ran home with her bird. Poor little thing, said her mam-ma', we will take care of it till it can fly, and then let it go. Oh no, cried Fanny, we will keep it al'ways; I will feed it, and soon teach it to love me. My dear child, said her mam-ma', it will never love you as it will love the fields, and the trees, and the air. It is true we see birds in ca'ges that eat the seed that is given to them, and sing, and flutter their little wings as if they were very well pleased; but once leave their cage door o'pen, and a-way' they fly to seek their own food, to sing upon the tall trees, and build their own little nests. Never do they come back to their ca'ges, or to the hands that used to feed them. too young and too help'less to he would be starved if you a-way till he is old'er, for we find his nest and his mother.

But your lin'net is be left to himself'; were to let him fly know not where to

The lin'net was put into a cage, and he grew, and be-gan' to sing. Fanny fed him her-self', and he knew her, and be-came' so tame, that he would nop out of his cage on the table and on the ground. fanny was very proud of her bird, and she be-gan' to love him better than she loved Frisk; but Frisk still loved Fanny better than any thing or any body; he always lay at her feet while she talked to her linnet. And once, if it had not been for Frisk, Fanny would never have heard her linnet chirp to her again'. Fanny was not at home strange cat got into the house, and found the door

:

o'pen of the room where the bird was hung up in his cage lin'net was sitting upon his perch singing, and the cat crouched down, and watched the pretty little happy bird with her fierce and gla'ring eyes, till at last she made a great spring upon the cage, and pulled it off the hook down to the ground. The poor linnet, pant'ing and almost dying with fear, flew from side to side of its cage, while the savage crea'ture strove to catch him through the wires with her sharp claws. She had torn some of the feath'ers out of his wings and tail, and would very soon have killed him, had not Frisk just then run into the room. Frisk howled, barked, and made so loud a noise, while he fought with the fierce cat, that the servants heard him, and came to see what was the matter. Then the strange cat was soon driv'en out of doors, and the poor little trem'bling linnet hung up in his place a-gain', but for two whole days he did not sing a note. After that, he for-got' his fright, and was as lively and merry as be-fore'. Fanny praised Frisk very much in-deed' for his kind'ness to the little bird.

One fine morning Fanny put the cage on a table by the window. The window was open, and the cage door was open. Fan'ny sat on the win'dow

seat. She thought if her bird came too near she could catch him, or shut the win'dow in a mo'ment. Lin'net sung, and hopped in and out of his cage, and round and round the table. Fanny never

moved her eyes from him, but at last he spread his wings and was gone, be-fore' she could lift a hand to stop him. She flew in'to the garden. Frisk was going to follow. Get back, you great crea'ture, cried Fanny, you will fright'en my little dar'ling. Frisk hung down his head and went back. The linnet had perched on a tree. He looked at Fanny, he sung to Fanny; but all her coax'ing and her tears, could not bring him back to her and his cage. At last, when she tried to climb up the tree to catch him, he stretched out his wings and flew over the gar'den wall, and Fanny lost sight of him for ever. She cried a long time for the loss of her bird; but when she saw Frisk, she said to her-self', It almost serves me right. I have known Frisk lon'ger than I did the linnet, and I ought to have loved him always best. The linnet will be much more happy a-mong the trees, and fields, and hedges, than he was in my cage; but Frisk would not be so happy any where as he is with me so I will like to hear the birds sing out of doors, but my merry Frisk shall be my play'fellow still. Come hith'er, best of dogs. He came. She stroked him, and pat'ted his sides, and he jumped and frisked a-bout' his dear little mis'tress, but nev'er brought her any more birds or frogs, though he now and then made her a present of a bone, or a stone, or some such thing, that was not quite clean e-nough' to lay up-on' a white frock in the lap of a little girl.

QUESTIONS

What was Fanny's only play-fellow? What had Frisk been taught to do? To whom did Frisk carry any thing which he picked up? What would Frisk do when Fanny was angry with him for his tricks? What did Fanny teach When puss heard the kitten

Frisk to do with the kitten?

cry, what did she do? When Fanny was ready to go out to dinner one day, what did Frisk drop into her lap? What did Fanny then do? What did Fanny wish her papa to buy for her? What did her papa say to her?

What did Frisk bring to Fanny one day when she was walking with her maid? What did Fanny do with the young linnet? What did her mamma say to her when she ran home with the little bird? Where was the linnet put? What did Fanny love better than Frisk? What happened to the linnet one day when Fanny was not at home? did Fanny lose her linnet? What did Fanny say to herself when she had lost her linnet?

How

THE OAK TREE.

These nuts

The oak bears a fruit like a nut. are called a'corns. They have a bitter taste, but they are good food for poultry and pigs. Long ago, men used to eat them as bread; and, when roast'ed brown with a little butter, they will serve in place of coffee. A small a'corn put into the ground, will, in proc'ess of time, become a large tree. In England there are for'ests almost wholly of this wood, and of very great extent. Oak trees live to a great age. Some of them are older than the old

est man that ever lived.

The bark is stripped off from the oak trees, and made use of in tanning leather. The timber itself

is made into ships, for it is not so apt to rot under water as most other wood; and after being sawed into planks or boards, it is used for all kinds of wood work in houses and churches, such as flooring, stair-cases, wainscots, and ceil'ings, which are meant to last for a long time. Some wood work of oak is, at the present day, in a sound and perfect state, after having lasted for eight hundred years. The saw-dust that is made, by sawing oak wood, is used by the dy'ers to give cloth a brown colour. It is also used for firing; and some people pre-fer' it for that use when they smoke-dry pork, after it has been salted, in order to make ba'con and hams.

There are little round things that grow on oak trees, like apples; but they are not fruit, and are not fit for being eaten. Their right name is galls, or gall-nuts. They serve to dye things black, and to make ink. They are formed in this way;- a little fly, with four wings, makes a small hole in the leaf of the oak, and then lays an egg in it, and round this egg grows the oak apple, as it is called. The egg in the ball turns to a worm, and in time the worm turns to a fly like the one that laid the egg; it then makes a hole through the ball and gets away.

The oak is often made mention of in the Bible. Ba'shan was fa'mous for the number and size of its oaks. And it was under this tree, as well as the poplar and elm, that the children of Is'ra-el