9. As soon as a larve has attained its full growth, it retires and spins a silken covering called a cocoon, casts its skin and passes into its chrysalis stage. After some time it again sheds its skin and comes forth fully grown, with wings, legs and other appendages, The female is larg, er than the male. It is now a perfect insect and in this stage is called imago. It no longer increases in size, but deposits its eggs and dies.

10. The grasshopper is hatched as a wingless insect. It has legs like the adult and hops about and eats voraciously. It casts its skin again and again, and after each change appears with longer wings and more perfect limbs.

11. The family of bees are the most interesting of all insects. They live in swarms, each colony consisting of a queen, drones and workers. The queen-bee lays the eggs in the cells and the workers place the bee-food so that the young bees may feed upon it. They dwarf all the workers by providing a scanty supply of food; but for one they provide abundantly and this one develops into a queen. If the queen-bee should die, they take one of the imperfect workers, and, by feeding her well, provide another queen.

12. The bumble-bees build nests in the ground each of which contains from one to four hundred bees. DARWIN found that these bees enrich the clover blossoms by carrying the pollen from one flower to another. But ground mice destroy their nests and cats in turn destroy ground mice. Nature is a wonderful chain, and the fertility of the field depends, not only upon sunshine and moisture, but also upon insects and other animals.

13. The silk worm family of moths supply the world with silk. The larves of the bombyx feed upon the leaves of the mulberry tree and weave a cocoon of silk.

14. Ants live together in swarms like bees. Their workers are wingless, and have the care of the nests and of the rearing of the young. They go in search of food. They feed the larves and take them into the sunshine in fair weather. They watch over them with wonderful fidelity, and at night or in bad weather take them back into the nest.

15.

Sometimes the workers leave their own ant-hills and capture the larves and pupa of other ants, bringing them to their nests and

making slaves of them. These slaves grow strong while the lazy ants that they serve grow weak, and, by maturing their own larves, finally become masters of the colony. The fittest survive!

What is an insect? What are its parts? Describe the head; the mouth;-the eyes. Describe the legs of insects;-wings;-the piercer;-the borer;-the sting. Name and describe the three stages of insect life. Describe the grasshopper. What three kinds of bees are in each swarm? How is a new queen made? Of what use are bumble bees? From what do we obtain silk? What do wingless ants do?

Dictation.

No useless coffin enclosed his breast,

Not in sheet nor in shroud we wound him;

But he lay like a warrior taking his rest

With his martial cloak around him.

CHARLES WOLFE (1798-1823).

XIV. THE LADDER OF ST. AUGUSTINE.

Saint Augustine! well hast thou said,

That of our vices we can frame

A ladder, if we will but tread

Beneath our feet each deed of shame!

All common things—each day's events,
That with the hour begin and end;
Our pleasures and our discontents,
Are rounds by which we may ascend.

The low desire, the base design,
That makes another's virtues less;

The revel of the giddy wine,

And all occasions of excess.

The longing for ignoble things,

The strife for triumph more than truth,
The hardening of the heart, that brings
Irreverence for the dreams of youth!

All thoughts of ill-all evil deeds,
That have their root in thoughts of ill,
Whatever hinders or impedes

The action of the nobler will!

All these must first be trampled down
Beneath our feet, if we would gain
In the bright field of fair renown
The right of eminent domain!

We have not wings, we cannot soar,
But we have feet to scale and climb
By slow degrees - by more and more—
The cloudy summits of our time.

ǎs cend'

The mighty pyramids of stone

That wedge-like cleave the desert airs,
When nearer seen and better known,
Are but gigantic flights of stairs.

The distant mountains that uprear
Their frowning foreheads to the skies
Are crossed by pathways that appear
As we to higher levels rise.

The heights by great men reached and kept,
Were not attained by sudden flight;
But they, while their companions slept,
Were toiling upward in the night.

Standing on what too long we bore,
With shoulders bent and downcast eyes,
We may discern, unseen before,
A path to higher destinies.

Nor deem the irrevocable past
As wholly wasted, wholly vain,
If rising on its wrecks at last,
To something nobler we attain.

LONGFELLOW.

Spell and use in sentences:

ĕm' i nent

oc ca'sions ig nō'ble

pyr'a mids
gì gắn tic

Topical Review.

fore'heads
dis cern'

ir rev'o ca ble

Who was St. Augustine? Name four rounds in the ladder? What must be done with vices? How can we attain to eminence?