"How much of the chestnut is good to eat, Wil liam' ?" asked he, looking at a boy before him. "Only the meat."

13. "How long does it take the meat to grow?" "All summer, I suppose, it is growing."

Yes; it begins early in the summer, and gradually swells and grows until it has become of full size, and is ripe in the fall. Now suppose there were a tree out here near the school-house, and the chestnut meats should grow upon it without any shell or covering; suppose too that they should taste like good ripe chestnuts at first, when they were very small. Do you think they would be

safe' ?"

14. William said, "No! the boys would pick and eat them before they had time to grow."

"Well, what harm would there be in that? Would it not be as well to have the chestnuts early in the summer, as to have them in the fall' ?" William hesitated. Another boy, who sat next

to him, said:

"There would not be so much meat in the chestnuts, if they were eaten before they had time to grow."

15. "Right," said the master; "but would not the boys know this, and so all agree to let the little chestnuts stay, and not eat them while they were small'?"

William said he thought they would not. If the chestnuts were good, he was afraid the boys would pick them off and eat them at any time.

All the rest of the boys in school thought so too

F

16. "Here then," said the master, "is one reason for having prickles around the chestnuts when they are small. But then it is not necessary to have all chestnuts guarded from boys in this way; a great many of the trees are in the woods, and the boys do not see them. What good do the burs do in

these trees?"

17. The boys hesitated. Presently the boy who had the green satchel under the tree with Roger, who was sitting in one corner of the room, said:

"I should think they would keep the squirrels from eating them.

"And besides," continued he, after thinking a moment, "I should suppose, if the meat of the chestnut had no covering, the rain might wet it and make it rot, or the sun might dry and wither it."

18. "Yes," said the master," these are very good reasons why the nut should be carefully guarded :" First, the meats are packed away in a hard brown shell, which the water can not get through. This keeps them dry, and away from dust, and other things which might injure them. Then several nuts, thus protected, grow closely together, inside this green prickly covering, which spreads over them, and guards them from the animals which would eat them, and from the boys. When the chestnut gets its full growth, and is ripe, this covering, you know, splits open, and the nuts drop out."

19. The boys were then all satisfied that it was better that chestnuts should grow in burs.

"But why," asked one of the boys, " do not apples grow so?"

"Can any body answer that question'?" asked the master.

The boy with the green satchel said, that apples had a smooth, tight skin, which kept out the wet; but he did not see how they were guarded from animals.

20. The master said it was by their taste. "They' are hard and sour before they are full-grown, and so the taste is not pleasant, and nobody wants to eat them-except sometimes a few foolish boys, and these are punished by being made sick. When the apples are full-grown they change their taste, acquire an agreeable flavor, and become mellow: then they can be eaten. Can you tell me of any other fruits which are preserved in this way'?"

21. One boy answered, "Strawberries and blackberries;" and another said, "Peaches and pears."

Another boy asked why the peach-stone was not outside the peach, so as to keep the peach from being eaten. But the master said he would explain this another time. Then he dismissed the scholars, after asking Roger to wait until the rest had gone, as he wished to see him alone.-Mount Vernon Reader.

a GATH'-ER-ING, collecting.
b IM-PA'-TIENT, unquiet; uneasy.
VILE, mean; ugly; troublesome.
d PRO-FANE', with an oath.

e SATCH'-EL, a little sack, or bag.

f HES'-I-TA-TED, paused in doubt.
g GUARD'-ED, protected from injury.
h AC-QUIRE', have; obtain.

i FLA-VOR, taste; savor.

[LESSON LIV. In the story of "The Chestnut-bur, an impatient, fault-finding boy, who could not see why chestnuts are made to grow in burs, is reproved; and good reasons are shown why the chestnut has such a prickly covering. It guards the nut, while the latter is small and unripe it prevents the rain from wetting it, and the sun from drying it, etc. Why apples, strawberries, blackberries, etc., do not need such protection. The moral to be deduced from the lesson is, that infinite wisdom is shown in all the Creator's works. Let the teacher illustrate, farther.]

:

1. Yes, go, little butterfly,
Fan the warm air

With your soft silken pinions,
So brilliant and fair;
A poor fluttering prisoner
No longer you'll be;

There! out of the window!

You are free-you are free!

2. Go, rest on the bosom

Of some favorite flower;
Go, sport in the sunlight
Your brief little hour;
For your day, at the longest,
Is scarcely a span:d
Then go and enjoy it;

Be gay while you can.

3. As for me, I have something
More useful to do:

I must work, I must learn-
Though I play sometimes, too.
All your days, with the blossoms,
Bright thing, you may spend;
They will close with the summer,

Mine never shall end.-T. S. ARTHUR.

a PIN'-IONS, Wings.
b FLUT'-TER-ING, flapping the wings.

FA'-VOR-ITE, preferred; beloved. d SPAN, short space of time.

[LESSON LV. is an address to a butterfly, set free by the maiden who had held it a prisoner. While the butterfly is told to go and enjoy itself, in gayety and pleasure, because its days will end with the blossoms of summer, the maiden reflects that she has something "more useful to do," as her days will never end. A future life is to be provided for.]

1. In the summer time, when the grass in the meadows has grown to its full height, the farmer