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66. LESSON SIXTY-SIXTH.

The Pelican.

1. This is a very large bird, and it is very lazy and greedy. It has a large beak, and under it a great bag-so large that it will hold a pailful of water. Pelicans live near the water, and catch a great many fish.

2. They fly about, near the surface of the water, and when they see a fish, they fly down and catch it, and put it in their bag. When they have got a bag full, they go ashore, and eat them.

They eat so much, that they can hardly fly, and then they go to sleep, and sleep till they are hungry again. The pelican is a very good natured bird, and can be very easily tamed.

4. In some countries they are trained so that they will fly out and catch a bag full of fish, and carry them home to their masters.

a great many years.

Pelicans live

67. LESSON SIXTY-SEVENTH.

Salt.

1. The salt which we eat with our meat, is found almost every where. The water of the great ocean contains salt. People collect a great deal of water, and place it so that the water will dry up, and leave the salt.

2. A child could make salt in this way. Take some salt water in à saucer, and set it in the sun : the sun: the water will dry up in time, and leave little lumps of salt sticking about the saucer.

3. Some countries are very far from the sea, but in these countries there are salt springs, or mines of salt. The salt water of the springs is boiled till it evaporates, or dries up, and leaves the salt.

4. God knew that salt would preserve many things, which men would want to keep, and that it would make their food taste better; so He has given it to all parts of the earth, that men might have it, every where.

68. LESSON SIXTY-EIGHTH.

Money.

1. Look at a silver dollar. Once, that dollar was in the mine. Some people went there, and found the silver ore; they carried it, and put it in a large oven, where there was a very hot fire.

2. The fire melted the silver, but did not melt the other things which were mixed with it; so the silver ran out from the dirt and stone, which is called dross, and then it is pure silver.

3. The pure silver is too soft to be used by itself, without putting a little of some other metal with it to make it harder. This other metal, which is mixed with silver is called alloy.

4. The metal used for money, is carried to a place called the mint. There, it is cut into small pieces and weighed. Every true dollar weighs just so much, and a half dollar weighs half as much.

5. Each piece of silver is then stamped. Children have seen a watch seal, and have seen the figure on it stamped upon sealing-wax. In the same manner, the head of liberty, the letters, and the year, are stamped upon each piece of silver.

6. Silver, which has this stamp on it, is called coin. Bank notes are pieces of paper, used for money. Some people, who have a great deal of money, put it in a place called the bank; here they keep the coin - but in order to have money to use, they give people a great many pieces of paper, which have written on them the value of all the money which is in the bank.

69. LESSON SIXTY-NINTH

Trees and Fruit.

1. A tree has a root that goes under the ground, a great way. The roots are like legs; the tree could not stand without them. Then the tree has a trunk; that is its body. And it also has branches; these are its arms: they spread out very far.

2. Then there are boughs: and upon the boughs, leaves and blossoms. Here is a blossom upon the apple-tree. Will the blossom be always upon the tree? No, it will fall off soon; perhaps it will fall off to-night.

3. But then do you know what comes instead of the blossom? Yes, the fruit. After the appleblossoms there will be apples. Shall I come here to-morrow and get some apples? No, you must have patience - there will not be ripe apples this long time yet.

4. At first, the apple is very small - not larger than a pea; it will grow larger and larger, every day, till at last it will come to be a great apple.

5. But you must not eat it yet; you must let it hang, till the sun has made it red, and you can pull it off easily. Now, it is ripe; it is as red as your cheeks - you may gather it, and eat it.

70. LESSON SEVEΝΤΙΕΤΗ.

Story of the Chimney Sweeper.

1. A man riding near the town of Reading, saw a chimney sweeper lying in the dirt, who seemed to be in great pain. The man asked him what was the matter; the poor boy answered that he had fallen, and hurt himself badly.

2. The man was kind to him; he got off his horse, and put the boy on it, and walked by his side, to hold him on, till he came to Reading. He carried him to the house of an old woman, and sent for a surgeon, to dress his wounds.

3. The surgeon examined the boy, and said he had broken his arm, and hurt his leg. He then set the broken arm, and dressed his other bruises; and the man paid him for it.

4. He also gave some money to the old woman, to pay her for the trouble she would have in taking care of the boy, and for the food he would eat, before he could be well, and able to work for his living.

5. Then the man went to his house, which was a long way off. The boy soon got well, and earned his living by sweeping chimneys at Reading. Some years after, this good man was riding through Reading, and his horse took fright upon a bridge, and jumped into the river, with the man on his back.

6. The man could not swim, and the people who saw him fall in were afraid to jump in, and get him out. A chimney sweeper, who was going by, saw him, and without stopping a moment, threw himself into the river, and saved him from being drowned.

7. When the man was safe on the land, and was going to thank his deliverer, he saw that it was the same chimney sweeper that he had taken care of, a few years before; and who had now exposed his own life, to save that of his benefactor.

8. Little children, which should you like best? the chimney sweeper who was grateful, and ventured his life to save the man who had been so good to him; or the man who was humane, and took care of the boy whom he did not know ?

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