state for wheel carriages. Parts of India are hilly, and the elephant is largely employed as a beast of burden. A male elephant, full grown, can carry about a ton weight, and travel with it fifty miles a day, and if properly used, will live for a hundred years. 7. The native princes, as well as the English people, make use of the elephant on state occasions, for which purpose a crib, called a houdah, is fastened upon him, and decked out in the most gorgeous manner, and princes and rulers ride on him in all the pomp of the east, and in the same manner as they did many thousand years ago. LESSON 37.-LUCY GRAY.-Part 1. OFT I had heard of Lucy Gray; No mate, no comrade, Lucy knew; You yet may spy the fawn at play, powdery wandered reached "To-night will be a stormy night- And take a lantern, child, to light The minster-clock has just struck two, At this the father raised his hook Not blither is the mountain roe: The storm came on before its time: LESSON 38.-LUCY GRAY.-Part 2. The wretched parents all that night, Went shouting far and wide; But there was neither sound nor sight At daybreak on a hill they stood And thence they saw the bridge of wood, rough solitary whistles And, turning homeward, now they cried, Then downward from the steep hill's edge And then an open field they crossed: And further there were none ! Yet some maintain that to this day That you may see sweet Lucy Gray O'er rough and smooth she trips along, And never looks behind; And sings a solitary song That whistles in the wind. 1. THE reindeer is a most useful animal to the inhabitants of cold countries, and is well adapted to the life it has to live. To the Laplanders the reindeer is a substitute for the horse, the cow, and the sheep. 2. Harnessed to the sledge, the reindeer bounds over the frozen lakes and rivers, or the hard snow; of its milk cheese is made, they eat its flesh for food, the skins serve for tents, bedding, and clothing. 3. It is said, that a couple of reindeer yoked to a sledge, can travel more than a hundred miles in a day, with a load of six hundred pounds. The sledge is formed something like a boat, and it has a back board for the rider to lean against. 4. The traveller is tied in the sledge like a child in his cradle. He holds the rein or halter, which is fastened to the deer's head, on his right thumb. When the driver is ready to start, he shakes the rein, and the animal springs forward with great speed. 5. He now directs his course by the rein and by his voice, he sings to him as he goes along, speaks kindly to him, and cheers him on his way. He never strikes or hurts him, for he loves the animal too much to be cruel to him. 6. The Laplanders are thus enabled to travel in winter by night and day, when the whole country, far and wide, is entirely covered by snow, and scarcely a hut or tree is to be seen, and they travel from one part of Lapland to the other in a very short space of time. In the royal palace of Sweden is the portrait of a reindeer, which is said to have travelled with letters eight hundred English miles in forty-eight hours. 7. The principal winter food of the reindeer is a species of lichen or moss, which covers large tracts of the northern regions, and which the deer scratch out with their feet. In the summer they browse upon the shrubs and plants they find on their march, and pasture on the green herbage. |