VI.-FIVE OUT OF ONE SHELL.

FIVE

IVE little peas in a pod; they were green and the pod was green, so they thought all the world was green, and that was as it should be.

"Be

2. "Must we stay here always?" asked one. "I'm sure there's something outside of this pod, and I would like to see it," said another. sides, we shall get hard, sitting here so long," said a third. "Let us run away," said the fourth. The fifth sat silent, saying nothing.

3. The sun shone, the rain fell, and pretty soon the pod began to turn yellow, and the peas began to turn yellow. "All the world is turning

yellow," said they.

4. After a few days a boy came along and picked the pod. "Here are five famous peas for my shooter," said he, as he shelled it and put the peas in his pocket.

5. By and by he shot the first. "Here I go," it said, "over and over; I shall never stop. How pleasant it is, only it makes me a little dizzy. I—I'm afraid I'm sick," it gasped, as it fell on the ground and rolled under a plantain leaf.

6. He shot another. "Up I go! I shall never come down," it thought as it went up in the air; but in a moment more it too had fallen and rolled away.

7. The third was dropped as he was about to put it in the shooter; the fourth fell into the gutter. There it lay in the water and swelled and swelled until it thought there was never a pea so large.

8. What became of the fifth-the little one

that said nothing? It happened to land in a crack by the side of a window. There it lay, with some damp moss and a little earth, until one day a great change came to it-two little green leaves grew up, and the tiny little roots

went down, and there was a bright, sturdy little pea-vine.

9. It grew up until it could look in at the window, and it peeped in one day just to see what was going on, and found there a little sick girl. How glad she was to see it! She petted it and cared for it, and every day as she grew better the vine grew larger. Finally, she was well enough to go out. That day the pea-vine

blossomed.

VII.-SPRING.

T

I.

HE Spring has come! the Spring has come!
The brooks are merrily pouring,

And the lambs are here, and the swallows appear,
And the lark aloft is soaring.

II.

Come to the fields! away to the fields!
We've lingered at home too long;

The sheep-bells ring as the bright birds sing,
And the streamlet murmurs a song.

III.

Never forget, child, never forget

WHO it was made the world so fair

Who with flowers and trees, and mountains and seas, Made it beautiful everywhere.

IT

round and round day after day. It did harm to nobody. It never knocked anybody down unless he got within reach of its great arms. What if it did use the air? surely there was no harm in that. The air was just as good for breathing after it had turned the mill as before.

2. But there was a flock of crows in the neighborhood that took quite a dislike to the innocent mill. They said there must be some mischief about it. They did not at all like the swinging of those long arms for a whole day at a time.

3. It was thought best to call a meeting of all the crows in the country, far and near, to see if jome plan could not be hit upon by which the dangerous thing could be got rid of.

4. Well, the meeting was called, and held in a corn-field. Such a cawing and chattering was never heard before in that neighborhood, I'll be bound. They say they appointed a chairman, or rather, a chair-crow.

5. As is usual in public meetings, there were many different opinions as to what was best to be done with the windmill. Most of the crows thought it was a dangerous thing—a very dangerous thing, indeed; but as to the best mode of getting rid of it, that was not so easy a matter to make out.

6. There were some crows at the meeting who yere for active measures. They proposed going right over to the windmill-all the crows in a body-and destroying it on the spot.

7. In justice to the crow family in general, however, it ought to be stated that those who talked about this warlike plan were rather young.