“ Rose clapped her hands. "Then can the fly see a hundred ways at once?" said she. "Oh, how I wish I could do that!"
14. "You can move your eyes about," said her granny, "which does just as well. The fly cannot move his. And you would not like to be born in the kitchen sink, would you?" [Pg 87]
15. "Is that where flies are born?" said Rose, drawing near to her granny and looking into her face.
16. "Yes," said Mrs. Button, "the fly is born in a sink, or in any place where dirty stuff is found. ”

“ It was a great job for her to keep the large eggs under cover at all, but she shook out her feathers and spread out her wings as far as they would go, though it made them ache. [Pg 139]
13. Then she felt nervous because the pond was so near. "It is bad for eggs to get damp!" she said to herself. "What could make that foolish Snowdrop choose such a place? And I dare say that I shall get the cramp too."
14. But she sat on bravely for all that. Betty never left the eggs of which she was taking care, except for a few moments when she was forced by hunger to run to the yard. ”

“ Betty loved them as if they were her own chicks.
11. "Of course I do not expect that they will be quite so handsome, so clever, or so good as if born from my own eggs," said she.
12. "They will be poor weak little things. I can see that they are rather stupid, even now, from their staying in the shells a week longer than they ought.
13. "But I must take a little extra care with them!" Very proud was Mother Betty, but in spite of all her fondness, the young ducks gave her much trouble. ”

“ If the cook had let Betty alone to clean them, she would have done it better. The soap was bad for them, so was the water.
8. Betty felt very pleased when the cook went to call all the other servants. She wished them to admire the snowy whiteness of her feathers. "If she does [Pg 116] not win a first prize I will eat my head!" said the cook.
9. "You will have a fine big meal, then," said the housemaid, "and I should not wonder if you have not spoilt her feathers for ever by washing them. You never ought to have done it, and the poor thing may get ill." ”

“ But thanks to the care taken of her, Betty did not get ill, though the nasty soap made her feel sick; and the cook saw that she had made a mistake in washing Betty.
11. "All creatures can clean themselves," said the housemaid, "leastways all birds can, at any rate, and we do harm by meddling."
12. "I think we ought to keep her under a wash-tub or in a basket until the day for the show," said the cook. "She will be sure to get dirty again in that barn."
13. When a nice new hen-coop was turned over her, Betty began to think about her mother. ”

“ On the next day, the coachman took her in a hamper to the show. Betty screamed as she was put into it, for she did not like it at all.
4. "I will behave well, no matter what happens," said poor Betty. But she felt afraid of the noise, the pushing, and the crowd of people and poultry at the Palace.
5. There were Spanish cocks and hens, who were lofty and silent. There were little silver bantams who chuckled. Some hens were tiny dwarfs like the bantams, others were giants like the Cochin China fowls. ”

“ And finding chalk like that which had been under the soil at home, she nodded her head and chuckled, for she was pleased. No hen can be happy without chalk, after she is old enough to lay eggs.
11. She knew that the yard in which she now was, would be a fine place for her young brood. They would not be likely to get the cramp or catch colds.
12. The fowl-house was built on a gentle slope, and below, at some little distance, was a pond with two or three green islands in the middle of it. Here some water birds, such as Betty had never seen before, were paddling about. ”

“ She was a cripple now for life, and no one would care for her fine looks any more.
14. "I wonder what is the use of shows?" thought Betty. "Why do people want other people to tell them that their cocks and hens are pretty?"
15. After the bustle and fuss of the day were over, one of the keepers came with a boy to look after the dead and dying.
16. "She was as great a beauty as ever I did see," said the man. "A perfect pullet!—that she was. But, dear me! she is not perfect now that her toe is gone. [Pg 124]
17. "She is good for nothing now but to lay eggs and bring up chicks. ”

“ Write: A house-fly is born in the sink. [Pg 90] The egg from which it comes is laid in dirt and rubbish. The grub which creeps out eats up the dirty stuff.
Questions: 1. Where does the house-fly lay its eggs? 2. What are the young flies like at first? 3. What do they do as soon as they are born? 4. What do they eat? 6. If we do not wish to have many flies, what must we do? 6. What treat was Rose going to have?
8. SAVED AGAIN.
1. I heard a little girl say, "Oh, Rose, there is a fly in your glass of wine." ”

“ A young Bantam hen, who was standing by, said to Betty, "Where can you have come from, and what sort of egg did you creep out of, not to have seen a duck swim before?" said the Bantam. [Pg 135]
13. "All the yard knows that they are the best sailors in the world! But for you and me, our ruffles are too well starched for such a way of life."
UPSIDE DOWN.
14. Here was a new wonder to Betty. Though a shower of rain soaked all her fine feathers through, and made them limp as old rags, Snowdrop came out of the pond dry and warm, her plumes crisp and neat. ”

“ I show them how to walk nicely, and how to pick up their meals in a proper way.
10. "I show them how to keep their feathers combed and brushed. But you, bad mother that you are, allow your poor little yellow ducklings to shuffle in the mud up to their wings.
11. "And twice I have seen them at the very edge of the pond. It made me shudder! It will be a wonder if they do not get drowned, or catch their death of cold. How thin and pale they look!"
12. As Betty said these words to Snowdrop, the old duck shook her bill, and after [Pg 131] a few more quacks turned her back and waddled off. ”

“ Her eldest child, a little-girl, looked up from her knitting. "The hens are all quite snug, mother, Fluffy and Biddy and the rest. I peeped in just now, after they were gone to roost."
7. "You are always a kind little one to the dumb things," said her father, stroking the soft brown head of Mercy, who had just spoken. "And so is my little Nelly, too," he added, looking fondly at the second child, who sat on his knee.
8. "It is getting late for the children, Peter," said his wife. "Shall Mercy read a bit, before we go to bed?" ”

“ The young flies eat the dirty stuff and get rid of it. I will tell you some day how the little things come into the world."
Write: After being set free from the honey the fly went off. He cleaned his legs and went back to the old lady. She told Rose that flies were of great use.
Questions: 1. What did Rose use to lift the fly up? 2. In what way did she use the knitting-needle? 3. What did the fly feel when he saw the knitting-needle coming? 4. What can the fly do to keep a house clean? 5. What sort of eye has the fly? 6. Tell me where flies are born? ”

“ He knew nothing about them, and he was left, a poor little ragged, dirty fellow, to run about the streets of a small country village.
3. As poor Dick was not old enough to work, he was in a sad state; he got but little for his dinner, and often had nothing at all for his supper. For all the people in the village were very poor.
4. They could often spare him nothing more than an old crust of bread, or some [Pg 2] scraps that even a dog would not have liked. One day a man who was driving a waggon came through the village. ”

“ Questions: 1. What was Dick surprised to find when he took up his cat? 2. Where did she try to lead him? 3. What had puss got in a corner? 4. How did Dick manage to bring the kittens to the palace? 5. What did his cat do when she got there? 6. What did the queen wish?
7. THE END OF PUSSY.
1. "But I should like them to stay little always," said the queen, after she had been told that the kittens would soon grow big enough to catch mice.
2. "That is a foolish remark, my love," said the king. "They are here to kill [Pg 25] mice, and the sooner they get big, the better. ”

“ And all this time I had been feasting on the sweet white lumps of sugar. No one took any notice of me, and so I went on, till one lump began to grow quite small.
12. "Look, here is a little house-fly!" said Rose. "He is standing quite still on a lump of sugar. What is he doing, granny?"
"He is eating it, dear."
"Can he bite it up?"
13. "Bite it up! No," said Mr. Sutton, putting down his paper and coming up to us. "The fly has no teeth, he has a trunk. He sends down some juice through his trunk on to the sugar. ”

“ Sutton. "It is a whitish maggot. But some ugly looking things are very useful to us."
"I like pretty things best," said Rose.
8. "Well, the fly is pretty enough when he is grown up. He has to wait, you see." I was pleased to hear the kind old lady say this, and I nodded my head and washed my face with my feet.
9. "And so it is your birthday on Monday, Rose," went on her granny. "And I suppose it is time to be thinking about the party and the fun we are to have?"
10. Rose looked up, beaming with delight at these words. ”

“ She will be a useful hen to some one else, and is sure to lay plenty of eggs."
"Very good, ma'am," replied the cook.
7. There was no washing this time before Betty was sent away. That was one comfort. She was huddled, just as she was, into a hamper, and sent as a present to a friend of the cook.
8. This friend was the wife of a farmer, and she was such a kind, good, rosy, happy, [Pg 127] pleasant woman, that it was quite a treat to look at her. She lived about five miles from Betty's old home.
9. The large farm-yard into which Betty now stepped from her hamper, was like a new world to her. ”

“ PUSSY'S GRAVE.
3. "And you forget that they will have kittens by-and-by," added the king. "In time we shall have,—what is their name? oh, cats.
4. "Well, we shall have cats enough to keep the whole land free from mice and rats." And he was ready to dance and [Pg 26] clap his hands. Only that would not have been proper for a king.
5. The end of it was that Dick and the captain set sail for England with a shipload of gold, and puss went with them, with her one baby. She did not miss the rest much after a time.
6. When Dick reached London again, he was very rich indeed. ”

“ Up rushed a man, the keeper, who took Betty out in a great hurry. "We must have no wounded or sick birds here for the judges to see," he said.
10. And he put poor Betty quickly away into one of the pens which had been used for bringing fowls to the show. It was empty but for two or three poor hens who were either dead or dying. [Pg 123]
11. These were fowls which had been hurt on the way, by being shaken or roughly used. They had been put into baskets too small for them, or had been badly used in some other way. It is bad for birds to travel. ”

“ There was an old shed which had once been the stable of a donkey, quite at the far end of the garden.
3. Her father had turned it into a pigsty; but he had left off keeping pigs for some time. It was a clean place, for Peter [Pg 59] did not let his pigs live in a dirty sty as some people do.
4. Some dry straw was in it, and some roots stored for the winter. It would be just the place if only she could get Brownie there.
5. In a moment she turned back to hurry again over the heap of snow to the place where the donkey still stood. He could do nothing for himself to make things better. ”

“ She held herself upright, and her mother was never heard to say, "heads up!" as she did to the other chickens. Her mistress said one morning that Betty was "the pride of the brood."
14. Her two brothers were very greedy chickens, I am sorry to say. And as they grew older, they began to fight sadly for each worm or grain of corn which they found.
15. Though Betty and the rest of the chickens grew up white as snow, one of these young cocks had a speckled breast, and the other had two black feathers in his tail. This spoilt their look. ”