twig; along the edge of this leaf it makes a row of holes."

5. "But how can it make the holes without a needle ?"

6. "Can you not guess? Has it not something sharp as a needle? Look and see. Why, it uses its beak, to be sure; and it uses it just as a cobbler uses his awl. It does not need a thimble.

7. "When the holes are made, the bird gets a thread; and this is a long fiber of some plant which the little feathered tailor knows where to find.

8. "Having got its thread, the bird passes it through the holes and draws the sides of the leaf down, so as to form a kind of hollow cone, with

the point down. shape of a cone. partly like a cone.

You must learn to know the
The nest in the picture is

9. "When the bird cannot find one leaf that is large enough for its need, it will sew two leaves together. Within the hollow it thus makes, it puts some soft white down, like short cottonwool, and then this wise little tailor-bird has a warm, neat nest for its young and itself."

QUESTIONS.

What bird can sew? In what country is the tailor-bird found? Do you know where India is? How long do you think it would take to go there? What does the bird use for thread? Do you know of any plant that has long fibers? Do you think this bird could sew a coat? What things have you seen that have the shape of a cone?

GREAT, wide, beautiful, wonderful World,

With the wonderful water round you curled,

And the wonderful grass upon your breast--
World, you are beautifully drest.

II.

The wonderful air is over me,

And the wonderful wind is shaking the tree,
It walks on the water, and whirls the mills,
And talks to itself on the top of the hills.

III.

You friendly Earth, how far do you go,

With the wheat-fields that nod and the rivers that

flow,

With cities and gardens, and cliffs and isles,

And people upon you for thousands of miles?

IV.

Ah, you are so great, and I am so small,
I tremble to think of you, World, at all;
And yet, when I said my prayers to-day,
A whisper inside me seemed to say,

“You are more than the Earth, though you are such

a dot:

You can love and think, and the Earth cannot."

I

XX.-A WONDERFUL BALL.

HAVE heard of a wonderful ball which floats in the sweet blue air, and has little soft, white clouds about it as it swims along.

2. There are many charming and astonishing things to be told of this ball, and some of them you shall hear.

3. In the first place, you must know that it is a very big ball-far bigger than the great soft ball, of bright colors, that little Charlie plays with on the floor. Yes, indeed; and bigger than Cousin Frank's largest football that he brought home from college in the spring; bigger, too, than that fine round globe in the schoolroom.

4. It is so large that trees can grow on it, and men and women can live on it, and little children, too. In some places it is soft and green, like the long meadow between the hills. Then, again, it is steep and rough, covered with great hills, much higher than that one behind the schoolhouse-so high that when you look up ever so far you cannot see the tops of them.

5. But in some parts there are no hills at all, and quiet little ponds of blue water, where the white water-lilies grow, and silvery fishes play among the stems.

6. Now, if we look on another side of the ball, we shall see no ponds, but something very

I am afraid you will not like it. A great plain of sand-sand like that on the seashore, only here there is no sea; and the sand stretches away farther than you can see on every side. There are no trees, and the sunshine beats down, almost burning whatever is beneath it. Perhaps you think this would be a grand place to build sandhouses,

7. Look at one more side of this ball as it turns round. Jack Frost must have spent all his longest winter nights here, for see what a palace of ice he has built for himself! Does it not look cold, the clear blue ice—almost as blue as the air? And look at the snow, drifts upon drifts, and the air filled with feathery flakes even

now.

8. Now, what do you think of this ball, so white and cold, so soft and green, so quiet and blue, so dreary and rough, as it floats along in the sweet blue air, with the flocks of white clouds about it?

9. I will tell you one thing more. The wise men have said that this earth on which we live is nothing more nor less than just such a ball Of this we shall know when we are older and wiser.

A

S Jane and Emma were walking along the beach, they saw at a distance a gentleman who seemed to be, like themselves, rambling about in search of shells and pebbles; at any rate, he stopped now and then, and appeared to be looking attentively at something in the sand and poking it with the end of his cane.

2. When the girls had walked a little farther, and had come pretty near where the gentleman was, their attention was suddenly arrested by a curious-looking animal in the shape of a star, which was lying flat upon the ground. The sea