the plants in this country. But we must not talk about them now. Let the sugar-grains go on with their speech: "The canes grew until they were much higher than a man-some of them twice as high. Then, they were of a bright-yellow colour, with a fine tuft of green leaves growing from the top joints, and a whitish flower springing from the centre. That was the time when we were worth seeing. You talk in this country about your golden grains; but, go and see the golden canes! The people used to say, when the wind blew over the great field, and waved the canes to and fro, that they looked like a sea of gold! All the animals were pleased with our good looks, or rather with our taste. The rats crept in to have a nibble, the monkeys stole in to make a feast, and the planters came and shot them. "The Negroes and slaves soon came then and cut us down. Then the canes were tied up in bundles, and carried to a mill, where they were placed between two rollers, so that they might be crushed and squeezed until their juice ran out. It was a horrid pressure, and we flowed out quickly into a trough under the mill. When the trough was full, some negroes came and emptied us into a large boiler; and how were we shocked, when, soon after, we saw them take our beautiful canes in which we were born-for they were lying about on the floor all bruised, and flattened and put them in the fireplace underneath, to be burned! Oh! we were very angry at this, but when they were made to burn until the heat of their flames came through the boiler, and through us, then we boiled with anger and heat too. "But we have no heart to tell of all the bad things that were done to us. They mixed lime with us, to take away what they called our acid; then a 'scum' rose to our surface, and that was taken from us because they said it was not good. We were boiled in this way several times, and were afterwards poured into wooden pans, where we became cool again, and formed ourselves into little crystals, or grains. Then they shut us up in a large dark cask called a hogshead, and some of the juice, which was still in a liquid state, drained away through a hole at the bottom. They called these drainings molasses; and, I heard that it was used for making a spirit called 'rum.' "After the hogshead had been drained, it was put on board ship, and we were brought to England. We heard that the sugar in the hogshead next to us underwent some new changes, and was called 'clayed sugar.'" P. Ah! you may read about that in the Penny Magazine. 6 "And another hogshead was sent to some men called sugar refiners,' where its best part was made into lump sugar, and its coarse parts into treacle." Now let us make a lesson about it. Lesson 4. SUGAR. (1.) Sugar is a brown, granulous, sweet, and soluble substance. (2.) It is the juice of a jointed cane which grows in the WEST INDIES, and other hot countries. When the canes are ripe, they are about twice the height of a man, and have a beautiful tuft of leaves and flowers at the top. (3.) They are then cut down, tied in a bundle, and taken to a mill, where their juice is squeezed out. This juice is boiled several times; its acid is destroyed with lime; and it is then poured into a wooden trough, where it cools, and forms grains called SUGAR. (4.) The sugar is packed in hogsheads, and sent to England, and its drippings or molasses are made into RUM. Sugar is also made into CLAYED SUGAR, and LOAF SUGAR, and TREACLE. THE TRAVELLER THROUGH (it an English town, or a Scotch ENGLAND.-BERWICK. Papu. Here, Lucy, is another letter from Mr. Young-you may read it : 66 L. Dear children,— You would like my old horse Peg" very much if you knew her. She is very steady and well behaved, and seems quite pleased at the idea of trotting through England with her master on her back. As soon as I had told her that I wanted my dinner, she turned her face to the east, and set off briskly along the banks of the Tweed. We did not stop until she had trotted six miles, and came in sight of the sea.* Then we saw before us an oldfashioned-looking town; it was surrounded by the remains of a very thick stone wall, and there was a strong "fort," with little holes in it, from which I could see the cannons peeping out. There was the ruin of a grey old castle, which seemed to have been battered by the cannon-balls, and a fine bridge, with fifteen arches, built over the Tweed. I think that old Peg must have visited this town before, for she took me to an inn, where I found that there was a very good stable for her, and a nice bed for myself. "Well, Landlord," I said, "what is the name of this town?" "L. BERWICK, sir." "It is a curious old place. Is * Every child who reads these Lessons should be provided with a MAP, on which he might mark the line of journey. This is indispensable for learning GEOGRAPHY, which is the object of the Lesson. "L. Ah! sir, if those old grey stones could speak, they would tell you many a hot tale about the Border wars.' You see, sir, before the time of King James the First, England and Scotland were two separate kingdoms; and the English and Scotch were often fighting with one another, instead of being friends, as they are now. The edge of each country was called the border,' and the people living here were called borderers.' "This part must have been a wretched place; for there was continued fighting and stealing going on. No farmer would have dared to leave any sheep or cows in the fields during the night. Sometimes, during the dark nights, there would be, perhaps, two or three hundred people employed, watching on the hills. And, if any one of those men on the night-watch' sounded an alarm by blowing a horn, every man in his bed, who might hear even the echo, was obliged, under pain of death, to rise up, take his torch, his spear, and bow, and follow the fray,' as the fight was called. 6 "But, when the great battles came;--when the king of Scotland would bring his large armies to fight the king of England, then, the poor people in Berwick would suffer. For, at one time, Berwick belonged to the Scotch, and it would be attacked by the English ;—at another time it belonged to England; then, the Scotch would attack us. KING EDWARD THE FIRST once butchered nearly all the people, and burned the buildings to ashes. The always fighting for it. townspeople did not want to be fought for, and lived on until the time of MARY QUEEN OF SCOTS. This Queen, and young EDWARD THE SIXTH, then made a treaty with each other, and agreed that Berwick should not be dependent on England, and not dependent on Scotland, but should be ar independent town.” W. "That means, I suppose, that the people would depend upon themselves, and not belong "L. There's another castle, "You know the old castle?--to anybody?" Well, sir! in the time of KING HENRY THE FOURTHI, which was worth noticing, not far from about 100 years after the time of here, sir. It is about six miles Edward, the EARL OF NORTHUM-off, on the southern bank of the BERLAND rebelled, and shut him- Tweed, and is called NORHAM self up in the town. CASTLE." "The king's army came to attack him, and brought a cannon with them :—and from the hill which you can see out of window, they fired off a great cannon-ball, weighing ninety-six pounds. This was the first cannon-ball ever fired in England :—and it so frightened the soldiers in the castle, that they surrendered directly. 66 Now, sir, think what a shame it was for the poor people here to have their houses burned, and cannon-balls fired at them, for nothing at all! They didn't ask the Earl of Northumberland to rebel, and they did not ask him to come here he came because he chose. In this way the Berwick folk were never happy or safe-for, as the city is exactly between the two countries, it was a most important place in war time, and the English and Scotch were 66 "Well, sir," said he. you remember that English King, Edward the First, whom I spoke of just now. In his time there were two great men in Scotland, who both wanted to be king-they were called ROBERT BRUCE, and JOHN BALIOL. Now, the Scots could not tell which man to choose, so they invited Edward the First to come and be umpire -that means, to choose for them; and, when he came, he lived in Norham Castle." "Perhaps," I said, "he did not like to go farther, for fear the Scots should kill him." 66 Perhaps so, sir, for he was a very crafty fellow; he wanted really to be King of Scotland himself; and afterwards, he tried very hard to conquer the Scots. 66 Ah! I could tell you a great deal | went in the boat, on the dark about King Edward, and Robert river, where we could not see Bruce, and Sir William Wallace; each other's faces. After some but another time will do, sir, for time we stopped. The men threw here is your salmon coming." their nets in the water, and held "You have plenty of salmon lighted torches on its surface. here?" I said. The fishes, when they saw the 'Yes, sir, it is caught in our torch, could not understand what river. The river Tweed, and new moon, or sun, or star had nearly all the northern rivers, are come down to visit them, and famous for this fish. If you will were very curious to come and go in the town, on market-day, see it. They could not see us in you will see that our principal the boat, because it was so dark, trade is in salmon and corn. We but we could see them in the sell great numbers of eggs too. water, because it was lighted up; Some of the salmon is 'exported.'-and, as they came round the and some is pickled, and sent to torch to inquire what was the London." matter, the men from above Ion. Ah! I like pickled sal-struck them with their spears, and killed them. The poor fishes struggled very much, but they soon died. I did not think that, after all, it was such cruel work as fishing with a rod and line. mon. "Do not the people here catch salmon by spearing them?" I said. "Yes, sir, but not very often. They generally use a net, or a rod-but, I know some men who will be going out to-morrow night to spear salmon, and you shall go if you like, sir, and see them caught." Do you know, dear children, I saw some curious things that night ?-but I have not time to tell you all now. It was a black, cloudy night-no moon-and we When I reached home I was so tired and sleepy that I went up-stairs to bed directly, and did not stop to make any notes. I will write them in the course of the week, and will send them to you in my next letter. I am, dear children, HURRAH! hurrah for England! Firm friends upon her shores, Right joyously we're singing, We're glad to make it known And our Queen upon her throne point in nearly the same direction, W. See, papa! I have formed 40 like those in the first angle, then the angles with five lines. opening becomes smaller, and the point (no, the vertex) becomes sharper -so the sizes of angles depend on the direction of the lines. W. No; No. 1 is much smaller than No. 2; but, if you were to move the oblique line up a little, No. 1 would become larger, and No. 2 smaller. L. Yes; No. 1 would be made just as much larger, as No. 2 would be smaller. The piece taken from No. 2 would be added to No. 1:that is fair! P. But, if I were to make the line lean in the opposite direction, then No. 2 would be too small. That would not be "fair," you know. When should I leave off moving the line, so that the angles might be of the same size? P. There is a proper name for the size of these angles. I will make the rule for you:-" When one line W. Because it has longer "legs," I suppose. Ion. I don't think that is the rea-standing on another makes the angles on son, because I noticed that all their each side of equal size, they are called, legs were of nearly the same length. W. SQUARE ANGLES! for, see! W. No, I see now; it is the direc- they are both square. tion of the lines which makes the angles larger, for if you make the two lines stretch out in a direction very far from each other, the opening becomes larger, and then, of course, the angle is larger. Ion. Or if you make the two legs P. No, Willie a square" must have four angles. Such angles are called RIGHT ANGLES. What does the dotted line which I have made show you? W. It shows how much No. 1 was too large before. 73 |