himself on one side, and then on the other; and, as nothing would do, he raised himself, and sat upright to wait till sleep might choose to come. But sleep would not come at all;and the only wakeful eyes in the whole wood, were the child's.

The wood grew stiller, and stiller: here and there fell a dry leaf, which had been driven from its old dwelling-place by a fresh one; here and there, a young bird | gave a soft chirp, when its mother squeezed it in the nest;and, from time to time, a gnàt | hummed for a minute or two, in the curtain of the spider's web, over the child's head.

And the deeper the silence became, the more earnestly did the child listen. At length, all was still in the wood; and the world seemed as if it would never wake again. The child bent forward, to see whether it were as dark abroad as in the cave; but he saw nothing save the pitch-dark night, which had wrapped everything in its thick veil. upwards, his eyes met the

Yet, as he looked friendly glance of

two or three stars; and this was a most joyful surprise to him, for he felt himself no longer so entirely alone. The stars were indeed far, far away; but yet he knew thém, and they seemed to know him; for they seemed to look into his

eyes. The child's whole soul was fixed in his gaze; and it seemed to him as if he must needs fly out of the darksome cave, thither, where the stars were beaming with such pure and serene light.

LESSON XIV.

SUMMER.

COME, let us go into the thick shade: for it is noonday; and the summer sun beats hot upon our heads.

The shade is pleasant and cool; the branches meet above our heads, and shut out the sun, as with a green curtain; the grass is soft to our feet; and the clear brook washes the roots of the trees.

The sloping bank is covered with flowers; let us lie down upon it; let us throw our limbs on the fresh grass and sleep; for all things are still; and we are quite alone.

The cattle can lie down to sleep in the cool shade; but we can praise the great GoD who made us. He made the warm sun, and the cool shade, the trees that grow upwards, and the brooks that run murmuring along. All the things that we see are His work.

Can we raise our voices up to the high heaven? Can we make Him hear who is above the stars? We need not raise our voices to the stars; for He heareth us when we only whisper, when we breathe out words softly, with a low voice: He that filleth the heavens is here also.

LESSON XV.

THE BEAVER HAT.

Look, what a pretty beaver hat mother has bought Emily, to keep her head warm in cold weather! Feel how soft and smooth it is. Do you know what it is made of? It is made of the hair that is taken from the skin of a little animal called a beaver, and the hat is called a beaver hat on that account.

Beavers are found in some parts of this country, and are very curious animals. They are not very large, not much larger than a càt; but yet they can do very wonderful things. They build themselves houses* | where a great

* Whenever there is that degree of emphasis which denotes the introduction of a new object in description, or a new incident or character in narration, it is expressed by the falling inflection. Emphasis of this nature, will always cause the

many of them live together. They always build their houses over a stream of water, that they may be more secure from troublesome visitors; and if the water is not déep enough | where they wish to build, they make a dàm* cross it, to keep the water from flowing so fast away. Then they saw down trees, to build their houses. But how can they saw them down, you say, when they have no hands to hold a saw? It is true, they have no hands, but they have long, sharp teeth, that they saw with; and they always saw the trees so as to make them fall across the stream over which they wish to build; and after they have got several trees cut down, they plaster them together with mud, which they spread over them with their broad and flat tails, which are shaped like the trowel that men who build houses, use in spreading mortar. Beavers are very neat in their houses, and take care to keep them very

downward slide, even at a comma, or, perhaps, where no point at all is marked. True reading goes by the car,-just as the tones of conversation do,-and not always by grammatical pauses. The latter are for syntax, primarily, indicating the structure of the sentence, but not necessarily its sense. Hence, an arbitrary rule to keep the voice uniformly up at a comma, must sometimes prove false to the meaning of a phrase, when emphasis is intended.

* See preceding note.

clean; and, what is better still, they are very sociable, and kind to each other, helping one another in every way in their power.

They live together, as all good children ought to do, in peace and love, and are always good-tempered and happy.

LESSON XVI.

LUCY.

LUCY was a little girl, who had always minded what was said to her, and had been very attentive, whenever her father or mother had taught her anything. So her mother had taught her to read and to work; and when she was six years old, she could employ herself, without being troublesome to anybody. She could work for herself, and for her brother; and sometimes, when she behaved very well, her mother let her do a little work for her, or for her father. Her mother had given her a little thimble, to put upon her finger, and a little housewife, to keep her needles and thread in, and a little pair of scissors, to cut her thread with, and a little work-bag, to keep her work in; and her father had given her a little book, to read in, whenever she pleased; and she could