had gone back to its former state. England was again a land of barbarians who did not know Christ, and her religion was darkness and fables.

W. Poor Britons, papa! They might well be sorry when the Romans left them, for now they were obliged to leave the country themselves. Where did those who escaped go to?

P. Some went to the Highlands of Scotland-others went to Ireland -a great number went to Wales, and some sheltered themselves in Cornwall, which is the very corner of England. A few of them fled, in ships, to a part of France, and called the place Brittany, in remembrance of their poor old country.

Lessons 6 and 7. THE SAXON
(13.) As soon as the Romans had

left Britain, great numbers of the barbarous Scots climbed over the northern wall, rushed down upon the Britons, killed them, and plundered their country.

(14.) The Britons, therefore, asked the Romans to help them, but they were engaged in fighting the northern barbarians. They then sent to a tribe of these barbarians, who were called Saxons.

(15.) The SAXONS, who were very brave and fierce, were glad to come from their cold country to Britain. They drove away the Picts and Scots, and sent for other barbarous tribes, who helped them to drive out the Britons also. So that after 150 years' contest, the Island belonged to the Saxons.

The PERIOD OF THE SAXON INVASION ended a little before A.D. 600.

SALT.

W. Here is the Salt-cellar, mamma. Please let me give papa some Salt for his egg, and we will keep the rest for our lesson.

Salt is like sugar in two things. 1st, You can dissolve it in water, so it is soluble. 2ndly, It has little grains, so it is granulous; but it has not the same colour-it is white.

Ion. And it has a different taste. What do you call the taste of Salt, mamma?

M. We say that its taste is saline. This flavour, "saline," is only found in Salt-so, as it belongs to Salt, and not to anything else, you may call it a peculiar flavour.

W. Then I will say, "It has a peculiar flavour called saline."

L. Just as Sugar has a peculiar flavour called sweet.

Ton. And just as Rhubarb has a peculiar taste called bitter.

W. No; I don't think that bitter is a peculiar taste-for bitter Almonds are bitter; and so are Almonds and Myrrh.

Ion. Still the taste, "bitter," is peculiar, because there is no other taste like it.

W. Then the taste sour is a peculiar taste; for it is not like the taste bitter, or sweet, or salt.

There are many sour things, such as Vinegar, Apples, Gooseberries, and many fruits.

Ion. I should call these tastes, principal tastes. So we shall have four principal tastes-Saline, Sweet, Bitter, and Sour. And the taste of meat is very different. I wonder what that is called.

M. But you are forgetting the Salt, and you have not found out many of its qualities yet. You know that it has not any life, nor any organs; so, what is it called?

W. A mineral substance, mamma.

Ion. Then, mamma, we may call it fusible. I remembered that word. Now, I will say the qualities we have found. ŠALT is granulous, soluble, and white. It has a peculiar flavour called saline; it is a mineral, and it is fusible.

M. These are all good qualities in the Salt. Do you think that the Salt would be improved, if any of these qualities were taken away from it?

W. I don't know, mamma. Perhaps it would be better if it were not soluble; because, it is very awkward, sometimes, when I put a little Salt on the edge of my plate, it slips down into the gravy, and then I lose it.

M. Well, Willie, let us see if it would be better. When I was a little girl, I saw more than fifty men who were busy salting pieces of beef, and putting them in casks. They cut slits in the pieces of beef and rubbed the salt in between ; then they rubbed the Salt all round the outside of the beef. I asked one of the men, "What are you doing that for?" and he showed me that the juice in the beef dissolved the grains of Salt. "But, what is the use of its being dissolved ?" I said. "Why, miss," said the man, now that it is dissolved, it soaks through to the middle of the beef, and keeps it from turning bad, you see. This salt beef will be put on board ship, and be taken to hot countries. In such places it would soon be not fit to eat; but the Salt keeps it, preserves it. You know what that means, miss.

66

“And, if you ever go to Yarmouth, in Norfolk-my town, miss -you would see some people salting and curing thousands, and thousands, and thousands of bloaters, to prevent them from 'turning bad.' Or, miss, if you'd like to go in a ship to Newfoundland, you might see the fishermen salting very large white fish-cod fish-for people to eat on Ash Wednesday."

W. And other days, if they like, I suppose.

M. "You see, miss, all this liquor in the casks. This is water with Salt dissolved in it. We call it brine;' and I am going to salt all these large lumps of beef in it." Since I was a girl, Willie, I have learned that nearly five hundred thousand tons-ah, but you cannot think of so much at once, can you? Do you know how much a pound of Salt is ?

Ion. Yes; Jane bought three pounds for the kitchen last month. M. Then, think how much three hundred pounds must be. But three hundred tons would be much more, for one ton alone is as much as 2,240 pounds.

Ion. Oh, mamma!

M. But now try and think of FIVE HUNDRED THOUSAND tons! They contain 1,120,000,000 pounds. Oh, you can never put an idea of so large a quantity into your little

heads. Nobody could imagine so much Salt, they must see it. Yet, I have heard of all this large quantity of Salt being consumed in England in one year. Now, stop and think; suppose that Salt was not soluble-was like sand?

W. Why, people wouldn't use it. or they wouldn't use half so much, perhaps. They couldn't salt their meat with it!

M. Then, Willie, you may see what a great difference one little quality makes. As I told you once before, how much we have to thank God for the qualities he puts in things!

W. Yes, mamma. And there is something else which must be a very good quality-a capital quality.

M. What quality are you thinking of, Willie ?

W. One which I did not notice at first-the quality which preserves the meat. What do you call it, because it preserves things? M. It is called conservative.

Ion. Then we may say, mamma, 66 Because it is soluble and conservative, it is useful to preserve meat." I wonder whether there is any reason for its having the other qualities-for its being white, granulous, saline, and fusible?

M. I dare say there is. We will try and find out the use of these qualities in the next lesson.

ANON.

THE CRUST OF THE EARTH.

LIME (Continued).

P. In our last Physical Geography lesson, we learned, you may remember, that part of the Earth's crust is made of Lime.

Ion. You said that about half-aquarter was lime, papa,—and you said, too, that lime is always found mixed with somthing elsewith carbonic acid, or sulphur, or fluoric acid- -so that we could never find pure lime.

L. And you said, papa, that it formed a part of marble, plaster of Paris, Bath stone, Portland stone, and other things. But, papa, can we not make it pure?

P. Yes. You shall see it done -Let us finish breakfast at once, and walk across the fields to the lime-kiln.

Here you see is a large layer of coal and turf burning, and above it is a layer of chalk.There is another layer of fire above that-and another layer of chalk-then another-then another-a layer of coal, and a layer of chalk, and so on, all the way to the top. And there, young sir, it will burn until Monday night. Ion. But what is the use of burning it?

Man. Why, young master Here, just please to taste this piece which has not been burned.

Ion. I will. It has not much taste, but it sticks to my tongue.

Man. That is because it has carbonic acid and water in it. Now, we shall burn, and keep on burning this chalk until the fire has driven away all the acid and water-and then what do you think is left, master?

W. Only the lime, to be sure. Oh, you don't know, perhaps, that we had a lesson about it last Friday week-then papa told us that chalk is lime and carbonic acidand that it is called "carbonate of lime."

Man. It is called "carbonate of lime!" I did not know that myself! Now, I'll teach you something that you don't know. When the carbonic acid and water have been driven away from the chalk, by the fire-the lime which is left is pure, and is called quick lime.

W. Thank you. Then I will say "lime is procured from chalk by burning it in a kiln, to drive off the carbonic acid and water-it is then called quick lime." Now, it is my turn to be teacher. If you'll give me a piece of quick lime, I'll show you something. Take it, and find out its qualities.

Man. Qualities! what are those, master? I have never seen them.

W. Why, qualities are things inside. Papa teaches us to find them out by noticing.

Man. I can't understand thatThere is nothing inside but lime. It is lime all through.

W. Oh, but since I have been holding it, it has made my hand feel very hot. So there must be heat inside. The qualities are outside too-they are-all about it.

Man. I don't think that "all about it" is very good grammar.

Perhaps you had better let your papa teach you, and I'll listenthen I shall know.

P. That will be the better way; so sit down on the grass, while I teach. First-What sort of an earth is lime?

Ion. It is white. Please let me taste it. It has a hot, biting, taste. What sort of a taste do you call that?

It isn't sour, nor sweet, nor bitter, nor saline,-it is biting, and hot.

P. Such a taste is called, an acrid taste. There are not many things with an acrid taste.

L. And, papa! Willie said, without tasting it, that it made his hand feel hot.

P. That is because it has a quality in it which will positively burn and destroy things-If you were to bury any dead animal or plant in lime, the lime would soon destroy it by eating it away. I was once near a yard where men tan skins, and make them into leather. I saw a cart full of bullocks' 'hides,' and I asked a man how they could cut off all the hairs of the skins, so as to make nice smooth leather. "We could never cut off the hairs properly, sir," he said, "but we put them in this pit, which is full of lime and water. When we take them out again, we find the hairs to be so loose in the skin, that we need not cut them; we only rub the skin with a blunt knife, and they all fall off."

Ion. I think I know the reason of this. The lime bit the hairsthat is, burned them.

P. That is nearly right, Ion. The lime burned the roots of the hair, and loosened them. Because the lime thus burns and destroys things, it is called caustic.

W. I think I know that word, papa. So is vitriol caustic. I shall never forget that it once burned my hand and pinafore. Then we may say that QUICK LIME is white, acrid, and caustic. I have noticed, too, that it will suck up water-so it is absorbent.

What is the use of an earth which has such bad qualities in it, papa? It would bite the roots of the flowers and destroy them.

P. You do not find quick lime in the earth, but chalk. I only told you that it would destroy dead substances.

The crust of the earth consists not only of lime, but of dead animals and vegetables. Now, as many animals, and thousands of insects and vegetables die every

year

L. And millions of leaves from the trees

P. Yes, and the leaves of trees they would, perhaps, take a long time to decay and change into earth, but

Ion. The lime destroys themor makes them get rotten much sooner and yet it does not destroy the roots of the trees.

P. Oh, no. It is very useful to them. When the rain comes down from the clouds, it sometimes falls on earth which is clayey, and sticky. I dare say you have noticed that it does not sink through such earth, but makes puddles on the surface, so that the roots of the trees do not have much of it.

W. No, I suppose that the sun shines on the puddles, and dries them up.

P. But if you were to mix some lime with the clay?

L. Then the clay would not be so stiff-the lime would loosen it.