wheat, and threw it out over the earth.
5. After that, the horse came again with a harrow, to cover the seed over with soil, and it was left to grow.
6. It seemed strange to think that those little hard grains would grow up to be tall plants and have other grains upon them.
7. 'I hope we shall have some nice soft rain,' said father, as they left the field.
8. Many days went by, rain came again and again. There was sunshine, too; but sometimes the east winds blew.
9. Dora and Harry went out every morning to look at the field. But they always came in saying that there was nothing but brown earth to be seen.
10. At last, one morning they came in running and jumping. 'Our wheat is up! There are tiny green leaves all over the field!'
11. After this there was always something fresh to see. The wheat-plants grew taller, and put out long leaves.
12. Dora said one day that they looked like grass, and her mother told her that wheat was a large kind of grass.
'Look at the shape of the leaves,' she said, 'and the joints in the stems.'
13. The wheat soon grew so tall that it stood above the heads of the children. They used to go in among it, and make believe that they were lost in a great forest.
14. One day, when they were lost like this, they saw that the tops of the stalks had opened. Inside there were green stems with green ears upon them.
WHEAT.
PART 2.
| heard | seemed | truck | han´-dle |
| talk´-ing | sur-prise´ | mean | min´-utes |
| har´-vest | rail´-way | flour | treat |
| sup´-per | heav´-y | lis´-ten | tea |
1. Every day the ears grew larger and harder, and then they began to look yellow.
2. The children, too, heard their father and mother talking about their golden grain, and saying it was ripe.
3. At last, one very hot day, they found that the time had come to cut the wheat. A kind friend came to help, and Harry and Dora and the new dog jumped about and ran in and out, and thought that they helped too.
4. The children talked much about their harvest, and mother made them a harvest-supper. What a day it was!
5. It seemed so odd to have a bin full of grain just like the grain they had sown in the spring.
6. And now there was a great surprise for them. A railway-man came with a heavy box on a truck, and when the box was opened, what do you think there was inside?
A mill—a fine new wheat-mill!
7. 'We do not need now to go to the miller!' said mother, looking very glad. 'We are going to have a miller in our own house—no, two millers, I ought to say!'
8. 'Two millers!' cried Harry.
'Do you mean Harry and me?' asked Dora.
'Yes, my dear children, I mean you. You are going to be my dusty millers!
9. 'I will show you how much you are to grind, just a little every day. You must put it into this big red pan, and cover it up, and when I want to bake I shall always have plenty of flour ready.
10. 'And listen! You shall have a penny each every week for doing the work.'
At this Dora and Harry jumped for joy, clapped their hands, and ran to their mother to hug her.
11. Then she put some of the wheat into the mill, took hold of the handle, and made the wheel go round. Harry next took his turn, and Dora hers, and in a few minutes they found in the box below a heap of nice soft flour.
12. 'Now,' said mother, 'let us give father a treat when he comes home! We will make some nice cakes with this flour, and have them for tea! Grind a little more, dear millers, while I make up the fire.'
SLATE.
PART 1.
| rid´-dle | won´-der | sup-pose´ | smooth |
| ex-act´-ly | bought | fin´-gers | re-mem´-ber |
| guessed | Sat´-ur-day | met´-al | piece |
1. 'What is the oldest thing in this room?' asked the mother one day.
'Is this a riddle?'
'No, not exactly.'
2. Dora guessed one thing, and Harry another, and at last they gave up guessing. 'Unless,' said Harry, 'it is the fender, or the poker.'
3. 'It is very likely that the thing you were drawing on just now is older than any of those.'
4. 'That slate? Why, mother!' cried the children, opening their eyes wide with wonder, 'you bought it only last Saturday!'
'So I did. But it was not made last Saturday.'
5. 'No, I suppose the man cut it, and made the frame, and fixed it on before that.'
'Perhaps on Friday,' said Dora.
6. 'But the slate itself,' the mother went on, 'where did that come from? Did the man make it?'
Harry and Dora looked well at it, turned it over, rubbed their fingers on it, and said they did not know.
7. 'Well, would you say it is like wood, or like stone, or is it metal like the poker? Is it a kind of wood, do you think? Did it ever grow?'
'I think it must be a sort of rock, or stone,' said Harry, 'only very smooth and thin.'
8. 'The man who worked at it before it came to the shop made it smooth and cut it thin. It was not smooth and thin at first. But you are quite right; it is a sort of stone.'
A Slate Quarry
9. 'It is as cold as a stone,' said Dora, putting it against her face. 'Do you remember, Harry, how cold our hands were in winter when we did sums? Yes, and it is very hard. I am sure it is a piece of rock.'
SLATE.
PART 2.
| should | laugh´-ing | set´-tled | weighted |
| laughed | pur´-pose | hap´-pened | through |
| high´-er | prop´-er-ly | deal | heaved |
| thought | please | dead | brok´-en |
1. 'I should like to see a rock all made of slate! Have you ever seen one, mother?'
'Yes, many, dear. But there are none near.' Then she laughed a little. 'But if you like to go just outside the door you will see rows and rows of slates.'
2. Out they ran, looked all over the ground, then at the garden-wall, then back at their mother, who had come to the door.
'Look at the house,' she said, 'look higher!'
3. 'Oh, we never thought of the roof,' they cried, and ran in again laughing. 'But those slates are not so nice and smooth as our slates.'
'Your slates are made smooth on purpose. Besides, they are made of better slate—older slate. The older the slate is the better it is.'
4. 'How old?'
'No one knows. It is a long story, and no one can tell it properly. Shall I tell you as much as I know?'
'Yes, do, please, mother!' and the two settled themselves at her feet.
5. 'Well,' she began, 'once upon a time there was a great stir at the bottom of the sea. The heat and gas under the ground broke through and pushed out everything that was in the way.
6. 'Stones, ashes, and dust came flying up through the water, and then fell back into the water again. When all was quiet, they settled down at the bottom of the sea, and became mud.
7. 'All this happened many times, till there was a great deal of mud. Then, little by little, the mud was covered up by other things.'
8. 'What sort of things?'
'Dead fish, perhaps, and shells, and sand and mud that had been brought by rivers into the sea. These things lay on the top of the mud and weighed it down.
9. 'The heat under the bottom of the sea still kept up, and made the mud very hot, and baked it through. At last it gave a great push, and heaved the mud up above the water, so that it became dry land.
10. 'In other ways it was made harder and harder, until it was turned into rock. And now we call it slate. Here is a bit of your old broken slate. See if you can turn it into mud again!'
CHALK.
PART 1.
| a-cross´ | piece | wheat | earth |
| morn´-ing | teach´-er | col´-ours | brown |
| chalk´-ing | black´-board | fetch | moist |
| picked | spread´-ing | laughed | through |
1. A few days after this, Dora and Harry were going across the fields. They saw a horse and cart standing, and a man taking white stones out of the cart and putting them over the ground.
2. 'Why, it is Joe!' they cried, as they came nearer. 'Good-morning, Joe. What are you doing?'
'Chalking this bit of land, you see. You know what chalk is, do you?'
3. Harry and Dora picked up a piece or two.
'Teacher writes on the blackboard with chalk,' they said.
'Yes, you are right. It is used for many things,' and he went on spreading it over the field.
4. 'But what is it wanted here for, Joe?'
'No chalk, no wheat!' said Joe.
'Father put no chalk on our field, and we had such a heap of wheat!'
5. 'Yours is good land. This up here has never been used for farming. It had little old trees on it, you know, and they were cut down and their roots dug out of the ground; and now, look at it! It is poor soil.'
6. 'How do you know it is poor?'
'Look at the field below, what a nice brown it is! That will grow anything, but this is all colours—black, red, yellow, and green.
7. 'I have been a long way to fetch this chalk: I started off with old Dobbin this morning before it was light, and got it out of the chalk-pit.'
8. 'When we were fast asleep!' said Dora.
'Then you don't buy chalk at a shop?' said Harry.
Joe laughed.
'No; it comes out of the ground.'
'This is like the slate story,' said Dora.
Harry nodded.
9. 'But, Joe, I want to know how the chalk makes the ground good.'
'I don't know how, but it does. If it lies here for a year or more, the earth will turn brown, and we can grow wheat in it. Besides, chalk holds water, and so it will keep the ground moist up here.'
10. 'How?'
'Well, when it rains, the water will not run away through the earth, but will stay in the lumps of chalk. Are you going? Good-bye, then.'
'Fizz and bubble, bubble and fizz.'
CHALK.
PART 2.
| eve´-ning | air | hun´-dreds | catch |
| brought | stirred | smiled | died |
| vin´-e-gar | poured | crowds | dropped |
| bub´-ble | grains | threads | mixed |
1. The children had much to say that evening about Joe and the field. They had brought home a lump of chalk.
2. 'I will show you something,' said father, and he got a cup of vinegar, crushed a little of the chalk, and dropped it into the cup.
Fizz and bubble, bubble and fizz!
3. What was going on?
When the stir came to an end, the chalk was not there!
'Part of it has gone off in gas,' their father said. 'The rest is lime, and it is mixed with the vinegar.'
4. 'We did not see any gas,' said Harry.
'You can't see gas. It is like air. All those bubbles were made by the gas. It went out of the cup into the air.
'Now, get a cup of water. Come along! Where is your chalk?'
5. Father rubbed some of it into the water, and stirred it up. The water now looked like milk.
Father poured it into the sink, and showed Harry and Dora, at the bottom of the cup, a great many tiny grains.
6. 'Those little round things,' he said, 'are shells.'
'Shells!' said Dora, trying to see them better.
'Were live things ever in them?' asked Harry, and put a finger into the cup to fish some out.
7. 'Yes, long, long ago. That bit of chalk had hundreds and hundreds of shells in it. Now, mother, it is your turn! I have had mine. What do you know about chalk?'
8. Mother smiled and began: 'There was once a very deep sea, full of live things, little and big. And on the top of the water were crowds of tiny things in shells, that put out long arms like threads to catch their food.
9. 'When they died they all dropped to the bottom of the sea, and lay there. The shells were so very little that they made a sort of mud when they were mixed with the water.
'And now the mud is dry, and we call it chalk!'
THE MOUSE.
| an´-i-mal | har´-vest | tail | squeak |
| noise | stalk | nib´-ble | hours |
| mouse | should | young | leaves |
| cheese | four | beasts | catch |
1. Harry came running in one day to say that he had seen a little animal in the field.
2. 'It ran so fast, I could hardly see it. I looked a long time for it, and so did Dora, but we could not find it. Now, what do you think it could be, mother?'
3. Then in came Dora, 'It had a long tail, and was very little, and made no noise at all.'
4. 'It may have been a mouse,' said their mother; 'very likely it was.'
'But mice live indoors, do they not, and eat cheese, and run about in the walls, and make holes?'
5. 'How do you know all this?'
'I have heard them at grandmother's,' said Harry. 'Do they ever live out of doors?'
6. 'A good many do. There is a pretty little thing called a harvest-mouse. It makes a nest like a bird's, and hangs it up on a stalk of wheat.'
The Harvest Mouse and Nest.
7. 'I wish there had been one in our wheat!' said Dora. 'I should like to see the little nest and the baby-mice peeping out. They must be very, very small.'
8. 'Yes, the harvest-mouse is the very smallest four-footed animal we have. Then there is a field-mouse with a long tail, and a field-mouse with a short tail. Mr Short-tail likes to nibble at young trees.'
'Ah, that is not our mouse! He had a long tail.'
9. 'And then there is a wood-mouse.'
'Has he a short tail or long tail?' asked Harry.
'Long. I must tell you about a man who used to go out in the night in wild places to see what birds and beasts were doing when most of us were in bed.
10. 'One of the things he found out was that field-mice could sing!'
'Don't they squeak?'
'Yes; and he often heard them go on for hours making a kind of singing.
11. 'Sometimes they were close by him as he lay on the ground, and he would put out his hand to catch one. But when he opened it again it was full of grass or moss or leaves; and there was no mouse.'
'Did he never catch one?'
'Never.'
THE FIELD-MOUSE.
| tum´-bles | scarce´-ly | farm´-er | reared´ |
| ber´-ry | weath´-er | stacks | un-der-neath´ |
| brown | nib´-bling | treas´-ure | shad´-ow |
| mer´-ry | fruits | pleas´-ure | mead´-ow |
1. Where the acorn tumbles down,
Where the ash-tree sheds its berry,
With your fur so soft and brown,
With your eyes so soft and merry,
Scarcely moving the long grass,
Field-mouse, I can see you pass.
2. Little thing, in what dark den,
Lie you all the winter sleeping,
Till warm weather comes again?
Then once more I see you peeping
Round about the tall tree roots,
Nibbling at their fallen fruits.
3. Field-mouse, field-mouse, do not go,
Where the farmer stacks his treasure;
Find the nut that falls below,
Eat the acorn at your pleasure;
But you must not eat the grain,
He has reared with so much pain.
4. Make your hole where mosses spring,
Underneath the tall oak's shadow,
Pretty, quiet, harmless thing,
Play about the sunny meadow;
Keep away from corn and house,
None will harm you, little mouse.
'Oh, look at that one going into a hole.'