Mamma took another spoon and held it in the smoke; and after some little time, the bright silver began to look dingy, and then it was covered with little black spots. Willy touched it, and said, "No, it is not wet; so smoke cannot be made of water." Then, looking at his fingers, he exclaimed, "Oh, mamma, how I have dirtied my fingers with these nasty black spots!"

"No wonder," answered his mother; "for these little black spots are very small bits of black coal that fly up from the coal while it is burning; it is the heat of the fire which changes them into smoke."

"Then, mamma," said Willy, "though smoke is not made of water, it is like steam in one thing, for it rises up because it is so hot."

"Very true," said his mamma; "coal is turned into smoke by heat, just as water is turned into steam by heat."

Mrs. Marcet.

One morning, mamma called Willy, and said, “I promised, my dear, to show you when a cloud was falling look out at the window, and you will see one now." Willy ran to the window in a great hurry to

see what he thought must be so strange a sight. He looked first up in the skies; then he looked to the right, and then to the left: nowhere could he see any thing falling.

"Why, Willy, where are your eyes?" said mamma: "I see a great many things falling."

"Where?" inquired Willy eagerly; "I can see nothing at all but drops of rain."

"Well; and what are drops of rain made of?"

They are made of water," replied Willy.

"And what are the clouds made of?"

66

Why, you once told me, mamma, they were made of water too."

"Well, then, my dear; when a cloud falls, it does not come down plump upon your head like a pail of water, as you were afraid it did, but it falls in drops, and those drops are called rain."

"How funny!" cried Willy. "Then rain is a cloud tumbling down to the ground."

"Yes, it is; but it is called a cloud only when it is up in the skies, and rain when it falls to the ground." "And up in the clouds is it in drops, mamma; or all in one like a pail of water?"

"In drops," replied his mother, "much smaller drops than rain; it is more like the little drops that we caught in the teaspoon when we held it over the steam."

"Oh yes, I remember!" cried Willy; "and I said, How many things are made of water! and now I see there are a great many more things made of water: there are the clouds, and raïn, and steam, and ice, and snow." Willy then thought a moment, and afterwards said, "Why, mamma, you said the snow came from the

BOOK 3.]

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clouds; so snow is a cloud falling as well as rain, is it not ?"

"Yes," replied mamma; "snow is a cloud falling when the weather is so cold that it freezes the rain and turns it into snow; and rain is a cloud falling to the ground when the weather is warmer, so that water will not freeze."

"Oh, then, the weather must be warmer to-day, for you see the clouds come down in rain, and not in snow as they did yesterday."

"That is true, my dear; it is a thaw to-day."

Alfred the Great, during the first eight years of his reign, suffered continued persecution from the Danes, who at one time had got almost entire possession of the kingdom; and to conceal himself from them, he was obliged to disguise himself like a servant, and hire himself to a cowherd. One day when he was) in the cowherd's cottage, trimming his bow and arrows, the old

man's wife, who did not know he was the king, told him to watch some cakes that were toasting by the fire. Alfred, who had many other things to think of, forgot to turn them at the proper time, and they were all spoiled. The old woman was very angry with him, and told him he was a lazy fellow, who would eat the cakes, though he would not take the trouble to turn them.

After a time, the king went to a place in Somersetshire, called Athelney, where he built a fort, and where many of his bravest nobles came to him. He soon had an army under his command, and determined to venture out and fight the Danes. It was necessary for him first to know something of the state of the Danish army; so he disguised himself like a harper, and went to the Danish camp. When Guthrum, the general of the Danes, heard him play and sing, he was so much pleased with him that he made him stay for some days in the camp, supposing him to be some poor minstrel. You may believe that Alfred was not very comfortable all this time, for fear of being discovered. However, he did not the less look about him, and see what was going on; and he observed that the Danes, not supposing that the English could muster an army strong enough to attack them, were quite off their guard, and were dancing and singing, and thought of nothing but amusing themselves. The king having thus gained the knowledge he wanted, took an opportunity of slipping out of the camp, and then summoned all his faithful subjects to meet him near Selwood Forest. He soon collected a large army, and falling unexpectedly upor the Danes, obtained a complete victory over them.

Mrs. Markham's England.

LESSON XXII.

MORNING AND EVENING.

Shad'-ows Night'-in-gale Plaint'-ive

Mount'-ain

Shep'-herd

Chat'-ter-ing Dap'-pled

Kid'-lings

Swiftly from the mountain's brow
Shadows, nursed by night, retire;
And the peeping sunbeam now
Paints with gold the village spire.
The nightingale forsakes the thorn,
Where she plaintive prates at night;
And the lark, to meet the morn,
Soars beyond the shepherd's sight.
From the low-roofed cottage ridge
See the chattering swallow spring ;
Darting through the one-arched bridge
Quick she dips her dappled wing.

Now the pine-tree's waving top
Gently greets the morning gale.
Kidlings now begin to crop

Daisies on the dewy dale.