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painted butterfly is very much admired; but it never makes any honey. The peacock has feathers embroidered with gold, and shining like the rainbow; but its voice is little better than the braying of the ass.

The bee, like the ant, is a pattern of diligence. As often as the sun shines, she goes out to work, and never loses any opportunity of gathering and laying up her honey. There is an idle sort of bees in the hive, which are called drones: these are killed and cast out by the busy bees; and it is a rule amongst them, as it ought to be amongst christians, that if any will not work, neither should he eat; as being one who is unworthy to live. If any man eat without working, somebody else must work the more for it. If one of the legs should be benumbed, and will not walk, the other leg must do the work of both.

When the bees swarm, a royal bee, larger than the rest, is their leader, who is said to be a female; her motions they all obey. Wherever this bee pleases to alight, there the swarm settles; and they live orderly under her government in the hive.-There is one who keeps watch toward the mouth of the hive, to observe all that pass in and out. If

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one bee is overloaded, others go to help it; and if one hath suffered from the weather, or any other accident, another goes to it to comfort and cure it. They are armed with stings to defend themselves, and they all fight together in a body against an enemy, so that neither man nor beast can resist their power.

Happy is the man, and happy are the people who are directed by such rules of wisdom and policy as the bees are!

THE QUESTIONS.

Q. Can a man make a honeycomb?

A. No art can make it but that of the bee. Q. And who taught the bee?

A. The Creator of the world.

Q. Does it want the day-light when it is busy?

A. No, it measures its work in the dark. Q. What is the other example of industry, among the insects?

A. The ant, whose ways are very instructive to us.

Q. How does the swarm treat the idle bees?

A. They kill them and cast them out,

Q. Have the bees a royal leader?

A. Yes;

A. Yes; and they are all obedient subjects.

Q. How do the bees defend themselves?

A. With their stings.

Q. Against what enemies?

A. Against wasps and other robbers.

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THE TEXTS.

Ecclus. ix. 2, 3. Commend not a man for his beauty; neither abhor a man for his outward appearance. The bee is little among such as fly, but her fruit is the chief of sweet things.

Jam. i. 5. If any lack wisdom, let him ask of God.

Prov. vi. 6. Go to the ant, thou sluggard, consider her ways, and be wise.

2 Thess. iii. 10. This we commanded you, that if any would not work, neither should he

eat.

1 Pet. ii. 17.

Heb. xiii. 17.

Fear God, honour the king.
Obey them that have the rule

over you.

LESSON

LESSON VIII.

THE BLOWING FLOWER.

IN the spring the plant groweth up, and its seeds are ripe in the summer and the autumn. Its leaves are green, and its flowers are painted with colours; some are red, some blue, some yellow, some mixed, and spotted, and some of a pure white, like the lily. The fine painted leaves of the flower are the cloathing which covers the seeds while they are young and tender. For this reason, the leaves of the flower shut close together in the evening, to guard the young seeds from the cold of the night; as the hen covereth her young brood under her wings. But in the day-time, the rays of the sun spread the flower open, and the seeds receive the benefit of the warmth to cherish them, and make them grow. When the vessel which holds the seed becomes harder and stronger, the leaves of the flower fall away to the ground; for they are of no farther use; as the infant is no longer swaddled when it is able to go alone.

THE

THE QUESTIONS.

Q. Of what use are the painted leaves of a flower?

A. They clothe the young seeds, that the cold may not hurt them.

Q. When do the leaves of the flower fall away?

A. When the seed or fruit hath no farther need of them.

THE TEXT.

Matt. vi. 28. Consider the lilies how they grow.

LESSON IX.

THE LIVES OF A SEED.

BUT most wonderful is the progress of the seed from its first to its second life; for it hath two lives. During its first life, it grows and ripens in the plant which bears it, and then falls away to the earth out of which it grew. But it hath a second life after its resurrection from the earth; from whence it springs

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