Parker's Second Reader / National Series of Selections for Reading, Designed For The Younger Classes In Schools, Academies, &C.

by Richard Green Parker

Daughter. Why, certainly, mother; I go to the fire to warm myself.

Mother. And how does the fire warm you, my dear?

Daughter. Why, it sends out its heat, mother; and I hold out my hands to it, and feel the heat.

Mother. And where does the heat come from, Caroline?

Daughter. Why, the heat comes from the fire, mother.

Mother. Then, my dear, you know at least one of the effects of fire. It produces, or rather sends out, heat.

Daughter. But does not the fire make the heat, mother?

Mother. If you had a little bird, or a mouse, in a cage, and should open the door and let it out, should you say that you made the little bird, or the mouse?

Daughter. Say that I made them, mother?—why, no; certainly not. I only let them go free. God made them. You told me that God made all things.

Mother. Neither did the fire make the heat. It only made it free, somewhat in the same manner that you would make the bird or the mouse free, by opening the door of the cage.