and with great curved tusks ten feet long and weighing one hundred and sixty pounds, could have got underground of its own accord; but that was the only way in which they could account for finding it buried in the earth on the banks of the rivers.

11. What a splendid creature it was, this old elephant! larger and stronger than any living elephant. Immense quantities of its bones are found in Siberia; and the tusks and teeth are brought in shiploads to England, where they are sold for their ivory. Sometimes even the flesh and skin have been preserved in the ice; and from this we know that the mammoth had a woolly coat interspersed with long hairs, and a bristly mane on its neck.

12. There was another animal very much like this, called the mastodon; but it had tusks in the lower jaw as well as the upper, four in all, and the lower tusks dropped out when the animal grew old. It had very curious pointed teeth, rather like a lot of fir cones piled together, not flat grinders like those of the mammoth and all living elephants; and perhaps it fed upon fruits and nuts and boughs, as I do not think it could have managed well to chew grass and leaves with such pointed teeth. The teeth in its old dead jaws are still beautifully white, and look like china. Both the mammoth and the mastodon had long trunks. They have all passed away, and the only relations they have living are the elephants of Asia and Africa.

13. At one time there lived in South America an animal called the megatherium, which means "great beast." Its size and strength were enormous. Its legbones were bigger than your body. It was more like the sloth than any other living animal, but it could not climb. This creature stood on its huge, broad hind feet, with its strong tail as a sort of third leg, and tore down the branches of trees to feed on, or even rooted them up to get at the leaves.

14. An immense animal once inhabited Europe and Asia, which geologists have called the dinotherium, or "dreadful beast." It was a relation of the mastodon, but its tusks were very curious. Instead of being in the upper jaw, and turned upwards, they stuck out from the lower jaw, and curved downwards, giving the creature a very odd appearance. It most probably had a trunk like the mammoth or mastodon, but perhaps not so long.

HEADS FOR COMPOSITION.

I. THE MAMMOTH meaning of the word—why so namedwhen and where first found account of remains of this animal.

II. THE MASTODON: its tusks-description of its teeth where found-only living relations of the mammoth and mastodon.

III. THE MEGATHERIUM: where it lived - its size and strength -its appearance, and mode of feeding.

IV. THE DINOTHERIUM: description of its tusks—its trunk.

This is one of the sweetest poems of William Cullen Bryant (17941878), already mentioned as named in the beadroll of the most ilius trious American poets. He contrasts with Whittier, who is a student of man, while Bryant was a student of nature.

1.

2.

Come, let us plant the apple tree!

Cleave the tough greensward with the spade;
Wide let its hollow bed be made;
There gently lay the roots, and there

Sift the dark mold with kindly care,

And press it o'er them tenderly,

As round the sleeping infant's feet
We softly fold the cradle sheet.
So plant we the apple tree.

What plant we in this apple tree?
Buds which the breath of summer days

Shall lengthen into leafy sprays;

Boughs where the thrush, with crimson breast,

Shall haunt, and sing, and hide her nest;

We plant upon the sunny lea

A shadow for the noontide hour,
A shelter from the summer shower,

When we plant the apple tree.

3.

4.

5.

What plant we in this apple tree?
Sweets for a hundred flowery Springs
To load the May-wind's restless wings,
When from the orchard row he pours
Its fragrance through our open doors;
A world of blossoms for the bee;
Flowers for the sick girl's silent room
For the glad infant sprigs of bloom,-
We plant with the apple tree.

What plant we in this apple tree?
Fruits that shall swell in sunny June,
And redden in the August noon,
And drop when gentle airs come by,
That fan the blue September sky;

While children, wild with noisy glee,
Shall scent their fragrance as they pass,
And search for them the tufted grass
At the foot of the apple tree.

And when, above this apple tree,
The winter stars are quivering bright,
And winds go howling through the night,
Girls, whose young eyes o'erflow with mirth,
Shall peel its fruit by the cottage hearth;

And guests in prouder homes shall see,
Heaped with the orange and the grape,
As fair as they in tint and shape,

The fruit of the apple tree.

6.

7.

8.

The fruitage of this apple tree
Winds, and our flag of stripe and star,
Shall bear to coasts that lie afar,

Where men shall wonder at the view,
And ask in what fair groves they grew;
And they who roam beyond the sea
Shall think of childhood's careless day,
And long hours passed in summer play,
In the shade of the apple tree.

Each year shall give this apple tree
A broader flush of roseate bloom,
A deeper maze of verdurous gloom,
And loosen, when the frost clouds lower,
The crisp brown leaves in thicker shower.
The years shall come and pass; but we
Shall hear no longer, where we lie,
The summer's songs, the autumn's sigh,
In the boughs of the apple tree.

But time shall waste this apple tree.
O, when its aged branches throw
Thin shadows on the ground below,
Shall fraud and force and iron will
Oppress the weak and helpless still?

What shall the task of mercy be,

Amid the toils, the strifes, the tears,
Of those who live when length of years
Is wasting this apple tree?