Various

“ Why, you have to go down ever such a long way before you can even begin to dig.'
6. 'How do you get down?'
'You go down in a thing they call a cage. You can't walk down, you know. It is like going down a deep pit. They call it a mine.'
7. 'Oh, I have heard of coal-mines!'
Dora was taking up one little lump of coal after another, and wondering why [Pg 115] it was so shiny if it had really come out of the earth.
8. Harry went on. 'How do they let the cage down? Have you ever been down?'
Coal-miners going down to work. ”

“ Wheat is a plant of the grass kind, but grows higher than common grass. It is grown from seed, which is grains of wheat kept until hard and dry.
2. Ruts are made in the soil by a plough, and into these the seed is cast. Then the soil is covered over them by a harrow, drawn by a horse.
3. Rain and warm sunshine help the grains to grow. They grow into tall, jointed stems, and soon the ears of wheat appear. They are green at first, but the sun ripens them and turns them yellow. ”

“ Do you know that a sparrow kills four thousand grubs in one day when her babies are in the nest?
4. 'One wise man who grows fruit says [Pg 87] that his best friends are the sparrows, and he makes holes in the garden-walls for them to build in. Their sharp eyes see the tiny things that would spoil the fruit, and their sharp beaks nip them up at once. ”

“ 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?' [Pg 38]
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. ”

“ After tea, mother took some cress-seed and mustard-seed out of two little packets. Then she cut up one or two corks, put them into a deep plate, filled it with water, and sprinkled seed on the cork.
6. 'This is for you, Harry,' she said. 'You will soon have a little crop of mustard and cress. And here is one for Dora!'
In Dora's plate she laid a bit of flannel, poured water on it, and sowed seed. The children carried off their plates to a safe place, and thought it would be fine fun to see roots and leaves come out of the tiny seeds. ”

“ 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 [Pg 25] 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. ”

“ Coal and iron are found together. But coal is not a metal as iron is. It will not melt. We call it a mineral.
2. It is found in many parts of the world. There is a very large quantity in our own country.
3. It is a black, shiny, opaque, and brittle mineral. Men have to go deep down into the earth, into mines, to get it. They are in great danger.
4. Coals were once forests, which sank lower and lower into the earth hundreds and thousands of years ago. They became mixed with other things, and in time were changed to coal. We can see the grain in some of the coal, as we see it in wood. ”

“ 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. [Pg 54]
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. ”

“ The mouse is a very small animal, with pointed nose and long tail. It has large bright eyes, large ears, strong sharp teeth, and is very timid.
2. The mouse gnaws through the walls and floors of our houses with its sharp, strong teeth. It makes a little nest in a hole. It comes out when all is quiet to look for crumbs, or anything left about that it can eat. It gets into the pantry sometimes.
3. Some mice live in fields and woods. The tiny harvest-mouse makes its nest on a wheat-stalk. It often does great harm to the wheat. ”

“ Sheep live mostly in the fields. They often climb very high hills. Their feet are not like the donkey's; they are cloven, like the cow's.
2. Their legs are so slender that their bodies seem almost too large for them. The thick wool which grows upon them makes them look large.
3. Sheep eat grass. They tear it off, as the cow does. They cannot bite, since they have no front teeth in the upper jaw.
4. They are very timid, gentle creatures. They do not like to be alone. They live in flocks. They make a great noise when bleating. ”

“ I must get some.'
3. 'How nice a fire is on a cold day!' said Dora, sitting down on the fender, to be as near to it as she could.
'Very nice,' said her mother, 'in its proper place—in the grate.'
4. 'Ah, we should not like it to come walking about the room!' said Harry, laughing. 'There would soon be no room'——
'And no house!' said Dora, shaking her head. 'And then what should we do?'
5. Father came back with the coal, and put some into the grate, saying: [Pg 120]
'Fire is a good servant but a bad master. If it gets its own way it is a cruel thing. It would burn a town down. ”

“ Like slate, chalk comes out of the hills. It is white and soft. It is used for many purposes. The farmer puts it on the fields sometimes, to make the soil better. It holds water and keeps the soil moist.
2. We get lime and whiting from chalk. We use it in these forms for making our ceilings and walls clean. It is used, too, for writing on the blackboard. Chalk is found in many parts of England. Kent and Hampshire have most. Chalk-pits are often seen in the hills. ”

“ Each root was not much thicker than a thread.
10. 'Don't touch them,' said the mother; 'roots are very tender things.'
'What is the good of them?' asked Dora.
'What is your mouth useful for?' asked her mother.
11. 'Oh, do you mean that the ivy eats and drinks?'
'Yes, that is what I mean. These roots take out of the water, or out of the earth, all sorts of things good for the food of the plant. They then send them up into the stem and on into the leaves.'
12. 'Mother,' said Harry, 'let us go and plant all this ivy. I am sure it wants to try the taste of the earth!' [Pg 47]
A TREE.
1. ”

“ Sunflower.
'And it has such a strong stalk,' said Harry. 'You would not think that it could turn round. It must be alive!'
'Of course it is alive!'
'But, I mean, it must feel, or why [Pg 106] should it turn and turn to get the light and warmth?'
5. 'How ragged all the stalks and leaves are!' said Dora. 'I wish they would make themselves tidy instead of always staring at the sun. Why are there so many holes in the leaves?'
6. 'Grubs have been eating them. Our friend Mr Sparrow must have been away lately!'
7. Here mother stopped snipping at her rose-trees, and came up to one of the sunflowers. ”

“ Berry.
Seeds in Berry.
'A very pretty white flower,' said his mother. 'They say that a coffee-garden looks lovely in blossom-time, just as if it were all covered with snow.
8. 'In two or three days the snow-like blossoms are gone, and the fruit is left. When it is ripe, men put cloths under the trees, and shake it down.'
9. 'I wish I could go and help!' said Harry. 'What comes next?'
'They pick up the berries, dry them in the sun, and get the beans out. Then they send the beans over the sea in a ship. And here they are!' [Pg 96]
Dora and Harry tearing up the old papers. ”

“ But people call them ribs, not fingers! They are for the purpose of keeping the leaf spread out.'
6. 'Like the ribs of an umbrella,' said Harry. 'They seem very strong; [Pg 45] the middle one, which goes up straight from the stem, is the strongest of all.'
Spray of Ivy. ”

“ The pea is a climbing plant. We put tall sticks in the garden for the peas to climb. They grow from seeds which are dried peas.
2. As they grow, tendrils shoot out and take hold of the sticks. Pretty green leaves grow too. Then come the dainty white flowers.
3. When the flowers wither, they leave little green pods. Inside the pods are little green peas. Peas and pods grow larger each day until ripe.
4. Peas are very good for food. Pigs like the husks. ”

“ The donkey is a useful animal when well treated. It is cheaper to buy and to keep than a pony.
2. The donkey has hoofs like the horse, and wears shoes. It is very patient and gentle, and can do with coarse food.
3. The donkey's coat is rough, and its mane short. It has a black stripe down its back and across its shoulders. Its head and ears are very long.
4. The donkey can climb high rugged paths better than the horse. It can also carry heavy loads up hill, because it is strong and sure-footed. ”

“ Bee after bee, and fly after fly, settled on the sunflowers and hunted for honey. Dora and Harry watched for a long time.
3. 'The sunflower is like a little sun,' said Dora. [Pg 105]
'And it loves the sun,' said her mother, who was snipping off dead roses close by; 'it always turns to look at it. See, its face is towards the sun now. ”

“ That I'm always busy too,
For there's work enough to do.
If I work, then, with a will,
It will be but playing still;
Ever merry, never weary,
It will be but playing still.
THE ROSE.
1. Mother went back to her roses, and soon called for a little basket, saying that Dora and Harry should take a few to an old woman who lived in the village.
2. 'Poor granny,' she said, 'is so fond of roses, and she can never get out now to see them. ”

“ It burrows a hole in the ground and makes a nest there for its young.
2. Rabbits have long ears and large eyes. They can hear a very slight sound, and can see behind as well as before them.
3. Their hind-legs are longer than their fore-legs; so they do not run, but leap.
4. Rabbits like to live where there is plenty of furze, which they eat for food. They do much mischief in corn-fields by eating the young corn. They also eat the bark off young trees, and so spoil them. ”

“ 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.' [Pg 34]
'Fizz and bubble, bubble and fizz.' CHALK.
PART 2. ”

“ It is so useful that we should not be able to have many things we have, if we had no fire.
3. When England was covered with forests, hundreds of years ago, people used to have fires of wood, instead of coal. Wood-fires are not so smoky as those made of coal, but they are not so hot. ”

“ When spring came each spray began to put out buds. The buds were not all at the ends of the sprays, but came out also close to the old leaves.
3. At last there was a very small bud between every old leaf and the stem. When the first bud opened into a leaf, Dora and Harry clapped their hands, and called every one to look.
4. 'How clean and sweet it is!' cried Dora. 'And do you see something like wool or hair on it?'
'How curly it is!' said Harry. 'It is not quite open yet. Why, it is like a hand! All the leaves look rather like hands, don't they? See ”

“ This flower is called sun-flower because it always turns its face to the sun. It turns as the sun goes round.
2. The sunflower grows on a strong, tall stalk. It is something like a daisy in form.
3. The deep-yellow leaves stand out in rays from the dark-coloured middle of the flower, which is called the disk. This disk is made of a large number of tiny flowers closely packed together.
4. The seeds of this flower are large and oblong, and contain oil.
5. Bees and flies visit sunflowers, to gather honey. ”

“ It builds its nest on our houses, and sometimes in the pipes which carry the rain off the roof. A sparrow's nest is seldom found in a tree. It lays five or six eggs which are spotted with brown.
2. Farmers often kill sparrows because they steal the corn and fruit. But they are really good friends to the farmer. They eat the worms and grubs, which would destroy all the fruit. ”

“ Then the wheat is cut, and the new grains are threshed out from the husks which are called chaff. The tall stems make straw. The grains are ground into flour by the miller. We use flour for making bread, cakes, and puddings. ”

“ 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. [Pg 23]
'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. ”