eye; look-how big it is!" I then saw that the eye was cut and swollen; and that was the reason why it kept raising what Nanny called its hand to its eye.

"Let us watch it," said I; "we will not hurt it-poor thing!" The little creature did not seem to be at all afraid of us, but remained near, blowing out its body, and winking its well eye, for several minutes.

Nanny suddenly became so fond of it that she wanted to take it up and bathe its eye; but this I would not allow.

So she contented herself with putting a leaf, with a few grubs on it, close to the toad; and we soon saw it darting its pink tongue out, and catching and eating them. When the creature had finished its meal, it hopped slowly out of doors, and sat basking in the sun. We were glad to see that the eye looked better, and so we left it.

It

The next day, however, and often afterward, it came back to the conservatory, where Nanny generally managed to provide food for it. learned to know us quite well, and not only made friends with us, but also with a large cat which was a great pet of Nanny's.

Our new friend made itself at home in every part of the house. One day, to the surprise of every one, it was found sitting before the kitchenfire, close to the cat, with its "hands" resting on pussy's tail, and looking quite affectionately into her face.

Once we noticed that the toad's skin was split down the whole length of his body. We watched him, and saw him twitch himself until the loose skin gradually fell apart, and lay in folds on his sides.

We saw him then put one of his legs under his arm, press down upon it, and pull it out of its covering. He did the same thing with his other leg, leaving his old trousers under his arms.

With his mouth he now pulled the skin off his arms, and with both hands he pushed it into his mouth in a little ball, and swallowed it.

Nanny clapped her hands with glee to see how gay he looked in his bright new suit.

Write answers to the following questions, and let the answers be in complete sentences :

In which paragraph, and in which line of the paragraph, and where in the line, is the word "grown-up"? -" winking "?" provide "?"kitchen - fire"? 66 contented"?

66

A STORY OF LONG AGO.

Many years ago there lived near the city of Boston a little school-girl named Prudence Hathaway. One day she was sitting under an apple-tree in her father's garden, studying her history-lesson.

The lesson was about the discovery of America by Columbus. She read that Columbus had lived about three hundred years before she was born, and that, of all the white people then living, not one knew that there was in the world such a country as our own dear America.

They did not even know that the world is a globe. They thought that it was a great flat plain, like a large board, and that, if a ship sailed far enough across the sea, it would come at last to the edge of the world, and would tumble off and fall down to-nobody knew where.

But Columbus was a wise man, and he was sure that the world was round, like a ball. He

said he was not afraid to take a ship and sail over the ocean as far as ever he could go. He was sure he would not come to the edge and tumble off; but that he would come at last to the other side of the land from which he started.

He told all this to Isabella, the good Queen of Spain. So Queen Isabella gave him three small vessels, manned with such sailors as were willing with him; and Columbus sailed away with his three ships.

to go

Great crowds gathered on the sea-shore to see the ships start. The mothers and the sisters, the wives and the little children, and the fathers and brothers of the sailors were among the crowd upon the shore. They wrung their hands and wept bitterly as the ships went out of sight, for they feared they should never see their dear friends again.

The ships sailed and sailed for six long weary weeks, and still they found no land; and then the sailors grew afraid, and wanted to go back home. But Columbus begged them to try for a few days

more.

So they sailed on, and, one morning when the daylight came, they saw a beautiful green country spread out before them, and they saw people moving about upon the shore.

Now Columbus was proud and happy, and said to the men about him: "Have we not proved that the world is round? Have we not sailed

around it?"

Then he, and the people with him in all the three ships, knelt down and thanked God for this happy ending of their dangerous voyage.

Columbus was right about the world being round, but he did not even dream how large a world it is. He had not sailed around it, thought, nor half-way round it, and the land that he found was not the other side of the land from which he started. Nor was it this great continent of America, either; that was not found until some time afterward. It was only a little island called San Salvador.

The island of San Salvador is in the Atlantic Ocean, south-east of North America. Its climate warm, and its vegetation is luxuriant.

is

When Prudence Hathaway had read thus far, she began to feel tired. She leaned her head against the trunk of an old tree, and wished she might go to San Salvador and see it.

"Oh dear," she said, "how I wish some good fairy would come now and take me there in a minute! I wonder why there are no fairies in America? I wish there were."