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Har. A coffin.

Tut. So it is.

Har. But why should that be made of such strong wood?

Tut. There can be no other reason, than that weak attachment we are apt to have for our bodies when we have done with them, which has made men in various countries desirous of keeping them as long as possible from decay. But I have not yet done with the uses of the oak. Were either of you ever in a tanner's yard?

Geo. We often go by one at the end of the town; but we durst not go in for fear of the great dog.

Tut. But he is always chained in the day time.

Har. Yes—but he barks so loud, and looks so fierce, that we were afraid he would break his chain.

Tut. I doubt you are a couple of cowards. However, I suppose you came near enough to observe great stacks of bark in the yard. Geo. O yes-there are several.

Tut. Those are oak bark, and it is used in tanning the hides.

Har. What does it do to them?

Tut. I'll tell you. Every part of the oak abounds in a quality called astringency, or a binding power. The effect of this is to make more close and compact, or to shrivel up, all soft things, and thereby make them firmer and less liable to decay. The hide, then, when taken from the animal, after being steeped in lime and water to get off the hair and grease, is put to soak in a liquor made by boiling oak bark in water. This liquor

is strongly astringent, and by stiffening the soft hide, turns it into what we call leather. Other things are also tanned for the purpose of preserving them, as fishing nets, and boat sails. This use of the bark of the oak makes it a very valuable commodity; and you may see people in the woods carefully stripping the oaks when cut down, and piling up the bark in heaps.

Geo. I have seen such heaps of bark, but I thought they were only to burn.

Tut. No, they are much too valuable for that. Well, but I have another use of the oak to mention, and that is in dying.

Har. Dying! I wonder what colour it can dye?

Tut. Oak saw dust is a principal ingredient in dying fustians. By various mixtures and managements it is made to give them all the different shades of drab and brown. Then, all the parts of the oak, like all other astringent vegetables, produce a dark blue or black by the addition of any preparation of iron. The bark is sometimes used in this way for dying black. And did you ever see what boys call an oak apple?

Geo. Yes-I have gathered them myself.
Tut. Do you know what they are?

Geo. I thought they were the fruit of the oak. Tut. No-I have told you that the acorns are the fruit. These are excrescences formed by an insect.

Geo. An insect-how can they make such a thing?

Tut. It is a sort of fly, that has a power of piercing the outer skin of the oak boughs, under which it lays its eggs. The part then swells in

to a kind of ball, and the young insects, when hatched, eat their way out. Well; this ball or apple is a pretty strong astringent, and is sometimes used in dying black. But in the warm

countries, there is a species of oak which bears round excrescences of the same kind, called galls, which become hard, and are the strongest astringents known. They are the principal ingredients in the black dyes, and common ink is made with them, together with a substance called green vitriol or copperas, which contains iron.

I have now told you the chief uses that I can recollect of the oak; and these are so important, that whoever drops an acorn into the ground, and takes proper care of it when it comes up, may be said to be a benefactor to his country. Besides, no sight can be more beautiful and majestic than a fine oak wood. It is an ornament fit for the habitation of the first nobleman in the land.

Har. I wonder, then, that all rich gentlemen who have ground enough, do not cover it with oaks.

Tut. Many of them, especially of late years, have made great plantations of these trees. But all soils do not suit them; and then there is another circumstance which prevents many from being at this trouble and expense, which is, the long time an oak takes in growing, so that no person can reasonably expect to profit by those of his own planting. An oak of fifty years is greatly short of its full growth, and they are scarcely arrived at perfection under a century. However, it is our duty to think of posterity as well as ourselves; and they who receive oaks from their

ancestors, ought certainly to furnish others to their successors.

Har. Then I think that every one who cuts down an oak should be obliged to plant another. Tut. Very right—but he should plant two or three for one, for fear of accidents in their growing.

I will now repeat to you some verses describing the oak in its state of full growth, or rather of beginning decay, with the various animals living upon it--and then we will walk.

See where yon Oak its awful structure rears,
The massy growth of twice a hundred years;
Survey his rugged trunk with moss o'ergrown,
His lusty arms in rude disorder thrown,
His forking branches wide at distance spread,
And dark'ning half the sky, his lofty head;
A mighty castle, built by nature's hands,
Peopled by various living tribes, he stands.
His airy top the clamorous rooks invest,
And crowd the waving boughs with many a nest.
Midway the nimble squirrel builds his bow'r;
And sharp-bill'd pies the insect tribes devour;
That knaw beneath the bark their secret ways,
While unperceiv'd the stately pile decays.

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A young mouse lived in a cupboard where sweetmeats were kept: she dined every day upon biscuit, marmalade, or fine sugar. Never any little mouse had lived so well. She had often ventured to peep at the family while they sat at supper; nay, she had sometimes stole down on the carpet, and picked up the crumbs, and nobody had ever hurt her. She would have been quite happy, but that she was sometimes frightened by the cat, and then she ran trembling to her hole behind the wainscot. One day she came running to her mother in great joy; mother! said she, the good people of this family have built me a house to live in; it is in the cupboard; I am sure it is for me, for it is just big enough: the bottom is of wood, and it is covered all over with wires; and I dare say they have made it on purpose to screen

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