So saying, Jack ran off.

"I wish I was a schoolboy!"-cried the little lord to himself.

THE GOOSE AND HORSE.

A FABLE.

A Goose, who was plucking grass upon a common, thought herself af fronted by a Horse who fed near her, and in hissing accents thus addressed him. "I am certainly a more noble and perfect animal than you, for the whole range and extent of your facul ties is confined to one element. I can walk upon the ground as well as you: I have besides wings, with which I can raise myself in the air; and when I please, I can sport in ponds and lakes, and refresh myself in the cool waters: I enjoy the different powers of a bird, a fish, and a quadruped."

The Horse, snorting somewhat disdainfully, replied, "It is true you inhabit three elements, but you make no very distinguished figure in any one of them. You fly, indeed; but your flight is so heavy and clumsy, that you have no right to put yourself on a level with the lark or the swallow. You can swim on the surface of the waters, but you cannot live in them as fishes do; you cannot find your food in that element, nor glide smoothly along the bottom of the waves. And when you walk, or rather waddle, upon the ground, with your broad feet, and your long neck stretched out, hissing at every one who passes by, you bring upon yourself the derision of all beholders. I confess that I am only formed to move upon the ground; but how graceful is my make! how well turned my limbs! how highly finished my whole body! how great my strength! how astonishing my speed!

I had far rather be confined to one element, and be admired in that, than be a Goose in all."

EIGHTH EVENING.

THE GRASS TRIBE.

Tutor-George-Harry.

Harry. PRAY what is that growing on the other side of the hedge?

George. Why it is corn-don't you see it is in ear?

H. Yes-but it seems too short for corn; and the corn we just now passed is not in ear by a great deal.

G. Then I don't know what it is. Pray, Sir, will you tell us?

Tutor. I don't wonder you were puzzled about it. It is a sort of grass sown for hay, and is called rye grass.

H. But how happens it that it is so like corn?

very

T. There is no great wonder in that, for all corn is really a kind of grass; and on the other hand, if you were a Lilliputian, every species of grass would appear to you amazing large corn.

G. Then there is no difference between corn and grass, but the size? T. None at all.

H. But we eat corn; and grass is not good to eat.

T. It is only the seeds of corn that we eat. We leave the stalks and leaves for cows and horses. Now we might eat the seeds of grass, if they were big enough to be worth gathering; and some particular kinds are in fact eaten in certain countries.

H. But are wheat and barley really grass?

7. Yes they are a species of that great family of plants, which botanists

call Grasses; and I will take this opportunity of telling you something about them. Go, George, and pull us up a root of that rye-grass. Harry and I will sit down on this stile till you come to us.

us.

H. Here is grass enough all round

T. Well then-pull up a few roots that you see in ear.

G. Here is my grass.

H. And here is mine.

T. Well-spread them all in a handkerchief before us. Now look at the roots of them all. What do you call them?

G. I think they are what you have told us are fibrous roots.

T. Right-they consist of a bundle of strings. Then look at their stalksyou will find them jointed and hollow, like the straw of corn.

H. So they are.