and her grandmother had never looked so large or so beautiful. She took the little girl in her arms, and they both flew upwards in brightness and joy far above the earth, where there is neither cold nor hunger.

12. In the morning lay the poor little one, with pale cheeks and smiling mouth, leaning against the wall. She had been frozen to death on the last evening of the old year; and the New-Year's sun rose and shone upon a little corpse! The dead child sat, holding the matches in her hand. "She tried to warm herself," said some. But no one knew what lovely things she had seen, nor into what glory she had gone with her grandmother, on New-Year's day.

1. JOHN LARKIN was a little boy who was fond of seeing things grow. He had a pretty little garden, where he could see the tiny plants come up from the seeds which he had planted.

2. By the side of the garden, with a fence between, was a yard for the hens and chickens. He saw the hens go to their nests and lay their eggs. Each hen laid one egg almost every day; and soon after the egg was laid, the hen came off the nest, sometimes quietly, but nearly always cackling.

3. By the time the hen had laid a dozen or more eggs, she began to sit, for then she had a very strong feeling that she must sit upon them. And there she sat, all day and

all night.

4. Once only in the day she would leave the nest, quickly snatch a little food, sip

some water, roll in the dust, and then hurry back to her nest. Sometimes she would not leave the nest for two or three days. John saw the eggs from day to day, but he did not see them grow.

5. At last, after the hen had been sitting nineteen days, he saw a plump, slick, brighteyed little chick standing by the side of its patient mother. Soon he saw two or three more; and the next day there were a dozen little chicks running about after the hen who had laid and hatched those eggs.

6. After that, John saw them eat and grow; and before the year had rolled round they became cackling hens or crowing roostAnimals eat and grow.

ers.

1. BUT nothing pleased John more than to see the beans come out of the ground.

A few days after he had put one in, up through the soil came the bean itself on a short, thick stem. It seemed as if something were pushing it up from below; but it was the light and the heat in the air above that were drawing it up.

2. Very soon the bean split open. One half hung over a little to one side, and the other half hung over a little to the other side; and there they stood out from the tiny stem, the first two leaves of the little plant. Up between them the stem went on growing; more leaves came out, small at first, then growing large.

3. Then flowers came out upon the plant. Inside of these flowers the young fruit was already beginning to grow; and when the flowers dropped off, lo! where the flower had been there hung the fruit. It was a bean-pod. Inside of that pod were the beans, each like the one that John had planted.

4. Plants grow. But do they eat? Not

An

as animals do. Animals have mouths. animal takes food in its mouth and swal

lows it. This makes it grow and keeps it

alive.

5. Plants have roots.

The roots suck up juices from the ground, or moisture from the air. The leaves of plants also take in food from the air by a kind of breathing. 6. Every animal, every plant, must have air. A part of the air that mal joins the food that it together make its blood; and out of the blood is made every part of the animal's body.

goes into an anieats. The two

7. A part of the air that goes through the leaves and stem into a plant joins the juice that the roots have sucked up. The two make its sap; and out of the sap is made every part of the growing plant. An animal can eat a plant, but a plant cannot eat an animal.