The River.

RIVER, river, little river!

Bright you sparkle on your way, O'er the yellow pebbles dancing,

Through the flowers and foliage glancing,— Like a child at play.

River, river, swelling river!

On you rush o'er rough and smooth,
Louder, faster, rolling, leaping,
Over rocks and shallows sweeping,—
Like impetuous youth.

River, river, brimming river!

Broad, and deep, and still as time,
Seeming still, although in motion,
Tending onward to the ocean,-
Just like mortal prime.

River, river, rapid river!

Swifter now you slip away,

Swift and silent as an arrow,
Through a channel dark and narrow,—
Like life's closing day.

River, river, headlong river!
Down you dash into the sea,-
Sea, that line hath never sounded,
Sea, that sail hath never rounded,
Like eternity.

Mrs. SOUTHEY.

our cream, our butter, and our cheese. Butter and cheese are obtained from milk in different ways, and by various processes.

When new milk has been allowed to stand for eight or ten hours, a thick, rich, yellowish substance or covering rises to the surface. This sub

stance is called cream.

When cream is of the proper quality, it yields butter which is rich and good; but sometimes water is added to the milk, which, while it has the effect of increasing the quantity of the cream, detracts from its quality. Hence butter made from watered milk is of an inferior kind.

Milk, when carried long distances, and liable to be much shaken, yields less cream, and that also is thinner. When the cream is skimmed off, put into a large vessel, and rapidly stirred about, it is turned into butter. This process is called churning. But the cream cannot be easily churned until it has acquired some degree of sourness. And in winter it is oftentimes very difficult to get the butter to form unless heat in some way is applied to the cream.

After the cows have been milked, which is usually in the morning and evening, the milk is carried steadily away to the dairy, and poured into very large shallow pans or vessels, where it is allowed to remain six or twelve hours, according to the heat of the weather. Then the cream is carefully skimmed off, and collected in a tub or

H*

vessel for the purpose, having a spigot close to the bottom in order that the milk, or rather serum, which separates from the cream, may be drawn off morning and evening.

This being done, the cream is then kept in the tub three or four days in summer, and five or six in winter, when, usually, it has become sufficiently sour to yield butter with a moderate amount of churning.

When the cream is completely churned, and turned into butter, this latter must be immediately removed from the butter-milk in the churn, and squeezed firmly, in order to press out of it any particles of milk which may remain. When this is not done carefully, the quality of the butter is very inferior, and, in the course of a few days, the taste becomes exceedingly disagreeable.

During the process of making, the butter should be touched by the hands as little as possible, but by wooden instruments made for the purpose. It is washed in many changes of water till it is perfectly cleansed from the milk. It is then called fresh butter, and quite ready either for use or for the market.

It requires much care, and great skill, to produce butter of a first-rate quality. In order to preserve it, it must be salted, and placed in barrels or firkins; and the proportion of salt is one ounce to a pound of butter. The market price of salt butter is always a little less than that of fresh.

QUESTIONS:-1. What animal in this country is very useful to man? 2. Name some of its uses. 3. What do we get butter and cheese from? 4. Do we get them in the same way? 5. What happens to new milk when it is allowed to stand for eight or ten hours? 6. When is it called new milk? 7. What name does the substance get which is skimmed off? 8. What is often mixed with cream which hurts its quality? 9. If milk be watered, of what kind is the butter made from it? 10. When does. milk yield less cream? 11. Describe the process called churning. 12. How often are cows milked in a day? 13. When the cows are milked, where is the milk taken? 14. What is done with it there? 15. How long is the cream kept in summer before it is churned? 16. How long in winter? 17. How is the butter dressed, and made ready for the market? 18. How is butter preserved? 19. How much salt is allowed to a pound of butter?

WE see and hear, smell and taste, as well as touch a great many things every day of our lives. We are always using either our eyes, ears, nose, mouth, or hands; but we scarcely ever think how much we would lose if we had not all these organs.

By means of our eyes we are able to see all the