"I know that, Frank; but how should the sndil know it?"

"He lies quite still; he will not put out his black horns again. I will go away and leave him, that I may not frighten him any more. I should not like to be frightened myself, if I were a snail," said Frank. So he ran on, before his father and mother, and left the snail; and he saw some pretty, brown and green moss, upon a bank; and he asked his mother if he might gather some of it.

She said, "Yes;" and he climbed up the bank, and gathered some of the moss; and, in the moss at the foot of a tree, he found a pretty shell; it was striped with purple, and green, and stráw-color, and white; and it was smooth | and very shining. He got down from the bank, as fast as he could, and ran and asked his mother if he might keep this pretty shell, and carry it into the house, when he came home from walking.

His mother looked at the shell, as Frank held it upon the palm of his hand; and she told him that he might have it, and that he might carry it into the house with him, when he went home; and she told him that it was a snail-shell.

"A snáil-shell, mamma," said Frank; "I

never saw such a pretty snail-shell before; I am glad I have found it; and I will take care not to break it."

Frank held it carefully in his hand, during the rest of his walk; and he often looked at it to see that it was safe; and just as he came near the hall-door, he opened his hand, and began to count the number of coloured rings upon his snail-shell.—“One, two, three, four, five rings, mamma," said Frank; "and the rings seem to wind round and round the shell: they are larger at the bottom, and they grow less and less, as they wind up to the top."

As Frank was looking, with attention, at the shell, he felt something cold, clammy, and disagreeable, touching his hand, at the bottom of the shell; and with his other hand he was going to lift up the shell, to see what this was. But when he touched it, he found that it stuck to his hand; and, a few moments afterwards, he saw that the snail-shell seemed to rise up; and he perceived the horns and head of a snàil, peeping out from beneath the shell.-"Oh ! mamma, there is a living snàil | in this shell. Look at it," said Frank, “Look! it has crawled out a great deal farther now; and it carries its shell upon its back. It is very.curious; but I

wish it was crawling anywhere but upon my hand; for I do not like the cold, sticky feeling of it."

Frank was then going to shake the snail from his hand; but he recollected that, if he let it fall suddenly upon the stone steps, he might hurt the animal, or break the pretty shell; therefore he did not shake it off, but he put his hand down gently to the stone step; and the snail crawled off his hand, upon the stone.

"Mamma," said Frank, "I think the snail might do without that pretty shell. You gave the shell to me, mamma. May I take it off the snail's back?"

"My dear," said his mother, "I did not know that there was a snail in the shell, when I said that you might have it. I would not have given it to you, if I had known there was a snail within it. You cannot pull the shell from the snail's back, without hurting the animal, or breaking the shell."

"I do not wish to hûrt the animal," said Frank, "and I am sure I do not wish to break the pretty shell; so I will not pull it. But, mamma, I think I had better take the snail and snail-shell both together into the house, and keep them in my little, red box. Mamma, what do you think?”

"I think, my dear, that the snail would not be so happy in your little, red box, as it would be in the open air, upon the grass, or upon the leaves which it usually eats."

"But, mamma, I would give it leaves to eat, in the little, red box."

"But, Frank, you do not know what leaves it likes best to eat; and if you do not shut it up in your red box, it will find the leaves for itself which it loves best."

"Then, if you do not think it would be happy in my red box, mamma, I will not shut it up in it. I will leave it to go where it pleases, with its own pretty shell upon its back. That is what I should like, if I were a snail, I believe."

He then took the snail, and put it upon the grass, and left it, and went into the house with his mother; and she called him into her room, and took out of her bureau something which she held to Frank's ear; and he heard a noise like the sound of water boiling. Then she put into Frank's hand what she had held to his ear; and he saw that it was a large shell, speckled red and brown, and white; it was so large, that his little fingers could hardly grasp it.

"Do you like it as well as you did the snail

shell?"

"Oh! yès, a great deal better, mamma."

"Then I give it to you, my dear," said his mother.

"Keep it," said his father; "and, even if you keep it till you are as old as I am, you will feel pleasure when you look at it; for you will recollect that your mother was pleased with you, when she gave it to you, because you had been good-natured to a poor little snail."

LESSON XLIII.

VIEW OF THE FIRST SETTLERS OF SALEM.

ALL the inhabitants of the little village | are busy. One is clearing a spot on the verge of the forest, for his homestead; another | is hewing the trunk of a fallen pine tree, in order to build himself a dwelling; a third | is hoeing in his field of Indian corn. Here comes a huntsman out of the woods, dragging a bear which he has shot, and shouting to the neighbours to lend him a hand. There goes a man to the sea-shore, with a spade and a bucket, to dig a mess of clàms,—a principal article of food with the first settlers.