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seed. He sows spring wheat, and rye, and oats, and barley, and other kinds of grain.

2. Sometimes he uses a machine called & drill,

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3. With the hoe he plants corn', and potatoes', and cucumbers', and melons', and the seeds of many other vegetables', some of which grow in the fields', and some in the garden'. Much of his time in the spring is occupied in hoeing these veg. etables.

4. He also plows some of his fields, in which he intends to sow wheat and rye in the fall of the year. These fields are called summer-fallows, because they are left fallow, or unsown, during the summer. But the farmer must leave some pasture for his cattle, and his sheep, and his horses, and also meadow-land for hay.

5. In the Southern States, the planter, or farmer, raises rice on the marshy lands of the sea-coast. Large quantities of maize, or Indian corn, are also raised at the South; but cotton, and sugar made from the sugar-cane, are the most important prod

ucts of the Southern planter. A large farm at the South is called a plantation.

a BROAD-CAST', thrown at large, by the
hand.
[for grazing.

PAST'-URE, grass for cattle; land used

C MARSH'-Y, wet; covered with water.

d PROD'-UCTS, productions; things produced by the land.

[LESSON LII. is a continuation of the description of the farmer's life in spring. It is now the season of plowing, planting, and sowing, for the spring crops. The different seeds planted and sown are mentioned.]

LESSON LIII.
LABOR.

[The falling inflections in this lesson are good illustrations of RULE IV.]

1. Labor, labor-honest labor—

Labor keeps me well and strong';
Labor gives me food and raiment`,a
Labor, too, inspires my song'.

2. Labor keeps me ever merry';
Cheerful labor is but play':
Labor wrestles with my sorrow';
Labor driveth tears away'.

3. Labor makes me greet the morning
In the glorious hour of dawn',
And I see the hills and valleys'
Put their golden garments on'.
4. Labor curtainse night with gladness',
Giveth rest' and happy dreams';
And the sleep that follows labor'

With the sweetest pleasure teems'.'

5. Labor brings me all I need';

While I work' I need not borrow';
Hands are toiling for to-day',

Mind is working for to-morrow'.

6. Labor's tools make sweetest music,
As their busy echoes ring';
Loom, and wheel, and anvil, ever'
Have a merry song to sing'.

7. Labor, labor'! ne'er be idle';
Labor, labor while you can';
"Tis the Iron Age of Labor';
Labor only makes the man!

a RAI-MENT, clothing.

> IN-SPIRES', fills with poetic thoughts. WRES'-TLES (res'-lz), strives; contends.

d GREET, salute; hail with joy.
e CUR'-TAINS, encloses, as with curtains.
TEEMS, abounds.

[LESSON LIII. is an earnest commendation of LABOR, on account of the rewards which it brings. These are health and strength, food and raiment, cheerful occupation, pleasant sleep, happy dreams, etc.]

LESSON LIV.

THE CHESTNUT-BUR.

1. One fine pleasant morning, in the fall of the year, as the master was walking along toward school, he saw three or four boys under a large chestnut-tree, gathering chestnuts.

2. One of the boys was sitting upon the ground, trying to open some chestnut-burs, which he had knocked from the tree. The burs were green, and he was trying to open them by pounding them with a stone.

3. He was a very impatient boy, and was scolding, in a loud, angry tone, against the burs. He did not see, he said, what in the world chestnuts were made to grow so for. They ought to grow right out in the open air, like apples, and not have such vile porcupine skins on them-just to plague the boys.

4. So saying, he struck with all his might a fine large bur, crushed it in pieces, and then jumped up, using at the same time profane and wicked words. As soon as he turned round he saw the master

standing very near him. He felt very much ashamed, and afraid, and hung down his head.

5. "Roger," said the master (for this boy's name was Roger), "can you get me a chestnut-bur?"

Roger looked up for a moment, to see if the master was in earnest, and then began to look around for a bur.

6. A boy who was standing near the tree, with a red cap in his hand full of burs, held out one of them. Roger took the bur and handed it to the master, who quietly put it into his pocket, and walked away.

7. As soon as he was gone, the boy with the red cap said to Roger, "I expected the master would give you a good scolding for talking so."

"The master never scolds," said another boy, who was sitting on a log near by, with a green satchel in his hand; "but you see if he does not remember it." Roger looked as if he did not know what to think about it.

"I wish," said he, "I knew what he is going to do with that bur."

8. That afternoon, when the lessons had all been recited, and it was about time to dismiss the school, the boys put away their books, and the master read a few verses in the Bible, and then offered a prayer, in which he asked God to forgive all the sins which any of them had committed that day, and to take care of them during the night.

9. After this he asked the boys all to sit down. He then took his handkerchief out of his pocket, and laid it on the desk; and afterward he put his

hand into his pocket again, and took out the chestnut-bur.

10. "Boys," said he, "do you know what this is ?"

One of the boys in the back seat, said, in a half whisper, "It is nothing but a chestnut-bur." "Lucy," said the master, to a bright-eyed little girl, near him, "what is this?"

ter.

"It is a chestnut-bur, sir," said she.

"Do you

know what it is for ?"

"I suppose there are chestnuts in it."

"But what is this rough prickly covering for?" Lucy did not know.

11. “Does any body here know?" said the mas

One of the boys said he supposed it was to hold the chestnuts together, and keep them up on the

tree.

"But I heard a boy say," replied the master, "that they ought not to be made to grow so. The nut itself, he thought, ought to hang alone on the branches, without any prickly covering-just as apples do."

"But the nuts themselves have no stems to be fastened by," answered the same boy.

12. "That is true; but I suppose this boy thought that God could have made them grow with stems, and that this would have been better than to have them in burs."

After a little pause the master said he would explain to them what the chestnut-bur was for, and wished them all to listen attentively.

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