USEFUL PLANTS.

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7. The roots are fed by the moist earth, while the leaves take more food from the air. You can always kill that part of a plant that is above ground by cutting off its roots, and sometimes you can kill the roots by pulling off the leaves or by cutting off the stalk; but the real life is in the roots, and they will almost always send up shoot after shoot, as others are removed.

8. If you cover the stalk and leaves with earth, and let the roots stay above ground, the plant will die. There are a few plants that will live with their roots in water, and a very few others whose roots can get food from the air; but there is no plant whose leaves and stalk will live underground.

I like to eat some roots. Some trees bear fruits. Apples are good to eat.

1. Beet, potatoes, turnips, beans, peas, stalks, above, melons, dandelions, fruit, cabbages, removed.

2. Which are seeds? Which are fruits? Which are leaves? Which are roots? Could trees live without roots?

Tell the name-words in the third paragraph. In the fourth paragraph what is the action-word used with beans, peas, etc.? Group the words in the fifth paragraph..

XV. THE WRONG FAMILY.

1. One day we had a hen that stopped laying eggs, but stayed on the nest all the time.

2. If I took her off the nest, she would go

3. So Father told me I would better put some eggs in her nest and let her sit, if she wanted to.

THE WRONG FAMILY.

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4. I could not find any hens' eggs, and so put some ducks' eggs in the nest.

5. When the hen found that she was really going to raise a family, she was so happy that she did not seem to know

what kind of eggs she was sitting on.

6. In a few weeks she came off the nest, with a fine family

of little ducks, and was too proud to take notice of the other hens in the yard.

7. There was a small pond not far from the barn, and as soon as the little ones saw the water, away they ran, and were soon swimming with the old ducks.

8. The poor hen-mother was greatly troubled by this action on the part of her family. She would not go into the water, but ran here and there, clucking as loud

as she could.

9. But the little ducks wanted to swim, and swim they would, in spite of all she could say or do.

10. At last they got tired, and came out of the water. They were not very wet, and the

old hen took them back to her nest, and seemed quite happy to find that none of them was lost.

11. Ducks have such queer feet. I think they are made just to swim with; but they are not so good to walk with as a hen's foot.

12. A duck's foot has four toes-one short toe and three long toes. The long toes are joined by a thin skin, and her foot is called a webfoot, because the skin looks thin like a web.

13. When the ducks swim their toes spread out, and they use their feet as a man uses oars in a boat.

All ducks have web-feet.

1. Wrong, really, raise, proud, notice, troubled, action, spite, joined, webfoot, spread.

Did he

Change

2. How many toes does a hen have? Are they joined like a duck's toes? Can a hen swim? Group the words in the thirteenth paragraph. Did the boy have a hen? take her off the nest? What did his father tell him? duck to make the word mean more than one. What does ducks mean? What does duck's mean? What sound has oi in joined? Has it the sound of oy in boy? Mark the sounds

of each letter in oi and oy.oŎy As oi and oy always have this sound, they are not marked in words. What words can you make from happy? great? loud?

XVI. WATER BIRDS.

1. "Who can tell what birds can swim? Do you know, Tom?"

2. "Yes, I know that all birds can swim.” 3. "O Tom! You know that a hen will not go into the water!"