Chapter 11

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?'

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.'

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.

THE RABBIT.

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.'

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!'

'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.

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.

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!'

A DONKEY.

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.

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!'

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.