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. [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. [The falling inflections in this lesson are good illustrations of RULE IV.] 1. Labor, labor-honest labor Labor keeps me well and strong'; 2. Labor keeps me ever merry`; 3. Labor makes me greet the morning With the sweetest pleasure teems'." 5. Labor brings me all I need'; While I work' I need not borrow'; Mind is working for to-morrow'. 7. Labor, labor'! ne'er be idle'; a RAI-MENT, clothing. Labor only makes the man! b IN-SPIRES', fills with poetic thoughts. 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?” 66 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. "How much of the chestnut is good to eat, William'?" 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 |