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CHAMBERS'S
ELEMENTARY
SCIENCE READERS
BOOK I.
WITH OBJECT LESSONS
AND
ILLUSTRATIONS
LONDON: 38 Soho Square, W.
W. & R. CHAMBERS, LIMITED
EDINBURGH: 339 High Street
CHAMBERS'S ELEMENTARY SCIENCE READERS.
With Object Lessons and Attractive Illustrations.
Book I. for Standard I. 140 pages. Price 9d.
Book II. for Standard II. 148 pages. Price 10d.
Book III. for Standard III. 196 pages. Price 1s.
CHAMBERS'S OBJECT LESSON MANUALS.
With Lists of Apparatus, Numerous Illustrations, and Blackboard
Summaries.
BOOKS I., II., and III. Price 1s. 6d. each.
Complete in One Volume, price 3s. 6d.
CHAMBERS'S OBJECT LESSON SHEETS.
A Series of Twenty-one Illustrative Diagrams for Standards I., II., and
III.
Printed in Black and White on Stout Manilla Paper, size 29 by 23 inches.
Strongly mounted on Roller, 12s. 6d. per Set. Separate sheets can also
be had, 6d. each; or Eyeletted, 7d. each.
W. & R. CHAMBERS, LIMITED, LONDON AND EDINBURGH.
P. 1912.
CONTENTS.
(The Titles of Poetical Pieces are in _Italics_.)
PAGE
The Cat--Part 1 7
" " 2 9
The Dog 12
Buttercups 15
_Daisies and Buttercups_ 19
Wheat--Part 1 20
" " 2 23
Slate--Part 1 26
" " 2 29
Chalk--Part 1 31
" " 2 34
The Mouse 36
_The Field-Mouse_ 39
The Rabbit 41
Ivy 43
A Tree 47
Bricks 50
A Donkey 53
Sheep 55
_The Sheep_ 58
Turnips 59
Green Peas--Part 1 62
" " 2 65
Iron and Metal 67
_The Fairy Ring_ 70
Needles--Part 1 71
" " 2 73
" " 3 75
" " 4 78
The Knife 80
The Hen 83
The Sparrow 86
_A Day in the Country_ 88
Some Herbs 90
Coffee 93
Paper 96
A Fly 99
The Wasp 102
The Sunflower 104
Merry Workers 107
The Rose 108
Wood 111
Coal--Part 1 113
" " 2 116
Fire 119
OBJECT LESSONS.
PAGE
The Cat 121
The Dog 122
Buttercups 122
Wheat 123
Slate 124
Chalk 124
The Mouse 125
The Rabbit 125
Ivy 126
A Tree 127
Bricks 127
The Donkey 128
Sheep 129
Turnips 129
Green Peas 130
Iron and Metal 130
Needles 131
The Knife 132
The Hen 133
The Sparrow 133
Herbs 134
Coffee 134
Paper 135
The Fly 136
The Wasp 136
The Sunflower 137
The Rose 138
Wood 138
Coal 139
Fire 140
CHAMBERS'S SCIENCE READERS.
BOOK I.
[Illustration: He sat down on the rug with her.]
THE CAT.
PART 1.
walk´-ing
watched
ground
shak´-ing
thought
stroked
fore´-paws
toes
knew
smooth
yawn
stretched
sheaths
won´-der
mis-take´
claw
1. Pussy came walking along the garden-path. Harry watched her, and saw
that she did not like the damp ground.
2. She jumped over the pools, and then began to run, shaking her paws
as she got to the house.
3. 'Now, a dog does not mind wet feet,' Harry thought; 'he will go into
the water, but Pussy will never go into the water.
4. 'She does not even use water to wash herself. Come here, Pussy! You
don't like to wet your nice fur, do you?'
5. As Harry was always kind to pussy, she let him pick her up and carry
her into the house.
6. He sat down on the rug with her, and stroked her glossy back. One of
her fore-paws rested on his hand, and he began to look at it.
7. 'Here are five toes,' he said, 'but what funny toes they are!' He
gently turned the paw over, and saw the sharp nails drawn in under the
fur.
8. The cat knew that he would not hurt her, so she kept her claws in,
and let him feel them on the outside.
9. He found under the paw a soft smooth pad. 'Now I know how it is that
she can walk so softly!' he said. 'This must help her to walk in that
way.'
10. Here pussy gave a great yawn, and stretched out both her paws, claws
and all. Harry saw the sharp nails like hooks, and watched them go back
into their sheaths. Then she curled herself up on his lap.
11. He took hold of one of her hind-feet, and found only four toes upon
it. 'I wonder if this is a mistake,' he said, 'or if the other one is
the same.' Yes, it was just the same: there were four toes, with a claw
at the end of each.
[Illustration: Cat's Paw.]
THE CAT
PART 2.
knives
bot´-tom
should
tear´-ing
poured
clean
sauc´-er
tongue
touch
rough
kit´-chen
cous´-ins
coun´-tries
peo´-ple
thought
be-lieve´
1. 'What long sharp teeth she has got!' cried Harry, as pussy sat up
and opened her mouth. 'They look like knives. There are two at the top,
and two at the bottom!
2. 'I should not like my finger to be in the way when you shut your
mouth. Your teeth must be for tearing and cutting: I am sure you do not
chew your food as I have to do.
3. 'And what a way you have of drinking!
'Here, pussy, would you like some milk?' said Harry, and getting up, he
poured a little milk into a clean saucer.
4. The cat ran to it, and Harry went down on the floor close by to watch
her drinking it.
5. He saw that pussy's tongue was not smooth like his own, but had tiny
points all over it. It came into his mind that she had once licked his
face, and her tongue had a 'scrapy' feeling.
6. 'Do it again, pussy, dear,' he said, but she went on lapping up the
milk.
'May I touch your tongue, then, with one of my fingers?'
7. But pussy did not like this. Then Harry took a drop or two of the
milk into the palm of his hand. And when the cat had taken all she had
in the saucer, she came and licked up the milk in his hand.
8. She went on licking even when all was gone, and Harry was able in
this way to feel how rough her tongue was.
9. Just then his mother came into the kitchen, and Harry told her what
he had been doing.
She asked:
'Have you looked at pussy's eyes?'
10. 'They are funny eyes,' he said; 'they are green, but there is not
much of them to be seen.'
'Not just now,' said his mother, 'but she can open them wide when she
likes. Then she can see even in the dark.'
11. 'In the dark, mother? Well, she is not a bit like me!'
'No, she is not like you. But she has plenty of cousins. Her cousins are
the big lions and tigers, that live in hot countries, and eat sheep and
horses, and even people when they can get them.'
12. Harry thought a little, and then said: 'If I were as small as pussy
is now, and if pussy were as big as I am now, I believe she would eat
me!'
THE DOG.
fol´-lowed
moth´-er
hun´-gry
lone´-ly
win´-dow
noise
la´-zy
be-cause´
watched
friend
bur´-ied
e-nough´
Ber´-nard
shep´-herd
wrong
talk´-ing
1. A poor lost dog followed Harry and his little sister home from
school, and tried to come into the house.
[Illustration]
2. They shut the door; but, when they opened it again, the dog was still
there.
3. He looked so sad that they begged their mother to give him some food.
Then they said: 'We can't turn him out again to be hungry and lonely!
Let us keep him till some one comes for him.' And very soon all three
were happy at play in the garden.
4. The cat sat up on a window-sill, and looked at them. She did not seem
to like the fun. What a noise they all made!
5. 'How much nicer he is to play with than pussy!' said Dora. 'He is not
nearly so lazy as pussy.
6. 'Look, he is wagging his tail with joy! Now, if pussy wags her tail,
it means that she is cross. But I think I like her round face better
than his sharp one.'
7. 'I don't,' said Harry. 'See how bright he is, and how he looks as if
he would like to do something for us!'
8. 'That is because we have been kind to him. Hi, good dog!' and Dora
threw her ball to the very end of the garden, and watched her new friend
run after it.
9. 'Do you think, Harry,' she asked, 'that he would save us if we were
buried in the snow?'
[Illustration: St Bernard Dog.]
'No, he is not a dog of that kind, and is not big enough. The big St
Bernard dogs save people when they are lost in the snow.
10. 'But all dogs are good for something. Look at the shepherd's dog.'
'What can he do?'
11. 'Oh, he is a wise fellow! He knows just where his master means the
sheep to go, and, if they go the wrong way, he turns them back, and
never hurts one of them. Why, the shepherd does nothing but walk on,
telling the dog now and again what to do.'
[Illustration: The Sheep Dog.]
12. Here a dog barked on the road outside, and the dog in the garden
pricked up his ears and barked too.
'They are talking to each other,' said Dora.
BUTTERCUPS.
chil´-dren
flow´-ers
dai´-sy
chains
hun´-gry
bas´-ket
ought
but´-ter
piec´-es
hair´-y
yel´-low
threads
mid´-dle
break
leaves
seeds
1. One day the children were out in the fields, running races, picking
flowers, and making daisy-chains!
2. When they began to feel tired and hungry, they got milk and cake out
of mother's basket, and had a long rest on the dry, warm grass.
3. 'How these buttercups shine!' said Dora; 'they look like gold!'
'Gold-cups, they ought to be called, not butter-cups,' said Harry. 'They
look like cups, don't they?'
4. 'But they would not hold water like real cups. Look at this one; it
is in five pieces.'
5. 'Five? Oh yes! And look underneath. There is another sort of cup with
five leaves in it.'
'Only it is not bright and golden, but green and hairy.'
6. 'Now, you found that out, and I found the five yellow leaves. It is
my turn again. I can see yellow threads standing up in a ring all round
the middle of the cup, and their tops are thick.'
7. 'It is my turn now! In the very middle there is a green heap. It
looks as if the yellow threads were taking care of it.'
'Oh, the heap is all made up of little round things! Look, I can pull it
to pieces.'
[Illustration: Butter-cup.]
8. 'So can I,' said Harry; 'here is one, here is another! They are not
round after all, do you see? Each is round at the bottom, but has a
little bent horn at the top.'
9. 'They must be seeds. I will break one open. Oh no! Just look, there
is a little ball inside. Have you found a ball in yours?'
'Yes, there is a ball in every one. It must be a seed, or a little egg.'
10. 'Birds have eggs,' said Dora, 'plants have seeds.'
'Well, it is all the same thing,' said Harry.
'I think the green thing with a horn is only a case to take care of the
seed.'
11. 'All these things seem to take care of each other. First, the green
leaves at the back take care of the yellow cup.'
'And the yellow cup takes care of the yellow threads.'
'And the yellow threads take care of the green cases.'
'And the green cases take care of the seeds.'
[Illustration]
DAISIES AND BUTTERCUPS.
[Illustration: Daisies.]
mead´-ows
stalk
cov´-ered
yel´-low
maid´-en
light´-ly
ten´-der
tread
win´-ter
cun´-ning
dai´-sy
straight
ground
chil´-dren
moss´-y
but´-ter
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
fa´-ther
wheat
plough
bas´-ket
watched
threw
har´-row
grains
east
morn´-ing
earth
joints
be-lieve´
for´-est
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.
[Illustration]
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
talk´-ing
har´-vest
sup´-per
seemed
sur-prise´
rail´-way
heav´-y
truck
mean
flour
lis´-ten
han´-dle
min´-utes
treat
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.'
[Illustration]
SLATE.
PART 1.
rid´-dle
ex-act´-ly
guessed
won´-der
bought
Sat´-ur-day
sup-pose´
fin´-gers
met´-al
smooth
re-mem´-ber
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.'
[Illustration: 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
laughed
high´-er
thought
laugh´-ing
pur´-pose
prop´-er-ly
please
set´-tled
hap´-pened
deal
dead
weighted
through
heaved
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´
morn´-ing
chalk´-ing
picked
piece
teach´-er
black´-board
spread´-ing
wheat
col´-ours
fetch
laughed
earth
brown
moist
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.'
CHALK.
PART 2.
[Illustration: 'Fizz and bubble, bubble and fizz.']
eve´-ning
brought
vin´-e-gar
bub´-ble
air
stirred
poured
grains
hun´-dreds
smiled
crowds
threads
catch
died
dropped
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
noise
mouse
cheese
har´-vest
stalk
should
four
tail
nib´-ble
young
beasts
squeak
hours
leaves
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?'
[Illustration]
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.'
[Illustration: 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
ber´-ry
brown
mer´-ry
scarce´-ly
weath´-er
nib´-bling
fruits
farm´-er
stacks
treas´-ure
pleas´-ure
reared´
un-der-neath´
shad´-ow
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.
[Illustration]
THE RABBIT.
[Illustration: 'Oh, look at that one going into a hole.']
moth´-er
rab´-bits
dare´-say
friends
Sat´-ur-day
an´-i-mals
morn´-ing
beat´-ing
knock
fight
meant
dan´-ger
1. Harry and Dora were coming home with their mother from a long walk,
when they saw some rabbits playing about on the grass.
2. They wished to stay and watch them, and the three sat down on a log a
little way off.
'Oh, look at that one going into a hole!' said Dora. 'See his funny
tail. Why is he going into a hole?'
3. 'That is his house,' said their mother. 'I daresay he is sleepy and
wants to go to bed.'
'He goes early, then, like the birds?'
'Yes, about sunset. He gets up a little before sunrise.
4. 'There goes another! They will soon all be gone.'
'Then we can look at their houses?'
'Only at their front doors. If you were to sit quite still over there in
the day-time, you would see the rabbits popping in and out.
5. 'After a time they would find out that you were their friends, and
then you would be able to watch their doings.'
6. Then mother told them more about the man who often stayed out all
night to see what animals did. 'One morning, before it was quite light,
he heard a tap-tap near him, and saw a rabbit beating on the ground with
his hind-feet close to another rabbit's hole.
7. 'He saw him go to another hole and tap there, and then to another.
Some holes he passed and did not knock at all.
'At last he had just begun tap-tapping in front of a hole, when out
rushed a big rabbit. They began to fight, and they both rolled down to
the bottom of the hill.
8. 'The man often saw rabbits tapping like this. Sometimes two or three
would come out to speak to the one that tapped, and they seemed to have
a friendly chat.
9. 'There was another sound they could make with their hind-feet. If one
of them made it, the others would run into their holes as fast as they
could. It meant danger.'
'What was it like?' asked Dora.
'_Tap-pat._'
IVY.
win´-ter
vase
changed
sprays
be-tween´
pur´-pose
um-brel´-la
mid´-dle
straight
veins
flow´-er
thick´-er
thread
ten´-der
mouth
use´-ful
1. Some sprigs of ivy had been standing all the winter in a vase. The
water had often been changed, and the leaves washed.
2. 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;
one, two, three, four, five!'
5. 'Look at this old leaf against the light,' said the mother; 'now you
can see the five long fingers. 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;
the middle one, which goes up straight from the stem, is the strongest
of all.'
[Illustration: Spray of Ivy.]
7. Dora was holding up one spray after another to the light. 'What are
all these pretty marks on the leaves, mother, lines crossing about all
ways?'
'Those are veins, dear. They carry the sap that feeds the leaves.'
8. 'What is sap?'
'The blood of plants and trees.'
'Oh,' said Dora, 'then that is the wet that comes out when I pick a
flower or cut a leaf!
9. 'But look at this!' and she held up one of the sprays.
At the end of it was a little bunch of white, curly roots. 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!'
A TREE.
rab´-bits
shoots
ta´-ble
spread
rough
heard
birch
beech
branch´-es
caught
oak
found
1. 'Let us go over to that log where we sat when we saw the rabbits,'
said Dora to Harry.
2. 'All right! We can play at ship, and the grass shall be the sea.'
'Or we can have see-saw, if we can find some wood to lay across the
log.'
3. They were soon at the log, and on it they sat down, and looked about
them.
The log was the trunk of an old oak, and a little way off stood the
stump, with many new shoots and leaves coming out all round it.
4. Dora went and stood on it, and called out that she was on a hill. She
jumped off and on a few times, and then said it would make a good table,
and they might have tea on it.
5. Harry found that the stump had roots that spread out all round for a
long way.
'How thick and hard they are!' he said; 'come and feel this one!'
[Illustration: It is all marked in rings.]
'It is not like the roots we saw on the ivy,' she said. 'Now look at the
top of the stump. It is all marked in rings.'
6. 'In the very middle there is a little light spot, and then come dark
rings, and then more rings outside. Father once told me these rings
showed how old the trees were. And do you see lines coming away from the
middle?'
7. 'They look like the rays of the sun, which I draw on my slate,' said
Dora. 'What a rough coat this tree had! Come and feel the outside of the
log.'
'That is the bark! I have heard father talk about bark.'
8. 'Well, I shall call it the coat. It is the tree's overcoat to keep
him warm and dry. But trees do not all seem to have rough coats. Look at
that one!' and she ran over to a little birch, and pulled off some of
its thin bark.
9. 'I have found a fine tree!' cried Harry; and Dora came running to
look at it.
[Illustration: Leaves of the Beech and the Oak.]
10. It was a beech, with a great round smooth trunk and long strong
branches. Harry jumped up and caught at a leaf or two, and then went to
pick an oak-leaf. He laid them side by side on his hand and looked at
them, and found they were not at all alike.
BRICKS.
stopped
emp´-ty
mor´-tar
sound
trow´-el
struck
picked
size
teach´-er
re´-al-ly
clay
win´-ter
breaks
moulds
nice´-ly
ov´-en
1. Two men were making a wall by the road-side, and Harry and Dora
stopped to look at them.
2. Another man was going away with a horse and cart. The cart was empty,
but it had been full of red bricks. The men were putting these bricks on
the wall and making them fast with mortar.
3. Dora liked the sound which the trowel made when it struck against the
wall. Harry picked up one of the bricks and looked at it, and then Dora
must look at one too.
4. They found that the bricks were light and easy to lift. They also
saw that they were all of the same size and shape, as if they had been
made, and not dug out of the ground.
[Illustration]
5. They did not like to ask the men about them, and so they put the
bricks down, and set off on their way home.
6. As they went they met their teacher, who stopped and spoke to them,
so Harry asked her to tell them what bricks really were.
7. 'I wish there were a brick-field near,' she said, 'and then we would
go and see it! But I can tell you a little about it.
8. 'Bricks are made of clay, and clay is dug out of the ground. Men dig
it before winter comes, and let it lie out all the winter, and the frost
breaks it up nicely for them.
9. 'The next thing is to mix it well into a paste, and then it is put
into moulds.'
'What are moulds?' Harry asked.
'Well, these moulds are like boxes with no bottom or top.'
'Only sides, then?' said Dora.
10. 'Yes, they have two long sides, and two short ones, and they hold
the soft, wet clay.
'You may call them clay-puddings before they are put into the hot oven.
When they are taken out, what do you think they are? They are bricks!'
[Illustration]
A DONKEY.
[Illustration]
bot´-tom
lane
don´-key
load
fruit
this´-tles
hedge
rough
ap-ple
car´-rot
touch
mor´-row
feast
win´-dow
shag´-gy
tuft
1. 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.
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.
5. The donkey did not once try to get at the pears and apples; he did
not even look at them.
6. His master was pleased, and said to his wife: 'It is quite safe to
leave the gate open, and let Neddy come into the garden when he likes. I
shall be away to-morrow, but you need not look after him. He will be all
right.'
7. Next day, Neddy walked into the garden, found that no one was there,
and began to eat the fruit. He had a good feast before his mistress saw
him from the window.
8. Then he was driven out, and the gate was shut. After that he always
had to find his dinner in the lane.
9. The children saw him one day feeding with a white horse that had
come down from the farm, and they stopped to talk to them.
10. Then Dora said to Harry:
'They are like each other, and yet not like! Neddy has a shaggy coat.'
'And his mane is short, and stands up.'
'His ears are very long.'
'His tail is not like Snowflake's tail; and, see, it has a little tuft
at the end of it!'
'And Snowflake is much taller.'
SHEEP.
chalk
wheth´-er
earth
hedge
tear´-ing
swal´-low
chew´-ing
though
re-mem´-ber
for-got´-ten
brought
mouth
1. The next time that Dora and Harry were out, they ran up to the place
where they had met Joe. They wished to see how the chalk was getting on,
and whether the earth was brown yet.
2. After that they went over a stile into a field where many sheep were
feeding. The sheep began to move away when they saw the boy and girl
coming.
3. Then said Harry: 'Let us try mother's plan of keeping quite still and
letting them see that we don't want to hurt them.'
4. So they sat down under a hedge and looked at the sheep for a long
time, and soon one and another began to come near, eating away at the
grass.
[Illustration]
5. 'I like that sound of tearing off the grass, don't you?' said Dora.
'Do you see they swallow it all at once?' said Harry. 'What would
mother say to us if we ate without chewing?'
6. 'There is some chewing going on, though. Look over there!' and she
showed him some sheep that were lying down in the grass.
7. 'Oh, now I know! Don't you remember, Dora, father told us once what
the cow does. It was that day we had tea at the farm.'
8. 'No, I don't remember. We saw the cows milked, and I had some new
milk in a glass. I don't think father told me!'
9. 'Yes, he did. You must have forgotten. He said that the cow sent her
food down into a big bag inside, and then it went into a smaller bag,
where it was rolled up into little balls. And when the cow lay down to
rest, she brought them up into her mouth and chewed them well.'
10. 'I should think the sheep must be doing the same thing. Look at this
fat one close by! She is just sitting down. Now watch!'
'Yes, I can see her chewing! How funny it is! They all look as if they
liked it, don't they?'
THE SHEEP.
la´-zy
pleas´-ant
dai´-sies
clothes
chil´-ly
dew´-y
scant´-y
com´-mon
brown
mer´-ry
wool´-ly
coat
1. 'Lazy sheep, pray tell me why
In the pleasant fields you lie,
Eating grass and daisies white,
From the morning till the night?
Everything can something do;
Oh what kind of use are you?'
2. 'Nay, my little fellow, nay,
Do not serve me so, I pray:
Don't you see the wool that grows
On my back to make you clothes?
Cold and very cold you'd be,
If you had not wool from me.
3. 'True, it seems a pleasant thing,
To nip the daisies in the spring;
But many chilly nights I pass,
On the cold and dewy grass,
Or pick a scanty dinner where
All the common's brown and bare.
4. 'Then the farmer comes at last,
When the merry spring is past,
And cuts my woolly coat away,
To warm you in the winter's day.
Little Master, this is why
In the pleasant fields I lie.'
TURNIPS.
white
ly´-ing
tur´-nip
picked
win´-ter
din´-ner
read´-y
but´-ter
sor´-ry
heard
peo´-ple
bread
pressed
meal
mean
jok´-ing
1. 'What are those sheep eating over there, at the far end of the field?
There is something white all over the grass. What can it be?'
'Chalk?' Dora asked.
'No, they never would be so silly! Let us go and see.'
2. Up they got, and away they went. They found that the white things
lying about on the grass were bits of turnip.
Harry picked one up and looked at it. It was only a round rind: all the
inside had been eaten out.
3. He took it home with him to show to his mother, and she said:
'I saw some bits like this that were shooting out green leaves when
spring came. They had been lying out on the ground in the winter, yet
there was so much life in them that they could grow again. But, come,
wash your hands: dinner is ready, and I have something to tell you. We
are going to have turnips for dinner!'
[Illustration: He took it home with him to show to his mother.]
4. When Harry had his helping of turnips he said:
'Now I am a sheep!'
'No,' said Dora, 'the sheep don't boil their turnips, or mash them with
nice butter.'
5. 'But raw turnip is very nice,' said her father. 'I have often eaten
one out in the fields. I am not at all sorry for the sheep.'
6. 'I have heard,' said mother, 'that, when corn was very dear, people
had to use turnips in making bread. They say the bread looked good, and
kept well. The water was first pressed out of the turnips, and then they
were mixed with wheat-meal.'
7. 'I wish you would make some, mother,' said Dora, 'just for fun, to
see what it is like.'
'I will--some day.'
8. 'What did you mean, mother,' Harry asked, 'about water in turnips?'
'There is a great deal of water in turnips,' said mother.
9. 'Turnips are nearly all water,' said father.
'Now, father, you must be joking,' cried Harry.
'No, I am not. Am I, mother?'
Mother smiled, and said 'No.'
GREEN PEAS.
PART 1.
peas
flow´-ers
ten´-drils
un-rolled´
watched
thought
pur´-pose
but´-ter-flies
half
count´-ed
true
flow´-er
with´-er
stayed
shin´-y
touched
1. Dora was alone in the garden. She had played about till she was
tired, when she found herself close to the bed of peas. She had seen her
father sow the peas, and now there were tall plants with leaves and
flowers and green tendrils.
2. Dora unrolled one or two of these tendrils, and then watched them
roll up again. She thought:
'How funny it is of the plant to put these out on purpose to take hold
of the sticks! And how pretty the flowers are! They look like little
white butterflies. I will pull one open.'
3. She picked a flower, and sat down with it on the grass. Inside of it
she found something long and green. This she opened, and saw a row of
tiny green balls.
[Illustration: Pea-flower.]
4. Not one of them was half as big as a pin's head. They were all in a
row, and Dora counted seven of them.
She picked out each one and laid them on her hand to look at.
5. Then it came into her mind that these little mites of things must be
baby-peas. And she felt sorry to think what she had done, for she could
not put them back into their nest, and now they would never grow up to
be big.
6. She told Harry about it next day, and he said, yes, it was very true.
But he must pull open just one flower himself and see the peas inside;
and so he did. There were six peas in his flower.
7. Every day after this, Dora and Harry came to look at the plants.
For a long time the flowers were very pretty. Then they began to wither.
One by one they dropped off; but the inside part of each stayed on,
looking green and shiny.
8. The children called these shiny green things bags, till they heard
some one say that they were pods.
Sometimes they touched them. They soon began to feel the peas inside.
The pods grew larger and fatter every day.
[Illustration]
GREEN PEAS.
PART 2.
bas´-ket
shell´-ing
bas´-in
taught
won´-der-ful
break´-ing
fair´-y
hap´-pens
weath´-er
earth
moist
pea
su´-gar
starch
earth
sun´-light
[Illustration: Pea-pods.]
1. At last, one sunny morning, mother came out with a basket and began
to pick the pods. Harry and Dora wished to help her, and all three were
soon at work.
2. Next, the shelling began. Mother had a basin in her lap, and the two
children sat close to her and shelled their peas into it.
3. They told her how they had shelled the baby-peas. She taught them how
each plant was a living thing, and had a tiny plant inside of it, all
ready to come out at the right time. This was very wonderful.
4. 'Did that big plant come out of one little pea?' cried Dora.
'I can't see a little plant inside,' said
Harry, breaking one of the peas open.
5. 'Yet it is there, a fairy-plant, with a root, a stem, and two leaves.
These leaves take up nearly all the room in the green ball. How would
you like to have two or three of these peas to plant? There! I can spare
you three each from to-day's dinner.'
6. The children were glad to have them. 'I wish we could see them grow,'
said Dora. 'What happens, mother, when they are in the earth?'
7. 'Do you mean, How do they begin to grow? Well, the weather must be
rather warm, and the earth moist, and the pea swells itself out till it
bursts open its thin coat. The little root goes down to fasten it firmly
in the ground, and to look for food. Then the little stem and the two
leaves come up to get air and sunshine. That is how it begins.'
8. 'What food is there in the ground? What food do the roots find?'
'Lime and iron'----
'Iron!' cried Harry.
9. 'Yes, there is iron in green peas! There are sugar, too, and starch,
and fat, and water, and other things. Some come out of the earth, some
come out of the air and the sunlight, and some the plant makes for
itself. Oh, it is a very clever plant! But all plants are clever, I
think.'
IRON AND METAL.
pock´-ets
mar´-bles
wrapped
size
heav´-y
weight
light´-er
though
cop´-per
thought
zinc
met´-als
sup-pose´
wheat
i´-ron
ket´-tle
1. 'What have you in your pockets, father?' asked Harry, pulling at
them. 'Nuts? stones? marbles?'
'Put your hand in, and find out. Here, Dora, you can try the other
pocket.'
2. In went two hands, and out came little hard lumps, each wrapped in
paper. The children laid them on the table in a row, and wanted to know
what they were.
[Illustration: 'What have you in your pockets, father?']
3. They were not nuts, nor marbles, and not quite like stones. They were
all about the same size, but one was very heavy. Harry and Dora held it
in their hands to feel how heavy it was.
4. 'That is a bit of lead,' said their father. 'Which do you think is
the next in weight?'
'This red one. It is a good deal lighter, though!'
'That is called copper. Now, what comes next?'
5. They were not sure, but thought that iron came next, and then tin,
and then zinc. Their father told them these names as they went on. He
told them also that all these things were metals, and had been dug out
of the earth.
6. 'Suppose we make a box to keep them in?'
'Oh yes!' cried both.
'And if we find any more things like these, we will put them in.
7. 'Would you put in a buttercup?'
'No, no!'
'Or a grain of wheat?'
'No, it is not at all like these.'
'Or a bit of slate?'
'I think so,' said Harry.
Dora was not quite sure.
8. 'Yes, we will put the slate into the box. It is not a metal, but it
came out of the ground. Now, what do you say to this?' And he pulled out
a lump that looked like earth and stone.
9. What could this be? It was iron, just as it had come out of the
ground, with clay and earth about it.
10. 'Once upon a time,' said father, 'the kettle, and the poker, and the
fender, all looked like this!'
THE FAIRY RING.
danc´-ing
fair´-y
queen
sea´-sons
year
cir´-cle
sphere
sum´-mer
glide
au´-tumn
tress´-es
cheeks
1. Let us dance and let us sing,
Dancing in a merry ring;
We'll be fairies on the green,
Sporting round the fairy queen.
2. Like the seasons of the year
Round we circle in a sphere;
I'll be Summer, you'll be Spring,
Dancing in a fairy ring.
3. Spring and Summer glide away,
Autumn comes with tresses gay;
Winter, hand-in-hand with Spring,
Dancing in a fairy ring.
4. Faster, faster round we go,
While our cheeks with roses glow,
Free as birds upon the wing,
Dancing in a fairy ring.
NEEDLES.
PART 1.
treat
hol´-i-days
aunt
nee´-dles
coils
steel
wire
wrapped
stretched
straight
ma-chine´
un´-cle
mid´-dle
chop´-ping
dropped
e-nough´
1. Harry and Dora once had a great treat.
They went in the holidays to stay with an uncle and aunt who lived at a
town where needles were made. We may call it Needle-town.
2. While they were there, they were taken to the mills to see the
needles made.
3. The first room into which they went was very warm. It was called the
wire-room. A workman who was there told them that it was filled with hot
air night and day, so that no damp should come in and spoil the steel.
4. All round the room coils of steel-wire were hanging. They were
wrapped up in paper, but the man took some of them down and let them
look in. They saw that one coil was of very thick wire, while another
was of wire as fine as a hair.
5. 'One of these coils would be more than a mile long if it were
stretched out straight,' the man told Harry. 'Would you like to take
hold of this one?'
But Harry found it too heavy, and it was hung up again on the wall.
6. Then they went into another room, where a machine was cutting a coil
of wire into bits.
'They are much too long for needles,' said Dora, softly, to her uncle;
but one of the workmen heard her, and said:
7. 'So they are! Each bit is going to be two needles. The two ends are
to be the points, and the heads lie in the middle of the wire.'
8. But no heads were to be seen yet. And the wire was not even straight,
for it had long been rolled up in a coil. As the machine went on
chopping, and the wire-strips dropped, a man picked them up and put them
on a shelf in a sort of oven.
9. There they were kept till they were red-hot, and then they were soft
enough to be made straight.
NEEDLES.