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of you, it seems, is aware that lobsters are black until boiled, and that then their colour is changed.

"I would give Phil a sovereign for every red lobster that he could fish out of the sea, and Bill another for every black one that he could eat at the table."

A. L. O. E.

QUESTIONS.-What colour did Phil say lobsters were? What did Bill say? Who heard their loud voices? What did he tell them? What makes us often think that no one knows the truth so well as ourselves?

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A NUMBER of jackdaws lived very happily in the tower of an old church. Close at hand was a poultry-yard, belonging to a large house. Among the poultry lived some peacocks, which were allowed to wander about the garden, and in front of the house, that their beautiful feathers might be seen.

Now one of the jackdaws thought that there was nothing he should like so much as to strut* about

like a peacock, spreading his long tail in the sun, or drawing it up behind him in the shape of a wheel. Then, if he could shake all his feathers at once, and let them down as the peacocks did, while everybody gazed at him, he thought how proud he should be.

So he resolved *what he would do. He gathered* up the peacocks' cast-off feathers, dressed himself in

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them, and began to strut about the poultry-yard, in the hope of passing for a peacock! But he was quite mistaken:* not only peacocks, but turkeys, guinea-fowls, and even chickens and ducks, mocked* him! And, being provoked by his foolish vanity, they tore the borrowed* feathers from him, pecked him, and drove him out of the yard.

The unhappy jackdaw then wished to return to

his old friends in the church-tower, and would have been glad to lead his former happy life with them. But they would not notice him, and he was obliged to leave them, and lead a life of loneliness and misery.

This fable shows the folly of those who set their hearts on fine clothes, and who try to lead a life above their station.* So long as we keep in the place which God has given us, we are happy, and people honour and respect us; but nothing is so absurd as the vanity which makes us try to seem finer, or richer, than we really are.

QUESTIONS.-What is the little black bird in the front of the picture? What has he got in his tail? Where did he get them? Why did he put them there? What are the other birds in the picture? What are they doing? Why? What is this fable meant to show? PRONOUNCE in syllables:

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A SILLY young cricket, accustomed* to sing

Through the warm sunny months of gay summer and spring,

Began to complain,* when he found that at home

His cupboard* was empty, and winter was come.

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Not a crumb to be found
On the snow-covered ground;
Not a flower could he see,

Not a leaf on a tree ;

Oh, what will become," said the cricket, "of me?”

At last, by starvation* and famine* made bold,
All dripping with wet, and all trembling with cold,
Away he set off to a miserly* ant,

To see if, to keep him alive, he would grant
Him shelter from rain,
And a mouthful of grain.

He wished only to borrow,

And repay* it to-morrow :

If not, he must die of starvation and sorrow.

Said the ant to the cricket, "I'm your servant and friend;
But we ants never borrow, we ants never lend

But tell me, dear sir, did you lay nothing by

When the weather was warm?" Said the cricket, "Not I!
My heart was so light

That I sang day and night, For all nature looked gay." "You sang, sir, you say?

Go, then," said the ant," and dance winter away."

Thus ending, he hastily opened the wicket,

And out of the door turned the poor little cricket.

Though this is a fable, the moral is good :—
If you live without work, you will go without food.

QUESTIONS.-The cricket in winter found that his ? was empty. He was likely to die of? So he went to - ? and asked him to give him? and lend him ? The ant told him that as he - ? all summer, he must ? winter away. If you live ? you will go

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As a dog was crossing a brook with a bone in his mouth, he saw his own image in the clear water, and mistook it for another dog carrying another bone. Not content with what he himself possessed,* the greedy creature snatched* at the prize which he saw below. In doing so, he of course dropped the real bone, which fell into the brook and was lost!

The greedy, grasping* at more than they have, often lose even that which they might in peace have enjoyed.

QUESTIONS.-What is the dog in the picture standing on? What is he looking into? What did he see there? What did he think it was?

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