like a collar. Yours does not.

have as many wings as I.

What a pretty plush coat you wear! Is it not too warm for this weather?

B. Oh, no! it is not too warm for me. My wings are not so large as yours, but I think I can fly as fast as you can. You have one pair of beautiful wings, Mr. Grasshopper. I can see them when you fly, but not when you are at rest.

G. Thank you, Miss Bee. My upper wings are long and narrow. When I rest I fold the under pair like a fan, and cover them with the upper ones. You see the upper wings lie straight on the sides of my body and lap at the tip, so as to form a slanting roof.

B. I am glad your beautiful wings are so well protected. What do you do with those long hind-legs, Mr. Grasshopper? You surely cannot walk.

G. Ha! Ha! Have you never seen me hop? My hind-legs are for leaping and jumping. I can walk up the trunks

of trees or the stems of small plants as well as any other insect.

But tell me, little Bee, is it true that you carry market-baskets on your hindlegs?

B. It is true. Have you never seen them filled with flour? I make bee-bread of this yellow flour. You know I get the pollen from the flowers. I do not see the use of those spines on your hind-legs. Will you tell me about them?

G. Sometime I will, but not to-day. You and I, dear Bee, are fitted for the lives we live. The life that God has

given to us.

Let us look at the body of the grasshopper. Do you see a fold on each side of the abdomen? Above each fold is a row of small holes.

Count them. How many do you find?

The grasshopper breathes through these holes. All insects have breathing tubes in their bodies.

THE BUTTERFLY.

Yes, go, little creature,
To fan the warm air,
With soft, silken pinions
So brilliant and fair;
A poor flutt'ring captive
No longer you'll be;
There! out of the window!
You're free you are free.

Go rest on the bosom

Of some pretty flower;
Go sport in the sunlight
Your brief little hour;
Your day at the longest
Is scarcely a span;
Then go and enjoy it,
Be gay while you can.

You see I have something
More useful to do,

I work, and must learn,
And play sometimes too.

Your days with the blossoms,
Bright thing, you may spend,
They close with the summer,
Mine never shall end.

How much there is that's beautiful
In this fair world of ours!
The verdure of the early spring,
The sweetly blooming flowers,

The brook that dances in the light,
The birds that carol free,

Are objects beautiful and bright,
That everywhere we see.

verdure

carol

world

dances

V. SPIDERS.

1. THE LITTLE SPINNER.

To-day Uncle John and I have been watching a garden spider spin its web.

The web, after it was completed, was about one foot in di

ameter. The nimble

little spider did the

work in about fifty minutes.

Do I hear you ask, "Where did she get

the silk with which to make the web?" The spider carries in her body the silk from which she spins the web.

You know that the saliva which moistens one's food is stored away in sacs in the mouth.

The spider's body has sacs in which liquid is stored.