Thomas W. Hoare

“ It is the author’s fondest and most sanguine hope that his little pupils may study further the great book of Nature, whose broad pages are ever open to us, and whose silent answers to our manifold questions are never very difficult to read. ”

“ At night the earth gets cold. The water-gas, if the night is calm, comes out of the film of air next to the earth. It settles in the form of tiny drops on everything around.
“When the earth gets very cold, the water freezes as it changes from gas to water, and instead of dew we have frost.”
“Oh, that is why we have frost on the inside of the window panes in winter,” said Frank.
“That is so,” said his uncle. “The frost on your window pane is the water-gas of the warm room changed into particles of ice. But let us come back to our steam puff. ”

“ Every lesson herein set down has, during the author’s many years’ experience in teaching Nature Study, been taught by observation and practice again and again; and each time with satisfactory result. The materials required for the lessons are within everybody’s reach.
There is nothing that appeals to the heart of the ordinary child like living things, be they animal or vegetable, and there is no branch of education at the present day that bears, in the young mind, such excellent fruit as the study of the simple, living things around us. ”

“ The air, heated by the candle flame, rises up one side of the card, and the cold air goes down the other side to supply its place, drawing the smoke with it. The candle does not go out now, because it gets a constant stream of fresh air.”
“Are the balloons, which are large enough to carry people, fire-balloons?” asked Dolly.
“No, my dear,” replied Uncle George. “They are filled with a gas that is lighter—very much lighter—than the air. ”

“ Where do they get this water from?”
“It must be from the soil,” said Frank.
“It must be,” said Uncle George. “If we keep a plant in a pot without watering it, it soon dies. All the water it contains will by and by travel up to the leaves. It passes out through tiny pores in the leaves into the air. If no more water comes up from the soil, the plant withers and dies. The roots of plants search the soil in all directions for 16 water. And in this water there is but little plant-food. We saw this when we boiled away the clear water which covered the soil in the glass. ”

“ Nature Study involves so many ingenious little deductions, that the reasoning powers are almost constantly employed, and intelligence grows proportionately. The child’s powers of observation are stimulated, and his memory is cultivated in the way most pleasing to his inquiring nature. ”

“ When a small quantity of air is heated it swells out and fills a much larger space than before. It therefore becomes much lighter than the air round about it, and rises up through it. Come into the house and let us take another lesson from the fire. ”

“ Uncle George now poured water into the outer dish until it was level with the water inside the bell-jar. Then he took out the stopper and pushed a lighted taper into the bell-jar. The taper at once went out.
Candle in Stoppered Jar—gone out.
“This shows us,” he said, “that a part of the air causes things to burn. The other part of the air does not. It puts burning things out. If we blow the fire with a bellows or 52 fan, it burns more brightly and quickly. Why? Just because we are forcing a stream of air upon it, and a part of that stream of air is changed by the burning.” ”

“ Tom asked.
“They will perhaps be grown up and able to take care of themselves by that time, Tom,” said Uncle George.
“The harvest-mouse stores up corn in its nest. Before winter comes it makes a hole in the ground. Here it sleeps through most of the winter and spring. It wakes up from time to time and feeds upon its store of grains.”
“It is much smaller and browner than our house-mouse,” said Frank.
“Yes, Frank, it is our smallest four-footed animal. We have many kinds of mice in this 32 country. The brown rat is the largest and the harvest-mouse is the smallest of our mouse family.” ”

“ The tiny droplets, when spread out into the warm air, become real steam, or ‘water-gas,’ again.
“The outside of this tumbler of cold water was quite dry when I placed it on the table. Run your finger along it and tell me what you find.”
Frank did so, and said, “Why, it is quite wet now.”
“Yes,” said Uncle George, “it is covered all over with very small drops of water. Where did this water come from. It could not come through the glass.”
“It is like dew,” said Tom.
“It is dew—real dew,” said Uncle George. “The water in the glass is much colder than the air around it. ”

“ The love of flowers and animals is one of the most commendable traits in the disposition of the wondering child, and ought to be encouraged above all others. A few lessons on Nature Phenomena are added. ”

“ They swarm in ship docks and places where stuff is left about. They eat up what would rot and poison the air. They thus help to keep down disease.
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“Now, boys, before we go home I am going to show you something. I found it the other day when taking a walk.”
Uncle George led the children to the end of the field, and pointed to a strange object among the corn. It was a nest of some sort. It was made of dried grass, and hung from five or six wheat stalks. It was round like a cricket-ball, and just about as big.
“It is the nest of the harvest-mouse,” said Uncle George in a low voice. ”

“ In the stack-yard a large round stack was being built. A wooden frame was in the middle, and round this a man put the sheaves in a circle as they were thrown to him from the waggon.
“Now, boys,” said Uncle George, “Dolly wants to know why sheaves are made with all the ears of corn at one end. Can you tell us?”
“Oh, that is easy,” said Tom. “The sheaves have to stand in the field for a long time to dry. They could not stand up so well if they were made any other way. Besides, 38 the ears of corn must be up from the ground, or they would be broken off.” ”

“ The heavy liquid passes through slowly, and the light liquid passes through quickly.”
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Uncle George then placed some small seeds on a piece of wet blotting-paper. He turned a glass tumbler upside down, and placed it over them.
“We will leave these for a few days,” he said.
Questions and Exercises. 1. Boil some river-water in a flat dish until all the water is gone. Do the same with some sea-water, or, if this is not at hand, make some brine. Examine the two dishes, and tell what you see. 2. Take a glass gas chimney, and tie a piece of bladder, or parchment, over one end of it. ”

“ The outside of the stack is made up of the cut ends of the straws. Thus the grain is kept secure from bad weather and thieving birds. Besides, the stack could not be made round in shape if they were placed in any other way. The bottom of the sheaf is much wider than the top. ”

“ By drawing his specimens, no matter how roughly or rapidly, his eye is trained more thoroughly than any amount of enforced copying of stiff, uninteresting models of prisms, cones, etc., ever could train it. ”

“ They rise up easily, and can carry quite a heavy load.”
Questions and Exercises. 1. Take an empty bottle and heat it gently. Now turn it upside down, and place the neck of it in cold water. Why does the water rise in the bottle? 2. How is a draught caused? 3. Why does a fire burn more brightly on a cold, frosty day, than on a warm summer’s day?
61 IX.—THE GULL.
Frank, Tom, and Dolly had never seen the sea. Long ago Uncle George had told them that he would take them, and at last the time came for them to go. ”

“ Tom asked.
“It can use its long tail as well as its feet for climbing,” his uncle answered.
“When it wishes to get to the ground it just coils its little tail round the stalk and slides down.”
Questions and Exercises. 1. Name some flowers that grow among the corn in summer and in autumn. 2. Describe the Rat. 3. Do you know any other animals that have teeth like the rat? 4. What other animals, besides the harvest-mouse, store up food for the winter?
HARVEST TIME
THE SQUIRREL
33 V.—HARVEST TIME.
“They are very busy here,” said Uncle George, as he went into the field with Frank, Tom, and Dolly. ”

“ In this case, that same part of the air has joined up to part of 54 the iron tacks to form that red powder which we call rust.”
Questions and Exercises. 1. How is rust formed? 2. Explain why things which are made of iron should be painted. 3. A grate full of coals burns away and only a small quantity of ash is left in the grate. What has become of the coals?
55 VIII.—THE FIRE-BALLOON.
One day Uncle George made the children a fire-balloon. ”