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Bow, rainbow.

LESSON XL.

BURN'ISHED, with brilliant polish.

CAV'AL RY, troops of horsemen.

LOITER, linger, tarry.

TAUNT, to make fun of, ridicule, to flout.
UR'CHIN, small boy.

PRONUNCIATION.-Bri'er y 3b, birds 9, black'ber-ry 3b, swallows 6, taunt'ing 20.

THE SUMMER SHOWER.

1. BEFORE the stout harvesters falleth the grain,
As when the strong storm-wind is reaping the plain;
And loiters the boy in the briery lane;

But yonder aslant comes the silvery rain,

Like a long line of spears brightly burnished and tall.

2. Adown the white highway, like cavalry fleet,
It dashes the dust with its numberless feet.

Like a murmurless school, in their leafy retreat

The wild birds sit listening the drops round them beat;
And the boy crouches close to the blackberry-wall.

3. The swallows alone take the storm on their wing,
And, taunting the tree-sheltered laborers, sing.
Like pebbles the rain breaks the face of the spring,
While a bubble darts up from each widening ring;
And the boy, in dismay, hears the loud shower fall.

4. But soon are the harvesters tossing the sheaves;
The robin darts out from its bower of leaves;
The wren peereth forth from the moss-covered eaves;
And the rain-spattered urchin now gladly perceives
That the beautiful bow bendeth over them all.

LESSON XLI.

AG-I-TA'TION, disturbance, excitement. COMPASS, an instrument with a magnetic needle for ascertaining the direction. CON-TRIV'ANCE, act of planning, power of planning.

COM-MU'NI-TY, society.
SPECIES, class, sort, subdivision.
TILE, a broad, flat piece of baked clay,
generally used for covering houses.
IN-SIG-NIF'I-CANT, unimportant, trifling.

PRONUNCIATION.-In'ter-est-ing 3b, creat'ures 18, hol'low 6, A-mer'i-ca 7, fu'ʼrious 16, ex-traor'di-nary 33, dif'fer-ent 1b, sov'er-eign 33, in'dus-try 26d.

THE BEE.

1. Or this insect there are several kinds; but the most interesting species is the honey-bee. Small and insignificant as this little creature may appear to us, it is one of the most wonderful animals in the world.

2. Many bees live in a wild state, and make their hives in hollow trees. In America and other countries there are persons who devote themselves to finding these hives for the sake of the honey.

3. One of the most common methods is to place some bee-bread on a flat board or tile, for the purpose of tempting the bees, and to draw a circle round it with white paint. The bee always settles upon the edge of any thing flat; and having settled upon the edge of the flat board, she must travel through the paint to reach the bee-bread. When she flies away, the white paint on her body enables the observer to trace her flight, and her course is marked with a pocket-compass.

4. The same thing is done at another spot, some distance from the first; and, by comparing the direction of the two lines the situation of the nest is easily found, as it must be at the point where, if continued, the lines would meet. In Africa the bee-hunter is aided by a little bird called the honey-guide.

5. In the same country the honey-ratel, a small quadruped, will, about the time of sunset, sit and hold one of his paws before his eyes, to shield them from the glare, in order to get a distinct view of the objects of his pursuit; and when he sees any bees flying he knows that at that hour they are returning home, and he follows them.

6. The domestic bees afford a good opportunity for studying the habits of this wonderful race of insects. Three kinds of bees are discovered in the hive; the drone, the queen-bee, and the workingbee. The drones are the fathers of the young bees, and live an idle life; they are larger than the rest, and make a louder hum in flying. The queen is the mother of the young bees, and governs the hive. Her subjects are much attached to her.

7. If she dies, the whole community is thrown into the greatest agitation; and those that first find out what is the matter run about the hive in a furious manner, touching every companion they meet with their little horns, or feelers, which are called antenna. These, in their turn, run about in the same manner, and inform others of the sad event, till the whole hive is in confusion.

8. This agitation lasts four or five hours, after which the bees begin to take measures for repairing their loss. Nothing can be more extraordinary than the way in which they proceed. They build several cells, which are much larger than the common ones, and of a different form.

9. Having removed one of the worker-worms into each of these, they feed it with a particular kind of food; and in a few days it grows larger, and at length comes out a queen. One of these becomes the sovereign of the hive.

10. If the bees lose their queen, and there are no worms or young to supply her place, they leave off working, and die in a few days.

But if, in the midst of their agitation, their lost queen should be restored, they are immediately quiet, for they instantly remember her and distinguish her from all others.

11. If a new queen should be placed in the hive too soon after the loss of the other, no attention would be paid to her, and she would be starved, or smothered in the crowd. But when four-and-twenty hours have passed, and the first grief is over, a stranger queen is well received, and reigns immediately. The bees crowd about her, touch her by turns with their antennæ, give her honey, range themselves round her in a circle, and follow her as a guard when she moves.

12. The offspring of one queen alone is too numerous for a hive to hold. She will sometimes lay in one season sixty or seventy thousand eggs; so it would never do to have more than one queen. Some of the eggs turn to queens, some to drones, and the largest portion to workers. The swarms that leave the hive are each led by a queen.

13. The drones do not collect honey, nor help to build the cells. People who, like them, lead an idle life are sometimes called drones. The drones are turned out of the hive before winter, that they may not eat the honey that the industrious workers have collected.

14. A swarm of bees on entering a new hive immediately want cells in which to store their honey and bring up their young. These cells cannot be made without wax, which is obtained, not from flowers, as is generally supposed, but from the bodies of the bees. This forms best while they are quiet, and, in order to obtain it, they hang themselves in clusters, clinging to each other's legs.

15. Having remained in this situation for twenty-four hours, they scrape it off, and form it into cells, using the tongue as a sort of trowel. Their industry, skill, and contrivance in doing this, are admirable.

16. Bees have many enemies besides man, the honey-guide and the honey-ratel. Wasps and hornets attack them while in search of flowers; and moths steal into the hive, where they sometimes do great mischief. At night sentinels are set to watch, and by moonlight you may see them pacing to and fro, turning in every direction.

17. If an enemy approaches, the sentinels utter a loud hum, and other bees rush to their aid. If the moth gets in, and escapes being stung to death, it lays its eggs, which produce grubs that sometimes oblige the bees to quit the hive. The death's-head moth, which is very large, sometimes gets in, and produces a sound, which renders the bees motionless, and then it steals their honey.

18. Wasps are very destructive to bees. A single bee attacking one of these wasps is generally killed. Five or six bees often cling to one wasp, attempting to sting it. Even then the wasp escapes, apparently uninjured.

LESSON XLII.

BOARD, a piece of sawed timber, broad | MOULD, soil, ground.

and thin; a table. CON-VOLV'U-LUS, a genus of plants, to which the morning-glory belongs. MIGN-ON-NETTE', (pronounced min-yonet',) a sweet-scented plant.

THYME, (pronounced time,) an aromatic plant.

TREL LISED, having a frame of crossbarred work.

WRAPPED, entirely occupied.

PRONUNCIATION.- And 29, win'ter 9, bow'er 9, scar'let 1b, car-na'tions 3a, cheer 22, with-in′ 15, get 33.

THE POOR MAN'S GARDEN.

1. THE rich man has his gardeners—his gardeners young and old; He never takes a spade in hand, nor worketh in the mould. It is not with the poor man so — wealth, servants, he hath none; And all the work that's done for him must by himself be done. 2. The rich man in his garden walks; beneath his garden-trees, Wrapped in a dream of other things, he seems to take his ease. It is not with the poor man so he knows each inch of ground, And every single plant and flower that grows within its bound. 3. He knows where grow his wall-flowers, and when they will be out, His moss-rose and convolvulus that twine his pale about.

And though unto the rich man the cost of flowers is naught, A sixpence to the poor man is toil and care and thought. 4. And here is his potato-bed, all well-grown, strong, and green; How could a rich man's heart leap up at anything so mean! But he (the poor man) sees his crop, and thankful man is he; For he thinks, all through the winter how rich his board will be; 5. And how his merry little ones beside the fire will stand, Each with a large potato in a round and rosy hand.

Around the rich man's trellised bower, gay, costly creepers run;
The poor man has his scarlet-beans, to screen him from the sun.
6. And there before the little bench, o'ershadowed by the bower,
Grow southern-wood and lemon-thyme, sweet-pea, and gillyflower,
And pinks, and clove-carnations, rich-scented, side by side,
And at each end a hollyhock, with an edge of London-pride.

7. And here comes the old grandmother, when her day's work is done;
And here they bring the sickly babe, to cheer it in the sun.
And here on Sabbath-mornings the good man comes to get
His Sunday-nosegay, moss-rose bud, white pink, and mignonnette.

8. And here on Sabbath-evenings, until the stars are out,
With a little one in either hand, he walketh all about.
Yes! in the poor man's garden grow far more than herbs and flowers
Kind thoughts, contentment, peace of mind, and joy for weary hours.

MARY HOWITT.

LESSON XLIII.

AB-STAIN', (Latin abs, from, and teneo, to hold,) to keep from, to refrain. AR'AB, (literally, a wanderer or dweller in a desert,) an inhabitant of Arabia. The Arabs wander about with the flocks and herds, dwelling in tents, and subsisting partly on plunder. When they wish to remove from any place, they have only to fold up their tents, and "silently steal away." In this lesson cares are beautifully com

pared to Arabs infesting a country. IN-FEST', to disturb greatly, to annoy, to harass.

IN'NO-CENT, (Latin in, not, and nocens,
hurtful,) doing no harm, free from
guilt, pure.

RHYME, correspondence of sound be-
tween the ends of different lines of
poetry; a poem, poetry.
TREASURED, treated as a treasure,
greatly valued.

PRONUNCIATION.-Fam'i-ly 3c, been 33, e-lev'en 4d, children 11, nat'u-rally 3e, col-lect' 1g, con-sid'er-a-ble 3b, poor 33, ed'u-ca-ting 16, dis-tinct'ly 29, e'ven-ing 12.

NOTE.- &c., abbreviation of the Latin words et cetera, meaning " and the rest." It is read et cetera or and so forth.

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1. SOME years ago a foreigner came to America with his family, and established himself in the business of a weaver, to which he had been bred. He had thought little about educating his children; for hitherto his chief efforts had been devoted to obtaining the necessaries of life.

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